Have you Integrated Automation into your Field Operations?
Is your business still banking on spreadsheets or pen-paper for managing field operational data like job schedules, inventory logs, service quotes, customer portfolios, and service records? This means you are still practicing the manual methods.
However, shifting to automation-enabled solutions can enhance the efficiency of your field workforce by many folds, which will eventually enhance your business's service delivery efficiency. What is restricting you from shifting to automation? Usually, budget limitations and an awareness of the available solutions are two main restricting reasons.
Taking the cue, this article explains how HVAC service software enables you to integrate automation in different processes related to field operations.
What is HVAC Service Software?
It is a field service management software. It is not a replacement for your trained salespeople or field technicians, rather it is a tech-enabled support system for them. It replaces the traditional ways of doing repetitive tasks manually.
Primarily, these are designed to offer improved mobility to your field team so that they can perform their jobs a smarter, error-free, and customer-centric way, that too within the estimated time frame.
How an HVAC Software Support Field Operations and Services
Customer-centric Tasks Scheduling: An HVAC software automates task-allocation by considering filters like field agent's availability on a particular date or time, his skill sets, his service history with the same client, his past experience, his proximity to the job location, etc.
All these ensure quick turnaround and satisfactory customer experience, as the job automatically gets assigned to the aptest, rightly skilled, and nearest available field technician.
If it is a service request from an existing client, the manager can check the service records using the app, and may choose to repeat the technician, if the customer was happy with the last service, or may choo positive use to avoid that technician if the records say that last time the customer didn't give positive feedback for the technician. So, this way, the software facilitates customer-centric job scheduling.
Also, by facilitating appropriate scheduling, where in the field technicians don’t get assigned for jobs at far-off locations, the software is effective in saving too many productive hours, that usually get wasted on traveling.
Job-status updates: How your service manager would make accurate commitments to your customers if don't have proper field visibility. Without knowing which technician is at which location, and when he is likely to finish his job, what are dead stocks in inventory, how the manager will manage the workflow?
Thus, for successful on-time service delivery each and every time, it is important to empower your service manager with tools through which he can track the field activities on a real-time basis.
HVAC estimating software can be that necessary tool, as it tracks the live locations of the field technicians. Also, it functions as a collaborative tool, through which technicians can share their current job status, requirement, doubts, and everything on a real-time basis. So that immediate support can be provided to speed-up the service delivery.
Knowledge repositories: Lack of access to information at the time of need is one of the biggest obstacles that slow down the service. If the field technician needs any information and he is dependent on others for that, then certainly it will hamper his productivity.
HVAC service software is a cloud-based platform, wherein all the data related to business, such as client service records, equipment information, service quotations, service contracts and agreements, troubleshooting guides, case references, etc, can be stored and accessed on a real-time basis.
So, the field technicians are not dependent on others for information. they just need valid access permission and from anywhere and anytime, they can access the information they need.