In case you still haven’t benefitted from the unique features of home services scheduling software, it’s more likely you incorporate it into your business operational framework and make things streamlined.
Home services scheduling software is an all-encompassing solution that deals with all aspects of home services from a remote centralized location via a single interface. Just because the entire data is preserved in one place, the need to extensively search for information becomes optional at the time of the creation of schedules, review of job history, and evaluation of general business performance.
Moreover, home services scheduling software comes up with cutting-edge communication tools for relaying information from the field to the office and back. To efficiently pull off all these important tasks, software solutions for home services scheduling are outfitted with several features as discussed below.
Home Services Scheduling Software
Many features are fundamental to every scheduling software solution. These features constitute the software’s core functionality. However, there are many home service vendors that offer packages with different pricing plans and dissimilar add-ons.
Standard features of home services scheduling software vary from one vendor to the other.
The following features are basic to each system. Prior to zeroing in on the software vendor to satiate your business needs, it’s crucial that you carry out diligent research.
Standard home services scheduling features comprise the following.
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Job scheduling and technician dispatching
With the intent of running a home services business smoothly and efficiently, you need to put the aspect of scheduling jobs on topmost priority at all times. In case you’re not doing that you might end up in the annoying issue of constant catch-up in a bid to sort out the problems a poorly planned schedule can lead to.
For example, when a technician falls sick all of a sudden it implies you need to reschedule jobs at the last moment. Manually handling such unexpected changes through paperwork can result in a highly stressful situation for you. With home services scheduling software in place such changes unlooked-for can be dealt with quickly and simply.
Based on the system, the software for home services scheduling may consider the following key factors like the following at the time of job assignment.
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Availability
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Geographical location
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Competence level
While a few systems don’t have this automatic facility others make use of an algorithm for recommending and assigning technicians depending on the job type and their skill set. Once the schedule is put in place, the technicians will receive automatic notifications of the type and location of the job.
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Work order management
In current times, similar to all other things, the creation, implementation, and closure of work orders too have gone digital. Work orders completed with pen and papers are things of the past now. One of the regular features of home services scheduling software is work order processing and management.
The feature makes the process happen smoothly and removes the likelihood of any confusion cropping up. After the receipt and assignment of a work order, the technician’s identity is put on record so as to let everyone know who’s responsible to attend to the work order and complete it.
What’s more, the feature lets technicians prepare and store documentation of their work pertaining to a specific job. This documentation includes:
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Taking down notes
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Recording audios and videos
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Capturing photos
This ensures office staff and other technicians can acquire complete work details in the future without worrying about lost notes or bad handwriting.
Once a job is completed technicians can close the work order through the software. This defeats the apprehension of whether the job was completed in actuality. The system allows anyone to log in and check the status of each and every work order. Plus, once the work orders are successfully closed their details remain saved for future reference.
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Mobile access
In recent times everything is going mobile. Nevertheless, because of the distinctive nature of the home services industry, the software puts a mobile-first interface forward. Cloud-based home services scheduling software is integrated with an effectual mobile technician app with the help of which the key features of the system can be readily accessed.
By making the most of the mobile technician app, professionals working in the field are able to take a look at their schedules, get the receipt of dispatches on their smartphones, finish their jobs, and mark work orders as complete.
Robust mobile interfaces also enable technicians to gain quick uninterrupted access to training materials and instruction resources as and when they require them while at the job. They can considerably benefit from these resources to get to the bottom of problems and resolve them especially when it comes to handling complex items of equipment. Also, mobile apps can be employed to make them act like an interface to send or receive messages.
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Spare parts and inventory management
With the help of home services scheduling software, you can strengthen your efforts to manage assets by keeping track of the inventory of equipment and parts needed by your technicians on a day-to-day basis. Every so often, technicians require the same spare parts to rectify faults and successfully complete their tasks. The onus lies on you to ensure that the inventory is always adequately stocked. In this way, the spare parts inventory management feature helps you keep tabs on inventory levels.
As and when a part is used by a technician for replacement and repair, the system keeps a record of the change in stock in real-time. The software is also programmed to trigger alerts once the inventory level touches or goes below a preset threshold. This makes sure you’re informed in time as to when to place orders in the supply chain for stock replenishment.
Home services scheduling software also incorporates analytics into the parts inventory management feature for the creation of demand forecasts. The analytics provide valuable insights to your employees about the maximal usage of each spare part and when to put in reorder requests.
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Contacts, case, and order management
For any business, managing customers is one of the most crucial facets especially when it comes to the home services business. Regardless of the industry type you’re in, the main objective lies in satisfying your customers. For this reason, it’s very important to have a proper system in place to efficiently handle your customer base and their contact information. Home services scheduling software comes up with an inclusive customer database containing the following information:
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Contact information of your clients
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History of the work they’ve sought for and received
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Notes related to specific considerations
With readily accessible information like these, you can acquire substantial knowledge about past work orders thereby constantly making customer service better and improving customer satisfaction.
Home services scheduling software also extends a client portal equipped with several applications. It allows customers to execute the following actions”
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Gain access to sign-off forms
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Alter appointments
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Fill out survey forms
The phone number of the client is stored to ensure they receive text messages on the estimated time of arrival of the technicians. Each of these vital resources can be employed with very little effort from your side for making your customers feel special.
