Is there an area of your security business that just seems to leak time and money?
It may be a few hours lost here, a late appointment there, a scheduling error somewhere else–but these small inefficiencies can add up to a gaping black hole of lost productivity.
If your field operations aren’t running smoothly and swiftly, you can be sure they are holding back your business growth. Think about this: what does it really cost you when…
- You can’t field service requests in time, or are frequently delayed getting technicians from one place to the next?
- Your on-the-ground team constantly calls or comes back to the office because they can’t get the information they need when they’re out in the field with customers?
- Your scheduling process is clunky and confusing–who’s available when and where? Who knows!
- You’ve got a stack of paperwork orders cluttering your desk–or worse, your technician’s dashboard.
You can add up the hours lost, the profits unearned, or the customer trust squandered–but that’s going to take time, and if your operations are inefficient to begin with, you probably don’t have much of it.
A better bet would be to methodically improve your field operations, one step at a time, and watch as the improvements start stacking up. A little effort right now can lead to big wins down the road, including:
- Satisfied customers who are happy to keep doing business with you–and better yet, will rate, review, and refer you to others!
- Well-informed technicians and sales reps who can quickly pull up the info they need to advise and even upsell customers on new services.
- More time in the day to field service requests, connect with new customers, and devote to your business growth.
But field operations have many moving parts–scheduling, estimating, service and repairs, installation, transportation logistics, recordkeeping, and more. With so many variables, where do you even begin to make improvements?
Not to worry–we’ve got you covered. Let’s start at the very beginning and work our way through the entire process.
And because we could all use more time in the day, here’s the great news: there’s only one tip to follow. That’s it. Do this one thing right, and you’ll get multiple returns. If only everything in life were so easy…
Our #1 tip for field operations efficiency: trade the paperwork for power work
Work orders, invoices, client contracts and service agreements–they’re all there somewhere, right? Check your filing cabinet. No, your desk. Actually, not that pile…the other one. Wait, what was that piece of paper that just floated by on the breeze? Maybe what you’re looking for is actually in the field technician’s van, on the dashboard or the passenger seat or their clipboard or in their pocket or…ah, forget it. If you only had a magic wand you could wave to make it all disappear…
But wait, you do! Except it’s even better than magic: it’s smart technology. A streamlined software solution like the one we developed specifically for security professionals, Managely®, can make all those piles disappear, no abracadabra needed.
Not only can the right software make your paper problems vanish, it can step in and do everything your five other systems–plus all those Word files and Excel sheets and accounting solutions and emails–can do.
Switching to a single, unified business management software can make your field operations faster and more efficient. It also makes your entire business processes feel remarkably pleasant and light: no more dead weight from all those systems and solutions that were jostling for screen space or trampling over one another’s tabs.
When it comes to improving field operations, swapping out the paper stack for a great software stack brings countless benefits. As if by magic, you’re suddenly able to…
- Respond immediately to customer service requests, easily creating a digital work order and assigning it to available technicians. You can even notify them of requests and add them to their schedule when they’re already out in the field. For example, making your software accessible on mobile devices with an integrated field service management mobile app like Sedona-X Mobile means that everyone has a way to check in on important updates on the go.
- Effortlessly schedule your technicians’ workflow, see who is doing what and where, and accurately track their time in the field. The right field service management mobile app, connected to your business management software solution, can also help with task management, calendar and appointment management, work order management, and even payment processing.
- Automatically track work progress and completed work orders, transforming them into invoices. Once your technician visits a customer and marks the work order as “complete,” your software can automatically generate an invoice and email it to the customer. Better yet–it can give the customer the option to pay it online, whether via credit card or bank transfer, right then and there.
- Automate the things that used to slip through the cracks. Once a work order is marked as “complete,” you could trigger all sorts of processes beyond just sending an invoice. Think of all those “nice to haves” you didn’t actually have time for before: this is where they come in. For example, you could automatically send a follow-up email to customers, asking them to rate or review the quality of the service they received or even to refer you to a friend. You can also make sure invoices don’t fall through the cracks by sending automated payment reminders after a set time period. You don’t need to worry about the basics when your software’s got you covered.
- Give your team the context they need when they’re talking to customers. Cloud-based solutions like Managely® and Sedona-X Mobile let your technicians or sales team pull up important customer information, from past work history completed to equipment installed, service levels, technical specifications, product details, and warranty information–right on their phone or digital device. They don’t have to drag an actual stack of paperwork around when they have access to absolutely everything in their pocket. And with a mobile app that can process payments via a Bluetooth credit card reader, your people can handle the job from start to finish while still on site–no need to create and send invoices later on.
- Generate more profit by using your team’s time efficiently. If every visit to a new or existing customer has the potential to generate profit, you should be maximizing the number of appointments you can schedule in a week. If your employees can access their schedule and look up important customer information in the field, they don’t have to waste time driving back and forth to the office for key information.
- Show customers that you respect their time. The beauty of streamlined scheduling is that it can help you accurately plan for and assign jobs, optimize for efficient transportation routes, and even let customers know when a technician will be showing up at their door. Providing an accurate ETA shows customers that you care about their time, and allows them to plan their day accordingly.
- Simplify recordkeeping. If everyone on your team can access customer data at any time, from anywhere, that means they can also update it at any time, from anywhere. No more recordkeeping logjams for you! Technicians, for instance, can log into your centralized, cloud-based software platform to mark a work order complete, add notes about the visit, and update customer information right from the field. And because privacy and data protection are important, you can set up your system to give everyone exactly the level of access they need to do their jobs well.
- Track and learn from valuable data. The more you know about how your team spends their time in the field, the better you can tweak your processes and make improvements. For example, you can track your response time to customer requests, the percentage of issues resolved on the first visit, service duration, how efficiently each technician is using their time, and how happy your customers are with their service. You can even hone in on your most profitable customers to determine how you can prioritize those relationships or add value with complementary services.
The next step
The right technology can bring massive efficiency gains almost immediately, as you streamline how you assign, manage, and follow up on jobs in the field.
And once you realize those gains, you can look at other aspects of your operations to find new opportunities for improvement. There’s nothing like a big win in one area to inspire you to look at other things you could be doing better.
But let’s set you up for the biggest wins first: by getting the right technology into your hands. If you’re curious about how Managely® and Sedona-X Mobile can streamline your field operations, please get in touch! We would love to show you a demo and talk about how it can transform the way you do business.