The world of field service management is rapidly expanding with the industry expected to grow to $5.59 billion in 2023. The global market is currently being driven by mobile applications and wearables used by field workers.
So, what does this growing industry mean for organisations and their workforce and how does this software enable field technicians to carry out their jobs efficiently? In our latest blog, we take a look at how field service management can benefit technicians in their day to day role and the impact it has on organisations.
The Rise of the Field Service Worker
The amount of field technicians operating globally has currently reached the 20 million figure and is expected to grow significantly over years to come. Furthermore, according to Gartner over 75% of organisations expect to use mobile apps this year for technical projects. With the field service market expected to grow by 20% each year, there is without a doubt an increasing demand for this type of technology to be implemented amongst mobile workforces, ultimately enhancing field workers’ roles.
So, what impact do field service technicians have and how does field service management software benefit them?
Impact of Field Service Management
Field Service Management helps empower staff with information required to effectively deliver services. Not only are staff equipped with the correct tools to capture details at the point of service such as photos and signatures, but they can also retrieve customer and job information all from their mobile device.
As field service technicians are the customer facing point of contact, they need to be able to access information easily and efficiently. By implementing field service management technology, field technicians have instant access to job history, schedules, customer contact or material information from their mobile devices. This accessibility helps them effectively undertake their role, meet customer demand, remain compliant and improve work / life balance.
Furthermore, field service technicians can ensure a high standard of performance and service delivery is achieved. Office based staff can easily schedule and dispatch field-based engineers with the ability to monitor and improve performance and identify key trends in how field staff are performing from the data they generate.
Field Service Management solutions deliver a range of benefits that deliver a step change in performance, empowerment and control. With a more efficient field workforce, service delivery is completed more effectively, consistently and on a first-time basis, increasing your quality of service, and your service users’ satisfaction. Staff are empowered with the ability to capture information at the point of service. By reducing admin and travel time, they are empowered to deliver a more streamlined service. Furthermore, organisations can begin to spot trends gathered from field service data, enabling them to react quickly and prevent problems, before they even develop as well as adhering to compliance regulations. By driving improvements in performance, empowerment and control, organisations can start to experience significant benefits.
These are the outcomes from increased performance, empowerment and control:
- More time to complete jobs as technicians’ travel time (through route optimisation) and admin processes (reduction in paper processes) are greatly reduced. With access to their appointments on the go, staff no longer have to return back and forth to the office each day and so reducing associated costs and increasing their capacity.
- Empowers technicians with all the relevant information to hand which is easily accessible via their mobile device.
- Provides a consistent level of customer service and improved communication with mobile updates such as notifying whether the technician is on the way or delayed.
- Ensures compliance standards are met, not only providing evidence of work completed but providing the service user with a visual history of the work completed as well as reduces the error such as incorrect data entry and loss of files.
- Helps provide an improved work / life balance.
It’s evident that the Field Service technician plays a vital role in the delivery of field service management. Typically, field service technicians are at the heart of the field service management process as they are delivering the end service. So, how is your field service carrying out their appointments, are you empowering them with the correct tools to complete their job and improve efficiencies? Now is the time to instrument change in order to achieve the full benefits of an innovative field service management solution.
Infographic – Field Service Management – What it means for Field Service Technicians
