Field service management software for small businesses should have everything necessary to effectively manage teams in a way that maximises vehicle use, and saves on travelling time. This software should also scale with your company as you grow, and be easily integrated into any existing systems you have in place.
Economic recovery may be on the horizon for South Africa! According to the DSBD Strategic Plan manual, more than 535 000 new businesses were registered in one recent year. Many of these were online via platforms like BizPortal, showcasing that true South African entrepreneurial spirit we all know and love.
Here’s the bad news though… many of these new businesses will fail (or already have).
There’s little doubt that almost all these new businesses use at least one vehicle to keep their operations going. In business terms, a collection of any number of vehicles used for service delivery is known as field service fleet. Getting this part of your business wrong can be fatal to your company.
Today, you’re going to learn from Cartrack how to manage that fleet, why it’s important, and how you can set up your logistics to grow your field service business.
Depending on the package you get, field service management typically works by letting you manage dispatch teams travelling to various locations. This is done through a trackable app on each service technician’s mobile phone. The field service manager can then provide best-route suggestions while communicating with clients on arrival progress.
Other features often include:
Yes, small businesses that use vehicles to get to their customers definitely need field service management software. Not only does it save massive amounts of time, fuel and resources, but if used correctly, this software will make your business grow.
Let’s find out how.
One of the main design features included in service delivery software is cost savings. By optimising routes and utilising drivers & vehicles more optimally, more visitations can be completed per day while using fewer resources (vehicles & staff).
Many of the tasks performed by this software are things your fleet managers already do now. But field service software helps to automate or speed up these processes. This is the beauty of digitalising your operations, because now you can do more in less time. It invariably gives you more space to handle other important business matters.
Many of the business matters referred to above include tasks that actively grow your company. With more time on your hands, you can dedicate more of it to marketing efforts, customer acquisition, and company finance management. In today’s highly competitive field services market, it’s almost impossible to grow a company without some form of automation.
Taking another look at cost savings, let’s turn our attention now to how you manage your risks. What are some of these risks?
With field service management software, these risks are dealt with much more efficiently. Using predictive algorithms powered by AI, the software quickly manages readjustments within seconds. This means you minimise downtime, your drivers spend more time on the road, and more customers are serviced by your teams.
Digital field service management software helps to grow small companies by saving them from wasteful spending. This money can be reinserted into the business, and over time help grow that business. But this software predominantly helps business owners make better decisions, because those decisions are based on facts and data.
Growing any small business into a medium one can be risky. To grow yours, you’ll likely have to consider:
With growing your company in mind, let’s look at these four more closely.
With the data and reports generated by field service management systems, you’ll make better decisions about expanding your workforce. You quickly see if another driver or a new vehicle is necessary to service the number of tasks you have each week.
On the flip side, you also identify if you currently have too many vehicles and drivers for the current customer base you have. In this kind of situation you can make a choice; either focus on marketing to get more customers, or shrink your fleet to save costs.
With all relevant information at your disposal, you’ll also have more of the data you need to focus on the individual performance of your service technicians. But to really get the most out of this software, consider integrating it with driver coaching software; and further enhance training with AI cameras where footage does half the work for you.
Cartrack’s field service workforce optimisation software is a completely stand-alone product. In other words, it doesn’t require all your vehicles to be fitted with GPS trackers to work optimally. How then do you keep track of your service teams? Simple! Through their phones! ‘Delivery’ is an app. Each of your service technicians simply need to download the app, allowing you to track them from one centralised platform.
As you can see, this software is predominantly focused on your workforce—not your vehicles per se. However, to double their protection and the protection of your vehicles, it’s highly recommended that you also add GPS tracking with vehicle recovery to your field service fleet.
What does this have to do with company growth? A lot actually. If your assets and drivers are protected, you’re actively managing risks within your organisation, which saves money and overcomes those pesky obstacles that stop you from expanding your fleet and your reach. Oh, and speaking of reach…
You’ll struggle to grow unless you expand your operations to new areas. This could mean slow extensions of reach from where you operate now. But it could also mean opening up a new branch in a whole new area.
Either way, field service management software is an invaluable tool. When it comes to expanding, you want to retain control of all your drivers—no matter which area they’re in, or which branch they work for. And that’s exactly what Delivery from Cartrack helps you do in a field service context.
Small businesses should learn certain management strategies from large, more established corporations that include:
Taken as a whole, these important strategies help shape companies, but only if they’re executed with precision.
Embracing technology is the first step to executing sound business principles with precision, because good SaaS (Software as a Service) will typically remove human error from your processes. But which one should you choose?
Let’s be frank about something, there’s a lot of over-priced AI software out there—most of which you don’t actually need.
The rule: if the AI system you’ve adopted doesn’t pay for itself… YOU DON’T NEED IT!
That being said, one of the biggest mistakes smaller companies make is NOT embracing AI systems that WILL actually improve their operations. This is especially true when it comes to running their drivers and their vehicles.
This is where Cartrack’s field service management software really shines. It not only pays for itself, but it’s designed to increase success—and PROFITS!
We don’t just want to dump software on you. Cartrack is an active partner that supports you in your efforts to optimise your workforce:
According to Business Partners, more than 70% of SMEs in South Africa have failed to adopt digital tools. The article further elaborates on strategies that simply CANNOT BE IGNORED by SME owners. Here’s a quick summary list:
There are a few good field service management software packages out there that will scale with your company, and Cartrack is a strong contender for the best. But it does depend on what you need, which is why our consultants are thoroughly trained on answering your questions about what we offer and how it can help your business.
We offer a software platform called ‘Delivery’, which is perfect for small companies that are getting started with optimising their logistics. Pricing starts from as little as R79.00 per month, and includes all the basics you need to keep track of your field service teams.
As you grow, we offer an upgraded version called ‘Delivery Plus’. This package starts at R286.00 per month, and comes with a number of upgraded benefits that will push your business to succeed.
These prices fluctuate based on various factors like the number of vehicles you have and what additional Cartrack features you want. It’s well worth considering (and reading about) the following—if you haven’t already:
Or just give us a call and ask away!
Automate scheduling, invoicing, and dispatching. Learn how to streamline your operations with field service management software for your small businesses.
