By David Crary
In 1913, Henry Ford installed the first moving assembly line for the mass production of an entire automobile. Ford had tried tirelessly to make his workers more efficient. Borrowing the idea from the continuous flow methods use by flour mills and breweries, among others, Ford was able to reduce the time it took to build a car from more than 12 hours to two hours and 30 minutes.
Like Ford’s assembly line, an efficient crew is one of the greatest assets for your field service business. They are the front line when it comes to servicing your customers, and your customers are where the revenue comes from. To get an efficient crew, however, you need certain tools. You need trucks and the right kinds of equipment, you need hard working employees both in the office and the field, and you definitely need lawn care software.
Lawn care software turns your business, especially your crews, into an efficient working system. Below are three ways it does this:
- Organization – The first thing lawn care software gives you is an organized system. Organization is key for any business to be efficient, but it seems to be especially helpful for the field service industry. Many field service businesses struggle with paper. It either is illegible, lost, dirty, or slips through the cracks. Not to mention it’s time consuming writing down everything that happened at each job site.
Lawn care software keeps all of the information needed to properly service a customer in one central system. Most software is also available as mobile field service software, meaning techs can access all crucial data on a device out in the field. Having information in an electronic form ensures all data needed is accessible with the tap of a few buttons. This limits the time wasted paper shuffling and allows your crews to do what they excel at – lawn care. - Information – The simple ability to have information at your fingertips can make a business more efficient. Think of how many times a job has needed to be rescheduled due to lack of information. Maybe a part was not on the truck or the customer asked to be called before the tech got on site and therefor wasn’t home to let them in. No matter what the reason, if your techs don’t have the information needed to serve a customer, they are inefficient.
With lawn care software, techs are capable of seeing what was last done at the site, if they need a gate code to get in to the property, along with any other notes to best serve the customer. Being an informed employee allows your guys to get the job done in an efficient manner. - Real Time Data – With software and technology, everything is instant. Lawn care software gets your crews the information instantly. What better way to be efficient than to have real time data?
Knowing that your customer would like to be called before the tech arrives on site, or informing the tech that a job has been cancelled for the day are all valuable things your crew should know immediately. With paper, you run the risk of not having all of the information on the work order in the morning and needing to get a hold of a tech by phone.
With lawn care software providing information in real time, your crews never miss an update on a job. This could save the company gas when a job is cancelled, or let the tech know they will need to go back to the office and pick up a part before they head to the next job.
Lawn care software may be one of the best investments you can make for your company. An efficient crew will lead to happier and more satisfied customers, and at the end of the day that is what keeps a company growing and succeeding.
Looking for more ways to have a great crew out in the field? Check out the 6 Rules for an Awesome Service Department and make your crew the best in the business.