Your employees who work in the field have a lot of tasks to take care of throughout the course of a day, making a job stressful, frustrating and time-consuming. Therefore, in an effort to make things easier, many companies have adopted field service software.
While most are useful, they are not all the same with some offering more functions than others. The following are features that your field service software definitely needs to have.
1. Software integration
Integration with other software solutions already in use by a company is very important. This is because using a collection of applications that do not integrate can really make daily tasks difficult. Field service management software should integrate with other third-party applications such as fleet management and customer relationship management (CRM) applications in order to allow for convenience and better organization.
Integration should have the ability to offer employees access to all functions available on their mobile device. The software should also be able to support the integration of accounting software that handles the financial needs of the business. Data access and transfer between the integrated application should also be provided to enable easier communication and better business operations.
2. Customer management
Your customers are the reason you are in business therefore you probably already know how important customer service is. The field service software your employees use can play a crucial role in maintaining effective customer service practices if it has the correct tools.
Field service software should track, record, and analyze every customer’s history, contact information, their interaction with the employees, and the preferred payment mode. Also, a marketing component may be introduced to remind customers about any new products and services that you are offering. That way, they are always up-to-date and know what you can offer them.
3. Scheduling & dispatch
Scheduling and dispatch is central to the day-to-day operations of your business. This feature helps your employees in the field to effectively plan their daily schedules. Dispatchers also rely on this feature to communicate and update orders and assignments.
A field service software application provides a scheduling option that enables dispatchers to quickly change schedules and update technicians automatically. Also, it classes the technicians by their expertise and availability when assigning new jobs.
Some scheduling and dispatch features provides text, telephone, or email notifications which act as a service reminder to the customers about the technician’s availability or schedule. An in-vehicle telematics that keeps track of all employee location can also be included in field service software. This helps you to quickly assign the closest located technician to an emergency job.
4. Work order management
A work order management system enables you to send a digital form containing all the information your field technician will need on their next assignment. The technicians can then update their work order status in the system once completing a job and this saves them from returning to the office after every job to receive new tasks which saves your company time and money.
Job details such as customer information and issues can be provided through the field service software. This enables the technician to be well-informed and prepared for the upcoming job, ultimately leading to the best customer service possible.
5. Invoicing & payments
Modern field service software enables you to generate invoices and receive payments easily. Most of them offer features that allow you to produce single or bulk invoices with the simple click of a button. Payments can be made by cash, credit or debit card. The software should include capabilities which enable billing and invoicing that manages the customer’s invoice and sends receipts after payments.
With some types of software, mobile payments are included. This allows the software to process payments on-site so your company is not waiting for weeks for customers to pay if they even up doing so at all.
