In the field service industry, your success hinges upon two things: the quality of the work being done in the field and the efficiency with which you can manage all the processes behind the scenes. The former, of course, mainly depends on the skills and experience of the staff or subcontractors you have out in the field, but the latter all boils down to your office workflow and your ability to iron out the inefficiencies that come with handling a large volume of service requests.

The good news is that management software for field service providers is now a lot more accessible, regardless of the size of your operations. Products like Trades Manager Plus are designed around the processes that are specific to field service delivery and offer a modernized approach to managing your businesses. With the right solution, you and your team will be able to complete tasks faster, coordinate better, and handle service requests more consistently—all without the need to always keep tabs on everything going on yourself.

But which field service software product is right for you? Here are 5 things you should take into consideration before you make that decision:

1 - Completeness of features

While most products that have been designed for your business will be similar to a certain degree, you’ll want to take the extra time to make sure that your software’s features cover as much of your end-to-end workflow as possible. This means going over all the different processes that keep your business running and comparing that list against everything your potential solution is supposed to do. Work will get done more smoothly if most of your workflows utilize the same software environment, and you definitely don’t want to pay for multiple products when there’s just one that will do it all for you.

2 - Ease of use

The most highly rated business solution in the world won’t do you a lot of good if most of your staff find it too difficult to use. In some cases, it’s because the software has too many features that aren’t being used. In others, it’s simply the result of poor design. Fortunately, the best providers are usually confident enough in the quality of their software that they’ll let you try it out for a certain period of time. If something isn’t working out for you after a month, then it probably isn’t the right software for you and your team.

3 - Deployment and upkeep

Business software comes in different forms. Custom-built solutions, for example, tend to have more moving parts, so they take longer set up and require more technical staff to maintain. Off-the-shelf cloud products, on the other hand, are typically less complex despite offering many of the same features, so they’re easier to deploy and keep running. The right software for your business strikes a balance between offering the functionality you need and being easy enough to deploy and maintain for your current staff. The goal is to get something that you can start using right when you need it and won’t burden you with extra operational overhead.

4- Room for growth

Scalability is an important quality in business solutions that many overlook but having tools that will last you through periods of growth and/or expansion will save you a lot of money down the line. How many customers can the software handle? How much will it cost you to set things up for additional staff in the future? Does it still fit into your plans for expansion into more markets and services? Cloud-based products tick many of the right boxes in terms of scalability, and the pay-as-you-go pricing models means you’ll never have to over-invest in upgrading your systems just to meet a temporary spike in customer demands.

5 - Total cost to use

As is the case with any other investment, cost is an important factor to consider when you’re trying to get the best software for your field service business. Going the solution that’s custom-built for your organization means you’ll get tools that have been designed for your team and your team alone, but it’s also the most expensive approach in terms of both time and upfront cost. Fortunately, commercial, or off-the-shelf products are no longer limited to general office tools, and management software designed for field service workloads is now widely available. Cloud services are also an excellent way to minimize costs since they’re fully managed for you and follow the pay-as-you-go pricing model.

Conclusion

The best field service management software for your business won’t necessarily have the longest list of features or the lowest cost attached. What you want is a product that will support the way you and your team operate for a price that won’t stifle your efforts to grow and expand. Your software is a tool you’ll want to be able to use for years to come, and it’s worth the extra effort to explore what’s available to see which solution best addresses the unique needs of your organization.

Trades Manager Plus is the customizable software platform for field service providers that will completely transform the way you manage your business. Manage customer information, track inventory, take care of invoicing and more—all in one scalable, cost-effective software environment.

E-mail us at sales@tradesmanagerplus.com to learn more about how Trades Manager Plus can power your business.