What Is Smart Dispatching?
In 2021, Tom Brady won his seventh Super Bowl, putting an end to the debate about who reigns as the greatest quarterback of all time. Brady’s mastery of the game including his ability to command a complex playbook, read defenses on the fly, facilitate the offense, and maximize the skills of his players are the traits that make him, at least for now, the greatest.
Similar to having an all-star quarterback full of insight and experience on the field, smart dispatching for service contractors uses data to dispatch technicians more efficiently and effectively.
“52% of field service organizations still rely on manual processes to carry out service work.”
Up-to-the-minute, real-time scheduling and GPS features enable you to set up an efficient workday, minimize last-minute changes, estimate job completion time, and replace or add technicians to a job, all without interrupting business. Contractor management software with Smart Dispatch capabilities allows service orders to be created, assigned, dispatched, updated, and re-assigned through filters that consider skill sets, availability, parts and equipment, driver location, and customer location.
As an integrated component of your contractor management software, Smart Dispatch enables service managers and dispatchers to access critical customer service data and technician performance data through personal dashboards with key performance indicators. Its use can result in dramatic field performance and efficiency improvements for your entire fleet of technicians, better quality hires, and substantially higher customer satisfaction scores.
“About 75% of field service businesses that utilize mobility tools have observed increased employee productivity, while the rest have seen customer satisfaction rates rise.”
Smart Dispatch: Before and After
Imagine a customer calls to request a service visit to diagnose and repair their equipment.
Without contractor management software with Smart Dispatching, the dispatcher would take the call, look at the day’s schedule, check technician availability, and dispatch the tech who was nearest to the customer’s location.
After talking to the customer, the technician can then start to troubleshoot to find the source of the problem. Unfortunately, more often than not, the tech either doesn’t have the skill set to fix the particular piece of equipment or doesn’t have the parts necessary to do the job on the truck. The project is now delayed, wasting time and narrowing profits.
Today, with the help of contractor management software, it’s possible to diagnose and resolve customer problems remotely. If not, product details, customer history, and issue details are available to the dispatcher, so they can easily assign the best technician for the job with the required skills and parts and within the closest proximity. Armed with troubleshooting information, the technician can go right to work on routine maintenance, repairs, or installations.
Lack of technology creates a gap in services known as the “field force execution gap.” Whether it’s a disjointed intake process, missing details on work orders, or complex scheduling problems, contractor management software with Smart Dispatch functionality bridges the gap between the needs of stakeholders and the limitations of manual processes. In doing so, companies that make a technology investment can dramatically improve service levels, reduce costs, streamline workflows, grow revenues, and turn the service department into a profit center.
“The field service management market is forecast to grow at a CAGR of 11%. At this rate, the FSM market that has an estimated value of $3 billion in 2020 will reach $5.1 billion by 2025.”
15 benefits of Smart Dispatching
Your company’s processes for handling dispatch can make or break your business in a competitive, technology-driven environment. Finding new sources of operational efficiency enables you to get work done quickly and with fewer resources.
The right contractor management software can bring efficiencies to every operation in your residential service contracting business, from more efficient routing and better matching of techs to customer problems to better performance evaluation and hiring practices. Here are some specific improvements that Smart Dispatching can drive for your business:
1. Improve routing, scheduling, and dispatching.
Smart Dispatching can increase your efficiency, leading to reduced costs and increased profits. Fit more customers into each technician’s daily schedule, avoid redundant driving, and ensure that customer needs are resolved at the highest possible rates within the shortest possible time frames. When technicians run behind, or when cancellations require wait list customers to take their places, or emergency orders come in, Smart Dispatching can automate rescheduling, reducing the time spent on manual processes and the errors that come with complex and continual reshuffling of schedules. The contractor management software automatically plots the most efficient schedules and routes, even accounting for traffic patterns.
2. Increase technician and support team utilization and productivity
Increase the utilization of technicians by 15% or more through Smart Dispatching with GPS technology. First-time fix rates can improve by 25% or more through integrated access to in-depth service histories and detailed records, as well as dispatching the right tech for the job. At the same time, productivity can increase by up to 10% in the field and 50% in the back office. Real-time status updates let you know when a worker finishes a job and can take on a new assignment. And 75% of field service businesses that utilize mobility tools have observed increased employee productivity, while the rest have seen customer satisfaction rates rise. The aging field service workforce poses a shortage of around two million workers, so it is becoming increasingly essential to maximize the productivity of current workers. Among field service companies, 47% are now having trouble getting enough quality technicians and drivers to meet business goals, making this one of their top business challenges.
3. Use skill tags to identify the right tech for every job
Use skills, qualifications, certifications, and specific training to identify each worker, so that the right technician can be assigned to every job. This improves first-time fix rates and customer satisfaction, while reducing service call times.
4. Give technicians access to the information they need
Contractor management software will have all the information your techs need at their disposal when they need it. Work orders, customer contact information, equipment records, service histories, company forms, inventory records, and remote troubleshooting reports should all be accessible from their field tablets and smartphones. This reduces time-wasting phone calls and return trips to the office. Today’s most successful residential service contractors use contractor management software to turn smartphones into do-it-all service tools!
5. Handle emergency work orders
Customer loyalty can be won or lost with emergency resolutions. Smart Dispatching lets you assign the nearest or next tech available, or the tech that has the right tags for the job. Response times are improved, and worsening emergencies are reduced. In conjunction with inventory management functionality as part of a total solution, you can also ensure the right parts get to each emergency call to complete the job. Fifty percent of dispatch managers think that the ability to quickly reroute field technicians for emergency jobs is the most important factor in their success and keeping everyone updated on schedule changes comes second at 48%.
“89% of customers want to see modern, on-demand technology applied to their technician scheduling, and nearly as many customers would be willing to pay a premium for it.”
6. Invoice fast and accurately from the field
Having the ability to collect payments in the field via check, credit card, or smartphone NFC payments enables your business to get paid immediately. Smart Dispatching functionality, in conjunction with your contractor management software, enables field techs to generate invoices, capture customer signatures, and accept payment on-site. Once the job is complete, there is no need to return to the office or submit paperwork.
7. Strategically monitor data and business key performance indicators (KPIs)
Keep track of how long certain jobs take, what certain jobs entail, and route data. Improve average response time, time to repair, time to complete a job, first-time fix rate, and tech utilization for billable hours, revenue per lead, and average ticket price. Data on speed of service, delivery logs, and routing records can be used to continually improve scheduling efficiency and can even mileage and maintenance costs for trucks.
8. Improve communication between support teams and techs
Update technicians about work changes instantly, integrate calendars and digitize all communications. Everyone on the support team and in the field has up-to-the-minute access to the information they need. You can even put policies in place that mandate updates and communications in certain instances. Collaboration tools also reduce the need to have more than one technician on site to resolve an issue. Automated communications and information updates also eliminate data re-entry and limit excessive communication between back office and field workers. Information entered in one form populates automatically and accurately throughout the system.
9. Minimize overhead costs
Reduce equipment, materials, and unbilled labor by properly accounting for time and materials. Contractor management software that includes Smart Dispatch optimizes daily routines for more revenue-generating work. Automated scheduling, optimized travel routes, and digital communication of project details all contribute to lower overhead costs.
10. Efficiently manage inventory
Always have the parts and equipment you need without spending more than necessary. View in-stock inventories and reorder parts simply, or even automatically. This helps to avoid rush orders, reduces shipping costs, and prevents techs from arriving without the parts and equipment they need to complete their work. Smart inventory management leads to better utilization of technicians’ time and lower fuel expenses. In fact, 86% of companies surveyed saw a decrease in fuel costs with contractor management software.
11. Free up your company leaders
Enable leaders to pursue business growth strategies rather than micromanaging operations! Contractor management software and Smart Dispatch functionality track what your field workforce is doing, where, and when with a centralized schedule. This enables your team to work effectively while the solution essentially manages productivity, so that managers, executives, and owners have the time to think and act strategically.
12. Give sales leaders influence over field operations
Because service level agreements represent an area of increasing intersection between field operations and sales, it’s important that sales leaders understand what’s happening in the field. Smart Dispatching functionality as part of your contractor management software, enables sales managers to train field workers to ask the right questions, identify gaps in products and services, and upsell and renew onsite.
13. Identify patterns for forecasting
Managers should perform resource capacity planning and track data including jobs lost, jobs fulfilled, and first-visit completions. Software enables them to forecast personnel and inventory needs so that they don’t get caught in a last-minute bind, and they don’t over-invest in non-essential personnel and inventory. Accurate scheduling software simplifies and automates elements of forecasting.
14. Schedule preventative maintenance visits
One benefit of service level agreements (subscription model) is that it keeps techs consistently working. In conjunction with contractor management software, you can ensure that techs are not only working consistently but working to build the most profitable part of your business—maintenance contracts.
15. Make stronger human resource decisions
Smart Dispatching functionality provides the tools to evaluate tech performance to determine raises, bonuses, and promotions. By using skill tags, it also helps to identify areas of hiring need, so that you bring in techs with the right skills to complement your existing workforce.
The more you know about Smart Dispatching and other contractor management software tools, the more you realize these solutions are essential for competing in today’s marketplace. Everyone benefits with Smart Dispatching, from your field personnel and support team to your internal and external stakeholders.
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