How to Get Started with Field Technician Software

If your commercial service business isn’t using SaaS yet to create efficiency and improve operations, you’re likely missing out on growth and customer service opportunities. The right field technician software—or field service management software—can transform your business by making things easier for everyone, especially your customers.

And these days, you can get enterprise-level software at a small business price.

If you’re new to the world of field technician software, or you’ve been burned by the wrong field technician software, you may not know where to even begin or what to look for. Don’t worry—before you start reaping bottom-line benefits of SaaS for your business, there are a few things you can do to make the transition easy.

To get started, you’ll need to:

• • Get technician buy-in by touting the benefits
  • Make training a top priority
  • Choose the right field management software

 

Let’s start with how you get your team to understand why field technician software is more tempting than a cinnamon roll.

Tout Field Technician Software to Get Buy-In

Nobody likes change, even when it’s a change for the better. There are plenty of people who continue to work inefficiently or use processes that no longer really serve the business, just because that’s how they’ve always done it. (Don’t be one of those people.)

The status quo can truly be your worst enemy when it comes to field service management. Your team of technicians and your office staff may be comfortable with how things are now and might not trust something new and shiny—especially if you’ve tried to implement software before and it didn’t go well. It happens all the time, and it happens to everyone.

 

Show them how much easier their work lives can be.

Showing is knowing. The best way to get team buy-in is by actually showing them how much easier their lives can be with SaaS.

The best place to start is with the technician application. The right technician app will empower both office and field staff with more up-to-date and accurate customer information. Communication between everyone, including the customer, will be much more transparent and efficient.

When your staff realizes that the right app lets them view all jobs and estimates to easily shift times and dates, that might be all you need for buy-in. For operations managers, once they find out there’s technology that empowers them to send job information to field workers through a call or text without ever switching programs, they’ll never want to continue using multiple programs or apps just to communicate.

With the right SaaS, your team will be also able to:

• • Receive job and estimate assignments
  • See all assigned jobs on one map
  • View equipment assigned to a job
  • Access a job’s work history
  • Set job progress statuses
  • Make notes, add photos, create custom tasks
  • Collect customer signatures on jobs

Close the service window.

This type of clear communication also helps close that dreaded service window. The right SaaS will make field techs more efficient and, more importantly, reduce their stress so they can focus on the work.

Why not run your business from anywhere? Find out how with our new guide on improving your service business inefficiencies.

Make Field Technician Software Training a Top Priority

Most software solutions these days are built to be intuitive, but that doesn’t mean there’s no learning curve. Even when someone is discovering how to do something in an easier way, they still need to learn.

Provide onboarding and ongoing training.

The smartest first step is to choose a field technician software solution that provides comprehensive onboarding. This way, you can get top training from the folks who know the software the best. They’ll not just help you with getting everything set up to use, they’ll help you learn how to use it.

Beyond that, be encouraging and rewarding. Be prepared to backup onboarding with ongoing training that works for your team.

Emphasize intuitive solutions and efficiency.

If your field team is already adept at remote communication, the transition could be easier than you think. Most field service management software is as intuitive as smartphones and other smart technology. If your technicians are already comfortable with mobile apps, they’ll likely learn quickly how convenient field technician software can be.

What’s really going to motivate your team is how efficient they’ll be, which translates into less stress and more savings.

But before any of this can happen, you have to choose the right software.

Choose the Right Field Technician Software

Telling you to choose the right software may seem a little “duh,” but you must really get to know software before you buy it. If it doesn’t have the features your business needs, what’s the point? It’s just wasting money on a tool you have to work around.

Look for key field technician software features.

Think of what is important to your business operations. For starters, you want to look for a software solution that provides things like:

• • Intuitive scheduling and dispatching with an easy drag-and-drop grid
  • Customer management that simplifies data and keeps it all in one place
  • GPS fleet tracking so you can always find your team, no matter where they are in the field
  • Text message notifications that encourage clearer communication between customers and technicians

• • Call tracking that lets field workers receive and manage jobs on smartphones and tablets
  • Time tracking and payroll reports, so you can monitor every part of your business, including your remote workers

Make sure you make the best choice for your business. Take a deeper dive by checking out this informative e-book that should answer any questions you have left about field technician software: How Field Service Management Helps Your Business Grow.