Navigating Technician Scheduling: Tips, Challenges, and Software Needs

Scheduling the right technician at the right time is crucial for field service businesses. Surprisingly, most of these businesses don't use dedicated software for this.

The lack of such software affects the costs of field service businesses. Automated operations lead to increased capacity and profits. Using software designed for technician scheduling can significantly reduce costs and boost team efficiency.

This guide covers the basics of technician scheduling. It addresses common challenges, provides practical tips, and highlights essential features to consider in your scheduling software.

Skip to any of the guide's covered topics:

• Understanding the Technician Scheduling Process
• Typical Challenges in Scheduling Technicians
• Enhance Your Technician Scheduling with These 3 Tips
• Key Considerations for Technician Scheduling Software
• Leverage eLogii for Efficient Technician Scheduling

Understanding the Technician Scheduling Process

The procedure that businesses and field service organizations (FSOs) use is technician scheduling. These include HVAC, pool maintenance, and fire inspection companies. These companies schedule technicians to handle customer orders.

At an HVAC company, the people in charge of scheduling, called dispatchers, plan when their technicians will work each day or week to help customers. They create schedules for each technician, with different factors in mind. For example, they consider how far they have to travel, the distance they need to cover, and what they're good at. They also think about when customers are available and how the season might affect the schedules.

Typical Challenges in Scheduling Technicians

Scheduling and sending out Field Service Engineers (FSE) is a challenge for lots of Field Service Organizations (FSOs). This is especially true for those with a big team. It gets tricky because there are many things to consider and factors involved in the process.

Field service businesses commonly encounter three scheduling challenges for their field technicians:

1. Reliance on manual scheduling

Many field service businesses avoid investing in digital transformation. Instead, they spend hours every month planning schedules manually. This method is not scalable because more work orders mean more technicians. That, in turn, requires extra dispatchers to schedule appointments and manage routes.

2. Inefficient route optimization

Old-fashioned service management software often lacks proper tools for scheduling technicians efficiently. If your scheduling software doesn't consider crucial details like preferred service days and time windows, dispatchers may need to adjust technician schedules outside the system manually.

Using these tools doesn't just affect your dispatcher's ability to perform well. It also comes with extra costs that impact your bottom line:

1. Reduced service capacity

This occurs when routes aren't optimized. It leads to extra travel time for technicians between calls. This adds up quickly, and it can lower the total number of service calls each technician can handle daily. and decreasing overall service capacity.

2. Fuel costs

Extended travel time between service calls increases fuel expenses for each technician.

3. Customer satisfaction

Lower service capacity leads to slower service for customers. It impacts their satisfaction levels and loyalty to your service company.

3. Challenges in route modification

Being able to redirect technicians for emergency calls is crucial for the success of field service businesses. Field service businesses emphasize the importance of rerouting technicians for emergency calls. Most field service management tools do not allow easy modification of technician routes while they are in the field.

Enhance Your Technician Scheduling with These 3 Tips

Optimize your technician scheduling by incorporating automation, customization, and notifying customers.

1. Automate Planning and Scheduling for Efficiency

Opting for automated technician scheduling proves more efficient and accurate compared to manual methods. Avoid relying on dispatchers to spend hours manually planning routes. Instead, precise algorithms allow for route scheduling in a matter of seconds.

To meet the demands of its rapid growth, Deanta required a delivery route planning system that extended beyond simple route optimization. Automation and scheduling were crucial components of Deanta's success. Choosing eLogii proved to be a perfect fit. It offered features such as automated route tracking, real-time management, and single/multi-day route planning. This automation enhanced customer satisfaction. It also significantly cuts costs by efficiently matching loads and routes with the right drivers and vehicles.

2. Tailor Your Route Optimization

Recognizing that not all businesses share the same route optimization needs, customization becomes essential. You can schedule technicians according to your workflow by modifying the parameters specific to your planned routes.

For instance, when managing a team with diverse skill sets, customizing routes ensures the right technician is assigned tasks aligning with their expertise. Similarly, if technicians have vehicles capable of transporting damaged appliances, route modifications enable them to pick up as many appliances as possible before reaching full capacity. Customizing your route optimization ensures a seamless fit with your business requirements.

3. Keep Customers in the Loop

Ensure your customers stay informed with real-time notifications about your technician's schedule. They can do this by utilizing GPS tracking on their mobile devices. Provide a live link for customers to track your technician's progress in real-time through GPS tracking. It enhances their ability to plan around the technician's arrival. That not only boosts your first-time-fix (FTF) rate but also minimizes the need for many technician visits to a customer's location.

Informing customers in real time significantly improves the customer experience. Real-time features, like Order Tracking, also enhance customer satisfaction and loyalty. That is especially true during delays when field technicians might be unable to visit a job site on time.

Key Considerations for Technician Scheduling Software

Now that you've learned solutions for the typical challenges and difficulties dispatchers face in technician scheduling, you might seek helpful tools.

Here are some features to consider when choosing technician scheduling software:

1. Route Planner

A crucial feature in technician scheduling software is the route planner. It handles batches of orders for a day or a week, automating the route planning process for dispatchers.

2. Dynamic Routing

Dynamic routing allows dispatchers to adjust routes in real-time while technicians are in the field. This feature is handy for customer rescheduling or if a technician has time to cover an order that another technician can't reach.

While many technician scheduling tools include route planning, only a few additionally offer dynamic routing features.

3. Real-time Order Tracking

Real-time order tracking enables businesses to send email and text notifications to customers.

At eLogii, we have updated our software to allow FSOs to send proof of service to customers upon completion. With this new feature, you can share the details of your entire service visit with customers, from start to finish. Our software also offers a Proof of Delivery (POD) feature that allows you to capture various types of information, such as signatures, photos, numeric codes, barcode scans, comments, and confirmations. You can set up PODs in the workflow, and they can be required or optional for task state completion. PODs are recorded and stored in the task history, where you can find and download them. Additionally, our software allows batch printing of PODs for selected tasks, providing a convenient and efficient way to manage proof of delivery documentation.

4. Balanced Technician Workloads

Optimized schedules consider both your business needs and your technicians' well-being. With balanced workloads, you ensure technicians aren't overworked to meet business goals.

This feature is handy for businesses with seasonal demand, like pool maintenance and HVAC companies. They often face fluctuating demand, and balanced workloads help them operate efficiently without stressing their technician teams.

Leverage eLogii for Efficient Technician Scheduling

Switching from manual to digital technician scheduling may seem overwhelming. At eLogii, we've streamlined the process to make it simple.