No matter the industry, we’re always trying to save money where possible. For every site visit you attend and every planned maintenance job you schedule, there are ways you can cut costs without cutting corners.
Saving money on these jobs and speeding up the processes means you and your team can fit in more jobs without diminishing the quality of service. Get paid faster and keep your clients happy in the process.
5 Steps to Save Money on Your Next Job
These five steps will help you provide the best service possible for customers, whilst also making money in the process. Utilise service management software to help with the paperwork and dedicate all that extra time and resources to growing your business.
1. Order the correct stock
Having the right assets and equipment for a job is vital. No one wants to turn up to the site to realise they don’t have enough of a certain part to complete the work. That then wastes both the client’s and the engineer’s time and also results in wasted travel and a loss of money in petrol.
Avoid ordering the wrong parts for your next job by running accurate stock takes and inventory management. You’ll benefit from more accurate information if you use an up-to-date product database.
With service management software, you can see what stock you have so you can then see what is missing for scheduled or recurring work. Your engineers then have the parts they need, and customers will be happy to see their work completed there and then.
Set up custom notifications to alert your team when stock levels are low so you can re-order your frequently used assets. This way, you don’t have to manually check how stock levels are looking and you can plan ahead to restock before levels are too low.
2. Go paperless
Anyone who relies on physical paperwork knows that lost paperwork = lost money. The time you waste riffling through cabinets trying to find paper job sheets should be spent on growing your business. It might not sound like much time or money is lost at first, but it all adds up. One lost invoice or quote can cost you a lot for your business.
It’s not just the time saved when going paperless, but you can also save on unnecessary expenditures. Cut out printing costs, expensive office equipment and planners that need to be replaced on a regular basis. With all-in-one management software, everything is in one place for easy access.
3. Reduce travel time
It’s not just incorrect stock that could cause unnecessary travel. Having your engineers come into the office every time they have a new job assigned can make the journey times longer. Taking detours regularly means more potential traffic and less time to dedicate to the job.
Having your work on your tablet, laptop or mobile device means you can access what you need from anywhere. Check up on the address book if you urgently need a telephone number or email address, without having to frantically call the office.
Send electronic job sheets to your engineers when they’re out in the field means they can complete more jobs during the day. They won’t need to bring the paper job back to the office each time to be completed and invoiced. Engineers can complete more jobs and invoices can be sent out the same day after they sync the paperwork back to the office.
With web-based field service management software, it’s not only your engineers that can save on travel time. Managers can keep a watchful eye on business progress and activity when they’re out of the office. You don’t have to drive into the office to re-schedule engineers and allocate incoming jobs.
4. Invoice electronically
Getting paid is a key part of any job or service. Everyone wants to get paid promptly after a job is complete. But invoicing your customers can be one of the most time-consuming admin tasks of all.
With electronic invoicing, you don’t have to deal with lost paper copies or delays out of your control. Make sure you get paid without waiting for the post or back-and-forth emailing.
You can raise invoices from the job sheet to carry across all the information you need, without needing to re-type the details. With service management software, you also have the option to raise an invoice from a related sales order or quote to link everything together.
5. Collect e-signatures
Obtaining physical signatures can sometimes be harder than you first think. This applies to both a signature from your customer and your supervisor.
It’s never a good experience when a signed job sheet vanishes before it gets back to the office. It might require another trip back to the site which delays the job completion. This inconveniences both your engineers and your clients, resulting in less custom in the future.
If you need a physical signature from your supervisor or colleague to sign off your work, it can add further delays. You might be in the office at different times or might be onsite a lot. All this takes up valuable time out of your day and prevents the job sheet or certificate from being completed and invoiced.
Avoid losing all this precious time by switching to electronic signatures. You can instantly capture client signatures onsite and then send them back to the office for safekeeping. No long transit or opportunity to get lost along the way.
Share your signature with your colleagues so they can apply them to certificates or sync your work back to the office for instant approval. This way, you waste less time and you can get paid quicker.
Software That Saves You Time and Money
All this can be done with service management software. Streamline your admin and jobs in one central location and save time in the process.
With Clik Service, you have everything you need to grow your business, save time and manage your workload effectively. Link everything together, from job sheets and invoices to quotes and sites.
Try out Clik Service for free today and take a look around the different modules that can make your day-to-day a lot easier.
