5 Ways Technology Can Simplify Project Management for Small Field Teams

Coordination is a challenge for small businesses employing field teams. There are various small businesses in the field service industry such as lawn mowing, pest control, plumbing and electrical services. And while their teams aren’t as big as those in larger industries, they still have to find effective ways on how to harmonize work for their field technicians, ensure customer satisfaction, and, of course, grow their profit. For SMBs with limited time and resources, this becomes even more challenging.

In this day and age of processes and systems, technology is paving the way to making project management achieve what it is intended to do, which is the timely and efficient execution to simplify your workflow of the plan all the way up to project completion.

Here are some of the ways an efficient project management tool can help small business in the field service industry:

1. Better, Faster Communication

Even with everyone in the project saying that they have gone over the plan enough time to repeat the entire thing start to finish, project management communication is still crucial. Nothing simply gets done without communication.

For instance, if you’re running a lawn mowing business, you’ll have to coordinate with your clients and field technicians efficiently to avoid overlapping in schedules. Without an accurate record, you don’t want to have two technicians going to one client’s property due to the lack of transparency on who’s assigned to who.

With that, a tool like JobTasker can help you become better at project management. It lets you create tasks and assign it to a specific member to increase accountability. This helps you prevent wasting time in tracking which job was assigned to which member. This way, you can ensure your technicians can efficiently complete their job and make it to their next scheduled site.

2. Timely and Responsive Technology

One of the more popular catchwords relevant to project management is the term "agile.” For those not really versed project management, it is taken to denote something that is "reactive" to a specific scenario, and this is really not too far from the technical definition of the agile project management approach.

If you’re operating in a field service business, having real-time access to updates is crucial so you can stay in-the-know of everything going on regardless of your location. For instance, one of your technicians on the way broke down his vehicle. Without a proper response solution, you’ll risk losing your customer due to your field service worker showing up late or not showing up at all without notifying them about it. This can affect your customers if they have an event, and their lawn is not properly maintained. In turn, this can lead to a negative customer feedback for your quality of service.

JobTasker can be accessed in the cloud. With your business requiring workers to be on-site at all times, moving to paperless environment is crucial. JobTasker is available on a smartphone app. Hence, if there are any emergencies, your worker can report it in real-time and you can respond by sending help or another worker in to the job location site to complete the job. This translates to professionalism for your service.

3. Decentralized Team Collaboration

Today’s apps allow real-time remote team collaboration, which allows a more immediate response to pressing matters. In the past, collaboration was often limited to the prohibitive nature of emails, where the sender could only hope that the recipient is able to check the email sent as soon as possible.

The emergence of cloud-based solutions make this possible. As mentioned, JobTasker is deployed in the cloud. With that, you can plan and schedule your jobs in a beautiful web dashboard. You can also easily see a clear overview of all jobs in a daily, weekly, and monthly view. This way, you can ensure no task slips in the cracks.

It’s essential to check out resources in project management to explore the various tools available. Apps today capitalize on the instantaneous nature of communication over the internet, where visual images, videos, and files could be shared.

4. Procedural Simplification

Documentation is a crucial part of on-site services. For instance, it’s essential to take before-and-after photos of the lawn you’ll be servicing. If you’re offering plumbing services, you’d want to take a photo of the pipes and valves to show the owner their condition when you serviced it, in case they have underlying problems that are unreported.

This would normally take quite a chunk of time if done in the traditional way, as paperwork, submissions, filing, and approval takes up a lot of time.

To simplify project management, there are apps integrated into the project management process to streamline processes. For instance, you can save time by being able to upload multiple images at once instead of doing it one by one manually. JobTasker lets you take photos using your smartphone, and attach it to the job right on the app. It also simplifies taking down job notes and leaving special instructions regarding the job.

5. Simplifying Field Service

Managing a dispersed workforce is not an easy task. You’ll face challenges in capturing information in the field accurately and managing your operations. Thankfully, the emergence of cloud-based tools today makes it possible for your field teams to improve scheduling, mobile capture, and information access. Even if you’re operating a small business, you can still access these tools at low and cost-effective price. In fact, JobTasker offers all its essential features at a flat monthly fee.