Whether it is heavy or light winter snow – the forming of frost and hardened snow makes it difficult or impossible to drive and lead a regular life. For such seasons, there is more demand for snow removal services to make their properties accessible and usable. But the challenges of winter snow can affect the field service provider too – where managing demand, inventory, customers, etc can get inefficient.
For providing effective snow management services, a snow removal business can adopt field service management software for streamlining operations – read more to learn how.
Challenges in managing a snow removal business
During peak winter months, here are some specific challenges that a snow removal business can face:
- Response time: there are chances that because of a snowstorm, your network may have become weaker or there may be an internet disruption. During such cases, maintaining a steady response time is tough.
- Allocate resources: due to peak demand, one must ensure their inventory is stocked adequately to meet the same. Not meeting customer requests may result in loss opportunities. You also need to ensure the equipment and materials are in the right state for usage.
- Availability of manpower: your field service technicians may not be available for work due to weather conditions.
- Market competition: since snow removal is a seasonal problem, many of your competitors would try to grab as much market demand as possible.
- Worker safety: snow removal requires equipment, chemicals, and exposure to unreliable weather conditions. As a company, you will have to invest in ensuring your field service technicians remain safe.
How does FSM software help streamline snow removal operations?
Here are five key areas where implementing FSM software improves your service delivery and business outcomes:
Makes scheduling more efficient
For snow removal, it is important to be prompt and consider various obstacles like the closure of routes or weather conditions. Also, your field service technician must be available and be in a position to cater to the job from their current location.
Using FSM software, it is possible to connect with field service technicians in real time and know their proximity to the job location. Based on their skills and experience, the right field service technician gets assigned to the job automatically without manual intervention. Job acceptance also takes place remotely via mobile app-based FSM tools like Zuper.
Managing inventory and equipment efficiency
Snow removal requires special equipment, chemicals, and tools to perform the job. One not only has to make sure these survive the winter conditions but also stay within expiry throughout the year. For this, FSM software includes inventory management features that help keep track of equipment failure, ensure it is not benched for too long, and its health is tracked for proper maintenance schedule. It will also place orders for the required amount as per historical data and market demand – thus making sure your business is always available to take up snow removal jobs.
Communicate with customers
During snow emergencies, the customers need to be able to reach out to you for support and service. ‘Being available’ can truly be the reason for an increase in your snow removal business’s revenues. A good response time also helps increase brand value.
FSM software provides real-time communication features and provides a messaging interface to connect in case of low network. It also allows customers to reschedule service requests, add details without coming to the office, provide feedback, and get notified when field service technicians set out for their jobs.
Digital payments and billing
Snow removal businesses often work under emergencies, and many times you may have to provide service first and then receive payment. To ensure your workers get paid on time, you can provide digital payment options so that you can receive payments immediately after job completion. Digital payments also help secure transactions and generate digital invoices that customers can keep track of.
Help more customers with snow removal using Field Service Management software
Zuper is a field service management software that can help snow removal business owners cater to more customers by improving response time, service delivery, and operational efficiency – book a demo to know more.
