It is critical to measure key performance indicators while managing a field service firm since it helps you to make required modifications to improve performance and operations. It is important to measure these key metrics, especially in the field service business, as the industries are very competitive. It is a great unit of measure to guarantee that you are operating at your best and on par with your competition. 

In this blog post, we will define key performance indicators and explore which ones should be measured by all field service companies.

What is KPI and Why is it important 

KPI stands for key performance indicators and it is considered to be a metric that is measured and analyzed to make key long-run performance decisions. According to Forbes, KPI is a pertinent part of measuring the successes and failures of a business. This is considered to be important in this industry especially because it is what helps acknowledge any improvements that need to be made in operations to better serve customers and clientele. 

Response time

Response time is the rate at which, technicians or workers respond to request or call from customers. The faster they acknowledge the call or request the higher the response rate will be. This is an important metric to measure because it allows decision-makers to see how fast are work orders and requests are being picked up and handled by the team. This will allow them to make any informed decisions in regards to adding more workers onboard or any structural changes if needed to help improve this time.

First-time fix rate 

The first-time fix rate is a prominent metric that most field service firms already track. Getting the task done quickly is crucial, but getting the job done correctly the first time saves you time and money. Every customer expects first-time fixes, thus it is critical to guarantee that your staff completes these work orders the first time. That being said, when teams have a trend of low first-time fix rates, it could be due to a lack of customer history knowledge, inadequate asset or inventory management, or needing to execute administrative activities alongside their work.

With ServiceEcho’s powerful solution, technicians will always have up-to-date information on customer history, and assets and inventory will be tracked and modified automatically. Our solution focuses on decreasing time-consuming administrative duties such as invoicing and paperwork.

Travel time

Field Service Technicians are always out and about, commuting to various sites for work orders, and the time it takes to arrive at each place is tallied and marked as travel time. This metric is significant because it allows individuals in the office to truly measure how much billable work is being done in comparison to the time spent getting to the work order. If travel time is judged to be more than time spent on the task, it can be concerning. Unexpected traffic, last-minute revisions to work orders, and a shortage of skilled specialists can all contribute to long travel times. With that being said,  ServiceEcho’s integrated mapping and routing tool, allows technicians to find the most ideal path to work orders and avoid or reduce unforeseen traffic.

Overall, these key performance indicators are vital and should be measured since they will provide your field service firm with a better understanding of current operations and will help you to make critical modifications to better serve your clients. Book a demo, to learn how our solution can help you achieve your performance metrics and goals.