Dispatchers sit at the intersection of customer experience and field service management, making it one of the most demanding jobs in field service.

Dispatch management combines customer and equipment needs with the appropriate field service workers to meet customer expectations. These include a range of functions such as installations, repairs, and maintenance. Field service workforces also include deliveries, home health care, insurance claim assessors, and service and equipment maintenance.

To be a dispatch manager,  a person must have superior organizational skills, an innate ability to handle high-stress situations, and the flexibility to manage constantly shifting priorities and customer needs.

Dispatch personnel used to depend on giant whiteboards to map out field workers’ schedules. Some logged in and out of different systems to compile needs and availability. This created delays and room for error. But here’s a secret: dispatch management doesn’t have to be this complex. 

Dispatch management software automates and optimizes field workers’ schedules across geographies, whether they’re employees or contractors. This makes dispatchers’ lives so much easier.

A connected field service solution with dispatch management capabilities streamlines the entire process. Dispatchers have a full view of the mobile workforce and use automation based on specific business objectives. 

Here’s how it improves scheduling and drives greater efficiencies for your dispatch and field service teams.

Increase dispatch efficiency with connected software

When you take the plunge and use a connected software solution with real-time data, you’re ready to take on today’s field service and customer experience challenges. Dispatch management software also allows you to scale as your company grows.

1. Automate scheduling

Dispatch management solutions use inputs such as skill sets, availability, job data, warranty info, work histories, location data, and scheduling policies. This enables dispatchers to use a full range of automation based on specific business objectives and processes to create schedules.

2. Optimize daily schedules for mobile workers

Each day, users launch an optimization program to sync schedules with real-time information from field workers and customers. The result is an optimal schedule — one that improves service delivery and productivity by reducing travel time, downtime, and overtime.

Integrated mapping software allows companies to view resources and customers have visibility into the mobile worker’s ETA.

3. Automate decisions

Dispatch management solutions automate the decision-making process with actions consistent with business rules and optimization goals. If there is a conflict with existing guidelines and parameters, the software issues a warning indicating it’s detected a conflict. Final decisions defer to the dispatcher.

4. Reduce time to and between job sites

With a dispatch management solution, dispatchers immediately respond to changes, which reduces delays and improves service levels.

Route optimization enables them to build realistic routes with predictive time-of-day. Patterns and street-level-routing break down travel segments for precise scheduling. It’s part of the digital transformation in field service.

5. Enable mobile capabilities

Field workers with mobile access receive updates directly from dispatchers on scheduling changes, job status, customer information, and other updates. In the field, mobile workers log updates and report delays. This allows dispatchers to revise schedules accordingly.

As a bonus, connected solutions often offer automation of tedious tasks, such as capturing expenses or mileage.  

What is dispatch management? It’s more efficient with the right data-rich connected software

The ability to work as efficiently as possible improves productivity for dispatchers, as well as the entire mobile workforce. At Salesforce, the future of field service means modernizing field service operations with real-time data.

As dispatch management evolves, the ability to automate, use artificial intelligence to predict needs, and to connect mobile workers becomes more crucial. An efficient dispatch and field service operation elevates customer experience and creates opportunities to deepen the lifetime customer value.

To take your team to the next level, discover the dispatch management capabilities of Field Service Lightning from Salesforce. See what the future holds for field service and watch the most recent Dreamforce field service keynote.

Watch a demo of Field Service Lightning now.