Best Practices Every Field Service Team Should Follow
The field service team is an integral part of most of any business today. But it's a big challenge to deal with the field service team. Key to success for your business is for you to be able to track, manage and record all activities of your field team.
Today we will talk about a few important practices that every field service team should follow:
Eliminate data re-entry in office
The best way to reduce time and save huge data is to type and enter data directly to the system from the field. Coming back to the office and re-typing data can be hectic and time-consuming.
Dispatch work orders promptly
The world has already seen great involvement of electronic means in day to day office works. The best way to work efficiently is to dispatch work orders electronically rather than using high time-consuming phone calls method.
Boost reliability and audit-ability
Customer's feedback and other necessary data collected can be a great means for audit. An audit trail can be made using including GPS locations and e-signatures collected as jobs performed and prevent disputes with customers.
Allow quick access to instructions and safety records
Nowadays everyone wants their work to be done quickly and swiftly. Transferring data manually is time-consuming. The best way to distribute an up-to-date data document and data while in the field is by using a mobile document management system. This is not only quick but also creates no confusion while transferring or receiving data and information.
Track work progress in all phase
The major responsibility of the field team is to keep customer and office up to date about works going on field. Previously this was done either by phone calls or by sending an individual to transfer the progress data. This was time-consuming and also required extra manpower for the job. But now by using workflow software with email notification can be used to quickly notify customer and office about every progress and work on field.
Increase employee accountability
Keeping note of every single service or product used on field is a most for the field team. Keeping the office notified about these services or product used is also important. Also, improve employee accountability with well defined and measurable workflow processes.
Prevent conflicting spreadsheets
Many times great confusion arises when many worksheets are used to keep track of work done. The best way to prevent confusion is by using a single centralized software system to keep track of work done and communications made. Also, this centralized software should be easily accessible by web or mobile devices from anywhere.
Create more reliable estimates
Many times work done falls behind the actual expected date for the completion of work. One of the major reasons for this is the inability of field team to estimate costs and materials properly. So the major responsibility of field team is to provide faster and more accurate estimates of time, materials and cost used in each job for the proper functioning of work in the office and field.
Better cash flow management
One of the most important tasks of field team is to complete invoices immediately with mobile software as soon as the job is complete. Before sending this invoice to the customer field team along with office team should review such invoice properly to decrease and eliminate misunderstandings created by errors in invoice.
Keep customers in the loop at all times
Customer service is one of the most talked and searched aspects of a company. Many companies performance is characterized by the customer service provided by them. It is important to deliver better customer service by providing web or mobile access to a self-serve portal where they can easily track past services and current status of work.
Here we have mentioned a few of the examples on how to maximize your ROI with a mobile field service management system. If you want a better link between office or industry and field team then consider and follow these few points to increase your office efficiency and for smooth operations.