Terms like proper planning and timely scheduling might feel foreign to field workers. Today we’re going to focus on the people out in the field, collecting information, providing services to the customer and trying to ensure a stable workflow. Increased customer satisfaction and workers’ productivity are the need of the hour.
It’s not easy being a field service technician. Keeping records while rushing out in the field is not everyone’s tea. Collecting data all day long and reporting back to the office with loads of paperwork can be a handful for field workers. Working without proper tools and software increases all this work five times fold, along with a decrease in productivity. Let’s shed light on what precisely these tasks are, these challenges that demand attention and how a field worker can overcome them.
Daily challenges of field workers
Field workers never feel short of challenges in their daily life. They don’t live a particular lifestyle, and when there’s room for opportunities, there’s always room for more trouble, productivity, innovation and efficiency. It’s the nature of their business that they struggle with unpredictable challenges.
Sometimes it’s not enough communication or lack of guidance, whereas sometimes it is too much paperwork and long traffic routes. Field workers must be aware at each stage.
Here are some very common challenges that every field worker faces
- Lack of real-time communication- Mostly, field workers use phone calls and messages to connect with their managers in the office. But there might be a possibility that field workers are completing tasks in the area with a low network or no network, making it difficult to report back timely and coordinate with the managers. This can also cause forgetting some information and loss of data. Field workers using their phones to convey or store information might raise the same issue, making it difficult for managers to keep track.
- Travel time and cost- Field workers are generally not aware of the exact location of the customer, which therefore takes time to reach the site. Taking long routes without knowing the shortest route also increases fuel charges. This decreases the overall productivity of the field workers, whereas, with better route planning, they would’ve completed comparatively more tasks in a day.
- Scattered workflow – Gathering information from several customers can be time-consuming, especially when the field workers are unaware of the customers’ needs. Sometimes the products or services that customer requires are not under the field workers’ expertise, leading to miscommunication. This also affects the customer experience with the organization. Field workers’ skills are not put into use to increase their productivity. It disturbs the workflow and makes the job process harder for managers as they need to find another person for the job.
- Scheduling conflict – Not every worker works at the same time. They may work different shifts. Due to persistent customer appointments, more than one field worker is allocated with the same tasks in a different time frame. This can cause a conflict between the field workers and managers. Not being able to manage the proper schedule of a field worker, managers make a mess, and it’s the field worker who faces the consequences of it with either too much work during the same shift hours or too little work affecting their productivity.
- Customer experience – Without proper workflow, it’s evident that field workers are not able to work to their full potential. Their issues don’t address, they don’t have appropriate knowledge of the task, and they are not provided with proper training by the managers to increase their efficiency. All this means them reaching the customer with half the information and not being able to resolve the customer’s issue. A customer with multiple bad experiences means a lost customer. All this put the field worker’s jobs in jeopardy.
Field workers are the one who represents the organization in front of the people. If they face such challenges, one should treat them as a priority. The leading cause of every challenge they face is not having a proper schedule and workflow. One big solution is using field service management software as a digital platform to view real-time dashboards, routes, schedules and task allotment. Let’s read how one can overcome these challenges with the software.
How does one overcome these challenges?
- Communication- Getting access to proper communication of field workers with the managers via a particular platform helps with the stable workflow when out in the field. One can set their tasks and plan their day accordingly. Timely sharing of reports and information speeds up the process with adequate accountability.
- Route planning – A software inbuilt with customers’ accurate location and the direction for field workers with the safest route ensures timely arrival. It saves time and cost with route planning and also increases field workers’ efficiency as they can now do more in less time. It’s like killing two birds with one stone.
- Work management – With timely reports of field workers in digital software, managers can access their insights and allocate work accordingly. Field workers can also overview their strategies and goals and work on increasing their productivity if necessary. The right job is assigned to the right person and helps develop their skills.
- Eliminate paperwork – Field workers not having to carry a bundle of papers everywhere they go eases their day. Less paperwork and more digital work also mean minimum loss of information. All information is secured at a digital server which managers also have real-time access to, no matter where they are.
This is a world of technology and digitalization. And all it does is make people’s lives easier. Field workers with this technology can achieve much more in a day. They can provide accurate and insightful information to the organization and simultaneously resolve customers’ issues in a much more advanced way. URVA- field service management software is the one modern solution. It helps field workers prioritize their work, make schedules, set goals, and work efficiently. So with this, there’s no wasting time but only maximum productivity.
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