What are the Challenges in Field Service Management and How to Overcome them?

Field service management (FSM) is a critical function within most organizations today. Efficient field service management helps companies deliver products and services faster, better, and cheaper. 

However, field service management is often filled with challenges. In fact, we’ve compiled a list of solutions to common field service management challenges and the best solutions that will ensure your success.

1. Low Customer Satisfaction

The first field service management challenge is customer satisfaction. If customers aren’t satisfied with the quality of the product or service, they won’t use it again.

In fact, one study found that dissatisfied customers spend about $200 less per transaction than those who are satisfied.

The first-time fix rate measures how often customers return to the same issue again. A low first-time fix rate suggests that the company’s services aren’t good enough. If the problem occurs repeatedly, it could mean that the company isn’t providing sufficient support.

You must equip your field workers with enough data and tools to fix the issues the first-time boosting customer satisfaction levels. A good CRM system will allow field service managers to easily access customer records, track conversations, and send messages.

Timely delivery is another major issue with FSM programs. Customers don’t like waiting around for something to arrive. They want to know exactly when it will ship out. And, if it doesn’t show up on time, you risk losing revenue. Consistently communicate with the customers and keep them informed about field technician assignments and arrival.

So, you must make sure that every aspect of your FSM program meets the needs of your customers.

2. Scheduling Conflicts

Resource allocation is one of the major field service operations management challenges. You need to determine what resources are needed to run a successful FSM program. Then, you must allocate them properly.

Without minimal clarity in field technician schedules, field service managers sometimes double-book field technicians for a task or overbook technicians. This leads to chaos as service jobs get delayed and customers get disappointed. It is one of the challenges in field service management that wastes technician time and business expenses.

When scheduling conflicts occur, technicians often must reschedule which can lead to lost productivity. In addition, scheduling conflicts can cause customers to experience poor service quality.

3. Needless documentation

Moving ahead, another field operations management challenge is the huge piles of unorganized papers. Paperwork is a huge source of errors. You know it. We all do. But how much paperwork does your organization really need? How can you reduce the amount of paper in your office without compromising efficiency?

This method is very inefficient. Use field service CRM software that allows you to easily edit and update documents online.

You don’t even need to print anything anymore. Everything is available on the cloud and you can access it anytime, anywhere and from any device.

4. Rising Overhead Costs

Overhead cost is an important element in determining whether or not one should invest in any specific function. This includes salaries, rent, utility bills, office supplies, accounting fees, etc. However, it does not include marketing costs such as advertising, sales promotion, etc.

Bringing your processes online can help minimize overhead costs and maximize profits. Customers will appreciate the convenience of being able to access their account information whenever and wherever they want.

Field service technicians travel thousands of miles every month to provide customer support. But what if there was a way to reduce those costs while improving efficiency? Adopting Optimized Route Management (ORM) technology lets you optimize the route of technicians, allowing them to spend less time driving around, and more time servicing customers. This leads to increased productivity, improved customer satisfaction, and lower operating expenses.

5. Poor Work Order Management

Work order management is critical to the successful completion of projects. In fact, it’s estimated that over 80% of project failures occur due to poor planning, scheduling, and communication. This implies how poor work order management poses a huge challenge in field service operations management.

A good work order management solution allows companies to track each step of a project, ensuring that everything is done according to plan. Good workflow management software includes a workflow module, an assets tracking module, and a report module. These modules enable you to assign tasks to employees, keep track of progress, and generate reports.

The best workflow management systems provide real-time visibility into every field operation. This enables you to assess the recording to find the gaps in your field service management processes.

GPS-integrated into field employee management app gives the in-office managers real-time visibility into field workers’ location and their travel history. This way you not only keep a watch on all your field employees but also leave no room for trickery.

6. Inefficient Communication

Field service managers are often out of touch with their field teams and customers. Field technicians might work in remote locations without reliable internet connections. Or they might be travelling, and rely on their smartphones for communications. The communication gap poses a huge field service management challenge.

Real-time communication is important for managing field service projects. If you’re relying on email, text messages, or phone calls, it could take days or weeks to communicate with a customer about a problem that needs to be fixed immediately. This is especially true if there’s no way to record conversations.

A field service management solution should include features such as chat, voice calling, and video conferencing. These tools allow field service managers to quickly resolve issues and keep their customers happy.

7. Complex asset tracking

Asset tracking is essential to any business that sells products or services, whether you are servicing solar panels, inverter batteries or RO water purifiers. But how do you manage the inventory of hundreds of thousands of items? And what about the millions of individual parts used to make those goods? How do you keep track of all of these things?

The answer is simple: You use asset-tracking software.

A digitized asset database makes this process easier than ever. With just one piece of information, such as a serial number, you can find out everything about that item — where it came from, when it was manufactured, how much it costs, and even who owns it.

With this information, you can easily determine whether there is enough stock left to meet customer demand or if you need to restock. If something goes wrong with an item, you can quickly identify the cause and take action to prevent further damage. Your inventory management becomes easier with a field service app.

8. Reduced Team Efficiency

Field service teams are often tasked with providing support to customers across multiple channels. They must juggle requests, troubleshoot issues, and keep up with customer expectations while still meeting deadlines. When there isn’t enough visibility into how well each member of the team is performing, it becomes difficult to provide quality customer service.

A good tool can help you find out what’s really happening behind the scenes. You’ll know exactly where your team struggles most and why. With real-time data, you can quickly spot patterns and take action. This way, you can improve the efficiency of your entire team.

9. Invoice and Payment Management Issues

Invoicing and payment management are essential parts of running a successful business, especially in today’s digital world where customers want to pay online. If you don’t manage your invoices and payments effectively, it could cost you thousands of dollars each month. If you do not overcome this field service management challenge, you leave most of the money on the table.

An effective invoice and payment management system will help you save time and reduce costs. You can automate many processes such as creating invoices, tracking expenses, managing payments, and reimbursing employee expenses. This way, you can focus on growing your business rather than spending hours manually entering data into spreadsheets.

10. Low Service Quality

Quality control is another important component of FSM. You want to ensure that everything is done correctly the first time. Otherwise, you could lose money and reputation. For example, if a technician installs a faulty part, the customer might blame you for the problem.

Service quality is about how customers perceive the quality of services. This is often confused with customer satisfaction. While it is true that you cannot satisfy everyone, you can always improve service quality. If you want to know what makes people happy, ask them directly. You can even conduct surveys to find out what they think about your products or services.

There is an important difference between customer satisfaction and service quality. Customer satisfaction refers to the overall opinion of the customer towards your product or service. On the other hand, service quality refers to how well your employees deliver the product or service.

For example, if you provide poor customer service, you might lose some customers over time. However, if you offer high-quality customer service, you could retain those same customers for life.

A good strategy will help companies to improve service quality. To do this, you must first understand what makes your customers tick. Once you identify the factors that matter most to your customers, you can start improving your service quality.

You can also validate the quality of your work using digital tools. These tools allow you to measure the performance of your team members and compare it against industry standards.

Your field service leaders should ensure all tasks are done accurately, efficiently and effectively. They should make sure that every task is completed within the agreed-upon timeframe. In addition, they should ensure that each employee knows exactly what he/she needs to do to complete his/her assigned task.

Finally, they should monitor the progress of their teams on a daily basis. By doing so, they can detect problems early and fix them quickly.

Use digital tools like Field service management software to track the progress of your tasks at any given time, anywhere. You can remotely manage the entire lifecycle of a project. From tracking the progress of your projects to assigning tasks to your team members, you can easily keep tabs on everything.

Conclusion – Use technology to build a Robust Field Service Company

Technology allows us to do things faster and better than ever before. Field service companies are getting bigger every day. Technology can help to solve common field service challenges.

With the help of technology, you can automate many processes within your organization. Automation frees up resources, allowing you to focus on high-value activities. Technology also helps you scale your business. You can expand your reach into new markets and increase your revenue.

Try Unoservice field service automation software that helps you streamline the entire workflow of your field service business operating in any industry. You can either book a free demo or try the FSM software for free.

Frequently Asked Questions on Field Service Management Challenges