The field service industry has undergone some pretty serious changes in the last decade with rapidly growing technological and mobile trends, as well as new and more demanding customer expectations. In the face of these evolutions, it can be easy to get overwhelmed or feel like you’re starting over.
It’s important to remember, however, that the qualities that comprise great field service aren’t changing. Preventive maintenance, for example, is still the most profitable revenue source for service businesses. What is changing is the technology available to help you manage field operations, improving efficiency and making it easier to reap benefits from profitable revenue sources, like PM contracts. As the saying goes: “the more things change, the more they stay the same.”
With a growing number of opportunities to integrate technology into your field operations, your organization is at a cross roads: Will it adapt and expand with the modern changes and trends? Or will it remain stuck in old habits and fall behind on PM contracts while losing valuable customer loyalty?
Preventive Maintenance, Where a Focus on Automation Pays Off
Because of the abounding changes happening in field service, we’ve put together this series, Focus on Preventive Maintenance, detailing how you can use software to simplify preventive maintenance within your organization. By focusing on preventive maintenance you put your company in a position to remain stable through turbulent times. Instead of relying on sporadic break/fix orders to stay alive, you can sit back and enjoy reliable, recurring revenue sources by embracing technology in the field and back office to manage service contracts.
Ok, maybe “sit back and enjoy” is a bit of an over statement. But field service software certainly simplifies the PM process and allows you to build and automate a consistent customer base. In this post, part one of the three part series, we guide you through steps you can take to simplify preventive maintenance with automated service contracts. We walk you through through the mobile and back office features in field service management software that can give you the strength you need to grow in the face of mounting industry changes.
Here are some ways you can automate service contracts to simplify preventive maintenance:
1. Use Mobile to Empower Technicians
Mobile field service software is quickly becoming one of those areas in field service that you can either accept and excel or ignore and fall behind. With its nearly limitless functionality, empowering your technicians with a mobile app can mean the difference between maintaining customers or losing them.
Mobile apps in the field are especially useful for managing and simplifying PM contracts because they keep technicians up-to-date and provide access to customer and asset information. While on-site, techs can see customer warranty, contract, and service history records. Equipped with this knowledge, techs are not only better prepared to perform the tasks at hand; they’re also given a valuable opportunity to sell new contracts or renew if an existing contract is running out. And with an automated quoting system, techs can make these sales right on site.
The technician’s steps from walking onto the job site to having a PM order set and scheduled are as follows:
- Customer information is synced with the mobile app
- Techs use customer information to decide whether to sell or renew service contracts
- Techs pitch a service contract sale to customers on site
- Techs create a quote for service contract on the spot, detailing what you’ll do, what you’ll cover, and how often you’ll provide service
- Techs turn quote into a recurring work order with the touch of a button
- Work order is synced back to visual scheduler
- Scheduler schedules the order on a recurring basis
With this integrated technology, you just took your customer from one break-fix order to a regularly scheduled service contract in a matter of minutes. Because the quotes feature is customizable, the customer can choose which categories will be most useful for them and modify accordingly. So now, with the help of simplified preventive maintenance functionality through mobile, you’ve gained a lucrative service contract and a loyal customer in one fell swoop.
2. Connect the Company through Service Contract Automation
Managing contracts can be a clerical nightmare if not maintained properly. Without the right tools to help you organize and automate contracts, you risk loss of revenue and poor customer service. An events manager with alerts, escalation, and workflow features can help you avoid this nightmare while automating service contract information and keeping your organization knowledgeable and proactive.
The events manager performs the following tasks with “set it and forget it” technology, so you can rely on everyone in your organization to stay up to date:
- Automates alerts for expiring contracts
- Tracks inventory for service contracts
- Sets up automated email campaigns and workflows to sell contracts
- Keeps technicians informed
- Sends alerts when contracts aren’t profitable
These alerts and automations connect each process and role in your organization, from the dispatcher who schedules and assigns, to the technician who accepts and closes, to the service manager who approves and invoices. Connecting the organization in this way improves business intelligence and allows you count on each role working together and more productively than if knowledge and functionality were not as widespread.
3. Calculate Service Contract Cost
Figuring out how much to charge for your service contracts can be tricky. You have to figure out how much each step will cost, including labor and parts, then balance those costs against the length of the contract, the number of visits, and how much profit you expect to make. In order to simplify this tricky process, field service management software equips you with a service contract cost calculator, providing you with the tools you need to make sure you’re charging a fair, but profitable price depending on how much maintaining the contract will actually cost your company. Charging too little for a service contract can set you back a lot depending on its terms. Don’t let yourself get stuck in an unprofitable contract. Instead of estimating how much to charge, simply plug in the terms of the contract and have the software do the calculating for you.
Take Your Service Contract Program to the Next Level
Research has shown that companies that maintain preventive maintenance out-earn companies that don’t. According to the Aberdeen Group, Best-in-Class organizations have already made efforts to become more preventive and predictive in field service as opposed to previous break/fix service structures (Secrets to Optimize Field Service for Better Customer Experience, 2013). It’s clear that using software to simplify preventive maintenance will drastically increase your earning potential; and automating service contracts is the perfect place to start. What’s holding you back?
Give your technicians and office employees the tools they need to sell, renew, and manage contracts and give yourself the best chance for establishing preventive maintenance orders as possible. Embracing mobile trends can become the sort of change you look forward to when you adapt and let the technology work for you. Stabilize and simplify your service business by placing the focus on strong preventive maintenance programs and automated service contracts within your organization.
This is part one of a three-part series. Check out the rest of the series to complete your preventive maintenance strategy:
5 Steps to Service Contract Program Success
Are you ready to boost sales in your preventive maintenance contract program? Use this guide to jumpstart your automated service contract program and start realizing the benefits that simplified preventive maintenance contracts can have for your organizations.
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