The number of diverse types of facilities around the world is growing steadily. An important role in this is played by the development of the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) and the widespread penetration of smart devices: sensors, controllers, etc. According to forecasts, by the end of 2021, the number of smart devices in the world will exceed 200 billion. This entire “army” of devices, despite its remote control abilities, requires preventive and affordable field service software.
Perform engineers and field technicians 100% mobile
Field engineers do not have to come to the meeting in the morning or constantly return to the office to receive or turn in a task, as is now the case in 90% of cases:
- All applications can be received remotely through a mobile application, adjust the schedule and route of departure, taking into account the location, accept the results of work in the form of photographs, documents.
- You can even confirm the fact of work performed in the mobile application through the customer’s signature. The exact mechanism depends on the features of the service organization.
But its implementation must require constant contact with the engineer and his 100% affordability.
Switching to “mobile rails” and avoiding mandatory morning meetings can cut payroll costs by 20% without sacrificing the quality of help.
Assess the real market situation
Business is based on numbers and judgments based on them. If you do not know how many requests you execute per month, which of the employees are working efficiently, and who is constantly delayed, you will not be able to maintain the quality of your services and look for points of increasing profits. Only the analyst will give the full picture. It is more convenient to measure it with specialized answers for the service industry.
At first, Excel is also suitable if you arrange for the regular entry or updating of the necessary data. However, it is much more efficient to use market data systems integrated with field service automation resolutions for this. Ideal if your resolution now contains dozens of records and dashboards on key metrics of the setting.
Monitor Field Engineer Punctuality and Reputation Issues
For your clients, corporation numbers too. And the downtime of devices or workers due to out-of-order tools and methods is a direct loss.
In the context of FSM, punctuality is not just politeness, but a characteristic of service offering. If the distribution of applications occurs by eye, engineers are overloaded so that this leads to regular delays, and then there is already a reason to think about changing your own processes. And if field engineers are late, even if they are completely free, this is a reason to discuss the situation in person.
Give up free work
Calls that will not be paid in any way are a problem for any set industry. Sometimes the client doesn’t really pay (especially during periods of economic downturn). But sometimes the company agrees to work for free without realizing it. For example, a contract with a client has already ended, and his employees, unknowingly or with intent, still continue to call the dispatcher to fill out an application.
In order not to engage in such free activities, it is necessary to clearly understand the boundaries of your responsibility. That is, to understand with whom, to what extent, and for how long the contracts are valid, what kind of service is included what equipment you are repairing? This approach requires some maturity of the company’s processes, but it is better to switch to such accounting once and for all than to lose money every day and not understand the cause of inefficiency.