Ask any facilities management or building maintenance business if they want to improve job tracking and the answer is likely to be yes. With so many assets and jobs to think about, it's easy to lose focus—leading to reactive maintenance and more firefighting.🚒
On the other hand, keeping tabs on everything in real-time means improved customer service, a 360-view of operations, and more planned maintenance jobs than reactive ones.
So, let’s take a look at the power of job tracking and how it can help your facilities management or building maintenance business.👇
Understanding job tracking in facilities management
If you're wondering; “what exactly is job tracking, and why is it a game-changer in facilities management?”, here’s a quick overview.🔎
At its core, job tracking involves monitoring, managing, and optimising the various tasks and jobs that form the backbone of your business. It's a dynamic approach, blending technology and your own knowledge to ensure that every job is completed efficiently and effectively.
To learn more about job tracking, see our comprehensive guide to job tracking here.
In facilities management, digital job tracking stands out from traditional methods due to its real-time capabilities and data-driven approach. Gone are the days of guesswork and manual logs. Today's job tracking systems offer a bird's-eye view of operations, providing instant updates and critical insights.
This shift streamlines operations and boosts the quality of service delivered to clients.
Let’s dig into those benefits a bit more…
The top benefits of digital job tracking for facilities management
Embracing job tracking in facilities management unlocks tonnes of benefits that can propel your business forward. Here are just a handful:
#1: Enhanced efficiency
One of the most immediate impacts of job tracking is on operational efficiency. By having real-time updates and a clear overview of all ongoing jobs and tasks, your team can avoid overlaps and delays—ensuring smoother operations. This streamlined approach reduces downtime and allows for more jobs to be completed in less time.
For example, often facilities management teams handle multiple sites across a city. Without job tracking, coordination issues lead to engineers visiting the same site multiple times for different tasks.
However, with job tracking software, the system schedules jobs based on location, engineer skills, and availability—this allows for multiple issues to be addressed in one visit. Plus, it optimises engineer routes, saving time and reducing operational costs.
#2: Better job scheduling
With job tracking, you gain insights into how resources are being used and where they might be better allocated. This means not just your workforce, but also equipment, materials, and time. Effective resource management leads to cost savings and a more productive use of assets.
For instance, building maintenance teams often find themselves running out of critical spare parts, causing delays in repairs.
But with job tracking, the system tracks inventory levels in real-time, alerting you when stocks are low. This ensures that parts are reordered in time, avoiding last-minute purchase premiums and job delays.
#3: Improved customer satisfaction
When jobs are tracked and managed efficiently, the end result is often a higher quality of service. Customers appreciate prompt responses, timely completion of tasks, and the ability to receive updates about the progress of their requests. This level of service can significantly boost your reputation and help you win contracts.
So when a client reports an HVAC issue, instead of receiving no update on the status of their request, leading to frustration— clients receive automatic updates.
This includes things like confirmation of their booking information, including engineer dispatch and estimated time of arrival. This transparency improves client trust and satisfaction.
#4: Improved Planned Preventative Maintenance (PPM)
Job tracking plays a crucial role in PPM. It enables you to schedule and manage routine maintenance tasks effectively for both yourself and your customers, preventing equipment failure and minimising downtime. This proactive approach not only saves costs in the long run but also ensures a consistently high level of service delivery.
This is key because buildings often experience equipment failures due to missed maintenance checks, resulting in costly emergency repairs. Yet, with job tracking, the system schedules regular maintenance checks, ensuring that equipment is serviced on time. This proactive approach reduces the likelihood of breakdowns and extends the lifespan of equipment.
#5: Data-driven decision making
Job tracking provides a wealth of data that can be used to make informed decisions about your business. From identifying patterns in service requests to understanding peak operation times, this data is invaluable in strategic planning and continuous improvement of your services.
This means instead of struggling to identify peak times for maintenance requests, leading to understaffing during busy periods—data reveals patterns in service requests. This allows you to allocate engineers more effectively during peak times and maintain service quality.
Introducing BigChange’s job tracking solution
The above benefits promise to revolutionise your business, but you need technology partners who are as committed to your success as you are.
At BigChange, we’d love to be that partner. We understand the realities, challenges, and pitfalls facing today’s field service management businesses.
Here’s what it looks like in action:🎬
Mobile app and live job tracking
The mobile app allows field workers to update job statuses in real time. For facilities managers, this means instant visibility into job progress and the ability to swiftly respond to delays, ensuring minimal customer inconvenience.
Optimised job scheduling
BigChange's system intelligently schedules jobs, considering factors like worker location and skill set. This feature is vital in efficiently managing routine maintenance tasks and emergency call-outs, ensuring the right person is assigned to the right job.
Accurate vehicle tracking
With GPS technology, BigChange tracks vehicle locations, providing live updates to both managers and customers. This transparency is crucial in facilities management where timely response and efficient routing can significantly impact service quality.
Customer portal
Clients have access to a portal where they can track their job's status, view job history, and request services. This level of customer involvement sets your business apart, offering a transparent and engaging service experience.
Comprehensive stock and vehicle management
The software tracks stock levels and vehicle usage, crucial for ensuring that engineers have the necessary parts and tools. This feature is particularly useful in building maintenance where timely availability of parts can prevent delays.
Automated invoicing
Invoices reflect detailed job information, enhancing billing accuracy and efficiency. Plus, invoice fast to boost cash flow and stay on top of business finances.
Tracking job history for tailored customer service
Access to a customer's job history enables more personalised and efficient service. It allows for better preparation and quicker resolution of recurring issues, a common scenario in building maintenance.
In a nutshell, BigChange's software, with its comprehensive features, is a powerful tool for facilities management and building maintenance businesses. It streamlines operations, enhances customer satisfaction, and provides critical insights for continuous improvement.
Implement job tracking software for better PPM and less firefighting
So, the modern approach to job tracking is clear and the technology is ready.
The only question is: Are you?
The easiest way to optimise planned preventative maintenance and do less firefighting is to implement modern job tracking software like BigChange.
As well as all the features above, with the right tech, you can really become a data-driven business and get access to features and benefits like:
- ✅A single source of information: All decisions and actions are based on the same information, shared by all departments.
- ✅Data saved in the cloud: Your job tracking information is regularly backed up, providing strong data security. Furthermore, you get quick access to data via any mobile device.
- ✅Custom reports: On top of the data you enter manually, BigChange will automatically track dozens of different data points you can use to build custom reports. Once built, you can set them to generate automatically.
- ✅Data granularity: High-level data is great for tracking trends but bad for identifying causes. When we created BigChange, we made sure users could drill down into their data to find the exact information they are looking for.
Tracking jobs, tasks, equipment, and more is essential for the modern facilities management and building maintenance business. And there’s no better way to do that than with capable job tracking software.
