
How to Optimize Field Service Planning and Improve Productivity?
Field Service Management has evolved significantly over the past decades. The traditional practice of dispatchers using spreadsheets and technicians recording activities in notebooks is becoming increasingly outdated and inefficient. Although these practices were well-established, they have been a major source of errors and lack of proper accountability, leading to customer dissatisfaction due to the higher demands of today’s business environment.
Field Service Management (FSM) software helps streamline and automate processes, enables remote team monitoring, and utilizes data to deliver faster and higher-quality customer service.
With the advancement of field services, increased customer expectations, and growing competition, team productivity has become a central focus for business owners in this industry.
How to Improve Team Productivity?
With optimized planning, field service managers can enhance productivity, thereby reducing service costs, optimizing business growth, and increasing customer satisfaction.
Demand Forecasting
Forecasting demand is essential for companies to understand which services have the greatest impact on their business. This is especially important for smaller companies with limited resources.
Demand is typically calculated based on various factors such as seasonality, customer count, service nature, and more. The ability to meet customer demand depends on the availability of qualified personnel and the possibility of hiring additional staff for specific projects.
The above factors can serve as a foundation for forecasting, but it is important to remember that forecasting is highly individual—techniques that work for one type of field service company may not be effective for another with the same business model. Therefore, forecasting should be based on the specific type of business and its goals to identify opportunities for planning improvements.
Inefficient Planning
The most common mistakes in inefficient planning include:
- Assigning technicians who lack the necessary experience to resolve a particular issue
- Delegating the planning process to technicians
- Scheduling fewer technicians to cut costs without considering potential increases in demand
How Field Service Management Software Improves Productivity
Utilizing Data Over Different Time Periods for Better Planning
Tracking data on a weekly or monthly basis typically includes:
- Number of customer visits
- Emergency and unscheduled service calls
- Overdue commitments
- Days of the week with higher demand
- Instances where additional technicians had to be scheduled on short notice due to an incorrectly estimated service scope
- Revenue and costs associated with the above scenarios
Optimizing Worked Time
Recording actual worked time, time lost in transit, and additional activities ensures full tracking of each employee’s workload and efficiency.
Controlled and Consistent Processes
Complete digitization of the process enhances real-time control at every stage. Work consistency is guaranteed without data loss or the need for paper. It allows for execution verification, review of reported materials, services, and time.
Performance Evaluation
Improved service quality through real customer feedback on task completion.
Profitable Pricing
Automated quoting based on planned materials, labor, services, fees, and minimum margin percentages per service category. Detailed analysis of deviations between planned and actual costs.
CRM & BI Analytics
Real-time decision-making based on analytics for effective working hours, actual service costs, and margins by service, location, client, project, region, or department. Detailed insights into used services and materials at service locations. Period-based analysis and comparisons.
SBS Field Service is specialized task management software that reduces costs and increases efficiency by optimizing and automating processes and activities. All actions are updated in real time without data loss. Complete digitization ensures better control and faster invoicing. Employee workload, location, and utilized services and materials at service sites can be tracked in real time. The built-in BI analytics are easy to use and help in making quick and informed decisions.
The software has a web version and an Android app. It can be integrated with the ERP.NET platform for full process automation—from service request creation to invoicing and payment.