Why is Data Analysis Important for Field Service Business?

It’s quite appropriate to tell ‘Data is the new oil’ as it fuels better analytics and decision-making in businesses. Field service metrics help you understand how well your field service business is performing.

Once you’ve figured out what field service metrics matter most, it’s time to collect data. This includes everything from basic information such as the revenue generated to more complex data points like the first-time fix rates and customer churn. It’s helpful to have access to as much data as possible.

Data analysis is the process of analyzing large amounts of data to gain insight into trends, patterns, and insights. While many businesses collect data throughout the course of running their operations, only a few take advantage of the opportunity to analyze the data and turn it into actionable insights. These insights can help improve processes, identify problems, and save money.

In this article, let’s ponder upon the importance of data analysis in field service business.

What is Data in Field Service Business?

Data in a field service business is anything that is measurable. Data can be qualitative or quantitative such as numbers, facts, figures, statistics, trends, and much more. You can gather data from any source, such as surveys, interviews, observations, and more. 

To leverage data analytics, field service companies must first understand the data they already have. They should then examine how the data got collected and stored. Finally, they should consider how to analyze the data to generate insights. Post the completion of these three steps, field service organizations can begin applying data analytics to solve real-world problems.

What is Data Analysis in Field Service Business?

Data analysis in field service business is the process of analyzing large amounts of data and field service metrics to gain insight into trends and patterns. By examining these numbers, you can identify areas of improvement and make changes accordingly. Companies in the field service industry can use data analysis to improve their bottom line.

According to Forbes, 59% of businesses are using data analytics in different ways to make better decisions and increase their business performance.

Data analysis in field service business not only shows you what happened in the past but it helps you predict the future of your business. It helps you make better data-driven decisions for the growth of your field service organization.

How to Manage the Field Service Business Data?

Field service companies provide services such as installation, repair, and maintenance of equipment like air conditioning units, computers, and refrigerators. Data gathering and analysis are often handled manually which is inefficient, inaccurate, and expensive. This leads to missed opportunities for improvement and poor customer experience.

An analytics software or a business intelligence (BI) solution provides a comprehensive view of your field service organization’s data and leverages that data to drive change. This includes helping you make better decisions, gain insights into how things are working, and understand what’s happening within your business. 

The term “business intelligence” refers to the entire process of gathering, storing, analyzing, and presenting the information. This includes data warehousing, analytics and reporting, visualization, dashboards, and others.

Data scientists work behind the scenes, analyzing data and creating reports. Their job is to find patterns in large amounts of data and translate those patterns into meaningful information. With this information, you can make smarter, data-driven decisions to optimize processes and save on operational costs.

Components of BI Systems to Handle Data Analysis in Field Service Business

A business intelligence system consists of various components to handle data and generate reports from it.

i)Data Warehouses

“Without a systematic way to start and keep data clean, bad data will happen.” — Donato Diorio

A data warehouse is a repository of structured data that contains historical information about your field service company. Data warehouses are often used for decision support systems, such as forecasting sales or inventory levels.

They typically contain multiple tables, each containing different types of information about your business. For example, one table might hold customer names, addresses, phone numbers and email addresses; another might list service due dates.

ii) Data Analysis

Once you’ve collected all your data, it’s time to start crunching some numbers. Analytics involves creating reports based on the data stored in your data warehouse. You’ll use analytical techniques like regression analysis to determine trends, predict future events, and identify outliers. You can use analytics to forecast demand, track performance, and spot patterns in your data.

iii) Reporting

After you have analyzed your data, you need to present it to other people. Reporting lets you create charts, graphs, and other visual representations of your data. You can also export these reports to Excel, PowerPoint, PDF, Word, or other formats.

iv) Visualization

You may want to visualize your data in ways that aren’t possible with traditional reporting tools. For example, you may want to see which customers bought more than $10,000 worth of products last year. Or maybe you’d like to see where your most profitable customers live. With visualization software, you can easily generate maps, bar charts, pie charts, scatter plots, and many other kinds of graphics.

v) Dashboards

Dashboards let you quickly access key business metrics from your data warehouse. Instead of having to search through dozens of pages of reports, you can view them all at once. Dashboards are especially useful when you’re trying to make quick decisions. For example, you might want to know the number of work orders completed by each field employee in the last quarter. A dashboard will show you this information without requiring you to open several reports.

Benefits of Data Analysis in Field Service Business

i) Improve Business Efficiency

According to an independent survey conducted by Gartner Inc., 80% of respondents said field service metrics helped them increase technician efficiency. Another 60% said field service analytics helped improve cost tracking. And 50% said field analytics helped them improve dispatcher efficiency.

“Data really powers everything that we do.” — Jeff Weiner

Data can help you complete more jobs with increased productivity. For example, when your field technician visits a customer’s site to repair equipment, he records the customer’s location on the map, collects customer data and documents the equipment failure and the solution provided. Eventually, if the same customer calls back in future, the field technicians can quickly fetch the data and service history.

Customers’ location marked on the map helps them travel quickly with route optimization, and service history gives them an idea of what the issue might be and how to solve it. Thus, things become easier and faster with the help of well-organized data. 

ii) Predict Problems in Advance

Companies are increasingly adopting predictive analytics into their field service operations. This includes sales forecasting, customer retention, inventory control, and many others. In fact, according to Gartner, about 50% of companies use predictive analytics in some capacity today.

By analyzing historical data, businesses can predict upcoming trends and patterns. They can identify potential problems before they occur, allowing them to take preventative measures. This approach can also help companies determine which projects require more field resources, saving money and reducing downtime.

Field service companies are often tasked with managing large fleets of vehicles and equipment across multiple locations. While there are many tools out there to help improve efficiency, most do not offer enough insight into how issues occur. For example, it might take days to determine why a particular scheduling conflict occurred. In addition, it takes additional business resources to troubleshoot the problem.

Historical data analysis helps field service teams understand what happened during previous incidents. By analyzing trends over time, you can identify patterns and root causes. You can use this information to plan future maintenance activities, implement preventive measures, and even make changes to prevent similar problems from occurring again.

iii) Assess Your Field Service Company’s performance

Data is a powerful tool for any organization. There are many ways you can leverage data to improve your business. One of the best ways to do this is by creating dashboards that give you real-time insight into your current business performance.

These dashboards should include business metrics such as sales, technician utilization, inventory levels, and customer satisfaction. By having access to these numbers, you can see trends and patterns in your business that you may otherwise miss. This lets you identify areas where you could improve and take action accordingly.

Another great way to utilize data is by analyzing it. Once you have collected all of the necessary data, you can analyze it to gain insights into how your business works. This can lead to improvements in efficiency, overhead cost reduction, and increased revenue.

iv) Improve Customer Experience

Field service organizations are tasked with providing customers with timely and accurate technical service while ensuring that their technicians are able to complete work efficiently and effectively.

The most effective way to ensure that you are meeting customer expectations is to measure and analyze performance against key field service metrics. Data will be vital in understanding what customers want most instead of guessing about it.

Field Service Management companies use Predictive Analytics to improve customer experience and reduce operational costs. This allows you to identify areas where you can make improvements. 

With predictive maintenance, field service managers can provide better service to their customers. By predicting problems before they occur, field service providers can proactively identify issues and take action to prevent them. If something does go wrong, field technicians can quickly determine where the problem lies and resolve it. This helps field service businesses avoid costly downtime and increase employee productivity and customer satisfaction.

v) Make Quick Data-backed Business Decisions 

While many businesses collect data throughout the course of running their field service operations, only a few take advantage of the opportunity to analyze the data and turn it into actionable insights. These insights can help improve processes, identify problems, and ultimately save money. 

“Errors using inadequate data are much less than those using no data at all.” — Charles Babbage

Data analysis in field service business helps better decision-making with the analyses of past performance and trends. Analyzing historical data field service businesses can see what worked and what didn’t work in the past, and adjust accordingly. This helps them avoid repeating mistakes and improve overall efficiency.

One example of this is the ability to predict demand for certain repairs. Knowing ahead of time what parts are going to be needed helps field service companies plan for inventory and staffing needs.

Another example is the ability to track employee productivity. By knowing exactly how much time employees take off per week, field service businesses can schedule shifts around peak times and reduce overtime costs and fuel cost reduction.

vi) Measuring The Performance of Your Company and Employees

Data analytics is a powerful tool for measuring the performance of your company and employees. By analyzing large amounts of data, you can gain insight into how your field service company is performing and identify areas of improvement. 

For example, if you notice that sales are increasing by 10% month over month, you could conclude that your company is growing. 

Data analytics is a powerful tool for measuring the performance of field service technicians. By collecting data on the activities of field service technicians, such as the number of jobs completed, the amount of time spent working on a job, and the first–time fix rates, you can gain valuable insights into the effectiveness of your team.

These insights can help you improve training programs, identify areas for improvement, and ultimately drive greater productivity and efficiency. Unoservice FSM software integrated with Business Intelligence not only provides real-time data; it also provides insight into how well field service technicians are performing their jobs.

Conclusion – Use Business Intelligence Integrated Unoservice Field Service Software

The best part about data analysis in field service business is that it doesn’t require any additional resources. All you need is access to the right tools and the ability to collect and analyze the data.

Unoservice Field Service Management software is the best technology stack for managing and analyzing your field service performance. It can help you track everything from the number of service tasks completed by technicians to the amount of income earned. By analyzing these numbers, you can see exactly how much revenue you’re generating from each technician.

You can also analyze the performance of individual technicians, and compare them against others within your organization. This lets you identify problem areas and take action to improve things.

Unoservice FSM software can also help you manage your team efficiently. Since you can view reports and charts showing the status of your technicians at any given moment, you can easily assign tasks and monitor progress.

Field employee management software can help you keep tabs on your employees’ productivity, too. Field service software can give you a complete picture of your business, allowing you to make informed decisions about your operations.

Try Unoservice field service software for free to see how its business intelligence can help you improve your field service business.

Frequently Asked Questions about Data Analysis in Field Service Business