6 Reasons Why You Need To Switch To ReachOut Suite For Your Field Service Business

All businesses need growth for survival in today’s competitive environment. Businesses stagnate without growth. Competitors edge out such business into obsolescence. A field management suite is indispensable to infuse efficiency and drive growth in today’s digital age. Here is how ReachOut Suite will grow your field service business and make it more competitive.

Success in today’s hyper-competitive environment depends on serving the customer fast. Tech advances and the fast-paced nature of today’s lives have made customers impatient. They seek fast answers and instant solutions. Any delay leaves the door open for a competitor to entice the customer away.

Reducing the lead-time makes sense from the business point of view as well. The business becomes more efficient and improves turnaround time. They may serve more customers in the limited time available. The sooner a field agent attends to the job, the better the customer satisfaction, and the better the chance of repeat orders.

ReachOut Suite helps field service businesses meet demand fast.

One of the biggest impacts of ReachOut Suite is in scheduling jobs. Scheduling is a dynamic process. Technicians call in sick. They may want to change their schedule for personal commitments. The customer may cancel the work request. New, emergency, and priority requests keep on coming in. Any change forces a change to the entire shift schedule. Delays, missed appointments, and confusion becomes the order of the day.

ReachOut offers intelligent scheduling capabilities. It assigns competent technicians to a work order. The suite:

• Assigns the best agent for a job: The suite maintains a database that details the skills and certificate of each technician. The algorithm matches the skills required to execute tasks in the work order with the skills of the technician. It then assigns the nearest available and eligible technician to the job. The algorithm also considers factors such as the number of pending jobs for the agent, overtime, and leaves.
• Processes dynamic changes seamlessly: Work order cancellation and technician unavailability are part of a normal day in field service. ReachOut ‘changes downstream jobs affected by such changes. Human supervisors only have to approve requests, and validate the changes. Prompt push notifications keep everyone updated and in the loop.

Read more: Ten Ways Automated Scheduling Makes a Difference

2. Reduces the Job Cost

In today’s hyper-competitive business environment, increasing rates is an ill-advised move. Many businesses, especially start-ups offer very low rates, and may even offer services at a loss to gain market share. They have innovative models such as increasing the customer base, and selling the company for higher valuations!

In such a complex market, the only way genuine field service businesses can survive is to operate on razor-thin margins. Profits come by cutting costs and getting repeat businesses.

ReachOut helps the business reduce the job cost. The suite:

• Automates route and resource-intensive tasks: Tasks such as scheduling and invoicing are complex and take up full-time jobs. The automated suite handles these processes, sparing the need for dedicated staff.
• Eliminate costly paperwork: The suite stores information in easy-to-access databases. Technicians, supervisors, and other field agents may access the needed information effortlessly. The costs and hassles associated with paper forms and records get eliminated in full.
• Offers technicians the best route to reach their worksite: The algorithm considers the traffic density, tolls, and other factors, to identify the best route. The best route need not always be the shorter route. Technicians spend less time on unproductive journeys, and more time servicing customers. The faster time to service delights customers. Reduced journey times enable field agents to serve more customers. Employee productivity and asset use ratios improve. Improved efficiency lowers the operating cost per customer. Businesses may pass on some of these lower costs to customers as discounts and get their loyalty.

ReachOut enables executing more jobs with limited resources. Efficient operations allow getting more jobs done each day without hiring more people.

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

3. Improve the Quality of the Job

The competitiveness of a field service firm depends on the quality of service. Firms that offer high-quality services at low rates deliver the best value. The best firms strive to delight the customer in everything they do. They place the customer as the focus of all their processes and efforts. They make it a habit to go all out to delight the customer.

ReachOut suite helps field service businesses improve the quality of service. The suite streamlines inspections, audits, and analytics. It makes quality control and analysis easy, from a single, integrated dashboard. The suite:

• Offers ready-made and custom digital forms: The forms marketplace offers hundreds of inspection forms and checklists, curated by experts. There is also the option to generate custom forms, including a replica of manual forms. Field teams may digitize their paper forms. They may enjoy the benefits of digitization without going through a learning curve.
• Allows advanced data entry and processing: Custom forms, with form filters and auto-complete options, simplify data entry and improve the accuracy of inspections. Inspectors may upload videos and images to their report, for better analysis and follow-up actions.
• Improves compliance: Custom reports make compliance easy. The system auto-generates reports, depending on the compliance requirements. Managers may generate reports according to their preferences to identify areas of concern.
• Makes analytics easy: API connectors integrate with analytics tools. Analysis of field data throws up valuable insights. Managers may make informed decisions to improve service. Data on field agent performance enable performance reviews and launching training initiatives.

Read more: 7 Essential Tips to Optimize Work Order Management in The Remote Working Era

4. Reduce Time Needed to Complete Jobs

ReachOut reduces the time needed to complete jobs. The suite equips technicians with the tools that make work execution faster and more accurate. It enables:

• Technicians to proceed to the worksite with the right spares: The suite offers API to access CRM and other databases. Field technicians refer to customer preferences, service history, special requests, and other information. They proceed to the worksite with the right tools. Failure to go prepared may force a revisit. A revisit wrecks productivity. It also delays the work of downstream clients.
• Live tracking: ReachOut suite enables GPS capabilities for field agent apps. Supervisors track the progress of field agents in real-time. They intervene proactively, to resolve glitches and pre-empt major issues. The client receives prompt notifications on technician arrival and work completion status.
• Robust communications: Collaborating through ReachOut suite allows field agents to follow instructions without ambiguity. Agents may contact customers, or access work order instructions directly. This avoids mis-communication, typical when routine communication through intermediaries. This also avoids delays, as technicians wait for clarifications, or have to re-do a work done wrong.
• Better first-time fix: ReachOut apps come with robust collaboration options. At the work site, novice technicians may connect with expert remote technicians. They get live instructions to perform complex fixes. This speeds up work execution, and improves first time fixes.

5. Get Paid Faster

The sustainability of any business depends not just on raking up profits but on ensuring smooth cash flow. Smooth cash flow depends on invoicing clients promptly and collecting payments without delay.

ReachOut suite automates invoice creation. The field agent may generate invoices instantly, on completion of work, and collect payments. They may collect digital signatures as proof of work completed, or an acknowledgment of invoices.

The technician app collates field data, such as employee check-in, geolocation data, and more, to ascertain the number of hours. API integrators pull data from the work order management system to get the rates, discounts, and other details. The system generates the invoice and sends it to the client’s email or phone.

ReachOut suite offers easy integration with payment portals such as PayPal, to collect payments. The client may make the payment instantly, through contactless methods.

Read more: 5 Ways ReachOut Enterprise Field Service Software Reduces Your Maintenance Costs

6. Generate Quotes and Estimates fast

The competitiveness of the business depends on its ability to woo customers effortlessly. Generating quotes and estimates easily is the key to such ability. When customers make a query, the business has to respond fast, before a competitor entices them away.

ReachOut enables generating professional looking dynamic quotes. The customer may change variables and see the rates change instantly.

Easy integrations to the inventory software, Human Resource Information System, and other internal databases allow customer support agents to get an accurate, real-time picture of the ability of the enterprise to deliver on promises. These insights enable making realistic estimates, especially concerning the timelines. Sign Up with ReachOut today and elevate your service business to new heights! Or alternatively, connect with our experts to get a free demo!