The Right Field Service Management Software for Your Business

If you’re reading this now, chances are you could use some help when it comes to choosing the best field service management software for your business. Whether your business is landscaping, waste collection, cleaning services, inspection services, pest control, HVAC, or installation and maintenance, you know how difficult it can be to manage all of your business’s moving parts at once. Being mindful of all of your service technicians and their schedules and then pairing that with your customers and the jobs that need to be completed can seem like a daunting task. 

The type of field service management software companies rely on more and more these days can take much of the load off of an operator’s shoulders, and make it possible for a business to complete more jobs, lessen expenses, and ultimately, become more profitable. 

We’ll be showing you what field service management software looks like and which one is best for your businesses, but feel free to skip ahead by browsing one of the headers below if there’s a section that’s most relevant to you. 

• What Is Field Service Management Software?
• Why Use Field Service Management Software
• Which Field Service Management Software Is Best for Your Business?

What Is Field Services Management Software?

Managing field service operations can be a tough job, but the right software can make the entire process much easier. Field service management software can help to:

• Automate the deployment of service technicians.
• Keep track of your workers while they’re in the field.
• Support your personnel with a mobile app.

That’s just a few ways that software like this can be a game-changer. Bottom line? It’s a complete management solution for anyone operating a business in the field service industry.

Sometimes software solutions can be built specifically for certain industries like healthcare or waste collection, but there are also general field service software solutions that can handle many of the key tasks most field service businesses want to accomplish. 

Why Use Field Service Management Software?

Generally speaking, software is intended to make important work processes easier and more efficient. Considering there are so many moving parts to field services businesses, utilizing software is a no-brainer to make sure every aspect of your business runs smoothly and efficiently. 

Specifically, field service management software can help make the following processes easier:

Seamless scheduling for greater cost savings

Anyone responsible for scheduling knows that there are a lot of factors you have to keep in mind all at once. For field service businesses, you’ll likely have to be aware of particular service technician skills that may limit which jobs each worker can be assigned to. 

The same goes for vehicle attributes when a job may require special equipment that only certain vehicles are equipped with. Relevant software can help solve these scheduling headaches as well as account for factors like time window constraints, anticipated job durations, or coordinated orders when you need more than one technician on a single job.

Field service management software also allows you to balance workloads among your employees to ensure routes are fair, or to arrange workloads in the most cost-efficient way by giving more work to field tech with lower hourly rates or easier jobs to newer team members.

Advanced planning for increased productivity

Most business owners like to be prepared well in advance, and effective field service management software enables users to plan their schedules and routes weeks in advance and with bulk job importing. This helps to limit last-minute surprises and gives you the ability to communicate schedules to your techs far in advance. It also enables you to plan the most productive field schedules possible.

Real-time tracking for better customer service

Whether you have two technicians or hundreds, you want to know where they are on their routes at any given time so you can make sure jobs are being completed on schedule and customers will be happy. 

Software with real-time tracking gives you a birds-eye view of your field techs, which jobs have been completed and still left to be done, and lets you adjust routes to deal with any last-minute challenges that may come up in the moment. 

Which Field Service Management Software Is Best for Your Business?

The best field service management software for your business depends on your company’s unique business workflows, but there are some key factors to keep in mind as you make your decision. 

When you think of free dispatching software for your business use, you might think of Google Maps or MapQuest, but a word of caution: you’ll likely be disappointed with the lack of features. These tools were not built with field service businesses in mind, so relying on them could end up creating more inefficiencies in the long run. 

Some businesses might already be using software like QuickBooks, Zoho, or others for orders/invoicing, and think that they can use it for scheduling too, but these are not scheduling optimization platforms. Field service management requires solutions that can plan complex route schedules for hundreds of jobs for field teams with various skills and capabilities.

As you make your decision between field service apps, consider the primary pain points that you hope to solve with the software and do a side-by-side comparison with the software’s features to make sure that it lines up. You’ll probably want to limit your search to software solutions that have been built with field service operations in mind. Currently, the highest-rated of these platforms by Capterra, Gartner, and Software Advice is OptimoRoute.

Making the right decision is important if you want to unlock the highest level of efficiency, deliver a better customer experience, and increase the profitability of your business.