The Best Field Work Scheduling Software for Your Business

Every business is looking for ways to increase efficiency and drive profits to the bottom line. Field service scheduling software is a powerful tool that can do exactly that. 

In short, field service dispatch software allows business owners to track the time and location of employees, as well as schedule and manage critical tasks. It also simplifies the communication between dispatchers and technicians in the field. 

There are many different field work scheduling software programs on the market, so it can be difficult to decide which is right for your business. Fortunately, the process gets a lot easier when you know what to look for, and that’s exactly what we’re going to explain here.

To jump ahead to a section you want to check out, click one of the headers below:

• What Is Service Scheduling Software?
• How Much Does Service Call Scheduling Software Cost?

What Is Service Scheduling Software?

Field service scheduling software is designed to help businesses better manage their appointments, bookings, and other service-related tasks. The software typically includes features such as online booking, appointment reminders, and customer management tools. 

By using service scheduling software, businesses can improve their efficiency and better meet the needs of their customers. In many cases, the software can also help to reduce no-shows and late cancellations. 

For example, businesses in the inspection industry can benefit from field work scheduling software to help manage their operations. Field work scheduling software can optimize routes, track time and expenses, and provide reports on job progress. This allows inspection business operators to focus on their core business operations while leaving the software to complete the field work schedule.

Scheduling software can really be a real boon to businesses in almost any service-based industry, but another example of a good use case would be for installation businesses. By helping installers manage their time and resources more efficiently, scheduling software can help you get more jobs done on schedule and within the allocated budget. 

Generally speaking, scheduling software can: 

1. Help you manage your employee’s time and resources more efficiently, ensuring that jobs are completed on time and within budget.
2. Help you plan your work schedule weeks in advance, preventing overlap and ensuring everyone has the necessary information to properly prepare for and complete a job.
3. Act as a communication hub between team members, clients, and other stakeholders, keeping everyone up-to-date on project progress and ensuring that tasks are completed efficiently.

No matter the specific niche your service business operates in, job scheduling software can be a valuable tool that helps enable greater efficiencies in your daily operations. 

What is the best software for a service business?

Many software options are available on the market, and most service businesses have clearly defined budgets for software and tools. It can be tough to decide which software will make the cut and which won’t, but you can make the decision easier by first understanding exactly what your business needs to accomplish and which software will move the meter more in terms of results. 

If you need a way to track customer appointments and payments, you’ll want to look for software with these features. If the clear priority is to plan effective routes for your drivers, then that feature will be higher on your shopping list. Once you know what you need, you can start narrowing down your options.

For example, a cleaning business needs to keep track of its employees’ schedules and hours worked to ensure they complete their jobs efficiently. The best software for this is field work scheduling software. This type of software allows businesses to track when employees are working, how long they are working, and what jobs they are performing. This helps ensure that everyone is doing their job correctly and efficiently.

On the other hand, a waste collection business might need to consider other factors when selecting its most important software. The best program for a waste collection business will depend on the business’s specific needs. Some key factors that should be considered include the size of the business, e.g., how many routes, how big the routes are, and how many drivers there are.

A field service dispatcher software would likely be the best all-around bet for a business like this as long as it had the ability to track schedules, job costs, and invoices. More importantly, any business in a similar industry like this would want comprehensive route planning and optimization features built into its scheduling software.

Whichever software you choose, make sure it has the features you need to run your business smoothly.

Which field service dispatch software is best for small business?

If you’re running a business that relies on field service technicians to get the job done, then you know how important it is to have a dispatch software system in place. However, with so many different options on the market, it can be tricky to know which is right for your business. 

Here are five important factors to consider when choosing field service software:

1. Ease of use: You want something that’s relatively straightforward to use without a lot of unnecessary bells and whistles.
2. Affordability: Small businesses need to be mindful of their budget, so it’s important to find affordable software.
3. Flexibility: Look for software that’s versatile and can be customized to meet your specific needs.
4. Customer support: It’s always helpful to have customer support available if you run into any software problems.
5. Scalability: As your business grows, you’ll want software that can scale up with you.

Besides these five more general factors, you’ll likely want to consider software that offers some of these specific features that are perfect for field service dispatchers: 

• Automated planning: If you run a field service business, you probably have tens, if not hundreds, of stops your drivers need to make every day. Rather than manually entering addresses line by line, you can bulk import addresses with specialized dispatching software and automatically create efficient routes and schedules for your drivers. You can even plan out routes weeks in advance.
• Workload balancing: Personnel is one of the biggest expenses in a service business, and an effective field service dispatcher can keep track of each worker’s hours, make sure no one enters into overtime territory, and pair each driver’s schedule with jobs that match their availability.
• Route optimization: One of the most significant opportunities for efficiency is in the details of a route plan. Besides just optimizing for the shortest distance and fastest time, service business software with built-in route optimization can account for factors like vehicle capacity, driver skills, job duration, the priority sequence of stops, time window requirements, and much more.
• Real time data and modification capabilities: Dispatchers already have to deal with so many variables; the last thing you want to do is fly blind. That’s why choosing software with real time tracking and route modification features is crucial. Stay aware of where your drivers are, their progress, and any unanticipated challenges. More importantly, this feature allows you to make changes on the fly to solve problems and deal with last-minute route additions.
• Mobile apps for drivers: You can make your driver’s jobs easier and increase their chances of success by using mobile technician scheduling software to put all of the most important, need-to-know information in one central location. Their route plan and order details can all be located in an easy-to-use app, and you can even make changes in real time that automatically updates in their app.

By keeping all these factors and features in mind, you’ll be able to make a more informed decision as you choose the best field service software for your business.

How Much Does Service Call Scheduling Software Cost?

Cost is one of the most important factors when making any decision related to your business, and software is no different. As you can imagine, the cost of software can vary significantly depending on what features you need and which provider you go with. 

At OptimoRoute, our pricing starts at $35.10 per month per driver. Per driver pricing works well because it scales with each business based on its fleet size. The more drivers you have, the more you need scheduling, planning, and optimization software to ensure you get the most value out of your fleet.

As of this writing, other popular tools on the market start anywhere from $40 per month up to $149, or even well over $500 per driver or per user. As you can see, the costs can climb quickly depending on which software provider you choose and how large of a fleet you have.

The most important thing to remember as you consider whether or not to invest in service call scheduling software is that it can quickly pay you back and then some. The operational efficiencies that the best FSM software can deliver in the first month of use alone could cover the annual cost of the software. 

Here’s an example of what an OptimoRoute customer was able to accomplish using our software:

• 2x faster planning
• Better distribution of work
• Monthly mileage decreased by more than 8000 miles

The decision to use field management software becomes a no-brainer when you start thinking about the savings you could realize by helping your drivers complete their routes faster and the expense you could save by managing resources like personnel and fuel more effectively. 

Is there service scheduling software for free?

It’s challenging to find legitimate service scheduling software for free. Some businesses try to get by using mapping software offered by companies like Google, Microsoft, or Apple and then pairing it with an Excel spreadsheet to handle scheduling. As you can imagine, this option presents numerous challenges, with one of the largest being that this free software isn’t going to have many (or any) of the features we’ve discussed. That’s why many businesses don’t waste too much time using these sorts of free tools.  

Other large companies, such as Salesforce and Oracle, offer more comprehensive service scheduling software that caters to more enterprise-level companies and comes at a premium price. Chances are, if your business doesn’t span multiple countries or has thousands of employees, tools like this might be overkill. You may pay more for a service that provides tools your business doesn’t need. This could take up a large portion of your budget while being more than you actually need. 

Pinpoint your main pain points and precisely what you want to accomplish in your business, and it’ll be easier to narrow down the best scheduling app for you. It’s always better to go shopping when you have a list; otherwise, you might end up buying something that’s not right for you in the long term. 

Also, keep in mind that many specialized field service management tools offer free trials. That means you can take anywhere from 7 to 30 days to use the software and see if it’s a good fit for you before investing any money into it. 

In that free trial window, make sure to explore the software as fully as you can by using as many features as possible and reaching out to customer service to see what the support experience is like. It’s worth taking the time to evaluate these factors before making a final decision. 

Besides utilizing specialized field service management software, one of the most significant ways any field service business can increase efficiency is by implementing route optimization. If you want to learn how to implement it in your own business, check out this comprehensive guide to route optimization.