The aim of any business today is to keep the customers happy. Companies go to any length to see that their customers are not dissatisfied in any way. With the improvement in technology companies of all sizes can fight equally for the same business. This has made it very important to see that the customers get what they want. Without this, it is not possible to keep your customers with you and there are enough competitors to grab them from you.
Companies involved in offering service to customers are the ones that find it difficult to continuously ensure prompt service to them. They have their employees in the field and they need to be connected properly with the clients and the company so that service can be offered on time. This will require that all the service requests must be entered properly and assigned to the right person. There should also be proper follow up on the progress of work and ensure that work is finished on time. There are many elements to be managed in field service which makes it difficult to manage.
Why Do You Need Field Service Management Software?
There are many elements in field service and all these needs to come together if the service must be performed to the satisfaction of the customers. Every service request that comes in must be logged in and the service provided on time. It is essential to know the status of your service personnel at any given time. This is the only way you can adhere to the schedule of the service that you promised the customer.
There is a need to use the available resources in the best fashion so that you can ensure that your bottom lines are not hit. There are many entities in field service including the service personnel, the vehicles that deliver the products, and the availability of products or inventory. The software will help you manage all these and use them in the best fashion. The field service management software will also help you in having effective communication with your personnel on the field for offering a faster solution to the customer.
The software can also help you to offer customers’ predictive care instead of offering them solutions after a problem has occurred. The software can carry the details of your customers’ equipment or machine and tell you when a service needs to be done. The software can schedule the service and inform the customer. This will help you in better use of your employees and better planning. The customer will be happy with scheduled maintenance than an unexpected breakdown.
Essential Features in FSM Software
The first requirement is that the software must allow you to record the orders received and create internal work orders for your employees. The software must allow you to manage your workers on the field and monitor their activities so that you can use them in the best manner. You must be able to manage the orders received in such a way to provide service to the customers at the earliest possible.
One of the important features of the software must be for scheduling the jobs in such a way as to use your service personnel in the best manner. The scheduling must ensure that there is no waste of time of the workers in going back and forth to complete jobs. It must also alert the technician and you about the work that is to be done in a day so that nothing is missed. This will ensure that the customer will get the service at the promised time.
Tracking your technicians and the vehicles on the field will help you to manage the services in a better way and help in delivering any parts required on time for the service personnel to attend the job. Keeping a track of your service personnel is also essential to see how much time the service takes and also know the travel time. This data will help you greatly in improving your service in the future.
The field management software must allow you and the service personnel to update the status of every job. This is essential for you to know if the work has been completed as scheduled. Another important feature is to have GPS tracking for vehicles and technicians so that it will help them find the shortest and fastest route. It will also suggest them alternate routes if there is a problem with one route.
Parts inventory management should be an integral part of the software to help you know the availability and arrange for procurement. This will also help you to know when service for a particular customer can be scheduled based on the availability or expected arrival of a part. The software must allow the preparation of invoices and acceptance of online payment so that there is no need for technicians to handle any cash.
The software must have a customer portal for registering their complaints. It should also be extended to mobile phones for the convenience of the service personnel on the field. The customer portal will also help you to get feedback from them once the job is finished.
Necessary Features for the Software
There are certain features that the freight management software must have for it to be of any benefit to you. The first one is the ability for the software to get you the best mode of transport and the carrier based on the clients’ requirements of time and cost. This will help you to offer the client the benefits of choosing one carrier over the other. This will help the clients to choose you for all their transport requirements.
If you are offering a total logistics solution you must choose software that will help you integrate the warehouse management system so that you can also reduce the time and cost in warehouse operations. The software must include the facility for you to calculate the total cost to any destination and send the quote to the client. Billing also must be included in the software so that you can mail the bill from it without any delay.
Analytics and reporting are essential for any business. The software must be able to analyze the activities and give you a concise report about how you have performed in a particular period so that you can alter your actions in the future.
