Use FSM Software Calendar Integration to Keep Your Team Productive
Josh Bersin, who works with the talent management team at Deloitte, is considered a ‘thought leader’ in spaces around management, making the most of your people, and general productivity relative to time. He recently wrote a post on his website called “The Art of Doing Less.” He wrote the post after coming back from a meeting with leaders of different industries held in San Francisco. This quote sticks out:
“The most important resource our people have is their time,” said one of the HR leaders from a well known media and technology company. “So what I’ve learned after nearly 20 years in HR, is that we need to do away with almost 75% of the things we do.”
The quote speaks to bigger ideas about time management, and how to make the time you do have at work be the most productive it can be.
If you run an electrical field service management shop, you likely have a lot going on. There are recurring client requests as well as urgent client requests. In addition to making sure your electricians are on point and making all of their appointments, you need to be managing new leads, invoicing, your CRM, etc. It can become overwhelming, especially in busier months.
There are also a lot of moving parts in your electrical FSO. Some people are out for pockets of time, especially in the summer. The electricians are always in the field. When certain people go on vacation, you lose their functional knowledge for that amount of time. It’s only worse when people leave your shop, especially if they head to a competitor.
How do you keep track of all this?
One of the most effective tools we’ve seen — especially for busy small business electrical FSOs that have limited resources — is field service management software. There are many options on the market right now, but here is one key thing you’ll need to make your electrical FSO more productive: calendar integration.
Why?
For calendar integration, there are two benefits. First, if the electrical FSM software integrates with your existing calendar system (Outlook, Google, etc.), that’s a big win in terms of set-up. Second, everyone’s calendar is laid out onto a main calendar that everyone else can see. So you can look at the grid ahead of time — it’s colorful, too! — and see when people will be out of office and what the electricians’ schedules look like. It allows you to identify potentially problematic areas around low staffing, or see where revenue dips may be happening (determined by fewer clients).
These issues relate to making your FSO more productive. Some people view that as a six-month or longer project. We’ve got a “hack” for you. We can help you get there in 30 days. Yep! Just a month. Are you interested? We put this information into an eBook, which you can download now. The path to productivity in electrical FSM is part of the path to revenue, so check it out today. If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to ask.
