Should my Business Invest in Field Service Software?

Field service organisations face challenges when it comes it comes to simple, in-person communications, due to the workforce rarely being in the office; as the name implies, field staff will usually be working in the field. Limitations around performing real-time services with limited access to information and scheduling the right engineer for the job are common problems within the industry.  All this can ultimately affect the ability to deliver accurate service to your customers and achieve that all-important first-time-fix rates.

In order to tackle these challenges, organisations have turned to field service software, such as Microsoft Dynamics 365 Field Service, to manage these processes and bridge the communications gap. In this blog post, we will discuss how companies can benefit from the implementation of a field service solution and why they should invest.

Before we discuss the benefits, let’s look at a few tell-tale signs your business needs a field service management solution:

• Communication is a major issue: this can lead to uninformed decisions, which can then impact the customer experience
• You’re having problems with resource scheduling: this is extremely common; being overbooked and short of resources, or missing appointments too often
• Billing / invoicing causing problems: this is critical for your business to run smoothly, so ensuring this process runs without issues is important
• You’re using legacy software: likelihood is most of your competitors are using field service management software, so you could be missing out on delivering business, due to more advance scheduling functionality
• You’re not as productive as you could be: your field service engineers are spending hours manually entering data and this time could be spent on more visits
• First-time-fix rates are not improving: dispatching the wrong engineer, or not having the necessary inventory available will reduce the chances of completing the job on the first visit

If the above points sound familiar, then it could be time to invest in field service software.

Benefits of Field Service Software

Less room for mistakes

Providing employees with offline access to essential knowledge, such as training videos, manuals and checklists, will result in fewer errors by service technicians when out in the field. Additionally, adding functionality like Copilot in Dynamics 365 Field Service, reminders and standard workflows reduces the chance of human error, alongside the ability for your business to use analytics to improve processes. 

Benefit: Field service engineers making fewer mistakes will result in an improved first-time fix rate and satisfied customers, which will then be reflected positively in your organisations bottom line.

Improve the speed of invoicing

Field service software digitises customer service processes, including reporting and invoicing. In the past, many companies have run off paper-heavy processes, however, as your organisation grows the need to move to a more forward-thinking platform becomes more apparent. Not only does eliminating paper make your business more sustainable, but it also makes standard processes faster and less complicated. Field service technicians can enter information into their mobile devices as they work, and then easily ask for customer approval once tasks are completed.

Benefit: Invoicing can be accomplished in real-time. In the past, engineers have had to wait for back-office staff to process an invoice and send it back, which took time; with field service management software there is no need to wait for the back-office to respond as the process is digital. As a result, more appointments can be scheduled during the day and invoices can be raised with immediate effect.

Keep your customers happy

Simple access to data isn’t only a bonus for field service technicians, your clients additionally reap the rewards. With client information, inventory, order history and significantly more data readily available, service technicians can take care of business much quicker and make informed decisions based on accurate information. Real-time tracking also allows for consistent and thorough correspondence with clients, ensuring they are kept fully up-to-date and in the loop from start to finish during the process. 

Benefit: Happy customers are the key to success. With a field service management solution you can respond to your customer’s needs quickly, and deal with any problems in a timely manner. 

Right person, right job, right time

Scheduling and dispatching technologies allow the best-suited field service technician to be dispatched to a job, based on skill set, location, inventory, knowledge, etc.; giving you the best chance to fix the job in the first instance. Within the field service industry, plans can change quickly for various reasons, throwing off the tasks scheduled for the rest of the day. Easy-to-use scheduling functionality within FSM speeds up the assignment of tasks to technicians, and the re-assigning when plans alter. In addition to this, the ability to create a library of information, such as checklists, videos and forms, provides a comprehensive knowledge base for technicians and enables staff to get a job done reliably and quickly.

Benefit: Happier employees are up to 20% more productive than unhappy employees, therefore, ensuring your workforce has the right tools to do the job is essential. As you can see from the points made within this blog, field service software will benefit your business in several ways, if it is utilised to its full potential. From improving first-time-fix rates to accessing real-time information in order to make informed decisions, it is important that you take the steps now to future-proof your business. 

Learn more about the platform in our feature spotlight of Dynamics 365 Field Service blog to see what else this application could do for your business.

Get in Touch

To find out more about Dynamics 365 Field Service or to speak to our team to see how Pragmatiq can support your business, please get in touch by emailing us at info@pragmatiq.co.uk or calling us on 01908 038110. Alternatively, fill out the form below and a member of our team will be in touch shortly.