By conducting thorough market analysis, we have identified the five essential KPIs that your business should implement and monitor for boosting profitability.
What metrics are you currently assessing within your field service organization to determine your level of success?
The quickest and most effective method to elevate your profitability is to establish a customized set of metrics tailored to your company's unique requirements.
Key Performance Indicators, or KPIs, are the exact metrics you need. Identifying areas where you excel is just as crucial as recognizing where improvements are necessary. Using data derived from the KPIs you collect can guide your decisions, helping to stabilize the overall health of your business because “what gets measured gets done.”
But which KPIs should take priority? There isn’t a universal answer, but you do have several options to consider. Differences among field service companies, including size, number of technicians, industry, and specific goals, must be factored in when developing your personalized set of KPIs.
Following our research, we have pinpointed the five KPIs to focus on for enhancing profitability. Continue reading to find out what they are, their measurement methods, and their significance.
1. Average Technician Travel Time
Tracking the travel times of your technicians can unveil a wealth of insights. How much time technicians spend traveling, the duration of delays, or if truck rolls are necessary, are key data points. Monitoring the average technician travel time will generate a baseline over time, useful for identifying and explaining trends or irregularities.
This metric is obtained by averaging the time of arrival on-site with the time spent traveling. Service Pro Mobile, an offline-capable mobile application, simplifies labor hour collection and categorization, ensuring data is available for stakeholder reporting, filtered by technician, date, and more.
Having this number offers stakeholders transparency regarding travel time as an operational expense. More data means better expense tracking and refining, leading to lower costs and more profitable work orders.
2. Technician Utilization
Technician utilization measures the duration spent on billable service work compared to standard work hours. In simpler terms, it gauges how much time technicians are actively engaged in work.
Measuring technician utilization is most effective through an automated system like Service Pro. Technicians initiate the process by logging their hours worked in the Service Pro Mobile app, categorizing these hours using specific labor codes. Then, Service Pro generates a custom utilization percentage to compare against labor hours. This statistic enables you to benchmark against industry standards. Current industry research indicates a 70% billable utilization benchmark.
If you aim to boost your utilization percentage, consider leveraging Service Pro’s Business Intelligence feature to gather data that can enhance your performance, while also examining other possible inefficiencies impacting your billable time.
3. Average Time-to-Invoice
Average time-to-invoice refers to the typical period from the completion of an invoice by the technician to its processing in the back office.
The process commences with documenting the completion time of work in the field via Service Pro Mobile. This triggers a notification for the stakeholder, who then reviews and finalizes the order in the back office. Service Pro then calculates the difference between the time work was completed in the field and when the order is invoiced.
Field service automation can significantly reduce the time spent on manual calculations like these. Relying on manual invoicing can lead to painfully slow invoice cycles and increased mistakes, harming customer satisfaction and trust. Transitioning from paper-based invoices to an automated field service platform can drastically shorten invoicing cycles. Digital forms are not only more environmentally friendly but also more efficient and easier for technicians to utilize in the field, allowing seamless communication of data back to the office.
A Note on ERPs
This is when a company's ERP system becomes essential. Just as field service automation expedites your time-to-invoice, similar automation in your back office can yield the same results. For instance, if your organization utilizes NetSuite ERP, there are various strategies for accelerating your average time-to-invoice, such as:
Employing workflows to create approval processes that validate invoice information
Dynamically sourcing data for fully customized PDF invoices
Automating email verification for customer invoice recipients
The specific automation options available will depend on your particular ERP system and its configuration. You may need to hire a developer to assist with implementing advanced automation.
Also, remember that tracking each of the discussed KPIs requires accurate and current data to be meaningful. This reporting can be effectively managed within a robust ERP system.
4. Customer Satisfaction
Customer satisfaction is a straightforward concept: it's about understanding how pleased your customers are with your products or services. Measuring CSAT isn’t merely about identifying a single statistic; it involves a comprehensive overview of your services and processes from the customer’s perspective.
Opening avenues for visibility and communication can also lead to enhanced customer satisfaction.
With features like Tech Tracker, technicians can update customers on their transit status and estimated arrival times, ensuring that customers feel valued and that their time is respected.
Surveys provide a simple and direct method to gather customer feedback. Through a field service platform such as Service Pro, surveys can be automatically triggered upon service completion. Once feedback is collected, it can be integrated into Service Pro reporting. This data can be analyzed and filtered to track CSAT by customer, technician, division, and more.
5. Preventative Maintenance
Preventative maintenance involves regular and systematic maintenance aimed at averting future issues, such as unanticipated breakdowns or failures.
To initiate this process, stakeholders set up their service agreements and schedules using Service Pro Contracts. Once established, Service Pro suggests which Preventative Maintenance orders should be generated. These PM visits are then integrated into the connected Service Pro Scheduler, ready for planning and scheduling. Dates and timestamps are recorded in the system, allowing stakeholders to track what was completed and when.
When executing any form of preventative maintenance, precise service records are vital. The effectiveness of PM hinges on accurate details regarding past, present, and future equipment conditions. Centralizing all information and ensuring a smooth digital flow between field operations and back office will greatly enhance your daily efficiency and overall profitability.
Conclusion
Regardless of your industry, monitoring Key Performance Indicators is essential for assessing success. Basic KPI tracking might reveal some trends, but customizing your KPIs to your individual company context will take your performance to new heights and help you understand your position relative to competitors. Focusing on improving a few key KPIs gradually will enable you to watch your profitability rise.
To deepen your understanding of KPIs, check out Edition 1 of "Top 5 Field Service KPIs to Track" for further insights.
If you're interested in exploring more KPIs and their potential advantages, take a look at Edition 2 of "Top 5 Field Service KPIs to Track" for KPIs 5-10, including a bonus #11.
About MSI Data
MSI Data, located in Milwaukee, WI, specializes in empowering field service companies to boost profitability through the Service Pro platform. It ensures service technicians have the necessary access and information to complete work orders efficiently, correctly, and promptly. Gain insights into previously hidden areas, identify key profit indicators, monitor warranty claims, and enhance your operations to capture the revenue you deserve.
