5 Ways Work Order Software Can Reduce Overtime Hours

We invited Tamara Scott, a technology analyst at TechnologyAdvice, to write about how work order software can reduce overtime hours for service businesses.

Running a service company is more than just sending teams out to the field. These companies require careful coordination between customers, office administration, and service technicians to make sure top-notch service isn’t diluted by delays and bottlenecks.

Overtime will never fully disappear, as service teams often respond to emergent situations with changing conditions, but many teams find that a fully featured work order software solution helps them increase efficiencies and reduce overtime hours. The Aberdeen Group finds fully optimized processes increase work order completion by 20% per day. Companies can drastically decrease unnecessary overtime by automating and refining administrative work and office to team communication.

Office Coordination

Technicians know how to do their jobs, and it’s the role of the back office to coordinate technicians and then get out of the way so they can do what they do best. Field service management tools connect the office and the field like never before, through electronic communications that decrease the time spent coordinating and updating, so professionals can spend more time serving the customer. This can translate into time saved and fewer overtime hours each week with workflows, staffing, and reporting.

1. Increased Workflow Efficiency

Service companies depend on workflows and up to date communication to ensure great service to the customers. Automated workflow tools provide smooth information handoffs between different teams, and customer self-service access to online booking tools only make things easier.

Customers can fill out their own work orders, and instead of forcing teams to call or stop by the office to receive a new work order, updates can pass between the office and field technicians via in-system emails or notifications. Technicians can instead spend their time moving directly between jobs, reducing work hours, saving money on gas, and reducing wear and tear on vehicles.

2. Proportional staffing

Modern service management software includes reporting and scheduling tools that ensure staffing levels can cover busy times, keeping your employees happy and your payroll in check. when you’ve got a lot of jobs, you can staff lots of people, and this is easier to see when the jobs live on a digital calendar, where beginnings and ends. Also helpful for scheduling equipment, vehicles, and repairs.

If your team also implements firm sick and vacation time standards, and documents them in your work order software where the team can reference them easily, you can reduce your overtime costs due to covering shifts.

3. Reporting for Process Analysis

A feature you should look for when investigating any modern software is reporting abilities. Software is no longer just about getting the job done; its role has expanded to improving business processes. Reporting features can help your team identify workload bottlenecks that result in wasted time and effort that can eventually translate into overtime hours.

Work Order Software Means More Efficient Technicians

Service teams want to spend their time completing their assigned jobs and providing customers with great care. They don’t want to spend their time filling out paperwork or driving back and forth to the office.

4. Reduced Service Team Hours

Advanced service management tools either include or allow integration of GPS and mobile check in. When automated workflows send the technicians their tasks for the day to a mobile device, geo location tools can allow service teams to drive directly to the work site. Offices can track and address time theft issues or travel inefficiencies.

Technicians can check in via a mobile time clock software the moment they begin work, instead of driving to the office, punching in, and then driving to the job site. These tools also give teams the freedom to spend less time in the office trying to coordinate jobs, when they should be spending time serving customers.

5. Reduced paperwork

The promise of technology is that one day we can move entirely away from paper invoice and filing systems. This promise is particularly hopeful for service management companies who can use mobile and tablet apps to file work orders and payments instead of filing and copying paper and carbon copy receipts.

Keeping track of orders and documenting work is still important, but autofill features, automatic payments, and mobile time tracking reduce overall paperwork, saving both the office and service teams hours off their days they would otherwise spend filling out paper documentation and filing completed jobs.

Tamara Scott is a technology analyst at TechnologyAdvice, a research company that connects buyers and sellers of business technology. She writes about field service, maintenance management, analytics, and many other technology verticals.