by Ian Stewart | Aug 31, 2012 | Field Service Spotlight
As people around the Southeast and Gulf Coast take stock of the damage caused by Hurricane Isaac this week, scores of field service companies are moving into the area, bracing for a lot of urgent cleanup and repair work. During big natural disasters like Isaac, when...
by Ian Stewart | Aug 30, 2012 | Strategy & Leadership
With the summer’s hottest stretch behind us, and the winter cold still a way’s away, the fall can be a slow time for HVAC companies and other businesses tied to the seasons. But that doesn’t mean those months can’t be put to good use. Here are...
by Sean Lyden | Aug 29, 2012 | Customer Experience
In field service, there are some “sins” that, if habitual and left unchecked, lead your business down the path of unhappy customers, negative reviews, loss of sales — and ultimately irrelevance. How do you guard against all that? Avoid making these goofs and remember...
by Field Technologies Online | Aug 28, 2012 | Field Service Spotlight
The following article was first published on Field Technologies Online, and is excerpted here with permission. McKinley Equipment improves technician efficiency and expedites parts orders using cloud-based software and iPads. The face of field-service automation...
by Ian Stewart | Aug 27, 2012 | Field Service Spotlight
It’s summer, and sales are sluggish. Or management has mandated that the field-service division slash costs. How do you scale back on costs without sacrificing quality? We went back to the SmartVan archives to dig up the five best paths to efficiency: Embrace...
by Ian Stewart | Aug 24, 2012 | Strategy & Leadership
What’s more important to your customers: cost savings or good service? For field service companies, that can be a tough tradeoff. At a time when a single truck roll can cost over $1,000 a pop, great service often can’t come without a bump in prices. But...
by Darren Weiss | Aug 23, 2012 | Customer Experience
The story of precocious teenagers building a wildly successful Internet company is, by now, practically old hat. But Jon Perl and Oren Shatken’s entrepreneurial tale breaks the mold in one big way: They didn’t set their sights on social networking or...
by Sean Lyden | Aug 22, 2012 | Field Service Spotlight
In 2013, Ford will begin phasing out its 33-year-old iconic E-Series van in favor of its new global platform, the Transit, with better fuel efficiency and greater cargo capacity than its predecessor. So what’s to like about the Transit for fleet managers and...
by Tiffany Kaiser | Aug 21, 2012 | Field Service Spotlight
4G, or fourth-generation, networks offer companies — particularly those managing a team of mobile workers, like field techs — a way to tap into super-high-speed networks. But what exactly does that mean for enterprises, and how can it be utilized to reshape field...
by Mobile Enterprise | Aug 21, 2012 | Field Service Spotlight
The following post first appeared on Mobile Enterprise, and is excerpted here with permission. It’s difficult to put an exact figure on the cost of distracted driving in the enterprise, but a current estimate of all mobile device related crashes, put forth by the...
by Darren Weiss | Aug 20, 2012 | Field Service Spotlight
All the advance planning that goes into arriving at a job site on time — predictive scheduling, automated dispatching, computerized map routing — can go for naught the minute traffic snarls up unexpectedly. But technology is catching up to the problem. Google, for...
by Ian Stewart | Aug 17, 2012 | Field Service Spotlight
In the past year, Sentinel Field Services Inc., a mortgage field service company that maintains foreclosed properties, has doubled its geographic coverage area. What’s its marketing secret? No advertising, no promotions — not even a sales team. Instead, Sentinel...
