Category: Featured

HVAC usually has two up seasons (summer for cooling needs and winter for heating) and two corresponding down seasons (logically, fall and spring). Good news: You’re about to enter into a strong revenue season and you're no longer worried about...

We talk a lot about marketing within business. How do you market yourself? How do you position yourself? What will differentiate you? Marketing a service business can be a challenge. There are many answers to these questions, and the scope...

One of the bigger challenges of being a small business field service shop is marketing yourself. Most (not all) small businesses tend to operate within a specific region, and there may be “major players” (i.e. big or enterprise-level businesses) within...

If you’re a small business field service operation, let’s be honest: Many decisions are made on cost, and money, plus the opportunity for profit, is important. You want to deliver great service and get referrals and positive customer feedback but,...

In field service businesses, work order software is typically used as a way to track appointments, revenue, and customer information. Some even use the metric of completed jobs vs. invoiced jobs, which can speak to how effective your billing processes...

At the end of 2015, MIT’s Sloan School of Management did some research on organizational priorities. The research covers 11,000 senior executives at 400+ companies, including many service businesses. One of the most astounding facts was that 67 percent --...

Boosting Sales in the Slow Season for HVAC Companies A high-quality customer experience is vital to your field service organization’s reputation and bottom line. Oftentimes, field service businesses fall short of meeting customers’ expectations when it comes to arriving on...

At a trade show recently, we met a small business field service owner. We ended up having a great conversation, and one aspect stood out. He told us that he searches the Internet all the time for solutions for small...

There are two major factors impacting how you approach work order management in the next 5-10 years. Those are: ● Shifting customer expectations ● A VUCA mindset in the service industry We’ll take those one-by-one now. Shifting customer expectations: Stories...

A few years ago, we put in a call to one of our clients to ask about pain points in his business and what we could help with. When he answered the phone and we started discussing how his day...

If you think about the last 20-25 years of business in any industry -- but definitely within field service management -- one of the most interesting things that’s happened is that challenges to business growth have moved from “external” to...

By some research, 37 percent of field service organizations are still primarily using a pen-and-paper model for record-keeping, business decisions, and essentially running their entire businesses. That’s 3 in 8, despite the fact that it’s 2016 and we’ve managed to...

Even if your field service operation is a small business, there still might be “silos” within it. One person might focus on scheduling, and another might focus on bills and invoices. Small, family-owned FSOs can have silos – separate departments...

Running an electrical field service management operation can be among the more challenging FSOs to manage. (No offense to any others, of course. All have their challenging days.) If a client calls needing an electrician on-site, there’s a good chance...

In terms of your financials and accounting, what’s most important to your field service organization? Some might say (maybe with a hint of humor) “Making sure we make a lot of money.” That’s a good goal! (Although in all honesty,...

By some measures, the productivity app market is growing about 150% per year. Everyone wants to be more productive. In an era where “busy” can pile up quickly (tasks, responsibilities, and checklists), it’s often hard to navigate from “busy” over...

We’ll be honest with you upfront, although sometimes it’s tough to hear: your small business (or larger business) field service organization is not perfect. (**Ducks as you throw stapler at us!**) No business is perfect, whether you make a lot...

One of the biggest time drains in small businesses can be e-mail. Globally, it’s costing organizations billions in productivity. While one of the benefits of rapid mobile adoption is that it made everyone more connected -- so it’s easier to...

Mobile FSM tools have many logical benefits, including accessing business information regardless of where you are. They are massively important to field service organizations because they allow for quick contact with both technicians and customers. There are a few benefits...

Several years ago, our team placed a call to one of our small field service business customers to see how his company was faring overall, and if there were any software or management issues with which we could help. Right...

If you run a small plumbing business and haven’t yet shifted to a field service management solution, we understand. Shifting is an added expense, and changing to FSM software means you have to adjust a lot of your existing business...

A top-quality customer experience is at the heart of good field service organization management. You want your customers to like and respect the work you’re doing. You also want them to remain customers, and to refer others to your service....

So, you’re considering buying a field service management software to better your business and its revenue streams. Congrats! This is an important decision for your small field service business, and you need to approach it accordingly.

We recently wrote an eBook on work-life balance in field service organizations. As we wrote it, we fully understood that many busy individuals within FSOs might view work-life balance as a buzzword that can’t actually be achieved. So, we decided...

Some small business owners are totally content with staying small. But for many small business owners, the dream is growth. You may want to run an enterprise someday, but you’ll probably need to generate more revenue -- and maybe even...

Work-life balance is more than just a buzzword. Find out how using a field service management software can help grow your company's bottom line, while also boosting employee morale.

The idea of measuring success is tied to the concept of KPIs, or key performance indicators. These are aspects of your business that you measure, and when they’re doing well, the business is doing well. When they’re not, you’re in...

HVAC is usually one of the faster-moving field service verticals (clients need their locations cooled or heated immediately), but also one of the verticals least likely to adopt traditional FSM planning tools. According to research, 74% of HVACs don’t use...

We’ve written many posts on the Optsy blog about using mobile and field service management tools to improve customer satisfaction, and obviously that makes sense: customers pay for your service and help drive revenue for your company.

Some of the bigger trends impacting field service management in the last few years (up to a decade) include mobility, or the more common use of smartphones in the field, and Internet of Things (IoT), or the idea of connected...

We’ve talked a lot on our Optsy blog about the importance of customer experience, or customer service, or just generally the idea of treating your customers well and making sure they (a) want to keep working with you and (b)...

Consider two possible scenarios for your field service management organization: Your technician shows up at a job site. He or she is on-time, has the correct inventory, and gets the job done. The on-site contact mentions something about another problem...

Building a field service management business is hard -- and remember, the building of said business is only a portion of your life. You still have friends and family to consider, as well as yourself. How do you balance it...

Let’s start with the basics, as not everyone in business knows this (different organizations have different vocabularies): KPIs are “key performance indicators” or, ideally, things you track and analyze. What’s happening with those business elements is ultimately driving the bottom-line...

In 2016, many field service organizations are moving to a more fluid, paperless, mobile-and-cloud-based operations model. Before you begin the same journey, though, it’s important to understand why it needs to happen.

For far too many small businesses, the turnover rate in the field-service industry is exceptionally high. Part of the reason that turnover is so high lies in the fact that companies are simply not hiring the right candidates. From discovering...

In field service, your technicians are generally the first people customers see. If, for example, you are in the HVAC industry, your customers may have talked to you or people from your company on the phone, but they're meeting your...