How mobile technology is changing the field service landscape

For field service and MPS businesses, the ability to effectively respond to customer calls is key to retaining clients and attracting new business.

With the introduction of mobile technology, it has enhanced your team’s capability to resolve the issues at hand, ensuring your team arrives at each call fully briefed on the service requirements and faults, with access to a full history of work previously carried out on the equipment.

With a fully connected suite of products you can also perform remote diagnostics, gather real-time data from the field, and better understand which systems are most likely to develop problems for customers.

Improved communication

Through the adoption of field service management software, you can better manage service schedules and monitor service activities, providing your team with the critical information they need to get the job done.

Technicians may be out in the field for much of the day, and the ability to keep track of their activity and status via live systems is crucial. In an increasingly connected world, you no longer need to rely on face-to-face, phone or two-way radio contact. With mobile apps your whole business can stay connected, keeping your operatives in touch with the dispatcher or back office and of course, with customers.

Not every day goes to plan and the schedule provided to your technicians is always subject to change. Issues such as misplaced equipment, incorrectly ordered parts or traffic can cause your busy operatives to fall behind.

Without mobile technology it’s difficult to support your team should any of these problems arise. The dispatcher and customer are often unaware of changes to the time schedule and the operatives may find themselves having to deal with frustrated customers. In app chat features streamline communication, allowing operatives to easily provide updates and progress to the dispatcher and the wider team - information that can then be fed back to the customer.

Location tracking

With location tracking, technicians can map customer support and tech activity, taking advantage of the search functionality to quickly look up part location and availability. While out in the field, mobile employees can see which other jobs are near their current location if they finish a job early or see who on their team is close by and can help with a job.

This not only helps drive more efficient ways of working, it also empowers technicians to better manage their workload, as they can receive, view, and manage service calls on the fly using their mobile devices.

Managing billings

Every field service company faces the challenge of unbilled service calls, especially if they remain reliant on outdated, time consuming admin systems.

When integrated with your business management software, mobile apps can be set up to automatically send service reports directly to your information system, ensuring all relevant data is stored in a digital format on a central system. Invoices can then be sent to customers via email, within hours of the service call.

A busy operative may also forget to record the parts used for each job. While the value of these individual parts appears small, it can all add up over the course of the year. Automated systems can help track parts used and update your information log in real time. With mobile apps, your operatives can do this as they go from job to job, ensuring that you’re always sending accurate invoices for work completed.

Future proofing your business

According to a report by MarketsandMarkets, the field service management market size is expected to grow from just over 4 billion AUD (3 billion USD) in 2020 to nearly 7 billion AUD (5.1 billion USD) by 2025. Interestingly, APAC is projected to be the fastest growing region during this period, highlighting that many believe now is the time to invest in improving business processes and new mobile technologies to help you stay ahead of the competition.

To find out more about ECI e-automate and the MobileTech app, book a demo here: https://www.ecisolutions.com/en-au/office-technology/e-automate/