Managing field technicians and customers is just the tip of the iceberg. Organizing schedules, arranging invoices, collecting payments, and arranging spare parts are crucial activities that keep your business ticking over smoothly.
So, how do you stay on top of everything? Most field service businesses, like locksmiths, HVAC, and junk removal, have many processes and procedures in place. This can generate a lot of paperwork, creating unnecessary admin tasks and eating into your time.
The modern solution to this problem is field service automation software.
What is field service automation?
Field service automation is an all-in-one solution to managing your home service business. It does what it says on the tin: it automates processes that you would otherwise handle manually.
Field service automation software takes things like job scheduling, dispatch, estimates, and invoicing and lets you manage it all from one easy-to-use platform. You, your techs, and your staff can access everything from a mobile application or desktop device—from the field or the office.
Field service automation is now a vital part of any modern field service business and provides a huge competitive advantage. The global field service automation market is estimated to grow to an incredible $3.43 billion by 2024!
Benefits of using a field service automation software
The benefits of using field service automation software extend throughout all areas of your business. You stand to boost productivity, improve customer service, and have your business running like a well-oiled machine.
Far from removing or replacing the human element, field service automation brings the perfect blend of technology to your business. Field service automation breathes life into your field service company by saving you time and offering thousands of new personalized communication opportunities with your customers!
Book more jobs with field service automation
Before now, a missed call probably meant a lost opportunity for you and a new customer for your competitor. But not now. Field service automation software can alert your managers whenever there’s a missed call so that they can respond immediately. You can even send a convenient booking link directly to the customer.
Enhance your reputation
There are few things more important in this business than a solid reputation. New customers rely heavily on online ratings when they choose who to hire. So, why don’t you make their decision easy?
When you complete a job, field service automation sends a perfectly timed review request to your customer. You can even personalize the message to help boost the response rate. As the weeks and months roll on, you can build up hundreds of glowing testimonials to make you stand out from your competitors, simply for doing the same great job you’ve always done.
With tech-savvy millennials becoming an increasing part of your customer base, interactive interfaces, data protection, and smart technology should be a priority for your business.
Remove the stress from daily operations
Field service automation covers the A-Z of essential business tasks, from sending job reminders to monitoring your team’s performance and following up on late payments. You’ll have less paperwork to deal with, saving yourself time and resources that you can use to scale your business instead.
Plus, the repetitive and time-wasting admin tasks used to take hours will now take no time at all. Field service automation results in you having more free time to spend with your family.
Make more money using field service automation software
Streamlining your processes frees you up to focus on growing your business. Field service automation doesn’t just make your team’s life easier: it makes the customer’s experience better, too. More jobs booked means more revenue (Workiz users report a 22% revenue increase). Happier customers equal more repeat customers. And optimized business processes result in greater efficiency, which translates into profit!
How can the field service industry be automated?
It doesn’t matter which field service niche you’re in: some processes can be automated every step of the way. You’ll be surprised by quite how much field service automation software can do for you.
Missed calls
Don’t let a potential customer get away just because nobody was available to answer their call. Field service automation lets you notify your managers of a missed call, so it is followed up on right away. If you prefer, you can even automate it entirely and set up an auto-response with an online booking link.
Estimate follow up
As great as your offer may be, you can’t stop your customers from shopping around. Often the company they decide to hire is simply the first one that’s in their mind when they’re ready to commit. But, following up on estimates isn’t always a priority when your techs are busy with current work.
Using field service automation software to generate automated estimate follow-ups means you’ll catch extra jobs by reminding the customer to take action.
Appointment reminders
Canceled jobs are a waste of time and money and a considerable source of frustration for many field service business owners. Improve your customer service and reduce cancellation rates by automating text reminders to your customers, letting them know the technician is on their way. FIeld service automation makes this easy.
Ask for reviews using field service automation software
You know the saying: if you don’t ask, you don’t get! When it comes to reviews, this generally rings true. Simply prompting customers to leave a review can make a world of difference in how many reviews you get. Testimonials help build your business’s trust and legitimacy and act as a free marketing tool to attract new customers. Obtaining them should be an integral part of your strategy.
Field service automation payment collection
Look, nobody enjoys calling customers with outstanding invoices. Field service automation takes the hassle out of this tedious task. It lets you create emails that get sent according to specific triggers, like a payment due date or when a job status moves to “completed.”
Retain existing customers
Field service automation makes it easy for you to keep your schedule full. Send follow-up messages to your old customers and remind them to book in with you again. Some great ideas include sending coupons, holiday season offers, and courtesy reminders for equipment maintenance.
How to choose the right field service automation software
When it comes to field service automation software, there are many options available. They all have different capabilities, so it’s vital you understand which field service automation needs your business has to understand which software is best suited to meet them.
These are some of the most valuable features and functionalities you should look out for when choosing the right field service automation software for your business:
- Client management (CRM)
- Job scheduling
- Tech dispatching
- Estimate creation
- Invoicing tracking
- Payment processing in the field
- Communications system: internal
- Chat and phone system: for contacting customers
- Inventory management
- Lead tracking
- Reporting for data analysis and insights
These are the best three field service automation software
Field Service Automation Software #3: GorillaDesk
Who is it for? Pest control companies facing challenges with job scheduling, invoicing, payments, and more.
Pros: GorillaDesk has excellent third-party ratings, and the feedback about their customer service is exemplary. They’re well known in the industry for being responsive and helpful.
What’s the verdict? Most reviews are positive; however, some users report issues with syncing, and since the software is designed specifically for the pest control niche, it has pretty limited use.
Field Service Automation Software #2: monday.com
Who is it for? Monday.com caters to teams of all sizes in various business types, from holistic therapy to handyman and education to electrical.
Pros: The building block system gives you total control over customizing your workflows.
What’s the verdict? Monday.com’s versatility is impressive, but if you want something specifically designed for service-based businesses—such as HVAC, locksmiths, and junk removal—then there are wiser choices.
Field Service Automation Software #1: Workiz
Who is it for? Workiz proudly serves all types of home service businesses, such as junk removal, locksmithing, HVAC, garage door, electrical, carpet cleaning, and more.
Pros: Workiz’s award-winning software is trusted by 100,000+ home service pros in the US and Canada and comes with a 7-day free trial to help you get started.
What’s the verdict? You can read reviews on Workiz for yourself! From impressing clients to making life easier for your team, Workiz is the tool that enables you to scale your business with ease.
Workiz: Simplify workflows with field service automation
There are unlimited opportunities when it comes to Workiz’s field service automation. Dull admin tasks turn into slick processes that happen with a few clicks of a button—or with no effort at all!
We’ve helped plenty of skeptical business owners make the transition from paper to electronic over the years. Field service automation is what you need to take your business to the next level. Try it risk-free with our 7-day free trial!
