Dispatchers have a highly stressful job that requires extreme focus and an almost superhuman ability to multitask. When they perform their jobs well, the entire business benefits; by the same token, when they struggle due to outdated tools and manual processes, everyone from field techs to business owners is affected. Dispatch optimization with a modern field service management solution can help boost efficiency, reduce headaches, and improve revenue. This guide provides six tips for how to improve your dispatch process using tools like the Zuper dispatch board.
How to Improve Your Dispatch Process: 6 Tips
Below are the top six ways you can improve your dispatch process using an automated, user-friendly field service management solution.
1. Orchestrate Jobs from a Centralized Dispatch Board
The job information that dispatchers need to schedule technicians is often spread across various whiteboards, spreadsheets, and text threads. Manually juggling and reconfiguring jobs in this way is highly inefficient, especially during peak months. This juggling can lead to issues like technician idle time that impact revenue.
An intelligent dispatch board like Zuper centralizes job details and schedules technicians based on factors like job volume, skillsets, customer preferences, and geographic proximity. Zuper provides complete visibility into jobs, technicians’ availability, and real-time location, making dispatching and other field service management tasks a breeze.
2. Avoid Conflicts with Smart Scheduling Tools
With manual, paper scheduling processes, it can be difficult to spot double bookings and other conflicts that can cause chaos at the job site. The risk of conflicts grows exponentially as companies grow beyond a single crew, not to mention the headaches that dispatchers deal with trying to ensure the right team ends up at the right job with the right equipment.
A smart dispatch and scheduling tool like Zuper significantly reduces conflicts and hassle. It intelligently assigns crews and equipment to jobs based on numerous factors, including locations and schedules, to eliminate conflicts. It allows dispatchers to easily drag and drop jobs to reschedule and update all necessary information without the need for triple-checking. Office teams can also filter jobs based on crew certification, equipment, or region to mitigate the risk of costly mis-assignments.
3. Optimize Routes with GPS Tracking
“Windshield time,” or the non-billable minutes spent driving to and from work sites, can erode your margins by a significant percentage. This hidden cost only multiplies when emergency calls come in, and dispatchers need to find an available tech without being able to tell who’s closest.
A field service management solution like Zuper ensures maximum efficiency with one-click route optimization that cuts fuel, windshield time, and overtime to maximize margins. It also provides real-time GPS tracking so dispatchers can easily see where trucks are at all times and assign the closest team when urgent services are needed. Plus, Zuper has a Recurring Routes feature that enables dispatchers to create multiple instances of routes with predefined frequencies, associating them with recurring jobs of the same cadence.
4. Streamline and Enhance Customer Communication
Dispatchers spend countless work hours making appointment reminder calls, fielding questions about missed appointment windows, and chasing down Google reviews. Clear communication is critical for customer satisfaction, but there often isn’t enough time in the day for office staff to proactively handle communication while also juggling their other tasks.
A dispatch board like Zuper helps by making it easy to send text and email messages to customers for things like day-before reminders, on-my-way alerts, and post-job follow-ups. Streamlining these communications frees up dispatchers to work on higher-value tasks without sacrificing customer satisfaction. Plus, they make it easier to follow up with past clients for Google reviews and surveys, helping businesses lower the cost per lead.
5. Track and Improve Productivity with a Mobile App
Manually tracking field time causes paperwork headaches due to lost timesheets, mistakes, and corrections. The office also has little way to track which crews or technicians are consistently running over their time estimates, making it difficult to fix problems or improve productivity.
A mobile field service management app like Zuper allows crews to clock in and out, complete job checklists, and update their status from the field with nothing but a smartphone. Time data can be tracked by payroll and analyzed in job-cost dashboards, giving the home office visibility into who their top performers are and who needs additional support to meet efficiency goals.
6. Measure and Act-On Dispatch KPIs
Manual processes and physical paperwork make it challenging for businesses to track key metrics that could help them improve their operations and increase revenue. A lack of measurable data can also leave inefficiencies hidden until the busy season hits and the business gets overwhelmed.
A modern field service management tool like Zuper makes it possible to track just about everything. Some of the most important metrics that Zuper can help companies track – and act on – include:
| Important Dispatch Metrics | |
|---|---|
| KPI | Benchmark |
| Mean Time to Repair (MTTR) | Under 5 hours |
| Average Response Time | Under 24 hours |
| First-Time Fix Rate | At least 80% |
| Average Travel Time | Under 30 minutes |
| Average Cost Per Service | Varies by industry |
| Technician Utilization | At least 70% |
Measuring these KPIs can help companies across many industries, including roofing, HVAC, electrical, and plumbing, determine what they’re doing well and where they need to improve.
Improve Your Dispatch Process With Zuper
Zuper is a dispatch optimization and field service management solution that makes the dispatcher’s job easier while eliminating inefficiencies and boosting revenue. With intelligent automation, data-driven insights, and a convenient mobile app, Zuper provides everything you need to improve your field service business.
To learn how to improve your dispatch process with Zuper, sign up for a personalized demo.
