7 Ways Field Service Scheduling Can Help Your Team

Putting processes — and the right technology — in place to schedule and manage field services provides several benefits for your team. From enhanced customer service to better morale across the workforce, here are seven reasons to invest in field service scheduling solutions today.

1. Ensures Work Is Covered

At its most basic, field service scheduling aims to ensure that work is being done in a timely and appropriate manner. However, it also offers numerous benefits to your employees, including:

• Knowing what they’re dealing with on a daily or weekly basis, which lets them plan ahead for work and their own lives
• Not having to rush to cover work that slipped through the cracks
• Fewer upset clients because they’re receiving services in a professional and timely fashion

Any time you can use technology and processes to optimize customer service, you make the job easier overall for your entire staff while likely increasing important metrics, such as revenue, client retention, and positive word of mouth.

2. Reduces the Stress Related to Overworking or Hectic Schedules

Obviously, you have some plan in place for scheduling field service work, but if it’s not a comprehensive and data-backed plan fostered by technology, then it might not be working out well daily. When service calls go off the rails or you don’t have a solid plan for dealing with scheduling, you can easily put more strain on your staff.

Poor field service scheduling can result in:

• Employees working overtime on a regular basis to cover customer needs
• Techs and reps feeling as if they’re never quite in control of their work and that someone else’s problems or mistakes are always being dropped into their laps
• Staff missing out on their own plans, such as dinner with the family or a child’s recital because they’re working late

These are all issues that can lead to poor work morale and even burnout. That’s bad for your team and business because it takes time and a lot of resources to hire and train new employees.

3. Makes Mistakes and Rework Less Likely

Even if you hire workers who hold their heads high through the hustle and don’t burn out because the schedule is constantly packed, rushing teams from job to job can have other unwanted consequences. The fact is that even seasoned workers can’t keep quality up when the workload is too great or unorganized.

When work is scheduled properly, ensuring the right techs and resources arrive with enough time to get the job done right, staff don’t have to rush to rework someone else’s errors or risk letting clients down. The end result is more praise and less complaints from clients, which is always good for overall morale.

4. Lets You Plan for the Unplanned

The right field service scheduling tools let you run forecast models to staff up and schedule ahead of the game. This makes it much easier to deal with any bumps along the customer service road, helping you to gain control of these processes when managing your reps and techs. It helps build trust across the team and lets your employees know that you’re a leader with a plan and vision that you — and they — are capable of carrying out with success.

5. Makes Vacations and Other Time Off More Workable

When you have a plan, you’re able to think about more than the next customer need. You can engage in strong PTO processes, moving fluidly to cover schedule changes when someone is sick or has an emergency, and ensure that everyone on your team can make the best use of their vacation time.

6. Supports Training, Mentoring and Upper Movement

Solid scheduling processes let you support employee growth through several initiatives that you might not have had the time or resources for otherwise. When everyone is scrambling to get the next job handled, no one is really thinking about or planning for the future. That’s bad for your team and your company.

Intelligent scheduling lets you do various things, such as:

• Leave room for regular meetings and staff training, making certain that everyone is on the same page and up-to-date with company-wide policies and the integration of new processes or products
• Provide time for individual team members to engage in additional training, such as certification programs with manufacturers or attending valuable conferences and workshops, which imparts knowledge that can be brought home to share with the rest of your staff
• Partner techs appropriately to foster mentoring and cross training
• Make sure everyone gets well-rounded experience with a range of job and client types as well as different products

When you can ensure a team member gets experience with installation and maintenance, works on troubleshooting with knowledgeable staff, and has time to work on career goals, you create a better work environment, making it more likely that employees stay with your company.

7. Creates a More Comprehensive Team Culture

All the benefits of field service scheduling build up to a single important advantage: a holistic and positive team culture. This makes work more enjoyable and satisfactory, as well as ensuring employees have options for upward movement in their careers. It benefits your company because it positions you as a competitive employer, even if you can’t afford to pay the same rates as other businesses in your area. For years, numerous experts and studies have noted that culture is more important than pay when it comes to employee satisfaction.

If you invest in the right tools, such as Visual Planning’s field service scheduling software, you can make data-backed decisions that drive up revenue so you can offer both a positive culture and higher pay.