This article has been reviewed by Billy Stevens for accuracy.
Between scheduling, dispatching, invoicing, and other priorities, home service businesses must juggle many tasks while still ensuring customer satisfaction. As such, these companies constantly look for solutions to help automate these duties and promote operational efficiency.
Field service management software is the key to optimization, enabling contractors to streamline many tasks. Learn more about the benefits of field service management software to see how it can serve you.
What does field service management (FSM) refer to?
While some organizations conduct all operations on-site, many service businesses perform tasks in the field, such as at clients’ homes. Example businesses include HVAC, plumbing, electrical, construction, home improvement companies, and some healthcare organizations.
These businesses typically provide numerous field services encompassing a wide range of tasks, personnel, tools, and mobile devices. Contractors need a method for organizing, tracking, updating, and ultimately optimizing this work. Field service management software delivers a means for efficiently handling these projects.
What does FSM software do?
Field service management (FSM) initially involved manual processes, such as making phone calls and filling out paperwork. This made field service management a time-consuming activity. FSM software allows teams to automate much of the work of service processes to save time and boost productivity.
Software solutions have revolutionized fieldwork. With the right FSM software, a company can augment critical tasks like the scheduling and dispatching of field service technicians for requests.
FSM software can also improve customer experience by enabling online scheduling and notifying homeowners that techs are on the way to appointments. This gives customers more input in the process.
Top Benefits of FSM Software Include:
Business owners rely on FSM software for many reasons, from simplifying reporting to potentially reducing operational costs. Explore some of the various benefits of field service management software:
Workflow Management
A common challenge for service companies is workflow management issues resulting in scheduling overlaps. Determining the best technicians to dispatch for each project can also be difficult.
With FSM software, you can seamlessly manage multiple jobs at once. This can help decrease instances of double bookings and similar issues to deliver better customer service.
For instance, software that includes GPS tracking can help dispatchers pinpoint which field workers are geographically closest to a customer. This function empowers you to dispatch personnel quickly and promotes more organization.
Pricing Management
Businesses need metrics to measure progress with goals and detect areas for improvement. FSM software delivers key performance indicators (KPIs) that help track profitability. With this information, owners have the confidence to set ideal pricing for their services.
A pricebook is integral for any residential contractor. While many FSM software providers offer pricebooks, none allow businesses to make real-time adjustments like Sera’s software. We allow contractors to modify pricebooks according to their needs and allow users to add their own pricebooks.
Cash Flow
Invoicing is crucial for field service businesses to get paid. Since it involves gathering and analyzing much data, the process usually takes days. With FSM software, technicians can input this information, including job duration and tools and materials used.
Using payment processing integrations, FSM software rapidly calculates prices, factoring in products with warranties, discounts, and any outstanding commitments, to create invoices. This entire process makes it easier to manage cash flows.
Member Management
A common trend in the field service industry is to offer customer memberships. Membership programs commonly have a fee associated with them; however, customers benefit from tune-ups and discounts on service jobs.
Memberships help businesses grow their local customer base and boost referrals. It also encourages repeat business. Many organizations create membership programs to enable growth regardless of their size or location.
Using FSM software, employees can more easily develop different quotes for the same request for customers to compare member and non-member pricing. When customers can see the cost savings of becoming a member, it increases the chances they will join the program. Boosting your memberships can mean higher revenue and year-round business.
Improved Customer Experiences
Implementing FSM software empowers you to exceed customer expectations. By automating booking, enhancing scheduling and dispatching, and optimizing resources, productivity and efficiency increase. These benefits reduce the chances of scheduling issues and other concerns that create friction between the business and the customer, improving the overall experience.
FSM software also augments communication. Technicians receive real-time information to update clients on job status and any issues that arise, and customer-facing features in the software allow them to monitor the technician’s location and access other data to stay informed about progress.
Better Employee Experiences
By automating paperwork, data entry, updates, and other tedious tasks, FSM software permits field service technicians to focus on bringing their best work to each job. It also offers functions like route optimization, equipment tracking, and waste management, providing managers and technicians the insights they need to do their jobs better.
This process provides teams with more time to perform tasks, enabling them to increase first-time fix rates and grow productivity. When field service operations go more smoothly, it improves job satisfaction and helps keep employee turnover rates low.
What is the difference between CRM and FSM?
Field service management (FSM) software is sometimes confused with customer relationship management (CRM) software. As the name suggests, CRM deals with customer relationships, collecting and storing data about your current clients to help you understand how to convert qualified leads into customers.
FSM begins once homeowners make appointments and helps the business enhance service delivery to ensure high-quality customer service. Service businesses require CRM and FSM solutions to streamline processes along each aspect of the customer journey.
Experience the Benefits of Field Service Management Software
If you wish to improve your FSM system with software and reap these benefits, choose Sera. Our software is based on the four pillars that help contractors achieve more success.
Contact us to learn more about our FSM software, or schedule a call today.