Scheduling field technicians is still an area with a wide gap to close before it reaches an optimum that improves customer satisfaction, raises technician utilization and lifts company profitability.
In a survey conducted by Aberdeen Group across 220 companies, the companies leading on performance metrics (BIC – Best In Class) focus on three main areas in order to run their field service:
- Day-to-day execution of scheduling, dispatching and routing – dynamic scheduling
- Strategic planning – demand forecasting and resource planning
- Workforce management – hiring, training and the technician compensation model
Beyond raising customer satisfaction and retention, companies that provide field services can improve profitability by focusing harder on finding revenue opportunities in better and more efficient service.
Loading the technician more heavily is only a partial answer: an under-utilized technician adds a significant financial burden to the company, while an over-utilized technician can damage it by arriving late to the customer or by pushing up the repeat-call rate, having handled the first call poorly for lack of time.
Many factors feed into the technician scheduling decision, but BIC companies usually assign the technician best suited in terms of skills, equipped with the right tools to solve the problem (Make part a part).
This article sets out the parameters worth focusing on when scheduling and dispatching technicians, without touching the organization’s existing information systems. It draws on our experience applying these methods at a range of companies, where they produced a significant improvement in the share of service calls handled per day.
The direct result is higher company revenue and, no less important, a stronger reputation as a company that gives its customers fast, good service. Operational strategy is the set of decisions that, over the long term, shape the capabilities of every operational function in the organization and its contribution to the overall strategy, while matching and balancing market demands against resources.
Examining the main factors that drive service levels and operating costs, some carry considerably more weight than others: day management, planning the “slots” (the time windows for the technician’s arrival), scheduling and calendar infrastructure, and forecasting capability.
Day management
Day management involves the unit that handles dispatching and scheduling, and the dynamic reassignment of calls. Running this department well has a direct effect on output. Define metrics for day management and assign owners for delivering against them, by geographic area and by frequency.
Several core metrics are worth tracking, among them: completion rate, occupancy rate, completion within the time window, travel time and fuel cost, and overtime rate.
Some of these metrics can also be defined as group metrics for an area or a team, or set as shared targets for the technician crew and the dispatcher, creating a common goal between two parties that are directly responsible for planning and completing service calls.
Planning time windows and time allocation
A central challenge in workforce planning and technician scheduling lies in designing the time windows, or “slots”. There is a gap between the customer’s point of view and the incentives that drive the technician and the system. The narrower the waiting window, the more convenient it is for the customer, because the time he is obliged to stay at home waiting for the technician shrinks.
From the technician’s side, the narrower the window, the greater the chance of arriving late at the customer’s home, and the lower the planning flexibility and with it the efficiency of the system as a whole. A method is therefore needed that bridges the two and satisfies both sides – a short wait at home, and flexibility in arrival times for the technician.
In our experience, several methods answer this problem and deliver high satisfaction for the customer and the technician alike.
Dynamic scheduling
The traditional approach to scheduling service calls works one day ahead, with no immediate response to dynamic changes. That is because dispatchers are not always aware of which service calls the technician is working on or is due to work on during the day. A more dynamic approach lets managers see the changes and slot other service calls into the gaps.
In our experience, 5%-10% of calls are cancelled during the day and some 20%-30% of calls do not take as long as planned, which creates changes through the day and often leaves staff under-utilized. To prevent this, deliberate over-scheduling is needed to fill the cancellations that arise during the day, along with dynamic rescheduling through the day in order to reach an optimum.
Forecasting
The absence of a forecasting model, and reliance on memory or intuition instead, is common in long-established organizations. The people who build the forecast take account of last year’s demand behavior, seasonality and local events.
But the forecast is also shaped by external considerations such as staying within budget, honoring existing agreements with subcontractors, and technician availability. All of these are folded into the forecasting framework intuitively, and they affect its quality. In most cases a professional, data-based model will improve planning capability by tens of percent, and with it planning efficiency.
In summary, comprehensive optimization that weighs the full set of issues against market conditions, competition and the particular needs of the sector produces flexibility, a high service level and a better customer experience, together with more effective use of resources.
