A Beginner's Guide to Engineering Scheduling Software

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What would you do with an extra hour each day? You could start a new hobby, sleep more, or spend more time with your family - the possibilities are endless.

Manual workers write on a calendar

What if your field service business could give you an extra hour by using technician scheduling software ?

This software is sure to save time and also increase revenue - many service organizations still try to use paper or whiteboards to schedule their technicians and manage all their support calls, resulting in gaps in the schedule.

In fact, according to case studies by Bain Consulting , these scheduling gaps can result in productivity losses of up to 50%-60% because service technicians are not working or miss customer calls and deadlines. On the other hand, companies that use a real-time dispatch system can increase the number of tasks completed each day by 80% , which in turn can reduce the time customers spend waiting to see technicians.

Most companies that still use paper cannot track their engineer database workforce effectively, so they don't even know what they are missing out on.

So, here are five key aspects of technician scheduling software that you should understand:

1. Faster and more accurate call planning.
If you have technical scheduling software, your schedulers can access the calendar and scheduling board in one central location, reducing the time it takes to log in, schedule, dispatch, and alert technicians.

Most service organizations schedule dozens of calls each day, so even saving a few seconds on each call can add up to thousands of dollars each year.

control board

2. Receive automatic updates.
When you have a scheduling system in place, your field technicians can receive automatic updates through alerts, escalations, and workflows that are connected to the technicians’ mobile devices. This allows them to update the status of their work right on the job site in real time. Since alerts are sent directly to the scheduling board whenever the status changes, you reduce the number of phone calls to update your technical data and reduce the chance of errors and misunderstandings.