What is Solar Field Service Management Software?

Solar sales and service business is quite dynamic. It requires the coordination of various variables to complete one solar project on time. Managing field workforce and work orders, scheduling solar field workers for solar installations, real-time tracking of assets and job progress and maintaining recurring preventative maintenance service orders are the fundamental processes in a solar business. 

Manually handling these tasks is difficult and time-consuming, causing extensive delays. Solar field service software helps to reduce service delays, miscommunication errors and other challenges.

Solar business management software simplifies business process management by digitalizing and automating work order tasks. It frees time and human resources to focus on growing the solar business.

Here is a mini guide on solar field service management software and its features.

What is Solar Field Service Software?

Solar field service software helps solar energy companies streamline the processes and operations of a solar sales and service cycle. It keeps track of every stage of the business, right from lead generation to lead collection, scheduling work orders, internal team communication, task collaboration, invoice generation, service reminders and generating business reports.

Modern-day solar service tools integrate Field Service Management (FSM) software to digitize and automate solar business operations. Unservice is one of the best solar field service management tools that let your solar business go paperless, and you can manage it from your mobile anywhere, anytime.

Why does a Solar Company need Solar Field Service Software?

A solar business is dynamic with most of the business processes carried out in the field. Manually scheduling and tracking field technicians while monitoring the progress of every job is quite daunting and time-consuming.

Traditional methods for communication between the solar field service engineer and the in-office solar services managers include making a phone call or sending emails which both take up significant amounts of labour time. It sometimes requires the solar service technician to travel to the office for attendance and work updates which adds to fuel costs.

Solar field service software simplifies internal communications among project managers, technicians, supervisors, and clients by integrating them into one platform. The solar business portal helps get real-time job updates, remote monitoring, real-time communication via SMS/emails, on-site uploading of job documents and photos and on-site invoice generation.

Solar field service management software offers benefits like increased productivity, enhanced business efficiency, reduced costs and time-saving.

Features of a Solar Field Service Management Software

Solar field service management software like Unoservice has extensive features that simplify solar business operations from lead generation to closing solar sales.

1. Lead & Customer Data Management with Solar CRM

CRM forms the core of solar service software. There are many reasons for solar energy businesses to use CRM software.

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software automates the processes of maintaining good customer relations by updating your customer databases with customer data obtained through various customer acquisition channels.

The CRM records details of all customer interactions at every customer touch point. This helps you track your leads and gives better insights into your buyer’s journey.

It maintains customer history, past work orders, relevant photos and documents uploaded, warranty data, SLAs, etc. It is a central hub for your business and customer data with easy access to every employee.

The database is well-structured and securely hosted in a cloud-based system with regular data backups. It poses limited chances for data redundancy and data loss. Moreover, the data is accessible on the solar CRM mobile app.     

2. Solar Service Scheduling & Dispatching

Sometimes you have more open solar service jobs and at times very few. Optimize solar technician scheduling by getting more work done from limited resources without employee burnout.

Solar field service project management software alerts about incoming service requests, site surveys and field installations. It gives you a clear picture of the solar service technician’s availability on the FSM portal. This helps you schedule solar service tasks with field service professionals, avoiding overbooking.  Perform solar service scheduling and technician dispatching from the office hassle-free.

The solar field service software sorts the service requests based on priority and urgency. It assigns technicians based on relevant skills and proximity to the customer’s location.

When the in-office service contractor assigns the job, the solar field service technician receives a notification on the solar FSM mobile app.

The calendar updated with the service schedules is accessible to everyone in the company. Every employee stays informed about the schedules and makes informed changes.

3. Remote Data Access with Solar Mobile App

Real-time work order tracking is one of the basic features helpful for the field-intensive solar business. Everyone, in and outside the office, can view the progress of a work order on the solar service management mobile app.

With the help of the Unoservice FSM mobile app, the solar field service technicians view their daily schedules, and access customer data, work orders, and customer histories. Additionally, they receive alerts for new jobs, which helps them plan their routes. The map integration on the app lets the solar technician find the route to reach the customer’s site.

The solar field service technician can also access inventory data from the app and order spares. After the completion of the site survey or installation, they can upload relevant work order data, photos and videos on the app. The in-office service manager accesses the uploaded data and job status. A single click auto-populates all the data into the customer relationship management system.

Thus the entire team can access data from anywhere at any time without disturbing each other or travelling back and forth to the office.

The solar field service mobile app for customers lets them raise service requests, track the assigned solar technician’s arrival, communicate with customer support and provide service feedback.

4. Live GPS-Tracking of Solar Field Service Technician

The in-office service manager can track the real-time location of the solar service technicians. The GPS integration in the solar service mobile app tracks their location, showing where they are and where they have been. The live location tracking feature helps in efficient job assignments.

Records of solar service professionals’ travel history, mileage covered and field service time tracking helps in keeping a watch on all employees. It further helps in automated attendance management and reimbursement of travel expenses. 

5. Real-Time Communication

Solar service business software integrated with field reporting software allows field workers to communicate with the back-office team. Traditionally, the office staff used to call the field worker to get his location updates, assign a job and receive job updates.

But with the integration of a real-time communication feature, the entire business team stay connected. It eliminates service delays, and miscommunication, enhancing the efficiency of your solar business.

6. Inventory Management

Your entire team has quick access to inventory data. The field workers can check the availability of a spare part and order it to the customer’s site. The in-office service manager has real-time access to inventory usage data that helps in the replenishment of used stocks. 

7. Automated Service Reminders

The solar field service software integrated with a service reminder alerts you of periodic preventive maintenance services for customers. The integration of solar CRM and service reminder software works great by sending automated SMS/email reminders to customers before their upcoming service due date.

The timely reminders get recurring business from your existing customers, ensuring their solar products stay in good condition. You can also personalize the reminder text with customer history and customized discounts to elicit favourable customer responses.

8. On-Site Documents Upload & Invoice Generation

There is no need of travelling to the office on job completion to submit documents and photos. Instead, the solar service mobile app lets field service workers generate automated invoices on-site based on the work order and uploaded documents and photos. The customer’s signature is recorded on the app as proof of job completion. You can customize the invoice with your company’s logo and branding style. 

9. 360- Degree View of Business on the Dashboard

The in-office team get a quick 360-degree view of the entire business on the dashboard of solar FSM software. View the jobs summary like open work orders, pending jobs, total income summary, etc.

You can also view the important business KPIs like the number of service jobs completed per day, customer retention rate, revenue generated, etc.  You can customize the reports to view the performance metrics of individual field workers to reimburse the expenses and payroll management.

The interactive visualization helps you make evidence-backed informed decisions for your solar business.

Unoservice – One-stop Field Service Software for Solar Energy Companies

Solar energy projects require an efficient team working together towards achieving common goals. Modern-day solar business management software allows easy collaboration among different stakeholders involved in the project.

Unoservice solar field service software offers many benefits such as improving business efficiency, cutting down solar soft costs, reducing the time spent on managing work orders, increasing revenue and maintaining long-term customer relationships. Solar FSM software helps you grow your solar business with limited resources and time. Book a free demo of the Unoservice FSM tool to get a better overview of the solar service software.

Frequently Asked Questions on Solar Service Management Software