Quick Summary
- A workforce’s mobility is one of the most important factors in FSM. That’s why most FSM systems have extensive mobile features for scheduling, job management, and route planning.
- Predictive analytics will illustrate when parts need to be ordered and when they need to be postponed, allowing field service managers to more accurately distribute budgets.
Field service companies generate massive amounts of data from technicians, assets, equipment, customers, and logistics. If that data is not used to improve a business’s workflow, then it has been effectively wasted.
Using pen-and-paper methods to gather, organize, and deploy field service technicians, it may serve a fledgling business just fine in the short run. Just don’t expect it to last long. A successful small business will quickly outgrow analog data solutions. Investing in field service management software gives teams access to analytical reporting tools and work orders that both centralize and automatically interpret data on behalf of field service managers.
We’ve outlined three major ways to use the data field service operations are already generating to make insight-driven decisions and improve your field service outcomes. If your business is looking for FSM solutions to house and serve this data, we have outlined a few of the best Field Service Management tools on the market today.
In this article...
1. Schedule Dynamically
First-come, first-serve is an extremely inefficient method for field service scheduling. Both customers and employees will feel the consequences of it. Distance, routing, and prioritization must all play a part in the process of efficiently scheduling field service appointments. A business scheduling multiple appointments at a time will quickly find itself wasting time and money with first-come, first-serve scheduling.
Route planning
Use the data provided by your FSM software, such as IndusTrack, to identify the best course of action for scheduling. This data takes into account:
- The technician best-suited for the job, considering factors such as work skills, work areas, SLAs, and inventory
- The optimal route for your field resources
- What parts are available and when they can arrive
- How the status of work in real-time will be communicated to the customer (estimated time of arrival, delays, updates, etc.)
- Using this data will ensure that the right field resource will be assigned to the right job at the right time with the right equipment. To make the most of dynamic scheduling, intelligently plan your routes, share the data with your team, and make the most of mobile data.
A workforce’s mobility is one of the most important factors in FSM. That’s why most FSM systems have extensive mobile features for scheduling, job management, and route planning.
The data a business currently has can be used to plan intelligent routes. Route planning uses algorithms that consider the distance of the technician, accessibility, and geolocation data. It creates work rules based on the scheduling priorities outlined and interacts with real-time traffic services to suggest the best route. Route planning minimizes the time technicians spend on the road, decreases delays, and improves overall efficiency.
Share the data
Big data is not just for top-level leaders within the FSM industry; every level of a business can use the insights your analytic reporting tool provides. RazorSync is an application that helps field service managers and their teams by opening the lines of communication while technicians are out in the field gathering crucial, real-time data. A company’s most valuable data is sourced directly from your technicians on the front lines.
For example, dispatchers benefit from being able to see technician response and travel times. RazorSync uses this information to share GPS-tracked location data and customized routing.
Use mobile application data
Using an FSM system that operates a mobile app, such as IFS, allows mobile workforces to log all work order, scheduling, work estimate, checklist, and troubleshooting data they might encounter on the field. This allows technicians to fire off reports in real-time without interrupting from their tightly-scheduled calendars. This remotely collected data can then be used by dispatchers and other field service managers to make informed decisions about where a field service technician can most efficiently be sent to next.
2. Be Proactive About Arising Problems
By using predictive analytics technologies, including artificial intelligence and machine learning, statistical models based on historical data can be defined. Combine this with the use of the internet of things (IoT) where connected devices sense each other, and suddenly the ability to predict and prevent problems before they emerge becomes a huge asset.
Predictive analytics will illustrate when parts need to be ordered and when they need to be postponed, allowing field service managers to more accurately distribute budgets. This eliminates the need to compensate for knowledge gaps by overstocking for the entirety of the year.
Find inefficiencies
Oracle Field Service Cloud provides early warning notifications and diagnosis of equipment issues days, weeks, or maybe months before failure. Monitoring your equipment can save loads of time and money on the front end.
In addition to preventing potential problems, the technology built into field service management software can identify recurring problems or service bottlenecks, and subsequently isolate any possible causes. If dispatchers find that their technicians are consistently double-booked or a particular part of a work order has not been completed correctly, an FSM like Oracle can alert them to these issues, empowering them to make actionable decisions.
Using data to solve these problems eliminates subjectivity, reduces downtime, and saves time by spotting the exact pain point instead of manually sifting through what-ifs.
3. Create A Better Customer Experience
Customer satisfaction is critical to FSM success. A bad customer experience can lead to a bad online review, leading to a potential dip in new or returning customers. Using data can create new dimensions for customer satisfaction.
Make use of the predictive analytics we mentioned earlier to understand the needs of a customer base. It can access data including a client’s service history, equipment monitoring records, or other relevant issues and deliver the data to the appropriate person.
With this data, a technician can arrive at a job site with a good idea of what the problem is, how to resolve it, and what parts are needed. This leads to less time spent on solving the problem, and an overall better customer experience than if the field resource went in with limited knowledge.
Share information with customers
Vague windows of service and lack of communication will frustrate customers. Vcita’s focus on event scheduling allows dispatchers, field workers, and technicians a simple view of calendar events. This scheduling can be easily shared with customers awaiting service, giving them peace of mind and the ability to communicate last-minute changes with relatively little disruption.
Find the FSM Tool to Make the Best Use of Your Data
A business that is not making effective use of its data in an appropriate field service tool is wasting time and money. Finding valuable field service insights can be as simple as looking through our list of the best field service management tools of the year.
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