19 Benefits of Field Service Management Software You Never Thought of

“Get the right engineer, to the right place, at the right time with the right parts and we will be successful.”

The theory sounds good, but in practice, field service engineers only spend 25% of their time on engineering tasks. From chasing parts to completing paperwork or getting sent to a job they can’t complete, skilled engineers are wasting time every day – and it’s costing you big time.

But it doesn’t have to be this way.

With field service management (FSM) software you can streamline processes and deliver superior customer experiences, because you can manage your customers, engineers, and equipment in one platform.

Yet despite the benefits on offer, less than half (48%) of field service organisations use FSM software.

If you’re yet to invest, we’ve got 19 reasons that will change your mind.

Cost and Efficiency Benefits

Customers want the best quality at the best prices. Deliver that and they’re yours for life. With FSM software, your business can achieve first-class efficiency levels, which puts you in the position to retain and grow your customer base – regardless of the challenges that are thrown your way.

1. Cut Operating Costs and Reduce Wastage

Field service management software is designed to help you get the most out of your people and resources. The tool works by mapping out a route for each engineer, which allows them to complete the maximum number of appointments in the time available, while covering the shortest distance. 

In London, 139 hours are lost per vehicle per year because appointments are scheduled during rush hour. By taking this into consideration, FSM software can reduce travel times to get your engineers to more appointments, as well as saving on fuel costs and reducing CO2 emissions.

2. Eliminate Duplicate Entries and Reduce Manual Data Entry

Field service management software isn’t just about getting engineers to appointments, it’s also about helping them to do their job more efficiently. 

Nearly three-quarters (73%) of personnel who are responsible for scheduling jobs, such as field service coordinators, service schedulers and field operations planners, complain about spending too much of their day-to-day job on paperwork. By automating manual tasks, including scheduling appointments, tracking technician productivity, and generating reports, FSM software will save you significant time and money. For PAT Test UK, this equated to an annual saving of £25,000 on typing reports alone. 

3. Minimise Errors and Improve Work Accuracy

This brings us nicely to point 3. In addition to saving your engineers time, automation will reduce the potential for human error. Imagine what one of your jobs looks like end-to-end. Even a small oversight, like failing to get a signature on some paperwork, can have a knock-on effect for the whole business. 

Field service management software eliminates this risk because it creates standard operating procedures (SOPs) for each task. These SOPs ensure every engineer completes a task in the same way every time, prompting them to complete certain actions so nothing is overlooked. As a result, every job is completed to the highest standard, and you have an audit trail for every appointment.  

Operational Improvements

Every year, Service Geeni helps field service organisations like yours to manage 620,000 jobs. And the things our customers value most? How it makes a difference to the financial strength of their operations, eliminates bottlenecks, provides greater control, and allows them to handle more jobs without needing to employ more staff.

4. Optimise Scheduling and Dispatching

One of the most important benefits of field service management software is to optimise job scheduling, so it’s essential that you find a tool that does this in the most effective way.

In one industry survey, job scheduling was voted as the second biggest challenge for field service professionals (behind finding new business). With field service management software, job scheduling becomes a breeze because it ensures the right technician is at the right place and the right time, every time.

At the start of each day, work is scheduled based on the job, geographical area, priority and customer. When work needs to be rescheduled it’s a simple drag and drop, which prevents double booking or overlapping appointments. And when an urgent job comes in, it’s easy to select the right engineer based on their skillset and current location, which will boost your first-time fix rate. 

5. Access Vital Information Anytime, Anywhere

Can you imagine your engineers turning up onsite and not knowing where to start? It’s more common than you think. A quarter of engineers feel their company doesn’t make it easy for them to find the information needed to resolve service inquiries, while 4 in 5 say they need more technical knowledge to perform their job.

With field service management software your engineers instantly have access to all the information they need, including service history, service check sheet, risk assessment, parts history, and previous engineer’s notes. Additionally, because the tool offers a central repository for all customer data, they can also access SLAs, warranties, contracts, and payment history.

6. Boost Productivity and Efficiency for Field Teams

It’s not just knowledge engineers need, to fix an issue they need parts too. Again, your field service management tool has your back because it connects to your inventory. From checking the stock inventory in real-time to ordering parts on the job, placing automatic orders for low stock items and tracking items between locations/jobs, your FSM software ensures your engineers always have the right parts to hand.

7. Automate Workflows with Integrated Processes

Imagine how much simpler life would be if all your systems joined together to create a single master system. That’s exactly what field service management software does. Through different types of integrations you can connect your current ERP, accounting packages, CRM system and other applications. 

By connecting the dots you create a seamless workflow where data moves between systems and triggers the next action in the chain. For example, once a job is completed in your FSM tool, it triggers an invoice to be automatically raised in your accounting software. Once checked and sent to the client, it’s added to their record in your CRM system.

As well as reducing your admin burden, it also creates a real-time view of your organisation. This provides leaders with complete visibility of profitability across every contract and customer for more accurate reporting.

Collaboration and Communication

Ultimately, your business lives or dies by its reputation. According to Deloitte, nearly 9 in 10 (87%) executives rate reputational risk as more important than any other strategic risk, because it can lead to a loss of revenue, brand value and regulatory investigation. 

The easiest way to earn a bad reputation? Upset customers.

Field service management software will help you mitigate this risk through the simple act of better communication to make sure your customers are always in the loop.

8. Enhance Team Collaboration with Built-in Messaging

A mobile app is essential for engineers out in the field because it keeps them connected to the office. Rather than rely on reams of paperwork, or find themselves in a game of phone tennis,  everything can be done through their smartphone or tablet. For example, in addition to accessing technical information, previous job history, and ordering parts, field engineers can be assigned and dispatched to new jobs, clock in/out of jobs and update the status, so everyone is always working from the same page.

9. Keep Customers Informed in Real Time

Mobile apps also offer a second key benefit: communication. Good communication goes a long way with customers, yet it’s the third biggest challenge for field service professionals (behind finding new business and job scheduling).

With your field service management software accessible by engineers on their smartphones, you always know their current location and job status. Therefore, if a customer calls up, you can give them an accurate update and set realistic expectations about when they can be expected onsite. 

10. Track and Handle Service Requests With Ease

In addition to real time updates, a tool like Service Geeni allows customers to self-serve – to raise jobs within the tool and monitor their status. The customer portal also provides customer report building, so you can deliver information that is important to each customer. The whole process is transparent end-to-end so customers remain informed, which can make all the difference when it comes to customer satisfaction. 

Customer-Focused Benefits

Nearly 5,000 users trust Service Geeni to make it easy to manage their customers, engineers, and equipment – all in one platform – because it has a massive impact on their business. As one service manager said, “Customer service is enhanced, bottlenecks are eliminated. We have grown and are comfortably handling more business without the need to employ more staff. Sales have increased by 86%.” 

11. Deliver a Superior Customer Experience

Over two-fifths (42%) of organisations with field service engineers believe the biggest benefit field service management software delivers is customer retention. 

Research found the top 20% of service-related businesses have first time fix rates (FTFR) of 88%, with those considered as best in class achieving a FTFRs of +98%. The bottom 30% of companies have first-time fix rates of 63% or less. FTFRs are affected by several factors, including parts availability and technicians who lack the right skills. Able to send the right engineer, to the right place, at the right time with the right parts, you increase FTFR, which makes customers really happy.

12. Transition From Reactive to Proactive Maintenance

Field service engineers are typically dealing with a lot of moving parts, which becomes a logistical nightmare when it comes to keeping every asset in full working order. As the Assistant Maintenance Manager at Clarks said, “If we don’t have equipment running, we don’t make profit.”

Here, field service management software helps you keep a complete inventory of your equipment and assets, so you know what you have, where it is, and what condition it’s in. It will also remind you when services are due, what parts will need replacing, and predict what resource is required.

However, rather than plan your maintenance schedule around time, for example, servicing forklifts every 12 months, it schedules based on usage. This means equipment that is used more frequently is serviced more often – before it has a chance to unexpectedly breakdown.

13. Reduce Downtime and Maximise Equipment Uptime

Sticking with the theme of proactive maintenance, field service management software will help you to master unplanned downtime. This helps you to avoid the financial impact of reduced capacity, idle operators, lost revenues, and dissatisfied customers. 

On average businesses experience more than 800 hours of equipment downtime per year – that’s more than 15 hours per week. Also downtime takes up 1%-10% of available capacity and these non-productive hours can’t be recovered.

Strategic Advantages

The global field service management market is valued at $4.43 billion and expected to grow with a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 13.3% until 2030. It’s a highly competitive market. If you want to stay ahead, field service management software gives you all the tools you need to stand out in a crowded market.

14. Better Data Management for Smarter Decisions

Your data holds the key to addressing endless business challenges. Yet a third of field service leaders struggle to pull reports and analyse data to help them understand their organisational performance – and we’ve had several conversations with organisations who simply don’t trust the accuracy of their data. 

The business intelligence offered through your field service management software will make your life easier. From organising data to real-time reporting with actionable insights, big data analysis to reveal trends, and visual data representation to make decision making easier. 

15. Identify Upsell and Cross-Sell Opportunities

Of course, with better access to accurate data insights, you can identify new opportunities to better meet your customers’ requirements. For example:

Upselling: a customer may already use a piece of equipment, but it lacks specific functionality they need, so you can offer them a better alternative.

Cross-selling: you may identify a complementary product that will enable a customer to achieve their goals, such as a pallet jack as well as a pallet truck.

Within the tool, there are several options to help engineers boost your revenue potential. For example, creating quotes that include different add on options, access to equipment usage data for more accurate billing, and insights into equipment that is nearing its end of life and will need upgrading.

16. Streamline Contract Compliance and Management

Over two fifths (44%) of field service engineers believe the biggest benefit of field service management software is better performance against their service level agreements (SLAs). If you can capture information accurately and quickly at the right time, you can reduce admin, eradicate duplication, and start to build up useful data for decision making.

FSM software tracks your current contracts to make renewals pain-free. It also helps you to track key metrics like response time, resolution time, and uptime guarantees in real-time to show your SLA compliance. And in the case of a dispute, it will automatically generate reports to demonstrate compliance with contractual agreements.

17. Improve Cash Flow with Faster Invoicing

Effortless invoicing. Sounds great, doesn’t it? Well, your field service management software is going to speed up your invoicing process and reduce your admin burden. Just as we highlighted previously, your FSM tool can integrate with your finance systems to trigger the invoicing process once a job is marked as complete. But it’s really smart, so it allows you to apply special rates to specific customers and calculates timesheets and parts against a job, as well as create batch invoices or contract invoices for regular invoicing schedules.

All you need to do is check and send.

18. Easily Scale Your Operations

Above all else, field service management software gives you structure to ensure your information is easily accessible and your knowledge stays in the business. As your business grows, your FSM software is what enables your operations to scale with ease. 

For example, when Arden Construction found itself taking on more complex projects, the paper-based systems became a major headache – as well as placing a critical contract at risk. By investing in Service Geeni, the company not only retained one of its biggest clients, it improved efficiency, improved operations for both engineers and office staff, and ensured they got paid quickly.

19. Drive Profitability with Streamlined Processes

Finally, field service management software is going to ensure your business operates with a fine-tuned engine. As CSM Services commented:

“We chose Service Geeni to improve our processes and efficiency so that when we receive job requests, we can respond promptly and assign the right engineer to the job. Once a job is marked completed on site it can then go straight off for invoicing. This helps us to provide a better service to our customers, we’re improving efficiency by completing more jobs and getting paid quicker, because Service Geeni also integrates with Sage.

“As we continue to use Service Geeni and the data in the software grows and our teams become more efficient we know that results are only going to get better and better.”

You may also be interested in… 

• What is Field Service Management Software?
• Key Features of Field Service Management Software
• What to look for in a Field Service Management Tool as a Hire Company
• How to Reduce Paperwork with Field Service Management Software
• How Field Service Management Tools Can Help You Increase First Time Fix Rates
• How to Choose a Field Service Management Tool