10 Tips to Optimize Efficiency in the Field Service Industry
The field service industry is ripe with opportunities to optimize efficiency and service delivery. Failure to identify deficiencies can lead to...
In field operations, team management, sometimes called operations management, is especially important. The goal, to maximize service levels while controlling and reducing costs, is complex. Coordinating the activities of personnel who are physically distant from each other involves coping with a range of timing issues and communication problems that are not present with in-house staff. The solutions to these problems have been honed through years of blended workforce management experience. Try these options to better manage the workforce.
Many organizations are evolving into blended workforce operations as they move away from nine-to-five employees. Field staff is characteristically either remote solitary employees or small teams relying on their own initiative and company-provided mobile tools and information to solve the problems they are tasked to complete.
Control over productivity level and time to completion are more difficult than it would be for direct staff. Asset or fleet management software records vehicle activity in real-time, allowing supervisors to directly determine the start and stop times at each field staff location, the number of locations visited, idle time, and any moving violations.
Company identity and brand identity are more difficult among remote staff. Yet maintaining company identification becomes very important for maintaining engagement and the way customers perceive the organization. Identifying uniforms, insignia, and badges have become very relevant. Standardizing procedures to represent the company methodology requires increased training and supervision. Standard billing and report entry forms strengthen field staff identification with the core company and its brand.
Mobile workers change the dynamics of management. No longer can managers dictate and obsess about the day-to-day activity of their employees. The supervisory information operations managers have is often limited to indirect metrics. Regular on-site contacts are necessary to maintain the allegiance of employees to a core company location. Managers must regularly and openly reinforce company goals and values through face-to-face contact.
In order to be useful, operations management software has to fulfill two fundamental needs of field workers. Software for operations management has to be fully mobile. The software has to integrate its database modules with its communications module. Therefore, the software must:
Learn how your business can join the digital transformation.
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