What is Field Service Management? A Beginner’s Guide
Running a home service business means dealing with many moving parts.
Between coordinating your office and field technicians, communicating with clients, and making sure you’re getting paid, field service operations can be a lot to manage.
Field service management is the solution to this problem, and you’ve come to the right place to learn all about it.
This article will answer “what is field service management” and tell you everything you need to know to strengthen your processes. Plus, discover the power of field service management software to push your business to the next level.
Field service management 101
Let’s start with the basics: What is field service management?
Put simply, field service management is the systems and processes you use to run your business. These processes may look different depending on the type of service business you run, but for home service businesses, field service management can help you:
- Keep customer information accurate and up to date
- Schedule jobs and dispatch your employees
- Track job progress
- Generate leads
- Communicate with clients and improve the customer experience
- Analyze data to find areas of improvement
What are the benefits of field service management?
No matter what type of home service business you’re running, you’re likely juggling several tasks at once at any point in the day. If you also consider the people, jobs, customers, and inventory you have to keep track of, it’s easy to get overwhelmed.
Field service management reduces your workload by streamlining tedious, repetitive tasks.
Other benefits of field service management include:
- Saves you time by automating your scheduling, invoicing, and more
- Boosts your field service organization with better processes
- Enhances your relationship with your customers by provided more personalized service
- Improves resource management by ensuring the right service technician is at the right place at the right time
- Helps you gain better insights into whether your service pricing is working for your business
There are several ways to go about field service management, but the most efficient way is to use field service management software.
What is field service management software?
Knowing the answer to “what is field service management” is the first step. Now you need to know how to implement it, and software is the answer.
Field service management software is a tool to help optimize your operations. The best software integrates several features to streamline your everyday tasks, reduce costs, and improve customer satisfaction.
Key workflows field service software can improve include:
- Client management
- Estimates and quotes
- Scheduling and dispatching
- GPS location tracking
- Invoicing
Let’s take a look at how field service management software can improve each of these workflows.
Client management
Client management is what keeps your business afloat—without your clients, you have no business.
Keeping client information detailed and up to date helps you provide top-notch customer service that will drive repeat business. The best way to do this is to keep it all in one place using CRM software.
Jobber’s CRM makes it easy to track all of your customer’s information from a central location, so that you can quickly and effectively deliver personalized service that makes every customer feel like they’re your number #1.
With Jobber, you can boost your client management by:
- Quickly finding job history to address client issues on the spot
- Viewing all past emails and text messages for transparent communication
- Tracking unique client information with custom fields
- Tagging clients as leads to manage them separately from active clients
Estimates and quotes
Your quotes have the power to turn a lead into a paying customer, but they can be tedious to create and take time away from other important tasks.
Field service management software can make generating estimates a breeze, so you can provide potential customers with pricing quickly and get started on the job sooner.
When you send quotes through Jobber, you give your new leads a taste of the quality of service they can expect from your business first-hand. Plus, they’re professionally designed and interactive, allowing customers to add on services with optional line items and approve the updated total.
Customers don’t always know what they want, but they know they want options.
That’s why Jobber’s optional line items are so important to us.
Scheduling and dispatching
When it comes to improving scheduling, automation is key. The best field service management software automates your scheduling to save time and get the job done sooner.
Jobber provides an at-a-glance view of your schedule so you can quickly assess the day and determine if any changes need to be made.
When you schedule a new service request, it’s automatically filled in with details from the request or quote. Simply assign an available field service worker to get it on their schedule. Make changes on the fly when needed, and they’ll receive a notification of any changes.
Online booking
Booking jobs is what keeps your business running. However, the constant coordination and communication between you and your customers can be time-consuming. Field service management software can simplify the process with online booking.
Jobber’s online booking empowers your customers by letting them book appointments with you online. Your customer feels in control, and you save time on back-and-forth calls or emails—it’s a win-win situation.
For the first time since starting my service company, I didn’t have to leave my office. Jobber was running, my crews were rolling, my customers were happy, and I was getting paid on time.
GPS location tracking
One of the key aspects of the field service industry is constantly being on the go. Your field workers are likely spending most of their day on the road, and time is of the essence. GPS location tracking provides peace of mind, allowing you to make sure that your crew is on schedule.
With Jobber, you can see your service technicians’ exact location on a map every time they clock in and out, complete a visit, or add a note or attachment. This fleet management feature allows you to better track your field team’s productivity and respond to emergency situations quickly.
Invoicing
Knowing how to write an invoice is a crucial element of any field service operation. However, creating invoices can be tedious and time-consuming.
Field service invoicing software speeds up the process so you get your invoices to your customers sooner for quicker payment.
Jobber makes invoicing flexible to benefit both you and your customer. Convert your quotes to invoices in just one click, and send it to your customer over text or email.
Plus, the flexibility continues with payments—get paid faster by accepting online payments.
Other benefits of Jobber’s field service invoicing software include:
- Create professional invoices customized with your company branding
- Quickly check the status of your invoices with one glance
- Automatically send customized follow-up reminders for unpaid invoices
Why is field service management important?
Field service management is important for ensuring your day-to-day operations are organized and run smoothly. That way, you reduce the risk of something slipping through the cracks.
When your field service team is organized, you improve your operational efficiency and provide better customer service. Leaving this positive impression on customers will keep them coming back, improving your bottom line.
Frequently Asked Questions
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When choosing a field service management solution, be sure to keep these factors in mind:
1. Features: No two solutions are the same. It’s important to choose field service software with features that align with your business operations.
2. Ease of use: You don’t want to spend weeks learning a new system. Make sure to choose a solution that is intuitive and simple.
3. Pricing: Your budget may determine the field service solution that works best for your business. -
Field service management software is a solution that automates your workflows to streamline your business processes.
Choosing the right FSM solution is a unique experience that depends on your business needs. Determine the problems that your business is facing, and look for a software solution with features to fix those problems. -
The best field service management software should include the following features:
– Customer management: Gain a 360 view of your customers with all of their information in one place.
– Real-time tracking: GPS tracking lets you keep track of job progress to keep your customers up-to-date.
– Mobile access: Make sure that the solution you choose provides your field team with mobile access, as these days, it’s impossible to run a field service business without a mobile app.
– Scheduling and dispatching: Your field service management software should automate your scheduling to make it a breeze.