Any company that dispatches workers to off-site locations to complete tasks — plumbing, HVAC, utilities, cleaning, ride-sharing, and many others — tend to face similar field service challenges when it comes to managing day-to-day operations.
When teams are in the field, anything can change in an instant. If managers and technicians don’t have the situational awareness to understand where they are in the bigger picture or the means to communicate instantly from any location, services suffer, customer experiences diminish, inventory is mismanaged, and teams are left to work in the dark.
When the unexpected happens, managers and technicians need access to real-time data and alerts all in one place to stay in the know and keep the ball rolling, no matter what hurdles may surface on the job. Field service management technology that truly elevates your business should enable easy, real-time collaboration and coordination along every step of the workflow.
Facing Field Service Challenges With Collaboration Software
Here are the ways Coolfire’s collaboration software can help you address most major field service management challenges with greater success and efficiency.
1. Verifying that teams are meeting customer expectations
One challenge that comes with distributed teams is trying to keep tabs on different workers in multiple locations. These days, customers are used to high connectivity — they have high expectations for their service requests and will want visibility into technicians’ progress on tasks.
Without the right technology, managers or customers can’t know in real time whether a technician is meeting those expectations out in the field. Connected field service management technology, however, can give managers full visibility into the completion of tasks and allow customers to see updates as they happen.
2. Instantly knowing who is on what job and where
It’s not only customers and managers who need to keep tabs on technicians — other workers need to know where they are and what they’re doing, too.
Completing field service tasks often involves distributed teams collaborating and working together. For instance, an HVAC technician may need an unexpected tool to perform maintenance on a unit and need to reach out to the closest tech in the field to bring it over.
When managers and other team members can use team collaboration software to see exactly where other teams and assets are at any given time, it prevents bottlenecks and keeps the chain of operations intact.
3. Keeping by-the-minute tabs on current and completed tasks
Field teams often work in operations where one task has to precede the next. If one team doesn’t know when the previous team completes a task, then it won’t know when to begin its own.
For instance, if a commercial cleaning team needs to clear out hazardous materials before the next team can start, team collaboration software can ensure the team knows the moment it’s safe. The next team won’t have to waste time waiting or risk exposure by entering too early.
4. Prioritizing tasks according to the common operational picture
The common operational picture, or COP, is the big picture that all field service teams are working around. Without complete visibility and situational awareness, operations managers can find it difficult to prioritize each team’s tasks according to this picture.
With a centralized activity feed of audits, incident reports, tasks, and notifications on one dashboard, however, you can more easily determine what tasks need to be prioritized across teams.
5. Responding instantly to teams’ and clients’ concerns
Field service teams will always have to respond to unexpected situations. Vehicles break down, equipment malfunctions, and emergencies happen.
Team collaboration software helps you avoid wasting time by allowing you to respond to field emergencies instantly so you can maintain your reputation in the eyes of customers — even when things go awry.
When your teams are distributed in the field, they face unique field service challenges that require effective and reliable team collaboration software to overcome. To learn more about how Coolfire can keep your field service teams connected and informed, get in touch with one of our representatives today.
