As a maintenance service provider, you understand that your customers judge your services based on service quality and customer experience. Thus, you have a very limited scope to compromise on these two aspects. Prompt services, first-visit effectiveness, streamlined processes, customer-friendly service orientation, around the clock availability, customer convenience, these are some of the key expectations that customers put on a maintenance service provider.
However, meeting all these expectations raises the bar of service operational cost, which leads to two unfavorable outcomes. Either your services become an expensive affair for the customers, which might be a turndown for a section of customers or you end up compromising on the profit margin in your endeavor to keep your services cost-effective. So, is there any way out that you can render the best of service quality and customer experience, without letting the service operational cost go overboard? Maintenance management software can be at assistance here.
What is a Maintenance Management software?
You can also refer to it as a maintenance work order software. So basically, it is a software program designed for holistically managing every aspect related to a maintenance-service cycle. It ensures that you have proper accessibility to a range of customer touchpoints so that you can get a good insight into their expectations and requirements. Primarily, it provides the requisite technology support necessary for the effectiveness and productivity of your team. Listed below are some of the key tech-support, facilitated by a Maintenance Management software, necessary for upgrading the quality of your service operations:
1. Centralized database for seamless storing of information and data
2. Engagement with customers through multi-channel communication
3. Powerful analytics to analyze the sales performance metrics
4. Technology-assisted service capabilities that facilitates on-the-go controlled access to fieldwork
5. A streamlined structure for transparent collaboration among team members including the field staff
How maintenance work order software reduces service operation costs?
Increases first-visit effectiveness: Your profit comes from the number of cases resolved. If the number of follow-up trips in a day is more than the no. of cases resolved, then you are dealing with the issue of high service-operation cost. The key reasons that hamper the first-visit effectiveness are inappropriate job scheduling, insufficient details about service requested, lack of adequate tools and equipment, etc. The software takes care of all these aspects through the power of automation and allows your team to work more effectively.
Reduces travel expense: Increased first-visit effectiveness, anyways reduces the travel expenses by reducing the need for follow-up trips. Besides, the software can plan out the shortest route for every service visit, so that unnecessary travel can be avoided.
Reduces the need for multiple software programs: Purchasing multiple software programs for managing different operations like work orders, employees, field staff, customer profiles, payment, and invoices is again a major expense. But a maintenance management software is a comprehensive software that has cross-functional capabilities.
Enhances the productivity of the team members: This software also functions as a maintenance scheduling software. Through effective job scheduling, the productivity of team members can be increased considerably. The software allows the manager with the following scheduling advantages:
1. Optimum utilization of staff
2. Manage schedule plans at the individual level of the field technicians
3. Adjust the resources for ad-hoc service request
4. Tracking the pre and post record of service
5. Tracking technician performance
6. Analyze the customers’ feedback
Conclusion
Maintenance management software is effective in controlling service operation costs as it tech-enable the entire management process, starting from service request capturing to job scheduling; from inventory management to people management; from team performance analysis to sales analysis; from data management to customer management, and much more.
