5 Ways Real Time Scheduling Increases Field Service Business Profitability

How does one manage when one receives a wave of job requests in a single day?

Having such days is great for a field service business – but instead of more money, one may end up with:

• Scheduling conflicts
• A constant back and forth in checking the availability of workers
• Wrong assignment of the field service technicians
• Missed appointments
• Delayed response and service delivery to clients

Field service scheduling software will help you eliminate the above hurdles in scaling your field service business in real time. Read more to understand the benefits of scheduling and dispatching software and how to find the best field service management software.

5 key benefits of using field service scheduling software

Real-time scheduling and dispatching mean your project manager can look at job requests and quickly assign them to the relevant field service technicians based on their availability, skills and location. Using software automates this process – helping you save time and service more clients.

Below are the five key benefits of using field service scheduling software:

Go from being reactive to active

Without automation, your field service teams work in a reactive state – where they jump into scheduling workflows when they receive a job request. On implementing field service scheduling software, they can automate manual tasks and use algorithms to dispatch jobs to relevant field service technicians.

Opt for real-time scheduling software so that the jobs get assigned as soon as you receive the request. It will update the calendars automatically.

Reduce errors in service delivery execution

Making silly errors like sending the wrong job site location to your field service technicians will cost your business time, money and reputation.

Using real-time scheduling software, you can design templates for creating work order details and use historical data for a faster job assignment. Using the same data, you can automate the creation of invoices and send new quotes to potential customers.

This significantly reduces the chances of human error in filling in details that could have irreversible consequences.

Complete more jobs with the same resources

Real-time scheduling software also helps you reduce existing downtime between the assignment of jobs and the completion of the same.

For example, you can assign a job to a field service technician who is already completing a nearby job. Thus, you do not have to assign a new technician. Your workforce and routes to job sites get optimized for getting more done with the same resources.

Reduce admin work

Let your field service technicians focus on the job at hand than worrying about timesheets or being on calls for availability.

Real-time scheduling and dispatching software to automate manual work like asking for updates or filling in details. Your project manager need not contact the field service technicians for job progress updates as they can see real-time updates on the dashboard itself.

Prioritize urgent tasks

Some tasks in job sites are urgent – for example, emergency cases, or some tasks create roadblocks if left unattended. Using field service scheduling software, project managers can analyze critical jobs and ensure it is assigned.

Zuper, a field service management software, allows creation of color coded visualizations for marking task categories and organize them.

How to choose the best field service management software for efficient scheduling?

Taking a stand alone field service scheduling or a general scheduling software isn’t an ideal way of automating your scheduling and dispatching.

Instead, choose a field service management software that includes dedicated field service scheduling. Look for these top five features to choose the best field field service management software:

• Edit appointments: check if your software vendor allows rescheduling, editing, or deleting of appointments created since its a recurring task in field service business.
• Labor and job matching: check if the software can automate matching of job requests with labor’s availability, skill set and location.
• Route optimization: check if the software can automatically suggest and assign an optimized route for field service technician that reduces time and saves fuel costs.
• Real time communication: ensure the software allows you to communicate job change requests, reshceuldes done or convery information in real time.
• Forms and note taking: to capture information from clients, vendors or field service technicians, forms is an important feature.

Include real time scheduling for your field service operations

Making the choice of opting a scheduling and dispatching software will improve productivity and profitablity of your business.

At Zuper, our field service management software is designed for field service operations – including scheduling and dispatching work. Book a demo today to know how our software can integrate with your current field operations.