Improving field employee productivity may seem challenging since you aren’t with them most of the day. But there are several easy ways to give your team a boost, mostly by making daily work easier and more convenient for both workers and customers. After all, productivity and customer satisfaction go hand-in-hand. Keep reading to discover the best ways to give your employees and your business a productivity boost.

3 Tips For Improving Field Employee Productivity

Increase Communication and Convenience with Mobile Service and Billing

A 2018 employee research study found 84% of field workers believe there is not enough communication with top management, which negatively impacts their engagement. With open lines of communication, your workers can come to you with questions, updates, and concerns, which is extremely important for productivity.

Part of keeping lines of communication open is making it easy for field employees to share job updates with the rest of the team. Business software that allows your pool and spa service team to use a mobile app to track jobs lets your field workers record information in the app while still on the job and allows your in-office team to view that information immediately.

In addition to improving communication, mobile service options like RB’s allow you to offer mobile water testing so your customers don’t have to bring a sample to the store. With one centralized system, field workers and in-store employees can view the results so they can help customers without the delay of searching various places for information or making a phone call.

RB’s Mobile Live app syncs with office software to enable instant access to customer profiles. This means techs have all necessary specifications and warranty information on hand, eliminating repeat trips to the office. It also allows techs to prepare invoices and accept payments before leaving a site. This can reduce the time spent on billing and provide a valuable service to customers who prefer to pay on the spot.

You could spend hours looking at maps to find the best routes for your techs to take, or you can let pool service routing software do it for you. RB’s software does more than just plan routes. It also enables your techs to work more efficiently by allowing them to clock in and out on-site rather than spending valuable time traveling to the office to punch a clock. A GPS feature allows office staff to track their whereabouts to handle dispatching remotely.

Pool service routing software helps you create more efficient routes, but with just a little effort, you can optimize tech time even more. These strategies will help your field employees save time and money on fuel:

• Plan trips to avoid driving during rush hour or minimize travel at those times by scheduling calls close to the office first, then sending techs further out as traffic lets up.
• Group similar jobs and ensure the truck is prepared with necessary supplies to complete scheduled jobs.
• Schedule jobs by skill sets, ensuring each job is matched with a tech with proper experience. Consider sending out pairs of techs with complementary skills. You may find they can complete work more efficiently than one might do alone. This also allows newer technicians to be mentored by those with more field experience.

Inventory control is a key component in running a lean and profitable business. The new mobile technology integrated into RB’s business software program helps you tighten logistics, manage cycle counts, and gain more control over inventory on service trucks. These tools can help you avoid inventory inaccuracies, missed sales, lost income, and surprising shortages.

Set up your warehouses within RB’s system (for example: “Bill’s Service Truck”). This allows you to manage the truck inventory like managing multiple warehouses. Use reorder system alerts to hone in on inventory levels. Be sure to use case quantities so you don’t have to replenish constantly. If a tech needs filter cleaner on their truck, give them a case from the pallet and let them pull it as needed. This allows the operations person to run inventory reports at their leisure and replenish the stock site as needed.

The RB Simple Search inventory feature allows businesses to search inventory by department, vendor, category, or by typing any portion of the item’s description. This makes managing products, including transferring stock from trucks to store or between trucks, far easier.

Improve Field Employee Productivity With Pool and Spa Business Software

Centralizing information and automating certain tasks boosts productivity, freeing your employees to focus on customer relationships and increasing sales. RB’s software does this and more to help you improve efficiency by:

• Managing customers and entire jobs more easily
• Automating revolving service
• Tracking field employee schedules and optimize routes
• Controlling service vehicle inventory
• Providing constant access to information with a mobile app

The right swimming pool service management software will improve efficiency. When everyone has access to customer records and inventory, employees can focus on customer satisfaction.

RB’s business software is specifically designed to position pool service businesses for growth. To discover how to grow your pool service business with our 5-star rated software, contact us to schedule a demo.