Managing work orders effectively is an important aspect of delivering exceptional customer service. No customer likes delays in getting serviced, especially if it is an emergency case. Messing up work orders also makes your brand look unprofessional in front of your customers.
With field service management software, it is possible to remove manual labor and errors associated with it to improve work order management – read more to learn how.
What is work order management?
Work order management helps create a blueprint of various tasks that need to be done to complete daily operations and service customers.
For example, from the inventory department, new work orders can be created around the repair of equipment, ordering materials that are out of stock, assigning tools to field service technicians for a job, placing orders for equipment to vendors, etc.
How does using field service management software help manage work orders?
For a scaling field service business, the number of work orders will increase, leading to chaos and errors in executing them. Here’s how digitizing work order management operations help:
Digitize work order creation
This means – your teams and field service technicians can quickly access work orders created and track them on their own. There is a record for every work order created and executed – thus you have historical data to study your operational efficiency. FSM software also syncs the work order data across devices so that everyone is on the same page and receives real-time updates.
Automate scheduling and dispatching
Field service management software makes it possible to schedule the job by assigning it to the right field service technician. Using an AI algorithm, the software will consider the worker’s location, skills, customer feedback, expertise in handling the job, and more to dispatch the worker. It also handles reschedules and job updates without the manual intervention of your team.
Real-time communication
When you take any action on your work orders, the FSM software will notify relevant stakeholders of the job. This is especially helpful when assigning jobs coming from customers, where the assigned worker, manager, and the end customer are notified about any updates. This removes any end of constant emailing or phone calling to keep everyone in the loop.
Access across multiple devices
Good field service management software like Zuper provides you access to iOS or Android mobile FSM apps. Such capabilities facilitate remote work by helping your workers stay in sync about the job via mobile. They can access resources, and work order status, check protocols defined, update completed work, or raise disputes if required. It also provides GPS access to workers which will help them follow optimized routes for their assigned jobs.
Integrate with other software
Are you using specialized work order management software? Then ensure it includes third-party integration features so that you can share work order data with other apps in your business technology stack. If you’re using a full-stack field service management software like Zuper, it comes with 30+ integrations to remove data migration hassles. Such software centralizes business operations, providing visibility across the technology stack.
Analyze operations KPIs
Digitizing work order management helps you measure important KPIs that help understand your operational efficiency. This includes indicators like –
- Response time: how long does it take to get the work order details from the customer and dispatch the field service technician
- Work order backlog: how many unassigned jobs remain and the gap in workforce utilization.
- Profit per work order: how much your business earns per work order compared to costs associated with operating the complete service delivery work.
- Downtime for equipment: how many pieces of equipment or tools were on the bench or faced downtime when required.
- Customer churn rates: how many repeat orders you get from a single customer and their total lifetime value.
Analyzing the above and more KPIs will significantly help you optimize your operational workflows. It will help you train your employees, manage hiring/firing as required to adapt to market demand, or design protocols to streamline work.
Explore digitized work order management with FSM software
Zuper’s field service management software provides a complete ecosystem of features to capture job details, assign work, and track its completion in a single dashboard. Get the required visibility to your work order management – book a demo