Five Good Reasons To Use Dispatch Software And Tips To Get The Most Out Of It

Efficiency is the keyword to success in today’s hyper-competitive field service business. A field service business that focuses on efficiency executes work faster. For instance, they could service ten customers a day instead of the usual eight. The reduced cost-per-customer and improved revenue per field agent allow the business to charge competitive rates and remain profitable.

Good dispatching software delivers efficiency improvements.

1. Dynamic Scheduling

Efficient field service depends on assigning work orders to field agents optimally. Success depends on the right technician reaching the right location within the shortest possible time.

But scheduling is a complex task and takes the services of a full-time agent. Dispatch software automates scheduling, sparing the hassles. The software matches the technicians’ skills and qualifications to the demands in the work order. It shortlists eligible technicians for the job. It then considers factors such as the number of open work orders with the technicians, leaves, holidays, and other factors. The algorithm executes in minutes what human dispatchers do in hours. The improved accuracy boosts employee morale.

ReachOut dispatch software automates the most complex tasks associated with scheduling. It enables dynamic dispatching.

An easy drag-and-drop interface makes scheduling easy for dispatchers. They may 

• Reschedule downstream jobs, or reassign them to someone else, if there is a delay in one job. If the work gets over earlier than expected, they may inform the next-in-line customer of an earlier ETA or squeeze in an extra job.
• Reassign technicians to cope with contingencies. Instances such as a technician calling in sick unexpectedly, or a customer canceling an order, is routine in field operations. Without dispatch software, dispatchers struggle to make alternatives. Often, the business faces a double whammy of idle technicians and delayed resolutions.

Field agents get scheduling information in real-time through their smartphone apps. Visual indicators highlight priority or urgent jobs.

Read more: Accelerate Business Productivity with Scheduling & Dispatching Software!

2. Route Optimization

Field service dispatch software helps field service businesses plan and optimize routes.

It is no longer enough to provide the field agent with the address of the worksite and expect them to find their way. Speed is critical in today’s hyper-competitive business environment. Impatient customers get annoyed with even a few minutes’ delay.

Field service businesses rely on dispatch software to trace the best route to the job location. The most obvious route need not be the shortest or the easiest.

ReachOut dispatch software integrates with live maps. The integration makes available traffic patterns, incidents, diversions, and more. It generates the best route for the field agent to reach the worksite through the shortest and most cost-effective route. The flexible and dynamic nature of the software makes it easy to replan routes and reduce detours.

Such effective route optimization ensures field agents spend less time on the road and more time doing their job. There are direct savings of time and money. Productivity levels and asset utilization rates shoot up, as do customer satisfaction.

3. Live Tracking

Field service takes place outside the business premises. Once the field agent leaves from the office to the worksite, there is very little control or supervision.

Dispatch software enables live tracking of field agents to pinpoint the location. The GPS-enabled smartphone app transmits the location to the cloud server hosting the software.

Such live tracking offers several efficiency-boosting uses:

• Supervisors track the progress of field agents and intervene to resolve any issues quickly. If they find a field agent stuck in any location longer than necessary, they may call the agent and find out the issue. The integrated dashboard offers a bird’s eye view, not available to the field agent on the ground. For instance, the cause for a delay may be an accident a few miles away. The dispatcher may promptly reroute the technician through another route, pre-empting delays.
• Customers may use their apps to track the technician’s progress live. Such Uber-like options reassure them the help or service they need is on the way.

ReachOut dispatch software enables all these real-time notifications. Technicians receive their list of daily tasks in the morning and live notifications on any changes. The customer gets an ETA of the technician’s arrival, and updates if there are any delays.

Read more: 6 Ways ReachOut Route Optimization Software Helps Attain Customer Delight

4. Easy Operations

Comprehensive field service software offers end-to-end visibility and transparency into field operations.

Supervisors get pipeline views through a neat, integrated dashboard. The dashboard offers a list of new, assigned, and open work orders, the status of work execution, work completed by a team, and so on. Hence, visibility improves, and so does transparency.

Data generated by the dispatch software become invaluable for:

• Reporting: Timely dispatch reports are critical for compliance and audits. Dispatch software enables supervisors to pull in the relevant data from agent movements.
• Analytics: Analytics of dispatch data makes explicit patterns such as average time to reach a location, normal time to complete specific tasks, and so on. It also sheds light on agent performance to pinpoint areas of improvement.

ReachOut offers automated, flexible reporting and analytics capabilities. Supervisors may use their dashboards, and field agents may use their smartphone apps to generate reports. They may generate reports the way they want it, without the hassles of manual data entry or paperwork. The suite integrates with popular email services such as Gmail, making it easy to dispatch reports.

5. Easy Collaboration

Most field service enterprises underestimate the value of seamless collaboration. Remote field agents become much more efficient when they connect with the team.

Easy communication among technicians, drivers, supervisors, customers, and other stakeholders makes work seamless. Any ambiguity in the work order gets resolved on the spot without going through time-consuming paperwork loops. The field agent may connect with a remote worker and get the work done, eliminating the need to schedule another visit. Consequently, on-time and first-time fix rates improve.

ReachOut dispatch software offers robust collaboration options and easy traceability. Multi-language capabilities and the ability to set local preferences make the suite relevant for all parts of the globe. In-built access control, audit logging, and other safeguards ensure data integrity. Native integration capabilities and API’s make data transfer seamless.

Today’s business environment is complex. ReachOut dispatch software leverages the power of simplicity to make things easy. It ensures efficient dispatches, which creates an upward spiral of profitability and customer delight. To know more or watch a demo about how ReachOut dispatch software can assist your business, talk to our experts.