10 Reasons Why You Should Use GPS-based Technician Tracking App For HVAC Business

One of the most difficult tasks in the HVAC service business is managing the HVAC workforce. To properly schedule HVAC service jobs for HVAC field service technicians, the HVAC service manager must know about their whereabouts, ETA and availability. HVAC technicians are mostly in the field and hence stay disconnected from the in-office team.

HVAC contractor usually calls the HVAC engineers to know their whereabouts and receive job progress updates. This process not only wastes time but also leaves room for trickery. A better solution is to monitor technician mobility in real time. 

GPS-based HVAC employee tracking software helps you keep tabs on your HVAC service technician’s mobility, activity and travel history. This aids in better HVAC scheduling, dispatching and field employee management. 

This article shows you how a GPS-based HVAC technician tracking app helps you manage your HVAC service business.  

What is an HVAC Field Employee Tracking Software?

GPS-based technician tracking software is a technology that uses global positioning system (GPS) technology to track HVAC technicians’ locations and activities. The location tracker records the GPS coordinates of HVAC field technicians at any given time and reports the exact location on Google Maps. 

These systems keep track of technicians’ movements throughout the course of a job, allowing managers to see exactly where employees are and what they’re doing at any given moment.

Some of these systems include features such as automatic alerts when technicians arrive at a location or when the HVAC field service technicians commute outside the vicinity of the customer facilities and notifications when technicians complete tasks.

Other features may include mapping tools that let managers view the entire route taken by a technician during a job and mobile apps that allow technicians to access data from anywhere.

How GPS-Based Field Employee Monitoring Systems Work?

GPS-based employee tracking systems typically consist of two parts: hardware and software. Hardware includes devices like smartphones carried by HVAC employees that contain built-in GPS receivers.

The software consists of programs that run on these devices and collect data about the device’s location. Once collected, the data is sent to a central server via cellular networks or Wi-Fi connections. From there, the data gets stored and analyzed using specialized software.

How can GPS-based Field Staff Tracking Software help HVAC service business?

There are many benefits to having GPS-based technician tracking systems in place. These remote employee monitoring tools give managers a clear picture of where their field teams are at any given time.

They can help save money by reducing overtime costs and boost productivity by keeping workers focused on their jobs rather than wasting time looking for directions or waiting for coworkers. There are many more benefits of the HVAC sales employee tracking app as listed below.

i) Employee Location Tracking App Optimizes Employee Scheduling

The field employee tracking app helps the HVAC service managers figure out where their HVAC technicians are in real-time using the GPS technology integrated HVAC field service mobile app. For incoming customer service requests, they can quickly check the technician’s location and assign a skilled technician closer to the customer’s place. 

Assigning a technician nearby facilitates quick dispatch and faster service rather than making the customers wait hours for the HVAC mechanic to arrive. You can also inform the customers about the ETA of the technician instead of testing their patience. 

ii) Easier Navigation with Route optimization

The GPS-based monitoring systems help the HVAC field employees find the best route to reach the customer’s place. Route planning prevents wandering unnecessarily and wasting time finding the exact locality, getting lost, wasting time getting stuck in traffic and making calls to the office or customer to ask about the route and landmark. 

According to a study, 95% of field service companies that implement GPS tracking software see an increase in mobile workers’ punctuality.

With pre-planned routes and schedules, the HVAC service technicians reach the customer’s place on time and complete jobs on time. This also increases technicians’ productivity which helps them complete more jobs.

iii) Mark customer locations on the map for future use

With in-map route planning, you can reach landmarks in the proximity of the customer’s location and then you might struggle to find the exact place. However, the Unoservice field app solves this issue by letting HVAC technicians mark customers’ locations on the map when they reach the place. 

Though the first time it might have been a little challenging for the technician to reach the place, in future when the same or another technician from your HVAC service company visits the customer’s location, he can quickly fetch the location and route via the location tracking enabled Unoservice field app. 

iv) Improves Customer Experiences

Assume a customer raises a service request to your HVAC company regarding the fault in their air conditioning system during the peak summer season. AC is highly needed during this period of the year and customers cannot stay without it. At this point in time, they need immediate help from your HVAC service company or they will switch to a competitor business.

With a GPS-based HVAC technician tracking app in place, your HVAC service manager quickly checks if any technician is in the vicinity of the customer’s location and quickly dispatches him for the job along with route planning.

The assigned HVAC mechanic quickly visit the customer’s place and repair the air conditioning system giving the customer a huge relief. The technician further generates invoices on-site using Unoservice HVAC field service software and collects the payment.

Thus the entire field service process gets completed quickly and smoothly. Prompt service in turn delivers great customer experiences which again helps your HVAC business for customer retention. 

v) HVAC Technician Tracking app helps you Monitor Technician Mobility

Once the HVAC service contractor assigns jobs to the technicians, the work does not get completed. He/she has to constantly monitor whether the technician reached the customer’s place, performs the job on time, faces any difficulty, does he require additional support, etc.

Traditionally, the HVAC service technician calls the in-office service manager to inform them about his arrival at the location and likewise gives regular updates via phone calls.

An HVAC service company has not one but many technicians working in the field. And the HVAC service manager has to monitor everyone while staying at the office and managing field service operations. 

This is where a real-time tracking app simplifies the process. The in-office HVAC service manager can easily monitor every technician’s mobility on the app marked with the GPS coordinates of the technician’s location. The manager can also set alerts for specific events like when the technician reaches the customer’s place, when he leaves the place, etc. 

vi)  Leave No Room for Trickery

As you can see when the technician arrives at the customer’s place for service and when he completes and leaves, the HVAC service provider can keep track of how much time technicians are spending on each task. If there are one or two technicians, you can manually keep a check. However, when there are more technicians, you cannot consistently keep a check on them manually, leaving room for trickery.

With the best employee monitoring software, you can be aware if the technicians roam unnecessarily during work hours. You can monitor their travel history and they stay accountable to answer why they were at particular locations. This way the HVAC service technicians cannot trick their employees by performing freelance repair jobs during office work hours.

vii) Mileage Tracking Simplifies Expenses Reimbursement

Conventionally, in a field service business, the field technicians submit their fuel bills and expense reports to the field service manager for reimbursement. The manager takes too much time to evaluate the bills while still not being completely sure whether the claims made are genuine or trickery.

The approval of bills and reimbursement can get expedited. The GPS-based HVAC technician tracking app tracks the entire travel history of the technician along with mileage tracking. This helps the HVAC manager quickly and accurately evaluate and approve reimbursement claims. There are no chances for HVAC field employees to take unfair advantage of travel allowances.

viii) GPS-based Field Service Time tracking automates attendance & Payroll management

In manual-based systems, the field service technician travels to the office every morning and at the end of the day to mark the attendance and present the daily reports. This not only wastes time but also fuel.

The employee time and location tracking app help the HVAC technicians remotely mark their attendance on the app and the tracker keeps track of their work time and travel history. The integration of the employee tracking app with payroll management simplifies and automates the payroll calculation enabling timely payment of salaries. 

ix) Saves you Time & Efforts

The GPS-based HVAC technician tracking app automates field employee monitoring, route planning, attendance management and expense reimbursement. The HVAC service provider need not waste time making calls or sending texts to the HVAC field employees. Thus it saves time and effort for HVAC service providers who can then focus on enhancing customer experiences and growing the business.

x) Reduce Operational Costs for your HVAC Company

Real-time tracking app not only saves HVAC contractors time but also the HVAC technicians’ time. The route optimization minimizes travel time and also reduces fuel consumption. This in turn reduces the fuel costs incurred by your HVAC service company.

Also, earlier the technicians used to return to the office after the completion of every service job to submit the job reports to the manager. However, with Unoservice HVAC field service app, the HVAC technicians can update everything on the app and prevent back and forth to the office. This again saves fuel costs.

Manual handling of field service processes requires additional resources. Online employee monitoring apps prevent the need for additional resources, saving operational costs and expenses. 

Conclusion

GPS-based HVAC technician tracking app helps HVAC service providers monitor their field teams, increase the productivity of HVAC technicians, reduce operational costs and boost the efficiency of your HVAC service business. When you integrate the field employee tracking app with CRM, you can well maintain all the collected data and also drive better decision-making from the reports.

However, spending on multiple tools like GPS tracker, CRM and others eats up too much of your business finances. A more viable and economical solution is to adopt an HVAC field service software integrated with all the required apps. It helps to streamline the entire HVAC service business operations on one platform.

Unoservice is one of the best field service management software and comes with a free field employee tracking app. Try it for free and explore the functionality. 

Frequently Asked Questions about GPS-based HVAC Technician Tracking App