Walkabout Blog

Purchase ordering and inventory management can be cumbersome tasks for field service companies to manage. Without comprehensive part tracking and recordkeeping tools, it’s easy to lose track of the inventory you have in stock and outstanding orders for pending repairs.  Not knowing how to keep up with it all can cost your business hundreds, if not thousands of dollars, every month.  Fortunately, finding a software solution with a robust inventory control system can eliminate these three common pain points and do so much more.

When you’re shopping for a piece of field service management software, one of the main features you’ll be considering is its purchase ordering system. The best PO systems have all 10 of the following functions. Before taking the plunge on a new field service management software system, check that its purchase ordering functionality hits all of these points.

A common problem appliance repair businesses come across is keeping field service staff and office personnel informed regarding updates and new developments throughout the day. Having a field service management tool featuring a mobile app is critical if you want to keep techs, CSRs, and managers all on the same page. After technicians leave to run their day, information may be added or changed by CSRs back in the office. Those changes need to be shared quickly to prevent any disruption. A modern day field service app is the key to maintaining alignment.

Customers are the core of any business, which is why so many companies pride themselves on providing world-class customer service. But how can a company provide the best service possible? Enthusiastic staff and fast response times are part of it, of course, but the key to leveling up your business’s customer service is utilizing customer management.

Many appliance repair business owners don’t think that they need field service management software. They ask, what are the benefits of a field service management system? What does field management software even do? 

If you haven’t made the switch yet, it can be hard to understand how much time you can add back into your day using field service management software. Here are six of the best features available in field management software.

Many people think of Walkabout as a software provider in the appliance field service industry. And we are. Our dedicated team is proud to offer a powerful and simple scheduling, inventory management, and dispatch software for small businesses.

We’re used to specialized programs that fill a niche gap or automate one process. Our phones are full of them. As they say, “there’s an app for that!”

There wasn’t always such a thing as software for field service management. Once upon a time, we used whiteboards crammed with text and color-coded by technician to lay out busy service schedules. It mostly worked as long as no customers fell through the cracks (and the cleaning crew didn’t accidentally erase it). Try as we may, those are days we won’t soon forget.

Most home appliance businesses rely heavily on word of mouth as they grow. In a competitive industry, a job well done is your best marketing tool. Glowing referrals and reviews work wonders for increasing revenue as you slowly expand your team with office staff and additional technicians.

A customer calls your business up on the phone and speaks to a CSR. What happens next? The time between that phone call and the arrival of a tech on the scene (for an installation, checkup, or repair) can separate a great customer experience from a poor one.