Running a field service business involves many points of making decisions across its operations. From deciding the right service for a customer, assigning the right field service technician for the job, or knowing when to stock the inventory – effective decision-making is crucial at every step to ensure seamless service delivery and operational efficiency.
Manually operating your field service business will not help in optimizing these – because you are not capturing and analyzing the data. Hence, adopting a field service management software will help you do this, so that you get better business outcomes and improved operational efficiency – read more to learn how.
Various sources of data for a field service business
Here are 5 major sources of data you can get and analyze from your daily field service business operations:
- Customer data: like location, services frequently booked, when they book it, reason for opting your service, feedback on field service technicians, and more.
- Inventory data: like knowing stock levels, services in demand, how equipment is being handled by field service technicians, material expiry dates, and more
- GPS data: using softwares like Zuper, it is possible to track field service technicians within their job sites. You can also track real-time location of workers traveling to the job sites.
- Payments data: track invoice payment cycles for vendors, customers, and field service technician salaries. Data about how much time it takes for technicians to complete a job, or know which customers do on-time payments.
- Service data: work order data like location of job site, services required, field service technicians which had better first time fix rates for the job, distance from office, and more.
How capturing data helps improve your field service business performance?
A field service management software is a special tool designed to manage operations, streamline communication, and automate repetitive tasks. For example, you can automate complete job scheduling by capturing job details async using forms from the customer. Then, you can dispatch relevant field service technicians and manage the operations online till job completion.
A field service management software helps capture the above-mentioned 5 data types and beyond to get following insights from them:
Designing targeted marketing campaigns
By knowing customer data, you can profile your customers. This will help you design marketing campaigns that specifically appeal to these customer profiles. For example, if you run an HVAC field servicing company, analyzing data will tell you which regions opt for HVAC services during which months of the year. Then, you can perform paid marketing ads during peak ordering seasons to get more business.
Better incident response
Analyzing data helps you learn from your mistakes. For example, a specific field service job may have low rates of first time fixes. It is also possible to determine how much money and worker’s time is being wasted due to this. Now with this information, it is possible to prepare a response to improve first-time visit successes, identify roadblocks, or know which emergency situations bring down work completion rates. Your teams can prepare SOPs for completing services, thus improving field service technician’s productivity.
Implement predictive maintenance
Knowing inventory data helps you increase the lifespan of your equipment or materials as it can schedule maintenance based on usage. Advanced softwares equipped with IoT can help with real-time maintenance and usage alignment. It also helps in stocking inventory based on demand, so that you are never in oversupply or under-equipped situations.
Know how to scale your business
Knowing that field services operate under a dynamic environment – a software provides the necessary visibility by tracking patterns. For example, it will help you know which services are in demand based on market trends and your customer data.
Are your customers asking for additional services that you aren’t offering?
Analyzing data provides the answer to this, thus helping scale business offers and revenues.
Reduce travel time
Knowing GPS data helps optimize routes for field service technicians to reach the job site. It also helps track worker productivity on the job site and help compensate accordingly. Such practices help save fuel costs, analyze frequently visited locations to target more customers from that region, and reduce the need for supervisors.
Get started with analyzing field service management data
Zuper is enabled with artificial intelligence and cloud such that you can implement multiple workflows to capture operational data. Book a demo today to take the first step in scaling your field service business.
Author Bio: Mohd Sohel Ather is a dynamic Senior Principal Software Engineer and passionate content creator, holding a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Sciences from The Institution of Electronics and Telecommunication Engineers (IETE). With a keen eye for the latest technologies and an unyielding appetite for challenges, Sohel brings a unique blend of technical prowess and creative insight to his work. Specializing in strategic lead management and marketing strategies, he boasts a proven track record of driving impactful results and elevating brand visibility. Beyond his engineering role, Sohel’s love for writing is evident as he seamlessly navigates complex technical subjects, making them accessible to both tech enthusiasts and a broader audience. His commitment to excellence is unwavering, and he continues to contribute valuable perspectives at the nexus of technology and business, particularly within the realm of FSM software.