If you’re shopping for mobile workforce management software for a field service company, you’re not alone. Many organizations have realized that workforce management with paper and spreadsheets is no longer viable for a workforce that is out in the field and on the go. Some have already tried a digital solution, but it hasn’t worked out. Either way, if you want a field service management (FSM) application that makes a difference for your productivity and bottom line, it’s important to look for solutions that:  

• Take little effort to learn and use 
• Free employees from repetitive tasks 
• Keep customers informed and happy 
• Manage assets and equipment 
• And help you grow business for the long term 

1 Usability Makes the Whole System More Effective 

The most important thing to look for in mobile workforce management software is usability. You may think usability is a second-tier consideration compared to a good feature list, but all the features in the world do you no good if your team can’t figure out how to use them. And when employees are in the field trying to get work done, they don’t have the time or patience to fumble their way through a confusing interface. They revert back to their previous inefficient but comfortable habits, and the software you’re paying for isn’t paying off for you. 

When you’re researching solutions, look for a clean, simple design that prioritizes information most relevant to the user, such as today’s appointments or past-due work orders. The system should allow users to customize their dashboards based on their preferences. Menu options should be easy to find with informative labels, and the most common tasks such as submitting a work order or updating status should follow a logical, intuitive process that makes sense to your team. Finally, if a user makes a mistake, they should get useful error messages, and they should have a way to delete or reverse any action.  

2 Automation Frees Time for High-Value Tasks 

Mobile workforce management software should make your life easier by taking some of the work off your plate entirely. Look for features that automate manual tasks. For example, if you have preventive maintenance or repetitive jobs, the system should automatically create work orders for those based on a schedule you define.  

A typical workday is filled with tasks that could be automated to save you time and money. Workflow automation ensures notifications of status changes are sent to the people who need them. You can customize default values for forms and specific events, which saves entering the most common data. When your team makes comments, conducts chat conversations, or sends emails regarding a work order, the system should connect them all to the job record, so no decisions, instructions, or observations are lost in a chat history. And when employees snap a picture of work done or equipment in the field, a good FSM will automatically upload it and attach it to the record. 

Other useful automation includes bulk editing, which allows managers to close work orders, change status, or add comments to multiple jobs at once. Import tools also automate the transfer of data into the system, which is especially helpful when you’re setting the FSM up for the first time. And it should be easy to export the data in an FSM to a spreadsheet or text file if needed. 

3 Customer Portal and CRM Help You Keep Customers Happy 

Many field service companies struggle with customer communications. Customers are happiest when they can get the status of a job anytime they want it. But they’re not always on the job site to see what’s been done, and techs are often too busy to fire off an email or make extensive notes on the work order. But an FSM with customer relationship management (CRM) features and a customer access portal make it much easier to keep clients in the loop. 

Depending on what you want to share, an external portal will allow clients to look up service history, submit work requests, check status, download files, view contracts, and run reports. For an added bonus, look for the ability to customize and automate notifications so customers get proactive information about job status, appointments, and looming contract expiration dates. They should be able to access the portal from any connected device, and it should have security features, such as secure login and user permissions.   

The CRM features helps your team serve customers better by making it easy to find service history, contacts, addresses, communications, and assets for every customer. With CRM capabilities, your team gets a picture of what each customer needs from you, their preferences, and their service history. This detailed information helps you determine how to serve them better. For example, you might notice that some customers call once a quarter for equipment fixes and they could save money and reduce business disruptions if you put them on a regular preventive maintenance plan. Customer insights derived from your CRM increases loyalty, drives new business, and raises the lifetime value of the account. 

4 Asset Management Drives Efficiency in Each Job 

If it’s going to be useful for a field service business, mobile workforce management software has to provide asset management. Your techs square off against a wide variety of equipment and each machine has its own serial number, model number, and service history. Asset management keeps information for every piece of equipment in your care in one easy-to-find place, so techs never have to guess, call back to the office, or get stuck with the wrong manuals. It keeps track of warranties, fault codes, and past work, which helps you know when to schedule preventive maintenance and helps techs troubleshoot machine failures. Good asset management improves first-time fix rate, decreases time on task, and reduces the number of emergency calls. 

5 Analytics and Reporting Uncovers New Opportunities 

Any good mobile workforce management solution helps you collect, order, and manage details about your jobs, customers, and assets. But your FSM should also help you put that information to work. A good system will help you crunch data into reports, trends, and dashboards that illustrate where your business excels, where you need improvement, and what opportunities you can go after. 

Reports will instantly assess key metrics such as service billing, profitability by job, labor hours used, and average expenses. You should be able to customize them for any metric you want to track over any time period, geographical location, work order, customer, or technician. Analytics and reporting capabilities give you the insight to drive constant improvement in your business. 

See the 5 Essential Features of Mobile Workforce Management Software in Action  

BlueFolder’s FSM solution prioritizes the most valuable and useful features for field service companies. Over the years, we’ve listened to what our customers want and need, and we’ve designed a platform that delivers maximum value through simple, clear, intuitive interactions. 

With BlueFolder, your team gets work done faster with fewer errors. Customers are delighted and jobs run smoothly from request to billing. 

• Best-in-class usability and user-friendly mobile app 
• Automated workflow, notifications, status updates, and import/export 
• Preference-based customer portal for optimal communications and transparency 
• Detailed asset management with custom fields and attachments 
• Extensive standard reports plus build-your-own reports and dashboards for best fit to your needs 

Learn why BlueFolder’s customers rave about our flexible, powerful FSM solution. Book a demo today. 

Few businesses have more use for mobile field solutions than field service providers. Technicians are on the road most of the time, and they need to be able to find customer locations, get to appointments on time, and make sure they have the right manuals, parts, and paperwork. Plus, they have to keep customers and managers up to date, let accounting know what to invoice, and alert sales about follow-up work. Mobile field solutions help them do all that while making it easier for technicians to do what they do best – helping your customers. 

Here are the five essential mobile field solutions you need to enhance your team’s productivity and should integrate with your field service management software: 

• Calendar 
• Camera 
• Maps 
• Email/messaging 
• PDF readers 

#1 Make the Most of Technicians’ Time with a Mobile Calendar Solution 

Field service schedulers have to strike a delicate balance. They need maximum billable hours from each technicians’ day, but they have to leave enough time for work to be done properly and for employees to travel to the next appointment on time, so customers are not waiting for late techs. 

Schedulers are very good at what they do, but they can’t see the future. When a job takes longer than expected, traffic snarls on the freeway, or emergency work comes in, they may need to adjust schedules on the fly. With mobile calendars, they can see the daily appointments for each technician and move them around if needed. In the field, engineers get instant updates so as they finish one job, they know exactly where to go next.   

Make the most of mobile calendars with a field service management solution (FSM) like BlueFolder. Each BlueFolder user has their own personal calendar with daily, weekly, monthly and other views. Users can also integrate and sync their BlueFolder calendar with personal applications like Outlook, Google Calendar, or iCal. 

#2 Support Work Orders, Invoices, and Reports with Camera Photos and Videos  

Most mobile phones come with cameras that are easy to use and work well in varied lighting conditions. Having the ability to snap photos of the work environment, completed repairs, and equipment condition helps technicians quickly capture complex details. Photos convey more information than written descriptions and take much less time to create. For very technical issues, techs can take videos and narrate what they see.  

Photos provide proof of work for invoices and customer communications. They also demonstrate why additional work might need to be done and record the status of equipment with time and date stamps for a repair history or maintenance records. With a field service management software like BlueFolder, you can easily upload photos and videos to the relevant work order record, so you never have to copy and paste them after the job. 

#3 Mobile Maps Help Technicians Find Their Way  

Your field team has to move as quickly as possible between appointments, but road construction, car wrecks, and traffic jams can ruin a day quickly. Plus, it’s easy to get lost when going to a new customer location. Phone and tablet-based map applications help keep technicians moving in the right direction and will even route them around wrecks and backups.   

These services typically announce directions out loud, allowing drivers to focus on the road instead of a small mobile screen. For extra efficiency, BlueFolder’s FSM integrates Google Maps so technicians can access directions right from the work order, and schedulers can locate techs by office location to find the closest one to a customer site. 

Mobile map applications also estimate time of arrival so if a technician is going to be a few minutes late, they can call the customer and let them know, which improves the customer experience. For technicians, the software points out nearby gas stations, convenience stores, and restaurants where they can take breaks or fuel up.  

#4 Keep Communication Going with Email and Text 

Messaging applications such as email and text are easy to access on any phone and most tablets. These are great ways to get in touch with field engineers to send updates, answer questions, or check on status. And they don’t interrupt employees while they’re working or driving like a phone call would.  

While text is the easiest way to send quick details, you can use emails for sharing in-depth conversations, recording customer approvals, or attaching relevant documents. BlueFolder’s FSM integrates email conversations with work order management, automatically attaching discussions to work orders. Emails won’t get lost in the noise and each communication becomes part of the record to reduce misunderstandings. 

#5 Make it Easy to Access Documents Anywhere with PDF Readers  

The machinery field technicians work on is complicated and varied. For any job, the engineer may need to refer to manufacturer’s documentation, electrical schematics, or parts lists. It’s not easy to carry these papers around and employees may find they need to access information they didn’t anticipate before they arrived on site.  

While most important documents for equipment maintenance and repair are available in PDF format, they can be hard to read with web browsers. But with mobile PDF readers on their phones or tablets, techs can easily access the information they’re looking for. PDF readers allow them to magnify the view, scroll through pages, and make notes on the text for reference. To make life even easier for techs, BlueFolder allows users to attach manuals, photos and other files to any asset or equipment record, so all the information engineers need is at their fingertips. 

BlueFolder’s User-Friendly Interface and Mobile Field Application Power Your Team 

Our customers love BlueFolder for its ease-of-use, and our mobile field application is no different. Employees find it intuitive and can start using it with almost no training. It’s designed to help engineers get to the right location with the right support documents and easily update work orders when the job is done. With the mobile app, techs can share real-time status with managers, customers, sales, and accounting in just a few clicks. And customers can approve the work by signing the phone or tablet directly, so you can generate invoices faster and speed cash flow. 

The mobile app works seamlessly with BlueFolder’s web-based FSM software. BlueFolder makes it easier to: 

• Schedule the right people for the right jobs 
• Ensure technicians have the support they need 
• Open lines to responsive customer communications 
• Kick off invoices faster 
• Easily manage contracts 
• Increase recurring revenue and follow-on work 

And BlueFolder is so simple to set up and use, most of our customers are up and running in a day or two. Schedule a demo today and see how BlueFolder can help you.

Field service businesses run on work orders. Everyone uses some kind of work order to kick-off each job, track status, and trigger invoices. But many companies leave out a crucial detail from this process – the work order category. It may not seem obvious that categories are important to work order management. But in fact, categories help your team prepare for and complete jobs properly. They also help you improve business processes and grow profits. 

Common Work Order Categories for Field Service Companies 

When field service companies categorize work orders, they tend to use a handful of traditional labels. These have developed over decades of business experience, but every company is different. You may decide to use some of these but add custom categories as well.  

Common work order categories and their meanings: 

Inspection: equipment needs to be audited or examined for condition. These service orders are usually carried out on a predetermined schedule. Technicians will make note of any problems they find during an inspection and create a corrective maintenance order as a follow-up. 

Preventive Maintenance: technicians conduct basic equipment care to keep it running well. They may replace parts, make adjustments, clean areas, or add lubrication in order to avoid unexpected failure. Most companies schedule preventive maintenance at regular intervals for critical or expensive machinery. 

Corrective Maintenance: during inspections or preventive maintenance, technicians may uncover problems that need more work. If so, they generate a corrective maintenance order to replace parts, address safety concerns, or troubleshoot performance problems.  

Reactive Maintenance: technicians are called out to fix equipment that has broken down. These work orders will have varying levels of urgency based on how badly the failed machines impact business operations. Some companies may consider breaking reactive maintenance categories into sub-categories based on priority.  

Emergency: technicians have to respond in short order to fix critical equipment that has failed. Usually, a customer’s business is severely hampered, and they need repairs immediately. Many companies commit to handling emergency orders within an hour.  

Other Categories: depending on your business and types of customers, you might add other common categories, such as Electrical, Safety, Special Project, Upgrade, Installation, Damage, or Meter Reading. It’s also a good idea to have a General label for work that doesn’t fall neatly into predetermined groups. 

Work Order Categories Help Ensure Technicians Have What They Need 

A well-designed set of categories will ensure your team adds all the important information to a work order, so technicians have what they need for each job. For example, inspection requests might link to factory specifications and list diagnostic tools needed to access sensor readouts. Preventive maintenance orders can display the task checklists and repair history. And corrective maintenance orders can link to the previous technician’s observations and relevant manuals.  

Work orders customized by categories can also help technicians follow up properly. After inspections and preventive maintenance, they need to record their observations and note any follow-on work required. For emergency calls, they should explain why the equipment failed and how to prevent the problem going forward. Work orders customized for each category type will provide reminders and make it easy for technicians to input important details. 

Reporting Based on Work Order Categories Helps Improve Business Processes 

Reports that show you how many jobs you’ve completed in each work order category over the last quarter or year will help you understand the percentage of your business each job type represents. And based on that information, you can determine where you want to take the company and how to get there. If you do mostly emergency work, for example, you might decide to embrace that and market your expertise and responsiveness to new customers. Or you might want to decrease your percentage of emergency work and build a recurring revenue stream by encouraging customers with a high frequency of emergency calls to sign up for preventive maintenance contracts. 

It’s also useful to review completed records in the same category and assess the results. For instance, determine how often preventive maintenance finds problems that generate corrective work. Or compare the number of hours logged for each job type versus the estimate and use that data to make better estimates in the future.  

Assessing the typical outcomes of all the jobs in a category can lead you to insights about how to improve processes, increase profits, or serve customers better. Here are some ways you could use the data to drive better results: 

• When technicians find a problem during preventive maintenance, how often do customers approve corrective work? Could you improve the frequency by following up with the customer or turning estimates around faster? 

• How often are reactive repairs needed within a month of an inspection or preventive maintenance? If that number is higher than you’d like, what might be the cause? Were important details missed in the inspection? Should checklists be revised to improve outcomes? 
• How fast were emergency jobs completed? If they’re not meeting your company goals, what’s causing the delay? Are technicians having a hard time getting parts? Or is it difficult to schedule the right expert for emergencies? It might be time to revise inventory management or cross-Btrain technicians. 

Use BlueFolder to Get the Best Value from Work Order Categories 

While assigning work order categories is good practice for all field service businesses, it’s even more powerful when combined with an intuitive, flexible FSM application like BlueFolder.  

• Clear and simple interface allows you to create any set of categories or work order fields that make sense for your business.  
• Powerful reporting lets you view all jobs from a high level or drill down by category, customer, technician, or any other important field to get the data you need to grow and thrive.  
• Customizable smart lists help your team meet company goals by letting technicians know if they’re behind on response times or need to complete follow-up notes.  

BlueFolder does more for your company than an average FSM software because it’s easy for every employee and contractor to use. That means you have detailed, comprehensive records for each job and multifunctional reporting that serves up profit-boosting insights. 

Kick off a free trial and today and see what BlueFolder in action can do for you. 

When your field service business is humming along, you’ll rarely see techs in the office – they’re out completing jobs. But they still need to access work order information and update status as they go. A mobile work order app can make this process convenient and efficient. A work order app presents all the information for service tasks on a mobile phone or tablet. Employees access instructions, customer history, and equipment details on their devices. When done, they enter notes and status directly into the system for immediate update.  

But not all work order apps are equal. It’s important to find one that meets the needs of your business and your techs. To find the right solution for you, look for these 5 essential features: 

1 – A Dashboard Offers a High-Level View 

Mobile apps with a dashboard help technicians plan their days, stick with a schedule, and prioritize work. A good dashboard organizes tasks by status and urgency so users can make a quick assessment about how to manage their time. They can drill down into any task for relevant information, such as attachments, notes, instructions, driving directions, and other job-related details. They should also be able to view or link to a calendar for appointments. 

2 – On-Site Work Order Updates Increase Productivity and Consistency 

An effective mobile work order app should help users make updates on site. With simple editing features, techs can change the work order status as soon as they’re done. Plus, they can add labor hours and expenses immediately.  

Without on-site work order updates, you have to call techs for progress reports or wait until they’re in the office. The more time that lapses between job completion and work order updates, the more likely someone will forget an expense or misremember the hours spent on a job, which could lead to billing mistakes and lost profits.  

When techs make updates promptly with a work order app, management and customers follow status in real time. And accounting can kick off the billing cycle as soon as a job is done, which speeds cash flow.  

3 – Attaching Photos and Videos Enhances the Work Record and Drives Additional Business 

Work orders and associated notes are important documents for your business. The more information they capture about each job, the better story they tell for your customers, internal audits, and business planning. Photos and videos often tell the story better than any notes or status tags can.  

Even before mobile apps were available, techs would often take photos or videos of their work for customer review. Pictures are also useful for recording the condition of equipment or identifying other issues that may lead to follow-on proposals for additional work.  

A good mobile app makes it easy to take and attach a photo or video with just a few clicks and set it for public or private view, depending on whether customers need to see it. With easy uploading, techs are more likely to snap pics, adding important details to work records that you and customers will appreciate.  

4 – Signature Capture Speeds Cash Flow 

There’s no better time and place to get customer approval than on site just as a job is completed. A good mobile app with signature capture enables on-location digital approvals; customers can “write” their signatures directly into the app. Your team no longer has to spend time trading emails for customer approval and waiting days or weeks until you can start the billing cycle.  

5 – Work Order Apps Optimized for Mobile Usability Have the Best ROI 

Mobile apps need to pack a lot of functionality into a small screen. There’s no keyboard for easy typing, and web forms designed for computers don’t always translate well to mobile. Any good work order app should be optimized for mobile usability. If it isn’t, techs will find it a pain to use and revert back to paper or spreadsheets; your business won’t realize the benefits of your investment. 

For the best usability, the app should use a simple, clean design displaying only relevant information to the task. You shouldn’t see any space wasted on useless details or graphics. Because mobile apps are used in many environments, they should be easy to read in bright daylight or dim areas, and you should see a clear contrast between text and background colors. 

The flow of interaction should follow a logical progression with relevant menu options on each screen and an easy way to back track. Commonly used tasks should be optimized so techs can finish them in just a few clicks. Tasks that involve uploads or downloads, such as attaching photos, should show status icons so users can tell if the action is in progress or completed. And if there’s an error, the app should help users get back on track with informative error messages. 

Finding the Right Work Order App Makes a Difference 

It may take a little time to find an app that checks all the boxes, but the effort is worth it. Well-designed solutions pay off better in the end. If the interface is easy to navigate, for example, techs will learn it faster and use it more. When your team is using the app regularly, your process is more consistent, you keep customers and managers updated in real time, and the billing process starts earlier, easing cash flow. 

Customers love the results from a good work order app. They get status updates faster, view photos of the finished work, and receive timely, accurate invoices. The transparency builds trust and helps grow your business. 

These days, almost everyone carries a cell phone wherever they go. Why not take advantage of the devices to help your business run smoother and drive margin? Choosing the right work order app will get you there. 

BlueFolder’s Work Order Mobile App Fits the Bill 

BlueFolder understands that a field service management (FSM) system provides the most value when technicians, management, accountants, and customers can all use it effortlessly. So we’ve designed an FSM software that’s incredibly easy to use. And our mobile app is no different.  

Technicians in the field benefit from a simple and efficient interface, the ability to upload photos and videos, and signature capture. Your team can update work order status, labor hours, expenses, and notes with a few clicks. The BlueFolder work order app puts the power of FSM in your techs’ hands, boosting business efficiency and maximizing billable hours.  

Want to see what a well-designed mobile app can do for your business? Take it for a test drive today. 

For facility maintenance and field service businesses, maintenance work represents a reliable revenue stream. However, managing a constant influx of requests, keeping up with technicians in the field, and tracking equipment can overwhelm your staff, especially as business grows. Incorporating best practices in managing maintenance work orders will help you control the chaos and get your team operating smoothly. 

Put All Necessary Information in the Work Order 

Typically, a work order includes at least the requester, task description, assignee, and scheduled date. But if your team needs other information regularly, develop a process to include it in each request. You may want to add job instructions, equipment specs, supplies lists, customer contact details, travel directions, or access codes. If helpful, you could also include requirements which helps schedulers determine the right tech, such as necessary skills or certifications.  

Define and Use Meaningful Status Tags 

A work request goes through several stages from submission to billing, and it’s easier for your team to know where each is in the process if you assign statuses. Typical status labels include “new request,” “approved,” “work in progress,” and “complete.” But you might need others for special situations, such as “parts on order” or “declined.” These terms serve as shorthand, so managers quickly know what’s been done and what’s left for each job.  

Status terms have to be meaningful and consistent to work properly. Specify the terms your company will use and stick with them. Also, help employees get in the habit of updating status regularly.  

Define Priority Standards for Managing Time Conflicts 

Inevitably, you’ll have weeks when maintenance work orders overwhelm your ability to respond immediately to each one. Before that happens, set up a system of priorities which tell your team which requests should be addressed first and which might need to wait. 

When determining high, medium, and low priority work, consider the type of equipment involved, the customer relationship, and any contractual obligations such as response times. For example, you may assign high priority for work on machinery that’s essential for your customers to do business. A request could get medium priority if the customer can still operate but productivity suffers. And low priorities would include repairs which don’t impact customer operations significantly. 

Assign priorities at work order creation, even if there are no conflicts at the time. Then, if an urgent request comes in, you can easily determine which low priority jobs could be postponed.  

Save Records of Past Maintenance Work Orders 

A maintenance work order is your record of each job. And together, over time, they reveal patterns, such as how long equipment tends to last, what kind of repairs are needed regularly, and how long it takes to complete different jobs.  Using old work orders as a reminder of previous experience and lessons learned, your team can estimate work more accurately, avoid past mistakes, and refine offerings to better serve customers.  

Many companies struggle to make use of past records because it takes time and effort to collect, organize, and analyze the information. But the data captured from completed work orders can save money and help grow your business, so it’s worth the effort. 

Document Work in the Field 

When your technicians are on-site fixing equipment, they should be able to document their activity in the work order and add photos if needed. The documentation serves as proof of maintenance done and enhances the historical record. Often techs find other problems with equipment which aren’t on the original service request. If so, the notes and photos can easily transform into a new work order.  

Use a Common Calendar  

Managing work orders involves complex logistics. You have to fill technicians’ schedules, minimize down time, ensure they have all the supplies needed, and keep customers informed. It’s easier to plan efficiently, if everyone works from a common calendar.  

With one schedule for all techs, managers know where everyone should be at any point. When a new request comes in, the dispatcher schedules the right staff to minimize down time. And if there are last minute changes, you can adjust with minimal disruption. 

Streamline Handling for Recurring Work 

With some jobs, like preventive maintenance, you’re doing the same service on the same equipment for the same company at regular intervals, so it doesn’t make sense to recreate a work order for each visit. Simplify the process by designing reusable templates or making duplicates of past orders.  

And if possible, set alerts for pending preventive work. Many customers forget to schedule maintenance on time, which is lost work for you and may cause equipment failures later. With alerts, you can set up the job up, keeping customers happy and your techs busy. 

Use a Field Service Management (FSM) Application 

Even the most dedicated field service companies have a hard time following these best practices if they’re still using pen and paper or email and spreadsheets to manage work orders. These manual approaches take time. And when people get busy, they take shortcuts which undermine your efforts at sustaining best practices. A robust FSM automates the manual tasks and offers additional functionality, which helps you stick to best practices and makes them even more effective. 

With an FSM, your team will 

• Easily fill out detailed maintenance work orders. 

• Simplify work order submission with templates and duplicate requests for recurring work. 
• Update statuses in the field. 
• Allow techs to attach photos and make notes about each job. 
• Store records of previous customer work to support new jobs. 
• Provide easy access to past work, so you can find old records when you need to. 

• Connect job requests to relevant equipment manuals, diagrams, and customer access instructions. 
• Assign priorities to each job so it’s easy to rearrange the schedule if emergency requests come in.

   

Follow Best Practices the Easy Way with BlueFolder  

BlueFolder’s cloud-based FSM application turns work order chaos into focused productivity. Your team will submit, assign, and schedule work orders with a few clicks. Technicians can access relevant documents, instructions, and customer history from the field on any connected device. And it takes just a few minutes to update the work status, enter notes, and add photos, so you can get the invoicing process started.  

BlueFolder’s integrations with common billing applications and calendars streamlines your entire operation. And the customer portal gives clients the status and updates they need without having to call and ask you for it. Plus, the application is so easy to use most companies are up and running in a few days.   

Many field service companies struggle with work order management, but yours doesn’t have to be one of them.  

See what BlueFolder can do for you today. 

According to Heating, Air-conditioning & Refrigeration Distributors International (HARDI), the HVAC industry grew 23.6% in 2021 and will continue on a similar pace this year. Healthy equipment sales are increasing demand for installations, repair, and servicing. For HVAC field service companies, 2022 is an excellent year to bring in more work and build a sustainable income stream for the future. If you’re ready to fatten up the bottom line, take a look at these five revenue-raising strategies. 

1. 1. Attract More Customers Through Marketing

 Many HVAC field service companies rely on referrals for increasing income, but if you want to expand faster, consider using advertising and marketing. With outreach, you can highlight your company’s unique strengths and differentiate yourself from competitors.  

As a first step, ensure your website represents the company well. Most people do online research before contacting a service provider. A professional, mobile-friendly site that instills confidence and shows up on the first or second page of a Google search attracts prospects and encourages them to make appointments. Emails also drive business. Stay in touch with current and past customers through an opt-in campaign that shares expert information and keeps them up to date on your latest services and offerings.  

If you haven’t done a lot of marketing or advertising before or you’re not sure where to start, take a look at the budget and determine how much you’re willing to invest, then work with a marketing specialist to help get the most return for your money. With every new customer, you’re not only adding revenue, but creating a new source of future referrals, which fuels growth even more. 

2. Improve Efficiency with a Field Service Management Software

 Getting the appointment is just the first step in growing revenue. Once you have a customer’s attention, you need to keep it with quality service. But bringing on new accounts stresses your operation. There’s more work to track, more bills to submit, and more customers to communicate with. Slow manual work order and billing management procedures can’t keep up, and your team will struggle to keep old and new customers happy. To increase your revenue without raising costs or sacrificing quality, invest in a field service management (FSM) platform that automates work order requests, technician scheduling, work updates, and billing.  

With field service management software, you can approve work orders, assign them to technicians, and schedule the job with a few clicks. The system provides a single source of all information associated with each work order so there’s no miscommunications and no appointments are overlooked. With an FSM software, technicians arrive on time and have what they need to complete the work.  

Management can track inventory, hours spent, expenses, and equipment in the field. Plus, you’ll have instant updated status when work is complete so you can bill immediately for faster cash flow. When the time comes to bring on more technicians and managers, an FSM software also helps you keep everyone accountable and provides oversight into all your operations.  

3. Offer Additional Services and Products

 Your team has expertise and experience in the HVAC field service industry which you can translate into revenue while helping customers improve their systems and reliability. For example, help clients save on energy costs with new solutions, such as packaged heating and air conditioning systems. Or offer a regular maintenance plan that keeps existing equipment operating more efficiently and cuts down on emergency service calls.  

 You can also upsell useful accessories, such as Wi-Fi thermostats, air purifiers, or humidifiers. Run specials for new accounts or bundle these products with upgraded services like annual maintenance contracts.  

4. Increase Your Pricing

 As your customer base and reputation grow with efficient operations, strong marketing, and high-value service, you can charge more for the work. If customers regularly refer you to others and have been with your company for a long time, they’re happy with your partnership and will likely pay more to keep it. Also, when your brand is well-known in the market and you have good online reviews, you can charge a little more.  

 If you’re not comfortable rising prices across the board, start by increasing charges for emergency or fast-response jobs. When you do make a change, let customers know what you’re doing and why. Try to stay in line with competitors, but don’t sell your brand short.  

5. Expand Your HVAC Field Service Team

 If you want to drum up new business, at some point, you’ll need more help. Job functions like sales, field technicians, and managers are essential to finding and serving additional customers. Take a look at your team and determine whether existing employees have the bandwidth and skills to cover these areas. If not, bring on new people. Start the hiring spree in sales. Then, once new accounts are signing on, bring in some technicians or a manager to handle the extra work.  

 Protect your investment in human capital by training new people well, giving them time to shadow experienced colleagues, and holding everyone accountable for productivity. Also, if you want to keep growth going long term, ensure there’s an FSM software in place before adding team members. Efficient, automated operations help new people become productive faster and minimize errors as they learn their jobs. 

Bonus Tip: See How BlueFolder Helps You Grow Revenue  

BlueFolder’s HVAC service dispatch software is designed to give your team the competitive edge in the market with a feature-rich application that’s simple for everyone to use. As you bring on more work, BlueFolder keeps all the details straight, streamlines work order management, and ensures the right technicians are assigned and scheduled. 

Most HVAC field service companies get BlueFolder set up and running in less than a day, and the interface is so easy to use, most employees need little or no training. In addition to assigning and tracking work orders, BlueFolder offers reports, management dashboards, equipment tracking, and a customer portal for high-touch communication and transparency. Integration with common business software such as Google Calendar and QuickBooks® further reduces your administrative overhead and helps you focus on keeping customers happy and the bottom line healthy. 

Check out how easy BlueFolder is to deploy and use. 

If you’re wondering whether your field service management (FSM) software should include a customer portal, consider that 88% of consumers in the United States expect a company to offer a customer portal. People like the convenience of easy access to their accounts and order status. But businesses realize benefits as well. In our experience, we’ve seen at least 7 positive outcomes from deploying field service portals. 

1. Save customer service costs. 

1. Reduce mistakes. 

1. Encourage customer engagement. 

1. Save customers money. 

1. Increase the value of your service. 

1. Become a partner with your customers. 

1. Grow your company faster. 

Save Service Costs by Keeping Customers Up to Date Automatically 

Once we place an order, we like to check its status. In fact, status checking was one of the first self-service features that companies offered decades ago when automation was a new thing and you had to get your information by pressing keys on a phone.  

Today, a field service portal in your FSM provides 24/7 visibility into customers’ work order status, requests, and history. It’s a “one-stop shop” where they can always find the information they need, day or night. It’s not only convenient; the portal’s transparency builds trust in your company and improves customer experience. Customers never feel ignored or overlooked, even when your team is incredibly busy and doesn’t have time to respond to phone calls or emails immediately.  

While users love the portal, it saves you money, too. Employees spend less time handling basic requests. They can focus on more productive work and devote energy to handling complex issues. As a result, customers get extra, personal attention when they need it, and your team can offer white glove service without stressing the budget. 

Reduce Mistakes by Keeping Everyone on the Same Field Service Portal 

If you don’t have customers using your FSM portal and you’re trading emails and copying information from one system to another, it’s easy to introduce errors that cause misunderstandings, confusion, and dissatisfaction. If customers expect a technician at 8 am, but the technician was accidentally told 9 am, everyone is going to be unhappy. Even after innocent mistakes, customers may come away with a bad impression that costs you time and money to recover from.  

Having customers, technicians, salespeople, and office staff communicate through one field service customer management system reduces mistakes. Nothing gets lost in the translation, because everyone is looking at the same details.  

Encourage Customer Engagement by Being Easy to Work With 

Your customers’ days are packed just as full as yours, and they may not have time to submit work orders until late in the evening. Or they may need to get it done before the sun rises. With the customer portal, your company is there for them when they need you. They can either login to the portal directly or submit requests via an embedded form on your website whenever its most convenient, even if they’re not in the office.  

Once the customer has submitted their request, you translate it into a work order in the system with a click of a button and assign a technician at the same time. The service portal also keeps your customers’ data protected because you have control over who can access which documents and each user has a password to help prevent fraud. By offering 24/7 secure, mobile access, the portal makes your company easy and safe to work with, which increases customer satisfaction, loyalty, and engagement. 

Save Customers Money by Helping Them Work Smarter 

If a customer is on the shop floor and equipment is failing, they can access the field service portal on a mobile phone and quickly see the maintenance and repair history. They instantly have the information they need to make a decision about whether to submit a work order or not. They no longer have to go back to the office, look up their own records, or place a call to you before they can act. The mobile access allows them to get more done faster, which saves time and money in the long run. 

Increase Your Value to Customers With Proactive Service 

With a field service portal, your team is notified whenever a customer interacts with the system. You’ll see each request right away, and if needed, you can reach out to provide proactive service. You can follow up with a personal phone call for high-value customers, confirm any questions about the work order, suggest additional work that could be done at the same time, or offer other services that complement the request.  

Having this data gives you real-time information about how best to serve each customer at any point. As a result, you grow your business by offering more value when customers need it most. 

Position Your Company as a Business Partner by Sharing Insightful Data 

With the field service portal, you can offer information that helps customers run their businesses more efficiently. They can run reports on their work orders, past equipment repairs, and maintenance schedule so they can identify trends, compare the performance of different machinery or systems, and ensure they’re budgeting properly for ongoing work. By making this information easy to access, your company acts as more than a service provider; you’re helping customers improve operations, and they start to see you as a partner in their success.  

Scale Your Business With Fewer Growing Pains 

Having a customer portal lowers the amount of work needed to onboard and service new customers. You can manage contracts in the portal and new customers will have the ability to submit orders and check status without adding work for your office staff.  You’ll be able to bring on more business and scale faster without stressing your team, which in turn keeps everyone happy. 

BlueFolder Helps You Keep Customers Loyal and Satisfied 

BlueFolder FSM software was built from the ground up with the user in mind. Our customer portal offers an intuitive interface, simple controls, and minimal clicks. Your customers get set up fast, and they can access all the features and data with ease. They’ll love it from the beginning. And you’ll start seeing cost and time savings right away. 

You can also customize the portal for your needs with configurable options, user management controls, and permission settings for security. Even add a custom logo to present a consistent, professional look and feel. 

And if your customers love the portal, you’ll love all the features of our FSM because we’ve brought the same attention to detail, usability, and flexibility to our entire offering.  

Find out how BlueFolder advances your cash flow, streamlines technician work, and delights your customers with a free trial today.