You're hitting the busy season and in charge of the pool service tech crew. There are some long days ahead. So much to deal with..... from organizing service calls and routes for your team, to keeping their trucks loaded with supplies, and fielding customer calls streaming in.
There's so much paper. Tracking invoices, schedules, and inventory with outdated systems is enough to make you feel like throwing up your hands and heading for the hills until autumn. If you're doing all this work by hand, you're making your job harder than it needs to be.
There has to be a better way. Great news.....there is a better way with smart software!
Top 3 Ways Manual Management Systems Waste Time
1. Old-Fashioned Scheduling: You Can't See the Big Picture
You need your field tech crew on their routes handling service calls, and scheduling routes with a spreadsheet, whiteboard, or a paper calendar just won't do. Your crew is waiting for you to get them on the road and their planned routes need to be maximizing the daily job calls.
The more trucks you have... the harder it is to stay organized.
All that wasted time as your team is staring at their windshields waiting for their next job instead of heading over to the next customer's pool needing work. And what if you need to make a last-minute change to routes for an emergency?
You're losing income when you serve fewer customers daily because you don't have scheduling software that quickly and smoothly schedules in emergencies or other last minute changes. If customers are waiting too long for an opening in your schedule, they may go elsewhere for service. That old-fashioned manual pool service management is holding you back.
2. Pen and Paper: You're Doubling the Work
If you think manual management is bad for you, don't forget about what it looks like out in the field. When your techs are stuck scribbling out invoices on the fly and leaving notes for customers to communicate what tasks they just completed.....your tech's are wasting their time. Every minute spent filling out paperwork is taking away from serving another customer.....it is taking away from you bringing in more income for your company.
Worst yet, all those pieces of paper will need to be filed back at the office. Your tech's scribblings will need transcribing into legible paperwork, this takes twice as long as it needs to. What if they lose their copy of an invoice or notes? This means you are out of luck on some valuable inventory, additional billing, or key customer information.
In these unusual times, your customers are expecting local businesses to step up with remote capabilities to reduce contact, help keep everyone safe, and still keep them informed on all the details of the job done.
3. Hand-Counted Inventory: You're Making Mistakes
Once, the only way to do inventory properly was to shut down your business for a day to count everything by hand. Manual hand counting means spending additional time that could be used elsewhere, and even the best count will only be accurate for a day or two.
Inaccurate inventory counts lead to significant inventory losses. If you order too much stock, you've wasted money, especially for any items with an expiration date. But if you don't have enough, you'll have to turn customers away or put their service calls on hold until you can stock up those trucks again. You already have to wait for processing and shipment from your suppliers, let's not add turnaround time with outdated inventory management systems.
Time Is Money and We Can Save You Both
When you're grinding your gears trying to make things work with old-fashioned operations, this is wasting time and losing money. Disorganized paperwork and manual pool service management techniques aren't just annoying for you... and they're holding back your company from growing.
You don't have to live like this! We have solutions designed to bring your pool and hot tub service company into the twenty-first century. Our dedicated cloud based software makes it super easy to effectively manage your business:
- Route Planning Capabilities: Plan multiple routes for efficiency with Google Maps integration. Schedule jobs by priority, assign them to techs with varying expertise, and override routes to accommodate new additions and keep your promises to every customer.
- Mobile Device access for Field Techs: Now your team can keep in direct contact with customers to update them on wait times, track chemical readings, access job-site details, and prioritize jobs, all from a phone or tablet.
- Field Payment Systems: Kiss on-the-road paperwork and notes goodbye as your team invoices, accepts payments, emails receipts, and much so more. Very Nice.
- Digital Door Hangers: Keep in touch with customers immediately when the job is done to let them know what services have been completed. Updated messages from the tech are very much appreciated. And your techs are on their way to continue safely re-opening pools for more customers.
- Real-Time Inventory Systems: Have accurate, real-time inventory available at a glance, even across several stock sites. Review upcoming orders, and check pricing and profit margins to maximize cash flow.
Our centralized field service management software helps you save time, that saves you money. Are you going to use those savings to invest in more staff or a bigger showroom or to expand your service area? That we'll leave up to you.
Are you ready to end the headaches of manual management systems and enjoy a smoother, more profitable workflow? Contact us today to find out how we can help you transform your pool and hot tub service business!
Evosus helps pool and hot tub service managers streamline their field team operations by giving them and their teams the visibility of data and personnel to efficiently make the most of field tech time, get more jobs done in less time, leave customers raving about their excellent customer experiences, and so much more.
Find out how Evosus can help you streamline your pool and hot tub field team operations, cut down on windshield time, and give you better visibility of your tech on-site times. Reach out and contact us today!
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