How a Field Service Software Works ?

Field service management software is a cloud based tool that connects office to the field. It is a system that helps manage a company’s field resources by providing an optimized solution. Field service management software keeps the business organized with real time updates to internal and external stakeholders by offering different features and functionality. One of the prime requisite of a field Service software is ‘Mobility’. The companies use field service software in order to provide mobility to its field resources and to improve communication with the field workers to streamline processes. But how does field service software basically work? How is it actually used for scheduling and routing optimization or, for that purpose, tracking and managing the field resources?  Let us have a look at the various modules of field service software in detail.

5 Modules of a Field Service Software & How Each One Works

Field Service Management App provides an end-to-end management customized to the company’s field service operations. The basic modules of a Field Service Management App is to help inherit the automation of a robust mobile solution. In order to understand the working & functionality of a field service app it is important to know how each of these 5 modules work, behave and interact.
 
1) Work Order Management: A good field service software should help the business manage the creation, assignment, execution and closure of field work orders internally. The business should be able to manage and monitor the service requests ensuring that they are resolved within SLA commitments. This delights the customers to drive new revenue opportunities and results in excellent customer satisfaction. Field service management software aims at providing the following functionalities:
 

• Empower employee or technicians to create, assign, update and debrief a field work order, thereby increasing their efficiency to deliver.
  
• Manage the work order process for both break/fix and preventive maintenance scenarios, increasing first time fix rate.
  
• Empower technicians to access and update their work orders from mobile devices, whether they are on or offline. Thus, improving productivity.
  
• Capture actual time and expense items and generate service reports. This eventually leads to shortened billing cycles.
  
• Provide real-time SLA counters on the work order to heighten awareness of potential violations.
  
• Design and update work order processes using drag-and-drop via back end interface.
  
• Generate insightful reports on work order data including the team’s service history, overall parts usage and time consumed. This helps in reducing the administration cost of paperwork and save a lot of time by never having to re-enter data
  
• Empower customers to obtain status or get push notification alerts. Thereby, improving customer experience.
  
• Prioritize assignments based on customer priority, part availability or service request priority.

2) Notification Manager for Employees / Field Service Employees: These Notifications are shown on Employee or field service Mobile app and help staff to immediately react to particular event/action. The field service software enables the following:

• Visualize notifications in list on the mobile: Whenever a new service request or work order is created for a particular field service executive, he gets a notification of the same.
  
• Fast identification and response to prioritized and scheduled requests: Proper notifications help in prioritising the work as per the severity of the issue and provide ease in managing the schedules.
  
• Comprehensive status control with real-time updates: It helps in keeping the business organized with real-time job updates across all devices. Whether you are assigned a new job or have completed one, it helps you exercise full control on the current status of your work order.
  
• Capture new notifications directly in the field and in real-time: Whether you have been assigned a new job or an existing job is due, field service software keeps you notified directly in the field on a real time basis.
  
• ·Visualization of documents and other types of attachments: It helps the field executives to get any information updated by supervisor about the job. This allows the executive relate to the customer’s requirement in a more efficient way and customers find their services more valuable. Thereby, improving customer experience.

3) Order execution by field staff: The Field Service Management App helps the field executive get the full visibility of the assigned job, its geological location, logistics requirements and equipment. An optimum Field Service Management App facilitates:

• To view the assigned orders to field technicians and view their details.
  
• Visualize orders in list view.
  
• Native integration with maps & able to view the geological location direction.
  
• Check past events for an enhanced order execution.
  
• Guided execution of tasks.
  
• Enhanced and efficient control of time & materials.
  
• Check inventory & details in real-time. Prior knowledge of the inventory status helps the field
  executives increase the first time fix rate.
  
• Seamless collaboration between technicians and customers or back-end.
  
• Real time chat integration and customize based on business rules. Such field service management
  app are known to improve the ‘right first time’ approach and provide customer delight.

4) Proof of delivery: The proof of Delivery module helps in increased customer satisfaction, elimination of paperwork and reduced time spent on calls with customers due to customer self-service options. It also provides the features:

• Integrated with Barcode or QR code scanner to scan the invoice and update the delivery status. These are some features that can be included in the POD module.
  
• Geo-fencing module helps to capture the employee location and time stamp for each delivery. This ensures tracking the time of delivery and can be preserved as a proof of timely delivery. In case of late deliveries, it can help the organizations to monitor the performance of their field executives.
  
• Capture signature and photo proof within the app and submit real time information to client and supervisors. This eventually leads into reduced bill backs due to lost signatures.
  
• Email /SMS alert will be sent to client with delivery report. This keeps the client informed.

5) Feedback and rating: The Feedback and rating module is another wonderful module facilitated by a perfect Field service management software. It helps the companies with respect to:

• Build trust among customers and facilitate the employers in assessing the quality of services being delivered by their field service executives. This can be a two way process. The rating given by the customer to the services provided and the rating given by the employer. In both the cases, it helps rate the employees.
  
• The ratings are saved on the server and available for future reference. This makes the workers ensure that they keep delivering good quality work in order to maintain their ratings and sustain in the organization.

Conclusion

Thus, these are the 5 basic modules of a great field service software that helps in keeping the business organized with real time updates offering different features and functionality. As per the individual requirements of a particular industry type and workflow, these modules can be customized to a point which is just apt for your business. It caters to the specific requirements of your organization and thus, results into more productive workforce and better growth prospects. The field service software’s improved productivity and increased profitability are sure to enhance the overall customer satisfaction!