Reporting is an essential part of any business and even more so for field service businesses. Field service businesses are responsible for managing several technicians, deal with multiple clients per day, and even take care of inventory and fleet-related issues.
With so much on your plate already, reporting is just another task that you’d much rather automate.
With Nexus Service Manager’s field service reporting, you can minimize the need for manual effort at the end of every day or week and streamline the reporting process to make it quicker and simpler.
The administrative office can expect technicians to answer a number of different questions including the weather condition at the time of a visit, a location pin to specify where the job was requested, and even office notes that they can use for further information. Technicians can then fill out these details directly from Nexus Service Manager’s mobile application to minimize delays and increase efficiency.
Read on to find out how Nexus Service Manager’s field service reporting option can help your technicians create reports in no time.
What are field service reports?
A field service report is a document detailing any task that was completed by a technician. In essence, these reports are created so that dispatchers and customers both know exactly what was done during a technician visit. Over time, these reports can also be consolidated to view technician performance and help identify any issues with the process.
What does a field service report include?
Field service reports comprise a number of details depending on the nature of the task. For instance, if the task is related to HVAC, the field service report could include details about the time of the visit and the equipment that was required for the task. Similarly, a report for a pest control task could include the hours spent on the inspection and the kind of services required.
Here is some more information that you can expect to see in a field service report:
1. Customer details
Field service reports generally comprise details of the customer including their name, contact information, and address. This is to ensure that a comprehensive history of each customer is available and that these details can be used to provide them with better services in the future. At times, the name of the company of the customer may also be mentioned in the field service report.
2. Technician details
Technician details are also an important part of the field service report to show which technician worked on a specific task and when. However, in addition to the name and contact information of the technician, you can also expect to see whether they are a third-party contractor or not.
3. Task-related information
This is perhaps the most important part of the field service report and includes information on why the technician was requested, the nature of the problem, any changes or replacements that are required, details about the actions taken by the technician, and basic details about any follow-up visits that will be necessary to complete the task in question.
In this section, you can also expect to see pictures of the site before and after any changes were made so that there is no confusion regarding the tasks that were completed during the visit. As you might have guessed, this section of the report is also extremely crucial for future visits and can help identify whether or not progress is being made according to the plan that was initially proposed.
So, in case you have questions regarding the inspection and the service provided such as “was there evidence of subterranean termite?” or “what pest control product was used?” you can have complete insight into these as well.
4. Acknowledgement
Like any business, it is necessary for both the technician and the customer to agree to certain terms. For this reason, the field service report concludes with a formal sign off that acts as proof that both parties agree to the terms that have been defined and that the task was completed exactly as mentioned in the report. This acknowledgement also prevents any discrepancies regarding payment or terms in the future.
Nexus Service Manager makes the entire process easier by allowing technicians to generate mobile reports as soon as the task is completed so that customers can view the details and enter their signature without any delays.
Why should you create field reports?
There are several benefits of creating field service reports. Here are a few reasons why you should use Nexus Service Manager to start creating field reports:
1. Streamline and optimize workflow
As mentioned earlier, field service businesses comprise a number of different functions. Field service reports help you get a complete picture of your operations and identify problem areas for optimization.
For instance, if you perform thorough analysis on your field service reports for a quarter and notice that most customers are not happy with the roofing installation results, you can probe further to understand whether the problem lies in the material or equipment that is being used for these installations or if the technicians need to be trained to offer better services.
The best part about Nexus Service Manager is that there are a lot of options for question types such as free text answers, tick box answers, and even true or false answers, so both the customer and dispatcher will know exactly what a technician did during their visit.
2. Create data-driven training programs
As a field service business owner, you’re probably always on the lookout for ways to improve the service you offer. Using customer feedback from field service reports can help you gauge technician performance and understand which areas they need to be trained in. So, if you notice that a lot of technicians were recently called for installation air conditioning units in rainy weather, you could perform training programs to teach them how they can stay safe during the process.
3. Create a system of transparent performance reviews
Documenting everything from the time and frequency of technician visits to job completion rate and customer feedback ensures that there’s no room for guesswork when it comes to performance reviews. With detailed field service reports, both you and any technicians you work with will know exactly how they have been performing and even allow you to set KPIs and targets based on real world data.
4. Improve Compliance
Need to prove that you and your technicians only provide the best service keeping all rules and regulations in mind? Comprehensive field service reports can serve as a single source of truth for any audits and compliance checks, helping you prove that your business values the safety of both its customers and technicians.
Convinced of the benefits? Give us a call at 1300 301 302 today to learn more about how Nexus Service Manager streamlines field service reporting.