If you’ve ever scheduled an Uber ride or looked for a new, highly rated restaurant near you, chances are you’re familiar with geolocation. It can help you quickly identify, schedule, and track locations and services. It’s changed the way we travel, dine, and play, so it’s no surprise that geolocation is now revolutionizing the way field service organizations engage with their customers.
Geolocation is a natural fit for organizations that have techs out in the field. Gone are the days of managing schedules with clipboards, spreadsheets, and two-way radios. Cloud-based mobile solutions, like Salesforce Field Service Lightning, can help employees out in the field work efficiently while staying closely connected with the home office. Here are four key reasons why the team at Penrod is aggressively investing in this great new tech.
Real-Time Tech Tracking
Real-time tracking is one of, if not the, standout benefit of a geolocation feature. With it, dispatchers can pinpoint exactly where technicians are, whether they’re working ahead of schedule, stuck in traffic, or just about to complete a job. These insights can help dispatchers assign and reassign jobs based on the technician’s schedule and driving routes to maximize workdays. In an industry where every minute is valuable, you can send technicians updates about traffic and weather issues to help get them where they need to be faster. It can even help dispatchers customize jobs to the right resource based on time, skills, and location.
Better Communication
With cloud-based field service management, the walls—and distance—between dispatchers in the office and techs out in the field disappear. Because everyone is connected, they can reach one another in moments, which lends itself to better communication. Office staff can send crucial job details or routing updates instantly. Service crews and technicians can have key data, such as customer, product, and work order attributes at their fingers. Teams can monitor the status of jobs easily with live video feeds and real-time analytics.
Customers also benefit from connected field service management software. For example, customers have traditionally been given a multi-hour window of time when service appointments are scheduled. Now, a text or message can be sent letting them know when the technician is exactly 15 minutes away or reaching the final location. These seemingly small things increase the “wow” factor and customer loyalty.
Greater Collaboration
No doubt about it, your team fully prepares for each job. But sometimes a much-needed tool or part goes missing. Geolocation to the rescue! It can track other techs who may be nearby and can lend a hand. That’s right, Field Service Lightning can also sync inventories, making it easy to identify which tech has the required tools and can connect quickly. This means jobs can be completed on the same day, without having to completely reschedule for a later date.
Performance Management
Reward great work! With geolocation and real-time tracking, dispatchers get to know how much work techs can take on and how well they’re performing. By reviewing this data, they can better manage field tech performance, rewarding great work and making adjustments where needed.
Accurate analytics also help dispatchers set more accurate timelines for future scheduling. With geolocation, you’ll know exactly when the techs arrived and departed, helping you manage scheduling—and billing—effectively. Not only does this help you increase accountability, it leads to expedited service and a healthy bottom line.
Field Service Transformation
Geolocation has transformed many industries and now it’s making its mark on field service. Cloud-based field service software empowers technicians and crews by offering smart scheduling and tracking of moving pieces, from complex service crews to equipment and parts or “Trunk Stock”. Valuable analytics helps the team optimize service appointments while keeping customers informed. It helps businesses run more effectively and efficiently while keeping customer satisfaction high. In a nutshell: it’s transforming field service management. That’s why it’s time to toss the clipboard, spreadsheets, and complex manually managed calendars, and join the geolocation revolution.
Are you ready to go beyond the two-way radios and streamline your field service operations? Contact a Penrod Field Service Expert today!