Getting dispatching and dispatch schedules right means you reduce errors in service delivery and improve customer satisfaction. Inefficient dispatching means you increase operations costs and the workload on field service technicians and reduce brand value in front of your customers.
All this can be managed using dispatching or field service management software – read more to learn how.
What is dispatch software?
Dispatch software is a special field service management software or a feature within it that helps in the assignment of jobs and coordination of field service technicians. Typical tasks include scheduling jobs, prioritizing tasks, and assigning rightly skilled technicians to the right job.
For example, you can find available field service technicians who are already present near the job location using dispatch software. Using GPS and real-time communication, it is possible to assign jobs based on location proximity, thus reducing travel costs and time.
How do you optimize scheduling and dispatching using FSM or dispatch software?
Here are five key areas where FSM software improves efficiency in scheduling and dispatching operations:
Gain complete operations visibility
Field services are remote jobs, where not using software for automation means using frequent manpower for job site supervision and quality control. This occurs due to a lack of visibility in how your field service teams execute their work.
Using FSM or dispatch software, you get a centralized dashboard that helps you track job progress, customer support tickets, marketing, sales efforts, and much more. It helps your office teams prioritize and take quick action.
Better interface to handle tasks
FSM software like Zuper provides an easy-to-use calendar interface which makes it easy to simply drag and drop jobs and review assigned work. The software also helps in task prioritization, where it learns from your historical data, services urgency, and availability of technicians to categorize work orders. Customizable views further help in making your field service teams productive.
Optimize dispatching and routes
Being remote jobs means traveling is a key part of operations – which is quite costly and time-consuming. Using GPS and AI algorithms, FSM software helps find the nearest field service technician who has the skillsets and availability to take up the job at hand. It will completely manage to assign, handle job acceptance or rejection, sharing of job details, and more automatically. This includes providing optimized routes based on traffic and time available to improve your response time. It will also track travel time for these routes, and understand the jobs and tasks to improve the way it designs its routes.
For example, dispatch software will assign a single technician to work on similar jobs that lie on the same route.
Share and receive real-time information
Once a job gets scheduled, the dispatch software will automatically share job details with the field service technician and customer. Your customers can also receive the real-time location of the worker for them to prepare. The software also makes it possible to automatically handle any rescheduled requests, where it notifies the customer and worker about new calendar changes without manual intervention.
Automated notifications also make it possible to get alerts about equipment assignments, usage data, and failures. In case of cancellations, the customer receives information immediately and you can share discounts or promotions to make up for the inconvenience.
Edit jobs at ease without disruption
As your business grows, the number of service requests and work orders will increase. Once a job gets created and assigned, it may become difficult to keep track. Using FSM software, you can edit job details and make changes in real-time to include unforeseen circumstances. For example, when your technician reaches the job site, your customers may want to opt for additional services. They can do so by making an instant request on your FSM app and relevant changes in the invoice would be made. This eliminates the need to manually keep track of dispatch schedules, contact customers, or make phone calls.
Master the art of scheduling and dispatching with FSM software
Zuper is an AI-enabled field service management software that automates scheduling and dispatching operations. With other features across inventory management, customer service, payment processing, and more – it provides wholesome field service management solutions – book a demo to learn more.
