In the equipment management industry, a well-organized and well-automated service department has a huge impact on the bottom line. Streamlined processes supported by powerful (field) service software reduces costs, increases profits and leads to satisfied customers. These 5 steps will make your service department more successful:
1. Better planning
Service planning is a huge challenge. In large part, it involves preventive maintenance and periodic inspections that can be planned in advance and rarely cause surprises. But you also have to deal with breakdowns, breakdowns, repairs that take longer than expected, mechanics who are stuck in traffic, employees who are sick, parts that are missing, etc. And it is precisely with these things that you want to be able to react quickly. What helps with that is a good (graphic/visual) overview of open work orders and the availability and skills of service technicians. And that in real-time connection with the field service solution of the mechanics. With that, you assign work orders to mechanics who are available, nearby and/or have the right capabilities.
2. Increase productivity
Being able to plan better contributes to employee productivity. But there are other ways to increase productivity. For example, by working with job codes; predefined activities for which there is a fixed amount of time and it is fixed which parts are consumed. The proper design and application of service contracts also increases productivity. And a mobile service solution that reduces the amount of administrative work to a minimum ensures that technicians are quickly available for the next job.
3. Reduce overhead costs
With streamlined processes and solid automation, you can save significantly on service department overhead. A few examples:
- Automate processes so they no longer happen manually. This saves time and prevents errors.
- Spend less time on service planning thanks to effective service planning tools.
- Saving time through automation and digitization in the administrative handling of service, maintenance, quotations, invoicing and communication.
- Reduce the number of (manual) checks to the minimum with deployment of automation throughout the service process from work order (quote) to invoicing.
"Helping your customers quickly and effectively produces direct and indirect profits. Directly because you work more productively, indirectly because customers are more satisfied. "
4. Helping customers faster and more effectively
Helping your customers quickly and effectively produces direct and indirect profits. Directly because you work more productively, indirectly because customers are more satisfied. Again, streamlined processes supported by the right software are the key to success. For example:
- In the event of an outage or breakdown, be able to immediately send a technician who is nearby at the time.
- On-site at the customer's location to quote to repair another object as well.
- More one-time fixes by having the right parts.
- Convert more quotes into orders by being faster and more decisive in communicating with customers.
- Be able to invoice directly digitally.
5. Make decisions based on complete info
Turning big data into information that helps you make the right decisions. For equipment management companies, this is hugely important, and especially for the service department. What parts are being replaced frequently? How profitable are maintenance contracts? What results do you achieve on warranty claims? To have the right information, you need a powerful and complete ERP system in combination with the right reporting & BI tool. This enables you to manage your organization less on gut feelings and more on facts and figures.
Are you ready to take (one of) these five steps with your organization? At Dysel, we'd love to help you!
