In a world where every business is looking to cut costs, increase efficiency and move ahead of competition, field service management becomes critical as it plays an important role in customer satisfaction and loyalty. Field service management however have its own unique challenges as its operations are spread across vast territories and resources are distributed in different locations.
In addition to the mechanical and administrative aspects of field service management, companies need effective strategies to meet customer expectations, balance the workforce, and stay profitable. Let us look at some of the critical challenges faced by field services managers.
- Challenge: Poor Scheduling:
Using paper forms/lack of digitization results in poor scheduling of resources. Lack of proper planning further results in production downtime and decrease in operation efficiency. Field workers have issues with data access and are also poorly informed about the equipment required to complete the service requests which results in lost time.
Solution:
Repair CRM can help field service organisations effectively track resources and aid with real-time scheduling. They can increase transparency through-out the organisation and with the customers by transmitting information from the start of the service request till the fix is complete. Furthermore, historical data can be analyzed to predict the future and thereby help with predictive service/maintenance.
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2. Challenge: Poor communication:
As field workers are on the field all day, they lack resources and suffer from poor network connections. This results in time loss and poor performance.
Solution:
Repair CRM can help in overcoming these problems as it has several features such as taking a photo, preparing checklists, geolocation tagging, barcode reader and plenty more! Furthermore, the offline feature can serve as a strong asset in areas with poor connections. Information can be shared in real-time and effectively.
3. Operational Costs Are Rising as Competition Is Increasing
Not only are customer expectations rising, but so too is the competition to deliver the best service. Add to this pressurized environment the fact that operational costs are also increasing. Indeed, keeping operational costs under control is one of a field service manager’s biggest headache. Parts that need to be ordered in, excessive drive times, extra tolls are all costing businesses money. Using field service software, managers can easily pinpoint where their operational costs are escalating and how to bring them under control.
4. Challenge: Poor customer service
Service industries are all aiming for 100% customer satisfaction. Customers like to stay in the loop and receive information in real-time. This is not possible if you are not connected and if you do not have the required information at the right time.
Solution:
Repair CRM can help in overcoming these issues as it allows the real-time transmission of information. You can also send custom email alerts and increase transparency. Stay in the loop with the company and transmit information of the service request progress to your customers on the go!
5. Inefficient customer feedback
Every business delivers its best services to their customers to stay in the market. In fact, to get ahead of the competitors, businesses must meet the customer expectations. Customer feedback is the only way to figure out what your business must focus on to retain existing customers and attract potential customers. Recent Field service management software allows customers to review and rate each job after it’s done. It is an efficient way to track the performance of field force for enterprises.
These are really the challenges that are faced by every field service manager. To get over all these troubles and face these challenges effectively, an ideal field service management such as Repair CRM software is necessary. It enhances accuracy and helps to do away with the loopholes with field data collection software. It helps businesses to deliver better services, increase productivity and generate more revenue for the business.
