Selecting a field service management software, such as AgileField, is an important task for any service business. There are a ton of capabilities, features, requirements, and specifics to consider before making a selection for your company. We’ve identified these three must-have field service software features after conversations with hundreds of our clients with field services businesses.

Flexible Scheduling & Dispatch Features

Scheduling and dispatching jobs is the most important piece of day-to-day operations. Field technicians plan their days around their schedule, dispatchers spend their days quickly updating jobs and assignments, and, most importantly, your customers plan their tasks around their appointments with your company. A field service software should have the ability to allow you to schedule your technicians in the most efficient way for your business:

• Drag & Drop Scheduling: Enables dispatchers to see what jobs need to be scheduled and change schedules on the fly. Sort field technicians by job skills and certifications to ensure jobs are assigned to qualified techs.
• Geographic Scheduling: Being able to view unassigned jobs, open jobs, and field techs on a map makes it simple to assign the closest techs to their next jobs.
• Automatic Scheduling: Enables your team to spend more time on task- let the system do the work. Match job skills, account assignments, available times, and by proximity to assign the shortest routes.

Customer Communication

Getting your field techs to the customer locations is only half the battle- does the customer know you’re coming? If they’re not home, is there proof of your visit? Streamlining customer communications offers hugely significant operational efficiencies for your team. Instead of relying on employees to make calls and send out messages, customers can receive alerts when jobs are scheduled, when the tech is in transit, once they arrive on site, and when the job is completed. Customers are much more likely to rehire a field service company who arrives late if they receive a notification. Some of the features you should look for include:

• Text & Email Notifications: Nowadays customers expect to decide how they’d like to be contacted. Your field service software should allow your company to automatically communicate with each customer via their preferred method- text messages or emails.
• Proof of Work or Invoice Templates: We’ve all been through it- customers calling to ask if their tech even showed up. And if they did, what work was completed? Did they damage what they were supposed to be working on? When jobs are completed you can send custom templates with line items, photos, and signatures to your customers automatically.
• Customer Self-Service Portal: A customer portal empowers your customers to get real-time updates on open jobs, view job history, and easily request new work.

Work Order Management

Whether it’s a recurring job, one time job, multi-day job, or long-term project, managing the work orders is crucial for your company’s success. Dispatchers have to schedule and dispatch jobs to technicians, alert them of emergency work or reschedules, and make sure they have the notes and documents they need to get the work done properly. This can be a lot of information to try and relay with paper or disparate systems. With a work order management system in place, techs should be able to access all the information they need, update the status as they go, log notes and information, take photos, collect signatures, create new jobs, and add other line items from the field. There are multiple ways to manage your work orders in a system, but these should be required to come to the party:

• Mobile Forms & Documents to Record Job Details: Attach documents for field techs to ensure they have all the information necessary to complete the work. Enable them to record notes and job information digitally so it’s available in real-time and reportable later.
• Track Job Statuses: Give dispatchers and other back office staff transparency. Easily view job status changes for the technicians in real-time throughout the day.
• View Job History: Field techs can view past job history for customer locations and specific pieces of equipment. This way they can reference what was done prior and contact the tech from last time if necessary.

With AgileField as your field service management software, your company should be able to compete effectively and grow profitably by giving your techs the tools to deliver consistent, quality customer service faster, at a lower cost. These must-have features allow you to eliminate paperwork and double entry so your staff can focus on providing the best possible service to your customers.

CRMPlus Consulting

CRMPlus Consulting is a small boutique firm specializing in the art of customer management. We work with clients to ensure their CRM selection, field service software and implementation achieves their goals. To learn more about our approach and the solutions we offer, download our CRM Success Kit today or call us at 813-343-2173.