Against a background of rising fuel prices, restricted budgets, a changing regulatory landscape and spiralling customer expectations, field service businesses have endured a tumultuous environment over the last few years. The ability to meet customer demands and achieve cost goals has become a more difficult balance, leaving many struggling to achieve more with less.  

Trimble recently carried out an independent study entitled, ‘The Road Ahead: The Future of Field Service Delivery’ among directors and senior managers operating large field-based work forces in the UK, and found that businesses are struggling to fully deliver on their vision for field service excellence because of the pressure on internal resources from economic restraints – 48% of respondents were on target to achieve their annual business goals.

Field service management systems can help streamline business processes to improve workforce productivity and customer satisfaction. However, there is often a lack of understanding of the capabilities and huge cost savings these technologies can deliver. According to AberdeenGroup surveys, investment in field service management tools provides far reaching benefits including: 

Tackling the budget black cloud

The availability of budget emerged as a major barrier to achieving field service excellence for around one quarter of the Road Ahead report respondents: 27% said the Board was fully committed, but lack of budget meant they could not follow through on their plans; while a small minority – 11% – felt that the Board only paid lip service to field operations. Only 18% of those surveyed currently possessed fully automated scheduling, dispatch and mobility tools. The majority were operating partly-manual, partly-automated systems, integrating a diverse mix of often incompatible legacy systems. 

By producing a detailed business case, it is possible to demonstrate that investing more now can significantly reduce costs in the long run. Field service management solutions including fleet management and work management technologies have emerged as powerful management tools. Interestingly, those field service organisations that operate fleet management, for example, say they recoup the benefits, with a more efficient workforce, reduced insurance costs and improved working practices, all factors which can lead to a rapid ROI (Return on Investment). 

The capabilities of modern field service management solutions can improve a company’s productivity and level of service by enabling every aspect of a mobile operation to be identified, measured, and analysed. Efficiency can be increased by completing more tasks per day with the same workforce and a boost in customer satisfaction and retention can be achieved through greater appointment flexibility. The technology also helps boost customer satisfaction by enabling better communication, answering more customer service calls per day and mitigating return visits by getting the right worker to the right job at the right time. 

In addition, the information provided by the fleet management technology typically includes the vehicle location, speed and time, but also may include work order information, driver behaviour and vehicle diagnostics data such as fuel use or vehicle faults. 

The data can help fleets to reduce direct expenses such as fuel costs by optimising route planning, improving operational efficiencies and driving revenue generation through top quality customer service and maximum flexibility. With the knowledge of where resources are, their status and time on site, businesses can make the real-time decisions required to keep their operations running as smoothly and cost-effectively as possible. 

Minimise the impact of fuel price hikes

The Road Ahead report revealed that rising fuel prices have become the greatest concern in meeting field service priorities. Although fuel costs may be beyond the control of fleet managers, consumption is not. Fleet management technology can decrease a business’s fuel costs by reducing unauthorised vehicle use, curbing excessive speeding and reducing engine idling by 50-90%. Improved vehicle maintenance scheduling and monitoring a vehicle’s performance can also help businesses reduce fleet fuel consumption and improve productive use of vehicles. Improved vehicle utilisation could reduce vehicle component wear and tear, and lower the risk of mechanical failure, further aiding profitability. 

Fuel use can vary significantly between drivers because of driving style and vehicle condition. So individual fuel consumption can be of significant value to managers, rather than the overall fuel use of a fleet.

Simple policies to improve driver efficiency can also play an important role in containing fuel costs, such as a driver training programme.

Address customer service priorities whilst boosting productivity

Trimble’s Road Ahead report suggested that achieving customer satisfaction is the top priority for field services and 60% felt that this would need to be achieved with fewer resources. The vast majority of respondents (80%) found that customers were more demanding than five years ago.

Effective delivery is critical to a positive service experience. Tardy arrivals, missing deliveries and the inability to specify a time and date for arrival are the key factors that have left consumers feeling let down by field service deliveries. 81% of respondents placed a high priority on offering acceptable appointment slots, recognising that busy consumers want more certainty from their suppliers.

Building a relationship with a customer, making a promise and delivering on it will allow for a happier customer base. Achieving it can greatly affect costs in terms of resource allocation, something many businesses are struggling to control. Managers can tackle this by optimising scheduling to ensure customers are offered acceptable appointment slots, which are attended to by qualified and prepared staff. 

Recent consumer research commissioned by Trimble found that customers are willing to pay for next day delivery, allowing organisations to charge a premium price for a premium service, as well as improving workforce utilisation and avoiding the financial and environmental costs of repeat appointments.

Ultimately, getting it right the first time round will utilise your resources in the most efficient way whilst keeping the customer happy and brand reputation intact.