A growing trend among green industry businesses is to start taking on other jobs and services. As we all know, sometimes businesses hit a wall where they can’t seem to grow their client base or revenue anymore and need to add other options to boost revenue. Things like lighting, backflow testing and snow removal are all services irrigation companies (and really any green industry) can take on to continue their growth.
While making the decision to add on services like snow removal may be easy, especially with winter just around the corner, helping your company transition into managing these services can be tough. But did you know that if you already have irrigation software in place, the transition to snow will be much simpler? More and more irrigation software providers are working to make their product versatile for all seasons, meaning your company already has a head start on the competition if you have field service software. Some of the versatility includes:
Scheduling – Just like you can schedule startups and blowouts with your irrigation software, you can also schedule plowing and deicing. It is all the same concept, the only difference is setting up new services to be scheduled. You may have to adjust time frames, given the irregularity and uncertainty that comes with snow, but having a schedule of who still needs to be serviced, helps your crews to not hit the same property twice, while missing one in between.
Routing – If the snow removal service is not a time sensitive thing, routing can be done the same as irrigation services as well. You simply need the addresses for the properties and a route can be calculated. This is one more security check you can use to ensure no properties are missed, especially since long winter nights can take a toll on the brain.
Contract Management – Contracts are a huge portion of revenue for a snow removal business. Contracts ensure your customers get serviced without needing to call you every time it snows and they also ensure you get paid. With irrigation software, you can set up the same type of contracts you use to service a yard as you do to service a parking lot.
Invoicing – Invoicing can be done within a few hours, instead of days, weeks, or even months when using field service software. Using software both in the field and in the office allows data to be transferred in real time. This limits the data being lost, unreadable, or in certain times wrong or incomplete. A bill, is a bill, is a bill. It doesn’t matter if it’s for an installation or a night of plowing. What does matter is that you get it out correctly and quickly so you can get paid for the work you’ve done. Irrigation software can produce the same invoices you need for your snow removal services as long as the services and pricing are set up correctly.
Field Accessibility – Just like it’s important to mark which parts were used in the summer months, it is also important to mark which deicing materials were spread and how much in the winter months. Irrigation software with mobile field service software availability is another crucial aspect for both the hottest and coldest months in the year. The snow side of your business can use this availability to check their schedule, mark which sites they plowed and which they didn’t (and why), and time in and out. This is a great option for tracking subcontractors. Being able to both access and send data from the field allows your entire business to be on the same page and collect valuable information along the way.
It may have never crossed your mind that you could use irrigation software to also manage the snow side of your business, but many software solutions are leaning this way these days. They understand you multitask as an owner and a lot of you will be working year round. If you have any type of field service software, ask your software provider what options you have through the software and how it can help your business grow.
Still considering adding snow removal services to your business? Check out our 2013 Snow Industry Benchmark Report for information on everything from services done to what the future looks like for the snow industry, all provided by your peers.