The Darwinian “survival of the fittest” theory definitely applies to the business world. According to Forbes, 90% of startups fail. To make your business one of the 10% that survive, you need to be more efficient than your competitors. If you run a courier service, lawn care company, or any other kind of business that sends employees out into the field, that means you need service dispatch software.
Specifically, here are seven of the features fleet management software can provide that will significantly improve your business:
#1 Route Optimization
Planning routes can take hours to do manually, and it’s easy to make mistakes that delay your field employees and upset your customers.
A daily routine planner takes the time-consuming work and possibility of mistakes out of the route planning process. It can plan routes for you in less than 30 seconds, and those routes will have the lowest amount of travel time possible. That gives your field service technicians everything they need to show up on time consistently.
#2 GPS Tracking
Of course, the optimized routes produced by a route planner app won’t do you any good if your field employees don’t actually follow the routes you give them.
That’s why you need GPS tracking. This feature will show you the real-time location of everyone on your team, so you can make sure they’re always sticking to their routes and staying on schedule.
Field service management has never been this easy, has it?
#3 Customer Portal
Another benefit to field service software with GPS tracking is that you can use it to set up a portal that improves customer satisfaction.
When field operations management software has a customer portal feature, here’s how it works: every route you create has a unique tracking link. Then, you can send this link to your customers via email or SMS, and they can plug it into the portal to see the real-time location of the field employee they’re waiting on displayed on a map. They’ll love having the ability to keep up with your progress.
This will also reduce the number of calls made to your customer service line, so your support staff will have more time to spend on their other tasks.
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#4 Reporting and Analytics
To improve performance, you must be able to measure it. Service dispatch software that has a reporting and analytics feature allows you to do exactly that.
Ideally, you’ll have the following operational reporting metrics at your fingertips:
- Distance covered by your field reps (Planned vs. Actual)
- Stops made by your drivers (Planned vs. Visited)
- Routes per day
- Average Time On Site vs. Allocated Service Time
- Stops per day (Planned vs. Visited)
- Total gas cost
- Average trip gas cost
#5 eSignature
The problem with using pen and paper to collect delivery confirmation signatures is that paper slips are easy to lose, and if you lose confirmation slips, it’ll be difficult to settle customer disputes.
Scheduling and dispatching software with an eSignature feature allows your customers to sign for deliveries directly on your field employee’s mobile device. You’ll never lose a confirmation signature again.
#6 Dynamic Stop Insertion
Imagine this scenario: a customer calls in at the last minute and cancels their delivery, but your field employee has already left to complete their route for the day.
This is a huge deal. Removing one stop from a route changes how you approach every other stop on the route. But if you’re still planning your routes manually, you won’t have enough time to change the route – and even if you did, you wouldn’t have a way to communicate those changes to your field employee. They’ll just have to do the best they can on their own, which could result in late arrivals.
Cloud-based service dispatch software with a dynamic stop insertion feature helps you achieve optimal field productivity, as it allows you to easily adapt to these scenarios. Such software can re-optimize a route in less than 30 seconds, and any change you make to a route on your office computer will be automatically reflected on your field employee’s smartphone.
If you want to know more about how dynamic stop insertion works, take a look at this guide.
#7 Barcode Scanner
A barcode scanner feature removes the need to type in product IDs, unit IDs, and product numbers manually. By automating the data entry process, your field employees will find it much easier to show up to each stop on time. To learn more, check out this guide.
Other Features
Here are some other features you should look for in your route planner:
- Color coding – select a color for each stop in your address book to organize your priorities (for example, sales organizations can use the color blue for their cold leads and red for their hot leads)
- Speed alerts – receive a notification every time a field rep exceeds the speed limit
- Territory management – split your service area up into different territories to improve productivity
- Mock routes – review the revenue and expenses produced by a hypothetical route before you make a commitment
- Geofencing – automate the check-in and check-out process
- Customer alerts and notifications – automatically send an email or SMS to customers when your field rep is about to arrive
Have you ever used service dispatch software before? Do you have any questions about this article? Feel free to let us know in the comments section below:
Finally, answering these three questions correctly will confirm that you understand the benefits of service dispatch software:
- How does dispatching software improve employee and asset utilization?
- How does GPS tracking help with field service operations?
- How does using a daily route planner improve customer experience?
Want To See For Yourself How Route4Me Can Boost Your Profits?
