Home service businesses, such as residential plumbing and HVAC contractors, frequently look for innovative solutions to increase operational efficiency. When field service companies streamline workflows and processes, the results are heightened productivity, better customer service, and the potential for greater profitability. One of the most effective solutions to boosting performance, and one many in the industry already leverage, is field service management software.
Contractors must constantly balance the many operating costs and expenses required to run a successful business. While there are upfront costs to implement new technology like FSM, many contractors find that the operational efficiency software promotes dramatic, long-term cost savings that far exceed the initial investment. Discover the powerful benefits of operational efficiency software for eliminating inefficiencies and reducing your overall operating costs.
For residential plumbing and HVAC contractors, a major challenge is maintaining oversight and communication of team members spread across different job sites. While dispatchers and administrative staff work from the office, field service technicians are at various homes in the area, fulfilling service requests, which makes managing the workload difficult.
FSM software enables contractors to better manage workflows by providing greater supervision of field operations. For instance, through real-time GPS tracking, dispatchers gain visibility into the job status of a tech, such as their current location and the last project they completed. With this information, dispatchers can assist techs when challenges arise by helping them attain the resources and expertise from nearby field workers they need to get the job done. It also allows them to update homeowners on estimated arrival times, augmenting the customer experience.
Beyond simply gaining more awareness of field operations, operational efficiency software significantly augments your scheduling and dispatching processes. These FSM software solutions enable dispatchers to streamline the assignment of tasks based on factors like a tech’s availability, proximity, and skillset, optimizing the workload and resource utilization.
Once a dispatcher has determined the right tech for the job, FSM software enables them to send push notifications to techs, which techs receive via the mobile app version. The result is improved response times, more instances of first-time fix rates, and a boost in customer satisfaction.
Many contractors utilize separate management systems for handling inventory, such as enterprise resource planning (ERP) software. While it’s possible to use additional software for inventory management, discrepancies are more likely to occur, creating a host of operational inefficiencies like billing problems and shrinkage.
FSM software with inventory management capabilities is advantageous because it allows contractors to understand which parts are most often needed for jobs to maximize resource allocation. Contractors can identify which parts to keep well-stocked and can receive alerts to reorder parts when stock is low. What’s more, when contractors ensure a sufficient supply of parts, the chances that a problem is fixed the first time increases.
A key problem with manual processes in field service is paper records, which increase operational inefficiencies. Paper poses numerous risks, from theft to damage due to poor storage conditions. More importantly, paper creates significant bottlenecks: it takes too long for paperwork to reach the office, where administrative staff must then engage in the time-consuming task of manually inputting customer data into management systems. The job is often long finished by the time this process is complete. These delays and errors also increase the likelihood of customer disputes, which diminishes the customer experience and negatively affects retention.
Using FSM software, field service teams can process data digitally, and store this information in a secure, central location where all parties can access it. It also reduces the tedious, repetitive tasks of paper entry, freeing up time for office staff to devote to more productive work.
Like all businesses, field service organizations have unique industry standards and regulations they must comply with. When auditing is in order, having well-organized, centralized data is absolutely essential. Operational efficiency software tackles this by enabling better data and asset management for these audits. It also keeps contractors updated on frequent changes made with industry regulations. All these components contribute to greater compliance, which provides welcome peace of mind and reduces liability risk.
Just like with inventory management, field service businesses typically have separate CRM software for managing customer relationships. FSM software removes the need for additional CRM software, as all customer data, such as service history and past interactions, is housed in the FSM system. Customer service teams glean all the information they need make data-driven decisions and meet and exceed customer expectations.
It’s not just admin staff that benefit from the customer relationship management component of FSM software. While on-site providing services for homeowners, techs can access pertinent customer data to better meet their needs.
In addition to eliminating the problems of paper reporting, the digitization of FSM software provides deeper insights into financial data, such as the cost of downtime, warranties, travel time, and other factors that all inform total operational costs. Contractors can integrate accounting software with FSM software to ensure more accurate data is leveraged for financial reporting.
Effective decision-making is at the heart of any business objective, including improving efficiency. Since FSM software stores such a wide selection of data, it’s an ideal resource for developing metrics to measure success and progress with goals. Armed with this information, contractors, along with admin staff and field workers, can make more strategic decisions that encourage higher productivity, customer satisfaction, and profit.
Residential contractors searching for software to boost operational efficiency need look no further than Sera. Sera offers FSM software built on four pillars integral to promoting efficiency, and our solution is designed to respond to the specific needs of small-to-medium-sized plumbing, HVAC, and electrical contractors.
Our software is designed for continuous improvement and helps boost productivity across your team. It automates scheduling and dispatching, enables techs to create multiple quotes at job sites, and provides several other core functions that drive essential process improvements. By delivering high-quality tools that support the entire lifecycle of the job, our platform ultimately supports your bottom line.
Contact us today for a 15-minute discovery call and learn more about our software, or inquire about a 45-minute demo.