It is not uncommon to face materials or equipment theft when your field service technician or vendors are on the road. Workers may even face safety issues on the job site or they may have left the site without informing. Such situations can easily escalate to loss of workforce morale and trust in your organization. Wouldn’t it be better to know the real-time location of workers and vehicles to combat such situations? To avoid thefts, and ensure worker safety with productivity, a simple tactic is to use field service management software which is enabled with GPS – read more to learn how this works.

What is real-time location tracking?

Real-time location tracking uses GPS technology to continuously monitor the location of the subject; which can be your field service worker, vehicle, equipment, etc. Using a field service management software that comes with GPS; it is possible to visually track location; and take necessary actions to avoid any mishaps or optimize routes to reach the job site.

8 benefits of real-time location tracking for the field service management industry include –

1. Quick emergency response: knowing the real-time location of the worker enables your office team to send help in case of vehicle breakdown; theft, or worker injury. GPS-enabled field service management software also provides real-time weather updates thus helping avoid difficult terrains.
2. Geo-fencing: using software like Zuper, you can implement advanced techniques like geo-fencing to ensure you get alerted when your field service worker leaves the job site radius. This helps maintain discipline and ensure worker safety.
3. Routing for navigation: provide shortened or traffic-free routes to your field service technicians or vendors to save time and fuel costs.
4. Analyze data: by having real-time location data, you can find patterns in worker behavior or location atmosphere. If there are too many vehicle breakdowns in specific locations; your team can take action accordingly to reduce servicing or use better vehicles to navigate.
5. Compliance and reports: knowing real-time location helps with compliance and reporting in case of disputes. It also helps provide proof in case you’re operating in international borders for construction-based field servicing work or near sensitive zones.
6. Track KPIs: GPS helps track important performance indicators like first-time fix rates, number of rounds taken to complete the job, delivery time for materials or equipment, efficiency for dispatching and delivering service, etc.
7. Proof of work: location intelligence provides necessary proof about worker’s location, time spent on the job; and distance traveled so that you can bill your customer accordingly. This also helps avoid any potential disputes.
8. Optimized resource allocation: location intelligence helps track vendors who are supplying your business with equipment or materials. For available resources, you can allocate them effectively to ensure consistent supply and reduce downtime. Workers can also be assigned work based on their current location; and proximity to the job site to reduce bench time.

Features your GPS-enabled field service management software should have

When adopting field service management software, check for the below location intelligence features with the vendor:

1. Time tracking for travel: get accurate time tracked when your workers travel from one job site to another location. You can also know the time spent on the job site for service delivery.
2. Know and share ETAs: using the time tracking feature, you can share an estimated arrival time of field service technicians with your customers. This helps them plan their day accordingly.
3. Real-time location updates: you can also share notifications to your customers about where exactly the assigned field service technicians are for their servicing. This helps reduce any support tickets to ask about worker location.
4. Visual tracking: FSM software like Zuper allows you to view jobs, worker locations, customers, asset locations, and more on the map. This makes it easy to track jobs and get updates for monitoring their execution.
5. On-the-way approval: workers can immediately access job information on the map, and approve taking up any field service request. They can access locations and understand job requirements without phone calls to the office teams while being on the road.

Experience location intelligence and how it optimizes your field service operations

Using Zuper, it is possible to integrate data from real-time location intelligence to various aspects of field service operations. You can feed this data to CRM, invoicing, customer support management, inventory management, and more. Book a demo today to know how this works.