Essential Field Service Metrics to Measure the Performance of Your Field Service Business

How do you assess whether your field service business is performing well or not? How do you measure field service operations efficiency? 

You might do it by measuring the revenue growth, customer retention, profit gain, etc. These parameters are nothing but the field service metrics that show you where your field service company is heading and how far have you reached your goal.   

There are too many metrics out there to measure field service performance. Are you confused about which field service performance metrics you must measure? Are you finding it difficult to manage all the data? 

Choosing the right field service metrics for your field service organization could be tricky. The key to successful field service metrics assessment is planning. You must know who will receive the data, what frequency it needs to arrive, and whether there are any limitations on collecting the data.

Here is a quick guide on the right field service metrics you need to measure the performance of your field service business.  

What Are Field Service Key Performance Indicators?

Key performance indicators (KPIs) are used to measure the field service team’s performance and how well a field service organization is doing. They provide insight into whether the field team is meeting its goals and objectives, and whether it is getting better over time.

A field service management KPI helps you know where you stand against your competitors and provides a way to track progress toward achieving your goals. A KPI can be anything from measuring customer satisfaction to tracking sales revenue.

There are three main categories of field service metrics or KPIs: operational, financial and customer satisfaction. Operational KPIs include things like lead times, cycle times, inventory levels, etc. Financial KPIs include things like revenue per employee, cost per unit sold, profit margin, etc. And Customer Satisfaction KPIs include things like response rates, customer retention, etc.

Why Should You Measure Field Service Metrics?

Field service metrics help you measure how effective your business operations are. They give you insight into where your resources are being used most effectively and where improvements can be made. In addition, they provide information about customer satisfaction and retention.

Metrics are important because they help you understand how customers interact with your brand. Field service KPIs can help you make better decisions about improving your processes and procedures, and they can even help you identify areas where you could save money.

That’s why it’s critical to make sure you have access to the right data. You want to ensure that you’re measuring what matters most to your organization and your customers. But without the right metrics, it’s hard to know whether you’re doing well or poorly. And if you don’t track the right metrics, you might find yourself chasing your tail.

How to Choose the Right Field Service Metrics

Field service management (FSM) is a set of processes about managing people, processes, technology, and information across the entire lifecycle of a field service project. FSM includes activities like planning, scheduling, executing, monitoring, controlling, closing, and reporting. These activities are supported by tools, systems, and processes.

The most important part of FSM is measuring what happens during each step of the field service process. This helps identify problems early on and allows for a quick resolution. However, there are many different types of metrics out there, and choosing the right ones can be difficult.

Here are some key questions to ask yourself when deciding which metrics to track:

• What do I want to measure?
• How often am I collecting data?
• Do I need to collect data for every single technician?
• How much time am I willing to invest to get those numbers?
• Can my CRM provide me with the data I need?

List of Common Field Service Metrics to Track

1. Business Revenue Growth

This is probably the most basic measurement of a field service company’s success. Revenue growth in field service business refers to the amount of money a field service company earns per year. A growing company is one that increases its revenues by 10% or more annually. Companies that experience revenue growth tend to be successful businesses.

To achieve revenue growth, a company needs to invest in marketing campaigns that bring in new customers. Once these efforts pay off, the company can continue to expand its customer base.

If you’re growing sales over time, you’re doing something right. However, it doesn’t tell us anything about whether your customers are happy with your product or service. A field service company could grow revenues without losing customers and vice versa.

2. Mean time to complete (MTTC)

MTTC is a key metric used to measure efficiency within field service businesses. This metric helps companies determine whether or not they are making progress towards reaching their goals. In addition, it allows you to identify bottlenecks in your workflow. If something takes too long, there is a chance that you will miss out on opportunities to grow your business. However, if something is taking too short a period of time, you might find yourself struggling to keep up with demand.

The most common way to calculate mean time to complete (MTTC), is to divide the total number of hours worked by the number of tasks completed. For example, if you work 40 hours per week, and you finish three projects each day, then you would have 20 hours left over to do another project. Therefore, you would have an MTTC of 10 hours.

To calculate the average time spent on a task, simply take the sum of the individual times divided by the number of tasks. For example, if a task took 15 minutes to complete, and you had four tasks, then your average time spent on a single task would be 30 minutes. You can use this information to make decisions about what needs to change in your business.

3. First-time fix rate (FTFR)

A first-time fix rate of 80% or better is considered good practice. If you are looking to improve your customer satisfaction rates, it makes sense to look into ways to provide a successful first-visit resolution.

This could mean reducing the amount of time required to complete repairs, providing remote data access to field service technicians, route planning, increasing the availability of spare parts, or even improving your technician training programs.

Fixing problems on the first attempt is one way to ensure that customers receive quality service. Customers appreciate quickly resolved issues, and having technicians prepared to handle situations without needing to return to the office for additional tools and supplies is another benefit.

The goal is to keep the first repair attempt free of errors, and to do that requires ensuring that technicians have access to all necessary data. Use field service management software that lets you improve first-time fix rates with real-time communication, route planning and other features.

Check our list of easy tips to improve first-time fix rates for your field service business.

4. Technician Utilization

Technician utilization is measured by considering the amount of time each field technician spends working on service tasks.

There are many things that lead technicians to work less efficiently like poor management, lack of training, poor communication, unclear goals and low pay.

If you want to maximize your revenue, you must utilize your technicians correctly. You must understand what leads to low technician utilization and how to fix it.

Adopting field service automation tools helps field technicians complete jobs faster with better real-time communication. For example, the invoices are generated automatically when the technician uploads the job completion status on the field service mobile app. Automation helps complete more jobs and better technician utilization.

5. Number of Jobs Done

Tracking the number of jobs done by each field service technician can help you determine whether the technician is meeting expectations. If there is a problem, it might show up here.

This metric can provide insight into how well or badly technicians are doing their job duties. For example, if a technician completes fewer tasks per day than expected, it could indicate that he/she needs training. 

You can track the no. of jobs performed by each field service technician over time. By comparing the number of jobs completed during different periods, you can see if the technician is improving his/her skills.

The data used to calculate this metric is based on information collected from the technician’s daily activity reports.

6. Average Travel Time Per Task

Average travel time per task is the amount of time it takes to reach a customer location to complete a service job. It includes everything from getting to the location to completing the job to returning to the office.

Reaching some job locations may take longer than others. A good rule of thumb is to plan for two hours of travel time per hour of labour. However, this number should vary based on the proximity of the customer location.

The average employee spends about 8 hours each day commuting to work, according to a study published by the American Institute of Stress. This figure includes both public transportation and driving to work.

It is important to make sure that your commute is efficient. You want to avoid wasting time while still getting where you need to go. In fact, research suggests that people who take longer trips tend to be less productive than those who don’t.

With intelligent service scheduling and route optimization, you can reduce the travel time of your field workers. Also, remote data access on the go prevents unnecessary travel to the office to fetch data and spare parts. Unoservice field service management tool comes integrated with smart scheduling and route planning features that reduce your travel time and field costs, helping to boost your technician productivity and complete more jobs.

7. Customer Satisfaction

Customer satisfaction is the overall level of happiness or dissatisfaction with a product or service. It’s measured by asking customers how satisfied they are with the experience they had with a company or product. A high score indicates that customers are generally pleased with the service they received. Low scores indicate that customers aren’t happy with the experience they had.

There are many different ways to collect data on customer satisfaction, such as phone calls, emails, and face-to-face interviews. Some companies send surveys via email, while others conduct live chats or ask customers to complete surveys online.

Customer satisfaction surveys are great tools for evaluating your field service business. They allow you to find out exactly where improvements need to be made, and which areas of your business are working best. You can even use them to see how satisfied your current clients are with your work and compare those numbers against previous years.

8. Customer Churn

Customer churn rate refers to the percentage of customers who stop buying from you. A high level of churn indicates that your customers aren’t satisfied with your service, and they’re leaving quickly. 

A high rate of customer churn can cause businesses to grow slowly or shrink. In fact, it’s one of the most common reasons why companies fail. If you are experiencing high rates of customer churn, there are some things you can do to fix the problem.

Ensure service is meeting the needs of your target market and provide exceptional customer support. Make your customer experiences meet customer expectations.

We have compiled a list of ways to reduce customer churn in your field service business.

9. Customer retention

Customer retention rate refers to the percentage of customers a company keeps once they’ve been acquired. It’s about keeping customers who are already paying you money.

According to research, a massive 65% of sales will come from existing customers, and only 20% of your current customers will be the source of 80% of your company’s profits.

So it makes sense that companies spend most of their resources trying to retain existing customers.

A high level of customer retention rate indicates that the company is able to keep its customers satisfied and loyal. There are many ways to measure customer retention, such as by calculating the percentage of repeat service requests, the amount of money spent per service visit, etc. However, these numbers aren’t always accurate. 

To accurately gauge the customer retention rate, you should look at multiple factors, including the cost of acquiring new customers, the cost of retaining current customers, and the overall satisfaction of customers.

Read our list of tips to improve customer retention in the field service business. 

10. Service to the Cash Rate

A good service-to-cash rate helps you keep your customers happy while reducing late payment penalties. This is because it allows you to send invoices quickly and accurately, and it gives you better visibility over how much money you’re making and where it’s coming from.

Invoice processing is an important aspect of keeping your business running efficiently. If you’re missing invoice information, you could end up paying late fees and interest charges. You’ll want to make sure that your billing software is set up correctly.

There are many ways to improve the service to the cash rate. For example, you can use automated email reminders to remind customers to pay, and you can add additional fields to the invoices themselves. These changes will allow you to collect more detailed information about payments and increase accuracy.

Getting technicians to enter job details in real-time will help track progress and ensure that you’re getting accurate data about jobs done. Collecting customer approvals for work completed in the field will help you capture accurate information about jobs done.

How To Track Field Service Metrics?

1. Track Field Metrics With Spreadsheets

Spreadsheets are probably the most common way to track your KPIs. They’re easy to use, free, and very effective. However, they aren’t perfect. For starters, they’re pretty slow. You won’t be able to see real-time trends unless you pay for premium software.

Another big issue is that they require constant maintenance. Every time you add a new row, you need to update every cell in the spreadsheet. This takes a lot of time. Finally, spreadsheets are really only useful for small amounts of data. As soon as you add even a few hundred rows of information, things become unwieldy.

2. Monitor Crucial Metrics With Dashboards

Dashboards are another popular option. They’re similar to spreadsheets, except they’re designed specifically for managing large amounts of data. Like spreadsheets, they’re fast, cheap, and simple to set up. However, they lack flexibility.

Because they’re built around specific types of data, you can’t easily switch between different kinds of data. Plus, they’re not customizable. Once you’ve installed a dashboard, you’re stuck with whatever settings the developer chose.

3. Monitor Field Service Performance Metrics With Integrated Field Service Apps

Field service software integrated with CRM and GPS-tracker are the best solutions for tracking your KPIs. They provide everything you need without having to install anything extra. They’re flexible and also quick. You can visually see real-time trends almost instantly. And finally, apps are highly scalable. You can add hundreds of thousands of rows of data without breaking a sweat.

Unlike using siloed software solutions for every stage of the field service process and scattering data across different tools only to waste time in compiling data from various sources, integrated field management apps host all the data in a single location. Hence report generation becomes easy, instantaneous and automated.

Use Unoservice FSM Software to Track Key Field Service Metrics

Unoservice field service management software provides tools to help companies measure their success. With integrated FSM software, you can easily track and use key performance indicators (KPIs), such as customer satisfaction scores, response times, call centre wait times, and even inventory levels. These metrics are important because they provide insight into how well your team is performing.

In addition to providing insights into your operation, FSM software also makes it easier to report on those metrics. For example, you can set up automated reports so that every month, you receive a summary of your KPI numbers. You can also export the data to Excel for further analysis. This type of reporting gives you a better understanding of how your company is doing overall.

Frequently Asked Questions about Field Service Metrics