What are the benefits of investing in field service tracking technology, and how can you implement a strategy that unlocks the ROIs of customer engagement?
These days, everything has been “Uberized.” Customers have come to expect that when they order something, they’ll be able to track its arrival from the moment they press a button.
And this standard — frictionless, transparent, and punctual service — now extends beyond Uber and Amazon to the field service industry. Customers expect visibility, ease, and immediacy: They want to make changes to their appointments on their own time, connect with their mobile operatives, use GPS location tracking to see the technician’s route in real-time, and offer insight into their experience.
So, how can you satisfy these demands for quality customer engagement while also making sure they benefit your technicians? With field service tracking technology.
Here, we’ll dive into the advantages of field service GPS employee tracking for both customers and technicians, as well as how to implement the technology.
Benefits for technicians
Field service tracking can greatly enhance technicians’ jobs, making tasks safer, more streamlined, and more enjoyable. But many organisations haven’t quite figured out how to properly execute a GPS tracker for employees. Often, technicians are required to call or text customers with their ETA, which adds to their workload and slows down their day — but perhaps more critically, creates more safety hazards if the mobile worker is using their phone while driving.
Software that automates this process cuts down on multitasking, while also providing service personnel with important information they need about the day of service, service history, and property entry. Automated communication means customers receive push notifications and other location-based updates when their technician is en route, and a self-service portal lets them track a technician’s location on a real-time map — all while the operative has their eyes on the road.
The mobile worker’s day just got more streamlined, while your business reduces its chance of seeing costly truck-rolls and improves service efficiency and first-time access — delivering double-digit improvements in customer satisfaction and profitability.
And although employees and unions have expressed safety and privacy concerns about GPS location tracking, it doesn’t have to be all or nothing. Localz allows you to customise privacy settings to control how and when you share technicians’ locations via: Place in queue, ETA, location, and/or route planning. Geofencing can even be used to automatically turn off tracking once an operative leaves their last scheduled job and ensure a mobile worker’s home location is never visible to the end-customer.
When you ease the burden on your service personnel by implementing field service tracking, it removes friction from their day, boosts their productivity, and safeguards their privacy and well-being.
Benefits for customers
The day of service is shown to cause customers high levels of stress and anxiety — it even disrupts their sleep! Field service tracking can ease their worries and set you apart from the competition when it comes to last-mile engagement. After all, what most customers want is to be in the know: 53% say they’d be relieved if they could track their technician’s location on an app or website, and 72% say they’d greatly benefit from directly communicating with their operative.
Assuage fears by empowering customers to view a technician’s route in real time through GPS location tracking or see how many jobs are ahead of them via place-in-queue services. Field service tracking technology can be particularly make-or-break for potentially high-stress types of appointments, such as utility repairs and pest control, where customers need some extra reassurance.
When you provide autonomy and freedom over their time with field service tracking, customers are more likely to become repeat clients and recommend you to friends and family.
Benefits for the company
It’s clear that field service tracking has benefits for both customers and technicians, but it also has many advantages for your business as a whole.
Here are some of the organisational benefits of GPS employee tracking:
- It streamlines technicians’ days and tasks, increasing productivity and safety — and, importantly, job satisfaction, which reduces your turnover.
- Automated processes free up technicians’ time so that they can handle more appointments per day, which reduces costs for your organisation.
- Automation also reduces volume for your call centre. Customers no longer need to ring for ETA updates, so customer service reps can better focus on more pressing matters.
- Field service tracking can help reduce no-access appointments by up to 40% since it helps ensure customers know when to be home and ready to receive their operative.
- Meeting the modern expectations for visibility means better customer experiences and higher customer satisfaction — improving customer retention and your company’s reputation. Enjoy the benefits of boosted KPIs such as NPS, CSAT, and CES.
How to implement field service tracking
The great news about investing in GPS location tracking is that you don’t need to redo your whole tech stack in order to implement it. It’s actually quite straightforward to plan and execute a field service tracking strategy.
With solutions that easily integrate with your existing platforms and/or a software provider that can build custom APIs and SDKs, adding field service tracking is simple. An expert partner will also support you in setup, implementation, and scaling, as well as offer highly configurable options that suit your organisation’s needs.
Localz provides all this and more. With Track My Appointment, customers can access real-time service tracking and receive automated notifications, while technicians focus on the task at hand. You can configure Localz’ solutions with our out-of-the-box applications, or you can integrate our location and communications SDKs into your own enterprise solution.
Unlock the ROI of field service tracking technology
Field service tracking benefits everyone: Technicians, customers, and your company as a whole. A provider like Localz will work alongside you to curate solutions that integrate effortlessly with your current platforms, or build custom options that meet your unique needs.
With GPS tracking, you can help your organisation unlock the ROI of customer engagement that is so critical to success.
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