Plumbing management software is an essential tool for plumbing companies that want to win the competition by being effective, agile, and fast when it comes to handling customers’ queries. Nowadays, with the vast variety of plumbing services in the market, it becomes more difficult to stand out. Delivering a good service is no longer the only decisive factor in whether the customer will choose it again or not. The number of channels through which a customer can reach a plumbing company, the response speed, the customer support’s tone and efficiency, the time a plumber takes to dispatch and fix the problem, and many more things are on the list of those that dominate customers’ decisions.
However, the challenges do not end right there. Most of the time, plumbers do not have visibility on the customer’s problem during the first call. The time-consuming and costly displacement to the customer’s location seems inevitable if the plumber needs to assess the situation and decide what materials must be bought and what type of intervention must be performed. But does the customer have so much time if there is an emergency?
Luckily there is the best-of-breed field service management tool powered by remote visual assistance that helps to solve the aforementioned challenges. In this article, we will explore the benefits of such integration and its importance for the plumbing sector.
1. Field service management software for effective plumbing interventions
Plumbing management can be enhanced by top-notch field service management solutions. Thanks to them, it is possible to track the interventions, assign plumbers based on their availability and proximity to customers, follow their dispatch and completion of the intervention, as well as have documented proof of the intervention’s beginning and end. Let’s dive deeper.
1.1. Assigning the right plumber
Even the most skillful and professional teams need to be organized. If an expert who registered the customer’s query has no visibility on the available technicians, the back-and-forth phone or SMS iterations can cost customers’ patience and the unresolved issue. The expert will not know who to assign to the particular query if they do not know what the problem is.
The lack of visibility also undermines plumbers’ autonomy as they become unable to define their availability and prioritize their tasks accordingly. Coming to resolve one problem and then finding out that the issue is much more complex is the last thing plumbers want to do, especially when there is an emergency.
Therefore, the need for a solution that would allow receiving queries, assigning the plumbers to them and scheduling their work, and monitoring their completion appears. Field service management software is there to help.
1.2. Managing customers’ data
Relying on messengers to store information about the encountered problem, and customers’ personal data (names, addresses, phone numbers) poses cyber security risks. Moreover, traditional means of communication do not have the capacity to tag data, sort the tickets out, and search for a specific pieces of information. Poorly structured systems lead to greater chaos and as a result, plumbers may not receive the full picture of the occurred issue or simply mix up customers and/or their addresses.
Without proper plumbing management software, it is also impossible to capitalize off the generated data. Having everything centralized in one plumbing management software gives the ability to differentiate the encountered problems by type, create guides and tutorials for plumbers to boost their efficiency, create client testimonials and case studies for marketing purposes, and build a solid foundation for automatization of the ways your company is handling the queries.
1.3. Increasing customer satisfaction
As our world becomes more and more digital, it is a fact that customers start expecting the same quality of service online the way they would receive it offline. Most of the time, customers use digital ways to get in contact with a plumbing company. The usual touch points are the Google search, clicking on a plumbing company’s website, filling out the contact form, and getting in touch with an agent. As an alternative, depending on the size of the company, there can be only a phone number for a customer to use in order to request assistance. The consequences of the latter can be a busy hotline or the unavailability of an operator to register the request.
To win the competition game, the company has to use technology to facilitate the ways customers can reach out to it and receive assistance. With field service management software, the customer does not need to worry whether his/her query passed through, when the plumber will arrive, and how much time it will take to solve the problem. The operator/expert registers the problem and handles the process from start to finish with one tool. This level of professionalism increases customers’ trust in the company and improves their experience.
2. The role of remote visual assistance in plumbing management software
Remote visual assistance is confidently marching through different sectors allowing experts and technicians to get a 360° view of the problems that their customers encounter. Powered by visual assistance and collaborative tools, remote visual assistance solutions facilitate communication between the parties.
This brings:
- Ability to troubleshoot and perform diagnostics remotely which eliminates the need for unnecessary displacement to discover the problem.
- Enhanced communication: the customer feels taken care of and reassured as there is visible proximity of a professional expert.
- Enrichment of the plumbing management software: all the video recordings of the sessions, shared media, and comments of the plumber are stored inside the same work order/intervention.
- Better and more efficient workforce thanks to the composed knowledge base.
When it comes to plumbing, plumbing management software powered by remote visual assistance can come in handy.
Use case: after the query is registered, the plumber calls the customer using remote visual assistance to qualify the problem in real-time
The customer goes on the plumbing company’s website and instead of only asking the company to call back, he/she click on the video report button that is embedded into the assistance form.
He/she receives a link to enter a video-recording stream to record the encountered problem. The customer can add snapshots, share comments, and all the related supporting files. When he/she is done, the video report is submitted to the plumbing company.
Once the query is registered, the expert/operator assigns it to the available plumber. The dedicated plumber can invite the customer to join a video-recording interface where he/she can benefit from the immersive view of the customer’s surroundings and assess the problem (qualify the damage, understand what materials are needed, plan the duration of the work, etc). The tool allows both parties to take snapshots, and add annotations, drawings and relevant supporting files with no limit in size.
Everything will be stored inside the intervention/ticket/work order in the plumbing management solution.
Plumbing is complex and sometimes there are occasions when the problem cannot be solved during one intervention. Extra materials need to be ordered, they may require specific measurements, and there can be challenges regarding the customer’s place plan (wall configurations, the state of pipes and their type, etc).
When the plumber arrives, he/she can use a video report to film the issue, take snapshots, add comments and share it with the team in the office. Thanks to this functionality, the team sees the size of the problem, and can easily estimate the invoice and how long it will take to complete the work.
In turn, the plumber does not need to memorize the details or write them down on paper/in notes on the phone, etc. He/she can consult the intervention’s archive at any time and if needed, even request additional assistance from his/her colleagues in case the problem is too complex.
3. Conclusion
Plumbing companies face diverse expectations from their clients and utilizing technology to streamline business operations proves to be advantageous to address the demands. Field Service Management software for plumbing management distinguishes innovative and forward-thinking companies from those who have not yet embraced such tools. Powered by remote visual assistance, it allows plumbing companies to become highly responsive to customers’ queries. Consequently, this improves customer satisfaction levels, stimulates referrals, and boosts the confidence of the employees in the service they provide.
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