How Can Small Businesses Benefit From Field Service Apps?

Managing a business is no easy feat. As a business owner or manager, you’re in charge of the core responsibilities needed when running a business. While you have your staff and subordinates to help you out, keep in mind that you also need to oversee their activities, performances, and outputs. When not managed or organised properly, your daily responsibilities and tasks could get the best of you and lead to work-related stress or burnout.

According to resources, 42% of small business owners claimed that they have recently experienced burnout. The same source also states that some small business owners feel exhausted not only because of business-related challenges but also because of difficulty maintaining a work-life balance. And so, the question is, what can small business owners do to relieve themselves from stress and continue to manage and operate their businesses successfully? 

You can use field service management software and invest in field service apps.

What is Field Service Management?

For starters, a field service management (FSM) is designed to manage common field operations such as scheduling, dispatching, quoting, communication tool, invoicing, inventory management, order management, vehicle tracking, and more. Regardless of your industry or business type, you can streamline your business operations using field service apps.

For example, if you’re running an electrical business, using an electrician business software can help you manage, schedule, and track your electrical contractors all in one software. You may also use the app to easily communicate with your clients, create estimates or quotes, take calls, and handle customer service. Ultimately, investing in field service apps can improve your field service management techniques and give your business an edge over your competitors.

How can field service apps help your small business?

Here are the specific ways your small business benefit from using field service apps:

1. Workflow standardisation

Managing a field service business is more challenging than in other industries. Unlike some companies with all their employees in one office, field service businesses dispatch their staff to different locations to cater to customers. Thus, creating a standard workflow may be challenging since some aspects of your business are done in the field.

But a field service app allows you to create a standard workflow in one software: from scheduling and dispatching to sending an invoice to your customer. About 75% of businesses also claimed that utilising mobility tools like the field service app has increased their company’s productivity. When you and your staff can refer to one app, it can solve your business coordination challenges. 

2. Eliminate paperwork

Decades ago, when technology was non-existent, offices and businesses had to deal with plenty of paperwork. Thus, papers, documents, and folders can easily scatter on everyone’s desk, causing clutter and increasing the risk of data loss. With a field service app, you can eliminate paperwork processes and keep valuable information in the app or software. You and your staff can also easily access any important data you may need for work, preventing duplicate entries and reducing the risk of data loss.

3. Efficient keeping of client history records

Besides eliminating paperwork, using a field service app for your business operation will make it easier for you to keep client history records. According to research, 61% of FSM app users claimed that the ability to collect customer information and update records automatically is the app’s most useful feature. 

Having an integrated database for all your client information and previous order records can greatly help the company. That way, when one of your employees retires, leaves, or gets sick, you can quickly assign another employee to fill the position. The substitute staff won’t have trouble resuming the other person’s work since they can easily browse their clients’ previous order records and information on the field service app.

For instance, if you're a garage owner, using a garage management software can greatly improve the efficiency of keeping client history records. The employees can also easily access and update client records, such as vehicle information, service history, and communication history. This eliminates the need for manual record keeping, which can be time-consuming and error-prone. With accurate and up-to-date records, garage owners can provide better service to their clients by quickly identifying past issues and services, making it easier to recommend future services and provide personalized recommendations. Furthermore, the software can also help to streamline the billing process by automatically calculating costs based on services rendered, reducing the chance of errors and discrepancies. Overall, a garage management software can greatly improve the efficiency and effectiveness of client record keeping in a garage.

4. Faster invoicing

One of the most critical parts when managing a small or big business is creating customer invoices. Your invoices help you monitor your product/service sales and control your outgoing and incoming payments. However, invoicing is also considered one of the most frustrating and time-consuming tasks. When not created carefully, you could make errors on your customers’ invoices, like inaccurate math, wrong pricing, missing due dates, and other oversights. Invoice mistakes can lead to payment delays, eventually impacting your business’s sales. 

So, instead of wasting several hours or days writing and encoding invoices, an FSM app can help you automatically produce invoices using a simple invoice template in just a few clicks and instantly send them to your customers. Even better, it’ll be easier for you to track their expenses, collect their deposits or payments, and monitor anyone who is yet to pay. With faster and more efficient invoicing, you can reduce your risk of invoice mistakes and avoid payment delays. 

5. Dynamic scheduling

Staff scheduling is an essential factor in running a successful business. A proper staff schedule will ensure you have all the right workers assigned at the right time to achieve your business goals. But even with a small business, staff scheduling can be challenging, especially if you don’t know the workload you’ll expect each day. As per resources, 38% of field service businesses also considered scheduling as one of their business’s top challenges. 

But with a field service app, you can easily see the availability of all your employees, allowing you to quickly create schedules and avoid overlap. Moreover, a field service app is programmed to automatically re-assign your employees in case urgent or higher-priority tasks are available. You can also monitor your employees’ whereabouts during their shifts with the app’s GPS tracker, enabling you to track whenever they’re late or absent without leave.

Key Takeaway

Overall, using field service apps can increase the efficiency of your business in many ways. Thus, if you want to expand your small business and pave your way to success, start using field service apps in your daily operations to increase productivity, create a standard workflow, meet customer satisfaction, and practice data accuracy.