In a perfect world, field service would run like clockwork. In the real world, field service is more like a mad scramble against time and unplanned obstacles. Technicians call in sick. Parts break down unexpectedly. Traffic jams turn into missed tasks and broken SLAs.

One of the most vulnerable aspects of many field service operations is the tedious process of scheduling and dispatching technicians.

‍Click here to download the webinar where Robert Hancock, Sales Director at Zinier, will take you through all-too-common headaches in manual scheduling and how to achieve greater speed, agility, and resiliency in our operations.

Scheduling: The Achilles Heel of Field Service

For years, certain aspects of field service have stuck out like a sore thumb. In some cases, it’s been more like an aching Achilles Heel.

The back office is supposed to be the first line of defense against things spiraling out of control. Unfortunately, most coordinators are already overwhelmed just trying to keep up with their normal volume of tasks and technicians.

Mistakes are common. And while most of them (like assigning a technician who takes slightly longer than average to complete a task) are relatively minor, they start to add up over time. It’s easy for minor nuisances to cascade into major headaches.  

The challenge is managing all the pieces that must align correctly.

“In order to be effective, you have to have all of the components of the work accurately inputted in your systems: 4 R’s: right time, right place, right people and right parts. Manual scheduling doesn’t allow you to manage those little crumbs of time when technicians are free and can be utilized. Ultimately this leads to customer dissatisfaction and SLA violations. All of this bundles into dollars and affects your bottom line.”

Click here to learn more about the different types of schedulers you can leverage to power your operations.

AI-Driven Scheduling: Finding the Best Fit Every Time

If you’re experiencing these challenges, here’s the good news: there are simple solutions that will enable your coordinators to focus on higher-value work, instead of struggling with these recurring problems and micromanaging every task and technician.

AI and automation can help you drive productivity and optimize your workforce:

• Leveraging AI to identify the technician who’s the best fit for each task
• Shifting to a “just-in-time” approach to scheduling that automatically reassigns technicians based on what’s happening in the field

“AI-Driven scheduling gives you the ability to find the best person with the right tools and parts every time. A just-in time scheduler allows you to schedule jobs based on the job requirements to ensure they get fulfilled each and every time. You can leverage AI to create intelligent guardrails regarding technician skills, geofences, route optimizations and other criterias to create the most efficient schedule.”

Click here to learn how to leverage AI-driven scheduling.

Benefits of Intelligent Automation

Intelligent scheduling and dispatching uses all the tools at your disposal to help you optimize each task. AI-driven recommendations look at real-time data and instantly analyze far more variables than a team of dispatchers could possibly wade through when assigning technicians. Real-time task monitoring (as well as automated task creation and assignment) helps to keep projects on track.

Whenever your organization can consistently ensure the right people are in the right place, it pays dividends in the form of:

• Increased technician utilization
• Improved first-time fix rates
• Fewer SLA violations
• More tasks completed per day

In addition to these direct and immediate benefits, you’ll experience long-term and indirect benefits:

“Leveraging intelligent automation will ultimately deliver better service and more satisfied customers.”

Click here to learn the benefits of Intelligent automation.

‍Download the entire webinar today

‍At the end of the webinar, Robert also address a number of questions, including:

• What’s the Nirvana (best implementation) of scheduling?
• How does someone get started with automating scheduling?
• What’s the difference between batch and just-in time scheduling?
• How effective might this be for a small company with few techs?
• How is Zinier’s solution different from other optimized scheduling solutions in the market?

Want to learn more about how automation is helping power the future of work? Click here to download the entire webinar or request a demo today.