How Field Service Dispatch Software Can Benefit Your Fleet

A field service business relies on its fleet of vehicles to reach their goals—whether that’s transporting goods or performing a service. Often, the success of your business depends on meeting or exceeding customer expectations. To help accomplish this, equip your fleet with field service dispatch software to streamline your business model. 

Keeping track of multiple dispatchers, jobs, and work orders can be challenging. Without using field service dispatch software, there are a lot of things to keep in mind. The right software can streamline your operations and improve your bottom line. 

By implementing field service management software into your fleet deliver on-site service and improve customer satisfaction. 

What can field service dispatch software do?

Field service dispatch software allows businesses to manage their fleets through automated technology. Plug-and-play field service software solutions are especially helpful for field workers, field technicians, drivers, or service contractors to complete their service requests or assigned tasks. 

Before today’s advanced software solutions existed, employees operated independently from a dispatch office. Communication was difficult. For example, after getting dispatched to a job site, a field service technician would have to call their dispatch office multiple times to coordinate their tasks, work orders, and paperwork. Without digital help, this communication inefficiency often led to longer wait times, distracted drivers, and a larger chance for human error. 

Without GPS tracking, customers wondered when their service delivery would arrive. Implementing field service dispatch software into your fleet eliminates the hassles of back-and-forth communication.

You can access field service dispatch software through smartphones via a mobile field service app. With centralized workforce management tools, communicating with your field technicians or drivers simplifies and streamlines your service operations. The right field service management (FSM) software can assist with inventory management, work order management, invoicing, and more. 

Comprehensive FSM software can give you a holistic view of your fleet performance. It presents data in a clear and actionable way, allowing you to make informed decisions. Use it to improve customer satisfaction, efficiency, and increase your bottom line. 

4 ways field service dispatch software benefits your fleet

Field service dispatching software can help streamline your digital processes. It can act as a unified platform for other fleet management functions—like invoicing or inventory management—that traditional field service management tools cannot provide. Here are four key benefits all-in-one field service dispatch software brings to your fleet. 

1. Live GPS tracking links

The latest field service software equips your fleet with shareable, live GPS tracking links. Global Positioning System (GPS) trackers are devices that pinpoint vehicles’ locations. It then relays the data to the map on your mobile device. Some fleet management technology includes this type of field service dispatch functionality, like Samsara GPS fleet tracking. This can help you quickly locate your vehicles or determine which employee is closest to a job site.

Providing accurate or real-time GPS tracking of deliveries can boost customer satisfaction. Dispatch software can report precise ETAs to customers, dispatch offices, and other employees. Previously, it was more likely for customers to receive inaccurate ETAs by the time dispatchers finished communicating back and forth with technicians and drivers. 

Some fleet management software, such as the Samsara Vehicle Gateway, provides field technicians and drivers with real-time location, WiFi hotspots, and vehicle diagnostics. You can even track a vehicle’s location down to the second with a helicopter view. Accurate delivery estimates are also an impressive way to differentiate your fleet from others. Customers will know exactly where their service delivery is and when it will arrive. 

The Samsara Vehicle Gateway also offers high-speed LTE WiFi that allows for continuous GPS tracking. You can also create custom geofencing alerts that alert you with live notifications when a vehicle arrives or departs from a specific border or location that you have specified. 

2. Quick scheduling and dispatching

Without FSM software, fleet managers have to manually assign job sites to field technicians. Relying on spreadsheets, phone calls, or pen and paper, leaves room for human error. Now, scheduling and dispatch can happen with the click of a few buttons from your smartphone or digital device. 

Many field service apps offer digital work order management. This assists your technicians in placing service requests and eliminates paperwork. With digitized company work orders, fleet managers have visibility into when a field technician or field worker arrives, starts the job, and finishes it, making real-time job status updates visible. Full service histories are available through previous work orders and scheduled dispatches. For example, if a previous work order needs repair or revisiting, a search through your digitized history pulls up the relevant information in seconds.

 3. Preventative maintenance reporting

Unexpected vehicle malfunction during a service request can cause service delivery delays for customers. The preventative maintenance built into FSM software can minimize this risk. Machine learning can detect any potential threats or anomalies in vehicle performance. 

Samsara preventative maintenance tools offer real-time vehicle diagnostics to protect and preserve your vehicles’ health. Data from each vehicle is collected from the onboard diagnostics port and proactively detects problems, like failing batteries or engine faults.  The maintenance overview tab makes your fleet’s status available at a glance—allowing you to quickly check for any vehicles in need of service. Drivers can quickly complete pre and post-trip inspections through the Samsara Driver App using only their smartphones. You can also schedule future maintenance and set up mobile alert reminders. 

The smooth integration of preventative maintenance into field service software allows your fleet to minimize unexpected breakdowns. 

 4. Eliminate time spent on tedious paperwork

FSM software can help you build customized reports that can run analytics on a variety of functions. Some fleet management softwares also includes this type of functionality. 

For example, Samsara’s fuel, idling, and IFTA mileage reports can help you identify sources of unnecessary fuel costs. You can set up idling alerts that notify you when drivers or technicians are idling in excess, or set up fuel reports so that fuel activity can be reviewed. By analyzing your fleet’s fuel usage, you can help your drivers and field technicians cut down on fuel expenses by optimizing routes and reducing idle time. 

With the reports and visibility that FSM software provides, you can make data-driven decisions for your fleet. Use report insights to clarify business objectives, deliver better customer service, and operate safely.