How the Right Software Can Boost Field Engineer Efficiency

Why Engineer Efficiency Matters More Than Ever

By implementing strategies to boost your overall operational efficiency, your business can thrive even in the most challenging economic times.

Right now, the market isn’t great:

Inflation: puts pressure on businesses to increase wages, and if you can’t afford it, it can lead to redundancies.

Ongoing utility price rises: have doubled the price of gas and increased electricity bills by 90% for business customers.

Rising interest rates: can put an immediate end to your growth plans, because borrowing becomes very expensive.

Engineer shortage: the UK faces an annual shortfall of 37k-59k engineers, so fail to keep yours happy and productive, and they’ll quickly go elsewhere. 

Make engineer efficiency the name of the game, and you’ll find yourself constantly looking for ways to cut costs, without it impacting your business. For example, reducing energy consumption in head office, optimising processes for engineers in the field, and designing systems to automate non-revenue generating activities.

Efficiency matters because it makes your margins healthier, your customers/colleagues happier, and keeps your business running like a well-oiled machine.

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What’s Holding Engineers Back? 

The Service Council warns of how field service visits are extremely expensive, especially those that do not end in a first-time fix. Not only is there the cost of dispatching engineers to site, there’s also the opportunity cost, where other jobs could not be attended. Often, the path to profitability is governed by service efficiency – so what’s stopping your engineers from hitting peak performance?

Excess Travel and Poor Scheduling

Two factors that most affect first-time fix rates (FTFR) are engineers not having the right skills, and assets not being available for service. When your engineers spend up to half their time travelling between jobs, you want to have the fundamentals in place. Good scheduling ensures the right engineer is sent to the right job, with the equipment ready for service.

Missing Parts and Stock Confusion

In a third of cases, engineers are unable to complete a first-time fix because they have incorrect parts. Before an engineer even gets to site, they need to know what the job is, the parts they need, and any available documentation and service history. Without access to this information, they’re set up to fail.

Time-Consuming Admin and Paperwork

Did you know engineers spend an average of 10 hours per week on admin tasks and 8 hours filling out paperwork? Based on the median salary for a Field Service Engineer (£40k), that’s costing you £347.14 per week. Just imagine the time you could save across the team if you reduced this time-sapping activity – not to mention the extra jobs the team could complete. 

Disconnected Systems and Miscommunication

Nearly half (45%) of engineers waste significant time due to outdated or inaccurate job information. While a quarter feel their company doesn’t make it easy for them to know what parts are needed for service visits. Without access to the right information at the right time, you risk a reduction in billable hours. 

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7 Ways the Right Software Supercharges Field Engineer Productivity

Field service management (FSM) software helps you to streamline processes and deliver superior experiences, because you can manage your engineers, equipment, and (if applicable) customers in one platform. Let’s take a look at how it works:

1. Dynamic Scheduling and Smart Route Planning

The results from our benchmark test showed field service route optimisation:

• Reduces mileage by up to 55%
• Requires up to 23% less travel time
• Saves an average of £1,600+ per day
• Enables engineers to complete 1 extra job per day

Not bad! And it optimises job scheduling to ensure engineers with the right skill set are assigned to the right job, with the right parts at the optimal time. 

2. Instant Mobile Access to Job and Asset Details

Now imagine your engineers are on-site. Do you want them checking in with you every 5-minutes to ask questions? Or would you rather they just crack on? A mobile app puts all the information they need in the palm of their hand, keeping them in sync with the office, so no detail is overlooked.

3. Live Inventory Visibility for First-Time Fix Success

Forget about stock management. The right software efficiently manages your entire inventory, automates replenishment, and tracks parts for smooth maintenance operations. Also, when used through the mobile app, engineers can check and order parts on-the-job, ensuring service and maintenance runs without a hitch. 

4. Paperless Workflows and Digital Compliance

When information is digital, mandatory data is collected on-site, with risk assessments logged and compliance certificates issued on the spot. Information is also pre-populated wherever possible to save time, which means no more delayed, incomplete, or missing paperwork – and no more missed invoicing opportunities. 

5. Real-Time Engineer Location and Workload Tracking

Tracking your engineers doesn’t mean watching their every move to spy on their performance, it’s about making their days run more smoothly. Not only can you save them hours of unnecessary travel each week, you ensure that if an urgent job does come in, you assign the engineer with the right skills to that job.

6. Built-In Job Costing and Time Tracking

Give your engineers service management software and you allow them to generate, track, and manage quotes, as well as tailor pricing for individual customers, simplify purchase order approvals, request parts, log expenses and complete timesheets, all without needing to check-in and cause you to become a bottleneck. 

7. Automated Reporting for Continuous Improvement

KPI dashboards will give you a real-time snapshot of your key metrics, like profit margins and overall business performance, alongside real-time statistics about equipment downtime, FTFRs, and workforce productivity. Now you can monitor performance at a glance, spot trends early, and tackle inefficiencies before they escalate, to keep your business on track.

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Software’s Impact on FTFR

While inflation, utility prices, and increasing interest rates may lie outside your control, the one thing you can always keep a hand on is your internal efficiencies – and a great way to measure engineer efficiency is through your FTFR. 

FTFR is the ultimate productivity metric, and service management software enables you to better manage all the factors driving it. For example, engineer skillset, van stock, parts inventory, locations and routes, planned and reactive service visits, asset status data, and more.

By automating tasks, like scheduling, dispatching, and parts ordering, you reduce the risk of manual errors and delays. While accurate inventory management ensures your engineers have the right parts and tools on hand, which eliminates the need for repeat visits. And data analysis is going to help you identify trends in historic data to predict future maintenance needs.

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Choosing the Right Tool: What to Look For

The best tool will make it easy for you to manage your engineers, equipment, and customers, all in one platform to deliver: 

Mobile usability for engineers: provide your engineers with the vital information they need to complete the job, such as service history, risk assessment, parts history, and previous engineer’s notes.

Asset tracking & parts management: ensure your engineers always have the right parts to hand, giving them the option to order parts on the job, and automatically place orders for low stock items.

Custom workflows and service reminders: plan ahead, get timely reminders, and keep equipment in tip-top shape with automated planned preventive maintenance software, which streamlines scheduling and delivers clear work instructions.

Performance tracking and integration: make clear, data-driven decisions and integrate your service management software with existing business tools, to save time and minimise workloads along the way.

Minimal manual input and maximum automation: from logging jobs to scheduling maintenance and generating invoices, you want the software to take care of as much admin as possible, so your team doesn’t have to. 

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Field Engineer Productivity in Practice

Herts Mechanical improved its efficiencies with field service management software. Now, engineers capture job details on site, which has eliminated paperwork and allowed the admin team to generate accurate reports for customers. 

This digital information also makes it easy to make data-driven decisions, since everything from contracts to jobs, engineers skills, stock availability and everything in between, is at people’s fingertips.

And integration with Sage has sped up the payment process and improved cashflow, because invoicing is initiated upon job completion.

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Boost Your Efficiency Now (Without More Headcount!)

There’s a BIG problem about to hit the industry, with 70% of service organisations indicating they will become burdened by a retiring workforce over the next five to ten years. Already, the shortage of engineers has resulted in higher costs and missed opportunities.

But what if you leveraged service management software now to streamline processes and enhance engineer efficiency?

Service management job scheduling functionality will automate your inefficiencies, helping your engineers avoid unnecessary travel, so they have time to complete an extra job every day.

Corresponding mobile applications give engineers all the information they need to perform a first-time fix. And with a sub-contractor module, you can easily manage contractors, because it makes job allocation as seamless as assigning tasks to in-house engineers.

When you measure what matters, you can use detailed data to pinpoint and resolve issues. Field service management software will also enable your engineers to capture feedback and real-time data when on-site. For example, it might sound obvious to record how long jobs actually take to complete, but it’s surprising how many organisations can’t answer this simple question. Once you know the answer, you can plan in adequate time for future tasks, so engineers don’t fall behind.

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Ready to Improve Engineer Productivity?

If you’re looking to excel in customer service, stay ahead of the competition, secure long-term growth – and of course, boost your profitability – download our free e-guide below.

Alternatively, if you want to see what Service Geeni’s service management software can do for you, why not book a demo?