Plumbing is often an emergency field service required by remote commercial or residential spaces. Hence, many plumbing businesses need accurate and immediate scheduling of jobs to remotely provide optimum services. This is difficult to maintain if one uses manual ways to create contracts, schedule and dispatch jobs, etc.
It is possible to improve the response time for a plumbing business using field service management techniques. Read more as we uncover how mobile-based plumbing business software helps automate field services operations.
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Challenges faced by on-the-go plumbing businesses
There are five main operational challenges faced by a plumbing business:
- Lack of information: it is not possible to know much about the job unless a field service technician pays a visit. This severely reduces first-time fix rates and may require multiple visits just to inspect and then solve the problem.
- Compliance and job safety: plumbing jobs can get dangerous for both clients and the assigned workers. It is hard to ensure workers follow protocols if one uses manual ways to operate the plumbing business.
- Manage tools and materials: with hazy job details, it is hard to know which tools one might require. Not having the right tools at the right time can cause service delays or interruptions.
- Too much paperwork: plumbing work may cause hazards, and also may require multiple visits. Hence, it’s helpful to document work done and sign necessary contracts with terms to ensure seamless execution.
- Maintaining consistent job quality: plumbing jobs have problems unique to the location or client. Hence, it is difficult to streamline operations and ensure consistent service delivery.
What is plumbing business software?
Plumbing business software is a specialized field service management tool designed to streamline and automate various operations across scheduling, invoicing, customer management, resource allocation, etc.
For example, plumbing business software can help you assign the job to the right field service technician based on availability, technical skills, past experience working on similar jobs, location proximity, and much more parameters. Since it is an algorithm based, it saves time in scheduling and helps improve first-time fix rates.
How does mobile-based plumbing business software help overcome field service operational challenges?
Here’s how plumbing business software overcomes the above-mentioned operational challenges:
Streamlined job and service management
Plumbing business software can asynchronously obtain job details from the customer by implementing DIY forms or chatbots. This helps acquire at least preliminary information, and any extra details can be probed more via phone calls. The software can also streamline your service offering so that the customers can choose the relevant ones for quick maintenance checks. All this can be easily done via mobile apps that enable a good user experience.
Remote troubleshooting
A plumbing job can get complicated – which means more visits to the customer. A mobile-based plumbing software will help managers instantly guide the field service technician about the plumbing job. The workers can update them in real time by sharing photos, and videos, or making video calls to receive immediate help. It also helps keep a record of the work done for future reference.
Efficient routing to reduce travel time
Many field service technicians will rely on routes provided by your back-office team to travel to the job site. Zuper, a field service management software enables workers to use GPS-based routing for finding the shortest route with less traffic. Workers can use the mobile app to simply follow the route provided, which also updates in real-time.
Manage and analyze customer data
To nurture recurring plumbing jobs, it is important to understand which services are popular among your existing customers. Plubiming software can analyze your customer data and find patterns in jobs with high first-time fix rates, profits, locations of customers, etc. This helps you narrow down your target market and focus on services that result in good revenues.
It also helps manage customer data to gather feedback on services provided. This helps in training the workforce and also with scheduling jobs.
Efficient inventory management
With plumbing jobs being remote, it is important to ensure the assigned field service technician has the necessary equipment, tools, and material to complete the job. A plumbing business software will maintain adequate inventory and track the tools used for past jobs. For similar jobs, it will assign those tools to make sure your worker doesn’t have to make frequent visits to the customers.
Take a demo to experience the benefits of plumbing business software
It is possible to reduce the uncertainty that comes with remote field operations for a plumbing business using field service management or plumbing business software. Book a demo today with Zuper and our team will consult you on implementing our solutions for your plumbing business.
