New Year's resolutions for field service businesses

Every year brings new challenges, opportunities, and ideas. With 2021 coming to an end, it’s never too late to start thinking about 2022 and all of the things you can accomplish. This is the perfect opportunity to draft up a New Year’s resolution.

New Year's resolutions are not only a great way to improve personal goals, but they work well for businesses too. They make you sit down and reflect on all the ups and downs from the previous year, which you can use to create several goals and aspirations for a stellar new year. 

If you’re a business that specializes in field service and wants to know how to create a New Year’s resolution for 2022, then look no further. We’ve compiled a few options for you to include in your planning for next year. 

Let's get right into them!

Try cutting out the excess

Some businessmen put off getting rid of the specific piece of machinery that doesn't work well anymore, deep cleaning can often get postponed to the next month, and sometimes it can even be pushed to the bottom of the list where it becomes forgotten. In these cases, extra clutter, including machinery and equipment, can hurt the ability of your company to operate efficiently and reduce costs.

It is much better to deal with the problems at the right time when they arise rather than postponing them for a later date, only to find out that they’ve become a much bigger problem than you’ve anticipated. This way, you can better manage your business’s day-to-day and have more room for new, more versatile, and efficient machinery and equipment. 

Especially for field service business owners, it’s important to set out some measurable and productive steps to help them achieve their business goals. This includes a plan to get rid of anything that does not serve a purpose within your business. 

Updating tools and equipment

The continual use of machinery and equipment to deliver high-quality services can sometimes result in slow speed, less productivity, or even a complete breakdown of important tools. This can affect the performance of an entire field service business of any kind. Old and less productive equipment or tools lack the efficiency that new and advanced ones can ensure. That’s why a field service business should consider replacing old-fashioned and outdated tools. 

Time and speed both mean a lot in a business where you need to reach clients to do the assigned job. There are even cases where a field service business encounters an urgent job where they can’t compromise their work by using tools that may break or lose functionality. That’s why efficient working equipment is a necessity.

For instance, plumbing also falls under the umbrella of a field service business. In this business, modern and up-to-date equipment is a must to deal with the water leakage from pipelines that can be hazardous and cause serious damages. As part of their New Year’s resolution, they can plan to review the overall condition of tools and equipment and decide whether they need to be replaced or not. 

And remember, you don’t need to have the latest gear to do a good job. Make sure not to keep outdated and worn-out tools in your toolbox, but also don’t throw out those that are working fine and are only a year or two old.  Businesses need good equipment to get the job done, and this should be your baseline for updating existing equipment.

Integrating time tracking software

No matter the type of business, time is an extremely important asset. Managing time effectively, therefore, needs to be on top of the priority list of every company. Under the time management umbrella, you have mini-priorities like meeting deadlines, being productive during working hours, gathering data for further review, and more. This is where time tracking software comes in handy.

If you’re still tracking time manually with paper timesheets or noting down working hours, then you have to add time tracking software to your new year’s resolution. With software like Atto, you can keep track of time wherever your employees are, reduce payroll costs and increase productivity, increase the accuracy of job estimates, track hours, breaks, time off, and more.

Besides the seamless tracking of working hours, this kind of software can save you so many hours on paperwork like payrolls, reports, estimates and invoices. This way, you can use your time to take care of more important and productive tasks, all while focusing on growing your business.

Working towards a better workplace environment

The workplace environment plays a significant role in the productivity of jobs done. A healthy work environment can improve productivity and reduce costs related to turnover, workers' compensation, absenteeism, and medical claims. A healthy workplace environment possesses everything that workers might need to accomplish their assigned jobs. 

A good work environment is also extremely important for field service businesses because of the nature of jobs field technicians do. It’s not just about making the office a welcoming space. Rather, it’s about creating a company culture that is positive and focuses on wellbeing wherever employees are. So as a field service business, you should definitely put making a better workplace environment on your New Year’s resolution list. 

If you need some inspiration, think of things like promoting wellness, engaging with coworkers regularly, fair employee policies, promoting healthy eating, giving more breaks to workers, introducing team building activities, and more. 

Be an active member of the entire community

If your business doesn’t participate actively in community events or functions, then the beginning of a new year might be the best time to get started. As part of your 2022 resolution, you can include creating a kind of partnership with a local organization of your community that will help you network and gets to know potential clients. Besides taking part in fairs, festivals, or conferences, a business can become a more active member of their community by sponsoring the league team or participating in charity work. 

A New Year's resolution that includes community work will help keep your field service business fresh in the minds of people in the neighborhood for the times when they need your services. Being considered a “business that’s nearby” will also be convenient for them to enjoy the benefits and offerings by local businesses there in town. Whether it means making donations or volunteering, various people from your community or surrounding communities can enjoy advantages from the activities you hold and the contributions you make. 

For instance, the most popular businesses in town include food delivery and plumbing. If your company lacks a proper connection with the community, how can you even think about people choosing you for their concerns? No matter which field service business you own, there should be no communication barrier of any kind. This also helps to build trust with your existing and potential clients.

Conclusion

To put it in short, a review of the previous year's performance can help formulate new strategies and resolutions for the upcoming year. Don’t forget to tailor a New Year’s resolution to your business’s needs. See where you need to improve most and add them to the list. You can make the list however long you want, but make sure to add goals that are realistic and achievable.