What Makes a Best-in-Class Field Service Fleet?

Fleet management in the field services industries is in a new era where data and technology is critical to success, streamlining and accelerating tasks from scheduling to invoicing to vehicle maintenance. According to Field Technologies, what truly sets apart the novice business to an advanced on is the ability to move from reactive to proactive in all areas.

“In the case of most businesses, clients and sales are the wind which cause the service organization to be in a constant reactive state. This continual mode of reacting creates turmoil[,] and doesn’t allow the organization to look beyond its immediate customer support offerings and deliver proactive and predictive services.”

Key visibility to power decisions

Technology plays a key role in getting field service business to a point where you’re planning ahead rather than constantly putting out fires. Helping your field service business go digital means the ability to do more with what you have by improving efficiency and the ability to be more nimble in response to last-minute requests and changes with quicker access to employee and job data.

Field service management software eliminates the need to make multiple phone call to learn workers’ locations or to get updates on jobs, which means you’re able to optimize scheduling and deployment based on near-real time data for vastly improved productivity. Improved efficiency and organization with technology can also means saving time on manual paperwork, which can save you on costs as well.

Agility when it matters most

Scheduling can be a frustrating task, especially when employees call in sick or late or when a customer calls with an urgent need. In the case of an emergency job, you’re also competing with other businesses who have the ability to meet that need immediately.

Equipping dispatchers with a dashboard that allows them to see what’s on each worker’s schedule, easily move things around, and quickly communicate these changes to workers means you can make the most of your workers’ days, which means more money in their pockets. Saved time and more money keeps everyone busy and happy, especially when you’re beating out the competition.

Job data in one place

Digitizing work orders as well as customer and job data makes the customer’s experience smoother, the worker’s job easier, and even lightens office staff’s workload. Should questions arise at a later time about a specific job, historical job data can be pulled much more easily and quickly than digging through paper files as well.

Another added bonus to keeping all this data in one place is that you are no longer waiting for invoices to sent and, therefore, payments to be made. Streamlined billing means providing the kind of service your customers are accustomed to in today’s environment in a way that’s also easy for your workers.

Technology is the new standard

As the “the main contributors to a country’s gross domestic product (GDP),” again according to Field Technologies, it’s more important than ever to focus on how to get ahead of the grid instead of simply trying to keep up. Installing fleet management systems is one way companies are working to ensure their own sustainability.

In Verizon Connect’s most recent Fleet Connections Report, field service businesses with field management solutions show a growth of 5.1% versus a decline of 4.9% for those without it, a 10% difference in growth rate. A report from the leading IoT market research provider Berg Insight, the number of active fleet management systems deployed in commercial vehicle fleets in North America was 8.0 million in Q4-2017 and is expected to reach 22 million units by 2022.

The big payoff

Results of this report shows that the investment is paying off for field service business who use the technology to

• Leverage the software for enhanced connectivity with customers and visibility among staff
• Achieve improved operational efficiencies as a result of data-based gains
• Improve driver behavior based on technology monitoring capabilities

The results of a survey of field service companies conducted by Verizon Connect and Bobit Business Media, published in the 2018 Verizon Connect Fleet Technology Trends Report, showed that 74% of respondents call GPS fleet management systems “extremely” or “very” beneficial. In fact, 38% realized a positive ROI in less than a year.

According to participants in the Verizon survey, the percentage of fleets reporting achieving the following benefits were:

• 52% improved customer service
• 49% improved productivity
• 48% improved routing
• 40% improved vehicle maintenance
• 38% ELD/regulatory compliance
• 34% decrease in fuel consumption
• 22% decrease in accidents
• 12% decrease in labor costs

In Verizon Connect’s most recent Fleet Connections Report, field service businesses with field management solutions show a growth of 5.1% versus a decline of 4.9% for those without it, a 10% difference in growth rate.

The secret to sustainability

In an environment where turnover and competition are high and profitability can be low despite the feeling that working harder than ever, exceeding the expectations of your employees and customers while cutting down on your costs and time are essential to maintaining your business. Field service management keeps you connected to your employees wherever they are located and in the process of a job, making sure they have what they need to provide an excellent experience to the customer. And as you start collecting more and more data with technology, it’s going to be important to be able to understand that data and put those insights into action immediately.

Finding a field service management solution that offers ways to truly reduce the burden of record-keeping and deploying jobs while also providing a single place to manage your work and your workers can be overwhelming. But the time is right for learning how Verizon Connect can help you see these benefits as soon as possible.