Work for field technicians and field service staff has become much more convenient thanks to technological advancements. With the help of automation tools, companies are able to increase their productivity and provide more seamless service to customers.

To keep up with high demand and service expectations, businesses need to be agile in managing changes to their staff schedules. However, keeping track of a mobile field force is not an easy task, and this is where automated field staff scheduling comes into play.

Read on to learn more about automated scheduling for the mobile workforce, as well as its key benefits for businesses.

What Exactly is a Mobile Workforce?

In field service management, a mobile workforce refers to employees who work remotely away from the office, whether it is from home or at multiple job sites throughout the day. Delivery workers, service technicians and construction workers and are all examples of staff who are considered part of the mobile workforce. In a typical workday, these staff will require updates from the main office about multiple job locations and any changes to their job assignments.

As the mobile workforce is always on-the-go and any changes to their daily schedule will affect customer service response times, efficient job allocation therefore becomes highly important. Inefficient job allocations, on the other hand, will result in delayed deliveries, unsatisfied customers and missed appointments.

Compared to traditional, manual scheduling, automated scheduling helps to simplify the process and save time and manpower at the same time, leading to happier customers and higher staff satisfaction.

What is Automated Field Staff Scheduling?

Automated scheduling uses artificial intelligence to match available staff to job requests, and automatically optimise schedules based on user-defined preferences, staff skill qualifications, as well as location, time or date requirements. When used for field workforce management, such as for deliveries, automated scheduling allows businesses to quickly plan or adjust work schedules according to requirements in just a few clicks. Moreover, businesses can set automated scheduling to balance staff workloads with ease and ensure they meet minimum hours of rest while maximising productivity.

Benefits of Automated Scheduling in Field Service Management

Enhances Efficiency

Efficiency is barely possible when managers have to perform manual scheduling in field service management. Many unknown circumstances arise, including last-minute job requests, cancellations, and staff who are unable to work that day. Monitoring of field staff schedules, their location, their time spent for each job, as well as determining the field staff with the right skill sets and coordinating dispatch altogether takes up a lot of time, resources, and effort. Automated scheduling software relieves a significant amount of work that comes from field staff management, resulting in increased productivity and cost savings for your firm.

Cuts Your Operational Costs

Reducing back-office expenditures is one approach to cut operating costs related to field force management. Administrative activities can drain time, budget, and resources as it is a remote task which requires a lot of collaboration with field staff across multiple job sites. When administrative employees don’t have to waste time looking for the best worker for the job or the closest person for an urgent job, they can hence focus on other duties which target business goals instead of coordinating daily operations.

Fulfils and Outperforms Customer Expectations

Creating a positive client experience is no longer a luxury—it’s a requirement. What might provide you with a strong position in the market is how well you satisfy or surpass your clients’ expectations.

Using workforce management software like automated scheduling ensures nothing slips between the cracks. It reduces the chances of human error, preventing appointment mistakes and saving you from deploying additional time and manpower as a result of having to reschedule. When you use automated scheduling to efficiently dispatch the right field staff for each job, your customers will also experience a smooth service process and feel that they are serviced by well-trained and knowledgeable workers.

Conclusion – Automated Scheduling Makes Workforce Management Customer-oriented and Efficient

Automated scheduling is here to stay. It has become a vital tool for companies and will only become more so as the demand for flexible scheduling and market expectations evolve. If your company is having trouble managing your mobile workforce due to manual inaccuracies and inefficiencies, you may consider automated employee scheduling. Workforce management software can assist companies in meeting the evolving needs of their customers and employees by automating the scheduling process to improve both the customer experience and field workforce satisfaction levels.

To learn more about automated employee scheduling and how it may help you enhance your workforce management, contact us at V3 Smart Technologies today.