Poor service management is of prime importance if one has to ensure their family’s or customers’ health and sanitation. One often invests in cleaning pools regularly, requiring assistance from field service management firms specializing in pool servicing.
Thus, pool servicing management is a growing industry with regular work available. To penetrate and lead this market, one must adopt technology via field service management or pool service software.
We share 5 key features a field service management software must have to deliver exceptional pool services.
What is pool service software?
Pool service software is a specialized field service management tool that streamlines and automates manual or repetitive operations involved in pool servicing. It can automate invoicing based on pool service project status, collect payments, and send receipts — without any human intervention.
5 must-have FSM features for pool service management
Use this checklist when choosing an FSM or pool service software vendor for your business:
1. Scheduling and dispatching
Scheduling pool servicing jobs and ensuring the right field service technician is dispatched to complete it – is quite challenging.
That’s because simply sending unskilled or inexperienced workers for the job will waste customer’s time, may ruin the pool, waste your resources, increase operational costs, and ultimately reduce customer satisfaction with trust.
A pool service software will automate end-to-end scheduling of jobs and find the right field service technician based on location proximity to the job site, availability, skills, experience, and other key matching factors.
For example, what if your pool service business has five technicians with 30 jobs to complete in a day?!
Without an automated scheduling tool, manually assigning jobs can take hours and lead to costly errors.
With advanced field service management software, pool companies can optimize job schedules and assignments in real-time. This saves time, reduces fuel costs, and minimizes technician downtime.
2. CRM with client portal
Having customer relationship management features within FSM software helps streamline customer management, support tickets, and sales queries. You can store and organize customer data such as service history, pool type, preferred chemicals, and billing information.
Also, check for client portal provisions that will enable your pool service company to implement DIY customer care.
For example, your clients can access customer history, change preferences, or provide feedback. This allows for a personalized approach to customer service.
3. Streamline inventory management
Pool service management involves storing cleaning chemicals, equipment, tools, and more. One has to ensure adequate inventory levels to maintain service availability.
One can understand the importance of managing inventory in pool service management — Imagine your technician arrives at a client’s home for routine pool maintenance. Then, they discover that they’ve run out of the necessary chemicals!
This situation not only delays service but also frustrates the customer.
With inventory management features in your FSM or pool service software, one can
- Track what’s in stock
- Automatically reorder supplies when they run low
- Track which technicians are using the most materials.
Doing so helps reduce waste, prevent service delays, and keep operating costs under control.
4. Invoice automation
Being entangled in manually creating invoices, emailing them to each client, then following up for payment, or collecting cash and keeping track of it — is not the best use of a pool cleaning service company’s time.
It is possible to automate end-to-end payments and invoice workflows.
For example, instead of manually tracking payments via emails, FSM software can automatically generate invoices based on completed jobs. Further, integrating payment processing allows clients to pay directly through the system or mobile apps via credit card, debit card, or other online payment methods.
Thus, FSM software with invoicing automation helps:
- Reduce human errors
- Reduces payment cycle timelines
- Improves cash flow
5. Analytics and reporting
Good pool service software provides reporting features that can analyze the data to provide operational insights. This helps identify any trends on time or track existing patterns and take action on them.
For example, a pool service company may notice that certain technicians consistently finish jobs faster. Then, one can analyze their work methods to design incentive structures accordingly and replicate them across the team.
Opt for field service management software and custom design it for pool servicing
FSM software like Zuper offers customization of workflows, personalize communication, and many workflow automation features to streamline pool service management.
Explore our features across managing technicals, job schedules, inventory, and more for your pool service business — book a demo today.
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