There's no doubt that field service jobs are all about being on-site and getting your hands dirty. However, there are also administrative tasks that need to be completed alongside every project you're working on. These tasks include creating quotations, record keeping & creative design/layout for documents such as invoices and work order forms. They can be pretty time-consuming and if they're not done right, they may set your company back. If you want to keep your customers happy, give these tasks the attention they need.

Here's where automation comes in. Automating your field service teams can bring significant time savings, so you can get back to focusing on the long game. This way, you not only save time but also better optimize your operations and reach your objectives more quickly.

Field service automation can make a huge difference when it comes to productivity, efficiency and customer satisfaction. A very good example of this type of automation is a digital time-tracking tool that captures all billable hours, keeps all employees on schedule, and provides a host of other benefits for team leaders, managers, and owners of field service businesses—which we will look at later on.

Now, here are a few ways to automate your field service teams.

Automated Time Tracking and Billing

An excellent way to automate your field service teams is having your employees work with a digital time-tracking app on which they can simply clock in and out of tasks with the tap of a finger. This enables you to easily track your team’s work hours across all projects. It also inputs an element of automation into your billing process so that your technicians no longer have to wait to return to the office to hand in invoices. Invoices can be generated quickly and on-site as technicians can easily populate form fields on the job.

Scheduling Your Workers

With the automation features of a digital time-tracking solution, you can easily view projects and the availability and location of each of your field technicians. This solution also enables automatic worker scheduling to guarantee the smooth workflow of all field service projects.

You can also identify possible gaps in your team's productivity, where they may have nothing scheduled to do for a period of time. With a time tracking tool, you’ll know when each employee finishes their assigned task, so you can schedule tasks like routine maintenance or follow-up calls to save time and make things a little easier. By assigning recurring projects to your team members and automatically scheduling future-dated inspections and maintenance, you can keep your workflow streamlined and more efficient.

Optimizing routes

Route optimization reduces the time that you spend creating route plans and recreating them when schedules change. This can be carried out using an effective time tracking tool combined with GPS tracking as well for effective scheduling and optimized route planning. Using these tools, you can minimize manual route planning which means your customers will be served quicker. Your fuel consumption and other travel costs will also be reduced through the establishment of the most efficient driving routes. Lastly, there will be less idling around within your teams and less non-productive time spent in the vehicle(s).

Creating omnichannel tickets

Creating a centralized system for receiving customer requests from different channels is another good way to automate your field service teams. This way, you can respond to customer queries quicker, streamlining ticket creation and project management. It also sets up automated workflows and can assign technicians to projects without any hassle.

Real-time reporting and analytics

Another advantage of an automated field service team is that it provides automated reports on your team's progress and analytics on their efficiency and productivity. This will help you see what’s going well and what needs improvement. A time-tracking solution collects key information such as the number of tasks completed on time. Data like this gives you insights into where your team operations can be adjusted to make improvements, such as rescheduling or investing in team training and development.

Benefits of Automating Your Field Service Teams

A more coordinated team

When your team is organized, they’re able to keep customers happy and finish projects successfully one after the other. To help with better coordination, automating your field service teams will result in a centralized hub where all communication, discussions, and information are conveniently gathered. Each team member can access them whenever they need to and are encouraged to communicate more with one another. 

Better accuracy

It is important to keep an accurate record of all team working hours and actual work so that your clients can be billed appropriately. Other areas where automating your field service teams yields improved accuracy include keeping tabs on job progress, customer tickets, the availability of each technician, etc. Project conditions are highly prone and quick to change in the field service industry. Thus, automating your teams and projects is the first step to effective management and reducing the incidence of human error.

Faster Service

Tasks that once took a long time to complete can be carried out much faster when you automate your field service teams. This makes it easier and faster for your teams to transition from one job to the next without having to wait for a call from their managers.

Remain Hands-on yet Hands-free

As a team leader, manager, or executive, automating your field service teams means you can maintain thorough oversight of projects without having to be present on the project sites. This also eliminates the need for micromanagement in team projects as automation enables work to flow smoothly and hitch-free without the need for excessive hands-on monitoring.

If you want to automate your team, Atto will be there to help you every step of the way. You’ll know exactly how much each team member works, where they are and the status of ongoing projects. No more paper trails - everything will be digitally stored and automatically updated. Get started with Atto now!