KPIs Your Field Service Management Software Should Be Reporting and What They Mean

Does your field service management software support the key performance indicators (KPIs) your business needs most? If you pinpoint the right KPIs, they can completely carry your business. McKinsey says 80 percent of improvements can be achieved by addressing 20 percent of the current causes of poor performance.

Unfortunately, if you can’t use your software to access the most important KPIs for your business, your business could miss out. Is your field service management software covering all the important ones? Here are the crucial KPIs your field service management software should be reporting:

Business KPIs for Field Service Management Software

Want to increase profits and streamline your financial processes? You can by monitoring four essential business KPIs on a daily basis. These figures are key because they show you what’s driving profit and operational efficiency. That means you can see where money is flowing and make the adjustments that have the biggest impact on your business’ bottom line. Here are the business KPIs that you should be watching:

• Gross profit: It’s a popular metric, and sometimes it’s overshadowed by KPIs such as revenue. However, your gross profit gives you a deeper look into how much you’re actually getting out of those investments or the budget cuts you make.
• Gross margin: Like gross profit, your gross margin is important because it reveals operational health, which means you have data that drives action.
• Sales by period: Splitting up sales by time period lets you see, and prepare for, high seasons and lulls. It also makes it easier to track the impact of personnel or marketing changes.
• Inventory turnover: Knowing you won’t be short on popular parts or have to wait longer than necessary gives you peace of mind. Inventory turnover numbers help you get a grip on demand and see exactly what you have or need.

Service KPIs

If business KPIs are blood work that gives you internal figures, service KPIs are a check on your business’s fitness. Again, these KPIs measure efficiency and help you see exactly where your operation can improve. Here are the service KPIs you should pay special attention to:

• Tech response time: McKinsey found field technicians waste up to 40 percent of their workday on “non-value-adding activities, such as filling out timesheets.” Measuring tech response times can help you see those holes in the tech’s day, improve their processes, and add more value to their day-to-day.
• First-time fix rates: As you well know, callbacks turn into extra costs. Plus, when a tech is able to solve the problem on the spot, it improves the customer experience. First-time fix rates are a brilliant KPI for all-in-one field service management systems because you can track them while using other features, such as in-the-field resources or simplified scheduling, to improve efficiency.
• Work completion rates: Is your team running into delays or process bottlenecks? Is there too much downtime or travel time for techs? Work completion rates shed light on these issues so you can fix them, lower costs, and improve the customer’s experience.
• Service order counts and urgency: This metric can work as a window into the customer’s experience. When you identify a high-frequency or high-urgency account, it’s a good signal to kick your customer service into hyperdrive.

Warranty KPIs

Warranty KPIs are often left out of the conversation, but they’re important if your business deals with warranties, common brands, or claims. These indicators reveal how your company is handling warranties or claims on both the internal side and out in the field, showing you what products are working and helping you get a handle on costs. Warranty KPIs show you the details so you can be ahead of warranties. Here are the ones you should be measuring:

• Average cost per claim and tech: This looks at what it’s costing your company to handle each warranty. If you dig into the numbers and find out they’re high, it could mean you have an inefficient claims process or claims are going through the wrong channel.
• Claim volume analysis: Knowing how often claims are being filed will shed light on the overall quality of the products. It’s also a good way to re-evaluate how you’re serving customers.
• Claim-to-warranty period and timing: Poring over these numbers helps you understand how warranties are affecting your bottom line. At the same time, it stops you from hitting budgeting gaps.
• Claim volume analysis by brand or model: Have a brand that hasn’t been up to the task? Notice models that typically break down after a few years? This can be valuable information when you’re managing warranties.

How to Pick FSM Software with Better KPIs

As essential as these KPIs are, we see companies make a common mistake: Too often, they settle for field service management software that supports only a few basic KPIs. For instance, simple software may provide basic accounting functions right off the bat. However, when the company grows and adds procedures like progress-based billing or advanced parts distribution it has no way to track figures.

In turn, your business’ growth is stifled because you don’t have the data to improve on more advanced functions or the insights to support new departments.

As your business scales, your software should scale with you. When you pick out software, make sure it’s robust enough to support every department and branch of your company at each stage of your growth strategy. By simply researching a platform’s KPI capabilities and scalability up-front, you can save time and money in the long run.

Want to see a powerful all-in-one solution in action? See firsthand how our field service technology helps you measure the right KPIs for your business. Schedule your demo today!