A service business, which involves contractors fulfilling work orders at job sites that run the gamut from personal residences to commercial office space, is often a challenge to operate. These businesses inherently have many moving parts, from scheduling, to hiring and maintaining reliable contractors, to acquiring clients, to making sure they are satisfied with the progress and quality of the work that is being performed. All of this needs to be properly tracked and accounted for, and using a paper-based or analogue system for doing so is not only outdated, it is also error-prone and easy to misplace.
Instead, many service businesses are turning to technology to hammer out and refine their processes. While some of the frustrations of running a service business are due to contractor accountability, a lot of it actually falls on the business itself to organize its processes and structure itself in such a way to account for this. To do this, and continually fulfill work orders at a rate that can sustain a service business, you need to have the proper technology and systems in place. With that in mind, here is how service businesses can utilize technology to stay organized and accountable to both its clients and its contractors.
Work order assignment and scheduling
Work orders are notoriously difficult to fill, but the best way to fill in the gap is to use technology. Using a software solution, you can assign contractors directly to jobs so that there is no confusion as to who is supposed to fulfill work orders. This allows you to get on top of customer satisfaction, and make sure that your contractors show up when you say they are going to be at a job site.
One of the best ways to get a handle on your scheduling is to use service dispatch software. Using this software, you can graduate from using spreadsheets and other manual forms of scheduling and keep track of and automate your scheduling process based on digital calendars and availability. While you will still need to use a dispatcher to manually oversee the process, service dispatch software can go a long way in helping your service company improve their assigning and scheduling process through the use of technology.
Real-time updates
When dealing with clients who have various problems in their personal abodes or commercial office space, there are inherently issues and complications that arise. Keeping a handle on these disruptions and delays is very important for service businesses that have full schedules and want to make sure that they are able to appropriately get all of their work done for their clients.
One of the easiest ways to do that is to provide real-time updates. While you can do this via email or a phone call, service dispatch software can automate this process to make your service company much more efficient. These updates can be both for contractors and clients, and can provide updates on the status of a work order, a schedule delay, or even a scheduling change that may occur as a result of a job taking too long or a no-show from a contractor.
In summary
While there are many technological solutions that service companies can use to improve their processes, one of the best to implement is service dispatch software. Not only will this help you better organize your work order assignments and scheduling process, but it will also allow you to provide real-time updates to both employees and clients. This can be helpful not only in terms of efficiency, but also in terms of accountability to both your clients and employees.
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