The world as we know it has undergone a paradigm shift in the last few decades. Technology has become integral in every step of our day-to-day life. This includes the business world as well. The term “digital transformation” has become common knowledge, even for small companies. But when it comes to field service management, the impact has been huge.
Most companies around the world had digital transformation thrust upon them with the global COVID-19 pandemic was raging around the world. With social distancing and lockdown protocols in place, people had to look for alternative ways to keep in touch and keep the revenue stream flowing. Remote collaboration and online service delivery became the new normal, even for service delivery companies. Overall, it was an overhaul of the traditional way of doing business.
Indeed, the global pandemic has unfolded some glaring problems in the field service industry. At the same time, it has shed light on the importance of digital transformation in service delivery and brought along some excellent solutions to overcome them. Now, when the crisis is apparently over, organisations can still leverage the advantage of digital tools and technology to enhance business performance.
Having said that, using digital tools is not an individual choice anymore. With the world fast pacing toward digital transformation, it has become mandatory for business success. For decades, field service companies have traditionally used manual paperwork, manual labor, and manual reporting– tasks that are subject to human error. But in today’s cutthroat competitive environment, one cannot afford to make any mistake if they want to stay relevant in the market. Automation is here, and digital transformation is necessary.
Digitalising your service delivery company does not mean that you need to spend a fortune on expensive software solutions or struggle to get the hang of high-end technology. But there are some digital tools that you simply cannot do without in this age of market competition. These tools are essential for increasing productivity and enhancing business performance, eventually leading to making more profit for your company.
In addition, having intelligent individuals by your side is essential for all of this. Since software engineering is a relatively new field, sourcing talent can be challenging, and many HR departments lack the expertise to hire and evaluate candidates effectively. Utilizing software engineering recruitment services can be invaluable in finding top-notch candidates. However, if you prefer to handle the hiring process independently, conducting thorough research and establishing predefined requirements is crucial.
Take a look at the following list and find out the tools that you must have for your service delivery business.
1. Field Service Management Software
If you are running a field service company, this is one thing that you cannot afford to miss. Field service software is a digital tool that helps businesses manage all their resources involved in field service delivery. It is essentially the one-stop solution to automate field service processes. From job order booking to scheduling technicians, from sending estimates to customers to generating invoices and collecting payments– you can do everything with this software solution with just a few clicks of your computer. This comes with a host of benefits. By automating your processes, you can significantly reduce human errors and enhance your service quality, leading to improved customer satisfaction. But the most important advantage of field service solution is that it helps increase employee productivity. It helps you monitor your field technicians in real-time, employ better time management, execute a better routing plan, ensure every appointment is addressed, and increase first-time fix rates. Moreover, field management software features cloud storage to store and manage customer databases.
2. Field Service Mobile Apps
Mobile technology has become a distinguishing feature of the current technological environment. With the rapid growth of smartphone usage, it is only the smartest choice to utilize it for the enhancement of business performance. And providing mobile apps for field service techniciansis the ultimate solution to increase productivity. Through this app, your technicians can accept job orders no matter where they are. They can report time, equipment, job status, and so on without having to visit the office physically. You can also monitor their real-time locations thanks to advanced GPS technology integrated with mobile apps. But more importantly, the mobile apps empower technicians to get seamless access to customer information and remote assistance while working in the field, thus increasing their first-time fix rates and delivering a better customer experience.
3. Enterprise Asset Management Software
Enterprise Asset Management (EAM) is a digital tool that helps field service companies manage and control their equipment and other operational assets both on and off-premise. It helps create a centralised asset information system by implementing AI-powered analytics and remote monitoring. The system thus empowers businesses to maximise asset utilisation, increase productive uptime, and reduce operational costs, leading to enhanced productivity at all levels.
4. Customer Relationship Management Tools
Customer relationship management (CRM) tools play a significant role in enhancing customer experience. But at the same time, it is also an essential tool to increase employee productivity. As you strive to meet the ever-growing demands of your customers and meet their expectations, you need to keep your field technicians on the same page. And this tool helps you understand your customers’ needs, analyse performance, and identify gaps in your operations. Based on the data and analysis from your CRM, you can then develop further strategies to meet your customers’ expectations and thus, provide a standard operating procedure for your employees to increase productivity.
5. Accounting Software
Last but not least, you must have accounting software to manage all your financial aspects. It automates your bookkeeping and accounting tasks and thus, eliminates human error from the operation. This way, it essentially simplifies all the financial comings and goings of your business, enabling you to have better control over your finances. This is of supreme importance if you want to keep your revenue stream flowing and make profits. Moreover, it speeds up your sales, reduces overhead costs, simplifies tax filing, and provides accurate financial reporting. Therefore, you can say that using accounting software increases your overall financial performance which impacts your business productivity as well.
Concluding thoughts…
The key to developing a highly motivated and productive field team is to optimise your resources. And the best way to achieve that goal is through automation. It is no surprise that companies everywhere are switching to paperless business software from traditional manual methods. Even if you are a small service delivery company, you are to benefit from automation in ways beyond your imagination. So, take the leap and embrace digital technology to make the most of your resources. Even if you don’t want to spend too much in software, these are the tools that you must invest in right now.
This was a guest post by Jay Gomez:
“My world is made up of codes. It is the central element that drives my universe. I am a self-taught, process-driven programmer with a creative bent of mind. Since I was an engineering student, I dreamt of creating something unique. To satiate my creative appetite, I took to coding. Blessed with abundant support and generous scholarships from my employers, I simultaneously worked full-time and pursued my dream. My passion and high productivity helped me in my journey as well. Finally, I created Field Promax to follow my drive of coding and streamlining processes; and do more of what I know best—coding.” Jay Gomez
