Providing customers with excellent customer service should be a priority for companies. After all, customers have the power to make or break a business. The thing is, customer service is not easy. Expectations, perspectives and personalities play a huge part in how a customer reacts to situations, and every customer is different. Add working at a customer’s site and dealing with field services management needs to the mix, and the not easy turns into really not easy.
Thankfully, field service professionals who embrace field service mobile technology within a comprehensive Cloud ERP solution set themselves up for customer service success. Mobile access offered by field service software helps them shorten the time between call receipt and job assignment, streamline processes to reduce response times and costs and improve revenue.
Best of all, field service software increases customer satisfaction and the company’s competitive advantage.
Competing (and Winning) with the Right Field Service Software and Cloud ERP
Competition is the name of the game when it comes to customer service. With so many businesses to choose from, customers can be choosy about who they hire, and how they’re treated goes a long way in helping them make their decision. Competitors are always on the lookout for ways to differentiate themselves. The right field service software and cloud-based ERP solution can help them do it.
How?
By offering scheduling, route planning/map integration, equipment maintenance, inventory management, billing, dashboards and BI capabilities in one centralized, streamlined system and also offering much-needed mobility. Mobility enables field service technicians to connect to all service information and customer data from a web-enabled device from wherever they are.
There are many benefits to having access to real-time data. For example, eliminating communication by phone calls, emails and driving to the office at the end of the day frees up much-needed time for servicing and supporting customers. Service requests, customer information, required materials, product history and warranty management are available with a click of a button.
Customers no longer have to endure long wait times while field technicians make a “quick” phone call or check their email for information. Field technicians no longer have to dread arriving at a jobsite without the most updated, relevant information. The result is a stronger relationship between the client and the company, which is a huge factor in retaining their loyalty and stopping the competition from stealing them away.
In addition, a Cloud ERP solution with integrated field service software expedites assignments, increases control of field service activities, improves communication and accelerates decision making. Specifically, the connected solution allows a company to:
- Match tasks to best available resources and generate work orders
- Track resource commitments and real-time GPS location
- Get real-time access to the progress of each appointment using status updates, the amount of material used with detailed notes and pictures
- Update technician schedules from the office
- Keep customers and partners in the know using ERP-generated emails, texts or push notifications about upcoming appointment assignments or modifications
- Utilize drill-down reports and dashboards to improve access to past information for insight into future needs
- Define metrics for utilization and service performance
Bottom line, field service organizations can compete and win in a highly competitive market when they implement modern, cloud-based technology with mobile capabilities.
The Right Field Service Software and Cloud ERP
Finding and evaluating ERP vendors is a big job. That’s why NexTec recommends starting (and ending) with Acumatica Cloud ERP. It’s an award-winning cloud-based ERP solution that can help businesses manage and integrate their finance, accounting, operational and field service needs from a single platform. Their Field Services Management software, in comparison to other options, does everything better.
A NexTec and Acumatica customer, Omni Cart Services, Inc., can verify the truth of this statement. The Ohio-based company provides shopping cart cleaning and repair services (as well as support equipment for grocery stores, hardware stores, mass merchandisers and distribution centers) in 48 states. They had been using a Microsoft ERP application and separate applications for CRM and service dispatch.
It was a disconnected, challenging situation. They found Acumatica and turned to NexTec, a leading business software provider with over 25 years of experience, to help them with the implementation.
“We found NexTec Group, and they’ve successfully guided the implementation to fit our business needs,” says President Keith Wolf in the company’s success story.
He also says, “By bringing all of our business processes into a single system of record, we can eliminate duplicate data entry tasks and ensure that all our teams are working with the most accurate, current information.”
For their field service needs, Accounting Manager Jennifer Chuha says, “With Acumatica, we’ve been able to streamline our scheduling and dispatch tasks. We can quickly generate reports to gain an accurate picture of our current and future workload.”
Better everything with Acumatica and NexTec
Better customer service with information at their fingertips; better scheduling and dispatching (e.g., get to the job on time, save time with rerouting/last-minute cancellations, update appointments on the road via the mobile app); and better profitability by capturing payments and signatures at the jobsite and tracking expenses/entering expense receipts once awaits Acumatica customers.
And because Acumatica allows unlimited users without charging for those users, the Cloud ERP solution will grow with an organization.
Field service businesses looking to stay ahead of the competition and provide exemplary customer service should look for an affordable, adaptable and—most importantly—mobile field service solution like Acumatica.
To learn more, download NexTec’s free Field Services Beginner’s Guide to ERP and contact the NexTec team today. We’d love to chat.