Last Updated on July 17, 2023

Electrical construction is a multi-million dollar service industry. For any construction project, the electrical project manager plays a crucial role on and off the job site. They must supervise and effectively plan, schedule, and organize subcontractors, while using time, materials, equipment, and budget efficiently. l. One of the greatest tools an electrical project manager can have in their tool belt is field service software. 

Electrical-specific field service management (FSM) software helps electrical contractors manage and optimize all activities performed by field-based workers. Electrical contractors and other field service businesses also leverage the time- and cost-saving benefits of field service management software to assign and dispatch workers to field tasks and track their performance.

Electrical field service software can save electrical contractors time and money while improving their productivity and efficiency. Here are the six most important benefits of using electrical field service software. 

Make Smarter Scheduling Decisions 

Electrical contractors and field service technicians know that time is money. Their work must be efficient and used productively if they are to maximize their profit. Scheduling enables smooth and efficient operation of your and your team’s day. You and your employees will know where they are supposed to be, when they are supposed to be there, and the budgeted time for each task.  

 Scheduling also gives you the ability to negotiate the right amount of time to efficiently manage your work. This allows you to fairly negotiate the amount of time necessary to complete the project and saves you from overtime payments and costly time overruns. 

This is how you save money from beginning to end of a project. By using a proper scheduling system, you can ensure that the schedule allows for efficient workflow and negotiate necessary adjustments to the baseline schedule with the general contractor upfront.

A strong software platform with comprehensive job scheduling features will utilize the Gantt chart in planning and scheduling a project. The Gantt chart simply takes your tasks on hand and organizes them on a timeline. This way, you can see the full project timeline organized logically. It allows you to: 

• Break the process down into separate tasks.
• Define a method for doing each task.
• Track the cost and time to do the task.
• Refines the method until the best cost/time ratio is achieved for each task.

The process can be challenging if you are not using the right software. This is why Jonas Construction Software and Service Management Software have their very own scheduling functionality. It helps you to easily organize work orders and assign work from anywhere.

Improve Communication with Electricians in the Field 

Effective communication is key for the success of your electrical contractor business. A study by the McKinsey Global Institute found out that more connected employees perform better than those who are not. Transparent and efficient communication between the back-office and field techs is imperative so that your jobs stay on track even when things don’t go as planned.

Service management software on mobile devices allows your field technicians to access job files, change orders, and client requests in real-time from any job site. This keeps your team informed and up-to-date on job details and any relevant changes. 

By simplifying and centralizing communication in electrical-specific field service software, you can eliminate endless emails and phone calls. This saves you time that can be diverted to more productive activities. As a result, you enjoy reduced workload, increased wrench time, better flow of information, and happier employees.

Ensure Technicians Complete All Aspects of Each Job 

Having software that Integrates all the pieces of your work order management system is essential for today’s service companies.  As manual work orders become a thing of the past, everyone in your electrical contractor business can create, track, complete, and analyze work orders in real-time, from anywhere—whether that’s at the jobsite or in the office. 

With electrical field service software, technicians no longer have to return to the office to hand in manual work orders. It is also unnecessary to call or email technicians with information for new or existing calls when they arrive or leave the job site.

And when the work is complete, technicians can capture signatures directly from their mobile device and provide them with a customer summary sheet detailing the work completed. Thanks to mobile-friendly field service software, the need for double entry has been eliminated, which saves time and reduces human error.

Increase Accessibility of Important Information 

If there’s anything more frustrating than an electrical technician who’s late, it’s the one who arrives having no idea what the job is about. Your technicians should arrive on-site knowing what they are there to do, and how to do it. Electrical field service software makes it possible by creating one point of access to data – from technical sheets to equipment records.

Having full work order information at hand gives them enough knowledge and empowers them to make relevant suggestions to your customers as opportunities arise, for example, suggesting replacements or offering service maintenance. When delivered at the right time, suggestions can improve customer satisfaction and loyalty.

With mobile field service software, technicians can bring work orders, service histories, checklists, documents, photos, drawings wherever they go. This gives your people complete visibility of full customer data and history for improved customer management while on site. If a customer asks a question, the service technician should be able to quickly and easily find an answer. 

When the work is done, a good field service management software allows technicians to capture signatures on the job site directly from their Android or iOS mobile devices and provide a customer summary sheet detailing the work completed.

Back in the office, the dispatcher does not need to re-enter the information from manual tickets that the dispatch technicians have written – everything has been synced from the mobile app. This eliminates the need for double entry, which saves time and reduces human error.

Improve Customer Satisfaction

Streamlined communication and easy data access result in improved customer service and increased customer satisfaction. When customers are staying informed about the length of the outage or the time required to fix the problem, they are more likely to become happy with the service you provide. A happy customer means more profits to your business but also reduces your marketing cost and increases your reach.

A proven way to gain the strength and trust of your customer is by displaying your knowledge confidently. This is when field service management software comes in handy. 

A rather simple method to build a good relationship with customers is through follow-up communications.

Make a call or send an email after a service call or when a project is completed. Ask for a ranking or feedback Doing follow-up communication is a clear signal that you care about your customer’s satisfaction and about doing a good job. Once a customer has experienced your services, don’t neglect to make them aware of the range of other services you offer. Take time to let them know you can do more than just hang a light fixture or repair a broken wall outlet.

Communicate that you can wire any size home, office, or commercial building. Let them know you do home inspections.

Maintain Complete Control Over Your Inventory

Electrical contractors use various parts, materials, and equipment on every job. It has been estimated that inventory represents almost half of the total project cost. Accessing the right parts and materials at the right time is critical to keeping projects on schedule and avoiding the waste of labor hours and money. That’s why managing materials inventory is crucial for project profitability. 

How does inventory management software assist electrical contractors in their everyday operations? When contractors track parts and materials, they can use inventory more effectively. The goal is to keep inventory levels and inventory usage in balance. With the right electrical field management software integrated into inventory management, the contractors can avoid stock-outs and back-orders as well as overstocks on hand, anywhere the new job takes them. 

Enhance the Productivity and Overall Efficiency of Your Electrical Contracting Business

Efficiency is quickly becoming the mantra across contractors. McKinsey reports that labor-productivity growth in construction has increased by a measly 1% per year over the past two decades. There’s lots of room for improvement.

Electrical field service software helps improve productivity and increase efficiency by: 

• Improved communication of job details and change-orders, reducing time-costly errors and mistakes
• Access to real-time data, giving the field technicians all the information they need to complete a job quickly 
• The integration of different modules enables both the technician and the dispatcher to use the valuable time for completing job orders instead of jumping from one application to another checking information.
• Smart scheduling allows route optimization and automatic allocation of work to technicians depending on their experience, knowledge, estimated location, and availability.
• Drillable reporting provides an accurate understanding of the performance of the teams and technicians, correcting common errors and deviations. You can, for example, identify which technicians spend a lot of hours driving, who take longer to complete their tasks, or who has the most downtime.
• Accurate inventory control helps avoid time wasted from waiting for materials, information, equipment, or supplies. 

Additionally, a centralized data platform eliminates duplicated entries and errors since it is easy for data to flow from one platform to another.  With integrated field service software, all of the documents you need are in one location, and you can effortlessly search through billing receipts, daily reports, submittals, purchase orders, and other documents in seconds..

Jonas Construction is the Best Field Service Management Software for Electrical Contractors

Today’s customer expects their field service providers to be efficient, reliable and cost-effective. To deliver your best service you need integrated field management software. 
Jonas electrical contractor software is a comprehensive all-in-one solution with proven reliability for electrical contractors. Jonas offers electrical contractors all the necessary features so that they can increase their productivity, improve job management, and effectively manage estimates, quotes, invoices, assets, and people. A fully-integrated business management and accounting software solution for electrical and other service contractors provides everything you need to run your business more efficiently and profitably while also saving you a ton of time spent on unnecessary paperwork. It’s time for you to see the Jonas interface in action and see for yourself how Jonas increases productivity. Request a demo today!