The principal determinant of a flourishing business is its contented clients. When you could gratify your customers that they keep coming back to you, which also means they prefer picking your services over others or may recommend you to friends and family, then you can assert that yours is a successful business. 

Need not state that the business success will be instantly followed by profit. In a way, it can be said that the prime objective of a business is to earn satisfied customers. 

In businesses that operate through field services, many factors lead to client satisfaction, such as promptness in delivery, pricing, service quality, customer experience, etc. The operational efficiency of the service team during every phase of the service cycle plays a significant role in delivering the required promptness and effectiveness. 

Good or bad job scheduling can be a game-changer. Which technician is assigned with what kind of job, what is the location proximity of the technician to the job site, how well the job has been matched with his skill sets, all these aspects of job scheduling majorly impact the overall on-duty efficiency of the field service team. Field service scheduling software is popular these days as many field service providers are using them. Let's get a detailed understanding of the software. Is field service scheduling software really effective in improving the operational efficiency of your team? Does it help your team to collaborate and work together in a better way? Does it help your field crew overcome the challenge of delayed service? Can it enable your team to render a better customer experience? The answer to all is 'Yes.' 

Let's See How Field Service Scheduling Software Improves Your Service Quality By Improving The Operational Efficiency Of Your Team:

Quick Turnaround Time 

A client who has asked for any kind of field service doesn't want to wait for long. Psychologically, the client won't mind if the servicing time is lengthy, but the turnaround time should be prompt, which means the field agent should not be late to arrive at the client's location. Late arrival is a turndown.  

Field service scheduling software can facilitate the early arrival of field servicemen through intelligent job scheduling and route mapping. The software has automation features that categorize the service calls and assign the job to the nearest available field agent. 

The proximity to the job site helps the technician to timely reach the job site. Through optimal route mapping, the software further accentuates the timely arrival of the agent by showing him the shortest and safest route. Thus, he can reach the job site on time by overcoming time delays because of traffic jams and long routes.

Skill-Based Job Scheduling

Every client demands first visit effectiveness. If servicemen don't have the right skill to accomplish the task in the first visit itself and have to pay a repeat visit, then clients do feel offended. For improved chances of first visit effectiveness, the visiting technician must know the problem at hand and the adequate skills to troubleshoot it in the first visit itself.

Here, skill-based job scheduling plays a vital role. The service manager needs to make skill-based job schedules. Manually it is a tedious task for the service manager, but with the help of an online field service scheduling software, he can do skill-based job scheduling even for a bigger team. The software can browse the skill sets of the technicians in the database, and quickly identify who is the right skilled technician for a job.

No Scheduling Conflict

Another major obstacle related to job scheduling is the overlapping of the schedules. It is very common to see a service technician running late to a particular job because he was caught in a different job. This happens because of overlapped job schedules. Other kinds of scheduling conflicts in field services are duplicate schedules, and missed schedules. Any kind of scheduling conflict reduces the operational efficiency of the technicians and compromises the service quality. 

But the online field service scheduling software is an effective tool that helps eliminate the problem of a scheduling conflict. The automation module of the software keeps a check on the availability of technicians on a real-time basis, by live-tracking their on-field locations and time stamping their field activities. So, the software gives a highly accurate estimation regarding the availability of a technician for a particular job, and accordingly it schedules the technician for the next job ensuring that he doesn't face any scheduling conflict. This also helps improve the customer experience, as they don't have to suffer because of scheduling conflicts. 

Final Thoughts

Without the aid of technology and automation, it is hard for a business to survive. Field service scheduling software is an all-in-one tool that enables the field services to harness the power of automation and improve operational efficiency by improving the critical area of job scheduling.