How much time service businesses spend on admin

Every hour spent on admin is one less that service businesses can use to focus on delivering a great service to their customers.

To find out how much time service businesses spend on admin, we surveyed over 100 Field Service professionals what tasks are taking longer than they should and what businesses are doing to modernise their operation.

Headlines:

• Field Service Professionals are spending around 6 hours a week on admin
• This is costing businesses over £600 per person per month
• Jobs are running over schedule and input errors on forms are the biggest issues
• 40% of the Field Service industry don’t use Job Management Software
• Most Field Service professionals say they would complete more jobs if they had more time

How much time do you spend on Field Service admin each week?

The majority of Field Service professionals we surveyed said they spend around five to six hours per week on admin duties. These included writing reports, inputting data, re-entering information from job sheets and managing Field Service finances.

This is a business sector that is driven by the notion that being available for their customers when they need them represents their best opportunity to deliver excellent service. With half a working day each week being spent on admin duties it shows inefficient processes are holding back businesses from achieving their goals.

What are Field Service Businesses spending on admin?

Based on our respondents average salary of £47,000, admin tasks are costing Field Service businesses around £620 a month per individual. When you multiply that across a whole team this could cost businesses thousands every month. 

What is costing Field Service businesses the most amount of time?

The challenges service businesses are facing around the impact of inefficient processes isn’t exclusive to a single issue. There are a number of contributing factors from human error on report writing to miscommunication leading to no shows on jobs.

Poor Scheduling is costing Service Businesses

When we asked what duties cost Field Service professionals time almost half said that Jobs running over schedule was a major time drain.

There are many reasons why jobs can run over schedule and sometimes all the planning you can muster won’t stop it from happening as third part influences come into play such as client availability, materials or skills shortages in your industry.

These issues have been well documented and Construction News reported on the current materials shortage in the UK and how that is likely to continue well into 2022.

However, not all delays are caused by factors outside of your control and sometimes it comes down to a breakdown in communication between the office and field team.

Field Service businesses are turning to all-in-one Field Service Management software systems to improve their communication and keep everyone in the loop. These provide extra clarity on what jobs are scheduled, the exact work that needs to be carried out, parts and materials required and details of the customer location.

When plans change and schedules need to be moved about, the service businesses who can react quickly and clearly with their teams are likely to come out on top.

Mistakes on job forms are costing time

30% of Field Service professionals said that forms not being completed properly by their team is a significant time drain. When mistakes are made in the collection of information in the field it can have a huge impact on the productivity of a team.

Data collected incorrectly in the field can cause a backlog of work for those in the office. When details are missing from reports or paper work is misplaced or damaged it can cause significant delays in completing the job.

An obvious solution to this is using paperless online job sheets. Either by creating Job Sheet Templates in a PDF format (see below) for your team to complete or by using Field Service Management Software Mobile Forms.

These forms in any format clearly list the checks that need to be made and ensure the field team has carried out all duties and acquired signature sign off from the customer.

You can read more about creating paperless job sheets in this article: Learn more.

Download our Job Sheet Template

We’ve created a Job Sheet Template for field service teams to use. This will help you make sure the right data is collected from your team while they are on site. Anything missed will just waste more time later so templates like this help reduce your Field Service Admin. If you would prefer a PDF or Word digital version. You can download that straight from this form below.

Duplicating data from the field

29% of Field Service Professionals we surveyed confirmed duplicating data from reports is a key issue for them. Duplicating data presents another opportunity for mistakes to creep into work, which can be costly and doesn’t present your business in the best light if these mistakes appear in your customer reports.

Admin duplication is an issue across most Field Service businesses. Without a way of easily sharing data across teams, office and field teams have to rely on sending emails between each other and hope the data is correctly transferred into quotes, invoices and reports.

Job Management Software creates a single source of truth and an easy way of accessing the information your team needs. Data collected in the field can be shared in real-time with the rest of your team. This is particularly useful if you create reports for your clients from information gathered on jobs.

How RJ Power Group reduced how much time they spent on admin

RJ Power Group are a specialist electrical and engineering solutions provider to the power industry. The design, install, test and commission Low Voltage and High Voltage power applications to the Rail sector, Private Networks and Connections.

They used a basic calendar tool that limited their ability to provide their field service teams with comprehensive job notes and documentation. Job Scheduling for RJ Power Group was a time consuming and long winded process as the amount of supporting material required for each job meant a lot of attachments.

RJ Power Group switched from emails with attachments to Job Management Software for their job scheduling and sharing job details with their team.

The impact Job Management Software had on RJ Power Group

RJ Power Group has real time access to all their  jobs. They can more efficiently plan out their engineer’s schedules and give their team in the field everything they need at their fingertips.

“The amount of time we save in invaluable, we have both more time and resources to deploy on site” – Isabelle Pierce, RJ Power Group

Their office has complete visibility of the field operation and the performance of the business via operational and finance dashboards. They save on average 4 hours per report and reduce the process of creating a report from hours to a couple of minutes. Productivity and the efficiency of their team has greatly increased because of Job Management Software.

What would Field Service Professional prioritise if they had more time?

Field Service Professionals agreed that completing more jobs would be the number one activity they would priorities if they had more time available.

The amount of time service businesses are spending on admin is holding them back. There are plenty of tasks that would be better suited to automated processes that service businesses are carrying out every week through outdated, manual activities.

Finding new customers or growing their current accounts came in second and third place. The average Field Service professional is assigning a significant part of their working week to admin tasks so it’s unlikely many find the time to give their current customers the added attention that normally has such a hugely positive impact on retention and your reputation.

Surprisingly the idea of taking less work home with them is 5th in the list. This could be a sign of a better work life balance being encouraged by Field Service Business owners. 

Do you use Field Service Job Management Software?

Over 40% of the people we surveyed didn’t use Field Service Job Management Software to help them better organise their workload. 

Field Service businesses are facing increased pressures to meet SLAs and adapt to the changing expectations of customers. New products and service offers from competitors only complicate things further in highly competitive markets. Additional layers of complexity are being added by changing compliance legislation and the added pressures to meet safety and environmental standards.

Many of the challenges Field Service businesses face could be eased by increasing efficiencies in their businesses and unlocking the resources they already have that are presently tied up admin duties.

How software is helping Field Service businesses meet customer expectations

Customer expectations have shifted over the last couple of years. On demand services are more prevalent than ever before and that’s being reflected by the minimum expectations your customers now expect from your service.

Improved visibility is the biggest change.

You are expected to provide an ‘Uber-like’ experience by giving you customer complete clarity of the status of their job. What jobs have been booked? Who is the engineer? When will they arrive?

The same level of visibility your customers get from booking a meal or a taxi they now expect from maintenance jobs, servicing and inspections from Field Service teams.

Job Management Software is helping to bridge this gap in what service businesses are able to offer and what’s expected from their customers. By automating communication and providing real time information, Field Service businesses are able to spend less time sending emails, handling phone calls and booking field teams on jobs.

3 Steps you can take to reduce your admin

There are some simple, quick and easy things you can change in your Field Service businesses to reduce your admin. Here’s 3 steps you can take to reduce wasted time and streamline your processes.

1. Template your work forms

Any time spent standardising what your team collects in the field now will pay off in the future. At the most basic level make sure your team is using a job sheet so they have ticked every box – especially if you work in a compliance driven sector. Use our Template above for something free quick and easy or invest in mobile forms from Job Management Software for something a little more robust.

2. Communicate better with your customers

Decide a process for job confirmation notifications and stick to it. Many Field Service businesses are spending far too much time emailing their customers back and forth, confirming details that could be easily summed up in a simple booking confirmation. You can go further by using a CMMS or Job Management Software system that include Automated Customer Communication.

3. Use a Client Portal

Client Portals are game changers. These are a fantastic way of giving your client complete visibility of their jobs and reduce the need to send you emails or call. Everything about their jobs is clearly visible and instantly accessible. They are easy to use so they don’t require your customer to be tech-savvy, they require little setup, just send over a link to their portal and they can see everything at a glance, straight away.

If you want to reduce your admin and you’re interested in Job Management Software, make sure the platform you choose includes a Client Portal.

Summary: How much time service businesses spend on admin

Nearly a third of all Field Service professionals spend around 5 to 6 hours a week on admin duties and to meet the expectations of their customers and maintain high service levels, that has to be reduced.

Whether the service business is an Electrical Contractor for the Power Industry, a HVAC servicing and repair outfit or they carry out Fire Compliance inspection Services, the whole Field Service Industry needs to reduce admin and streamline their operations to remain competitive.

No matter what market they service, how much time service businesses spend on admin will greatly affect their ability to complete more jobs and use their resources effectively.

They all share similar goals and aspirations:

• Complete more jobs
• Find new customers
• Spend more time with their current customers
• Grow and develop their teams

Job Management Software will make these targets achievable by simplifying and streamlining tasks that cost time such as job scheduling, mobile form completion in the field and finance admin duplication.