The 8 Metrics That Matter in Field Service — and How You Can Improve Them

There are eight key field service metrics to measure success in field service management — from the tactical to customer satisfaction. If you’re looking for a way to become more efficient and increase your revenue, setting field service KPIs can help your business thrive. We’ve outlined simple fixes and capabilities that can help you achieve positive field service results and see faster time to value.

If your company recently invested in AI-powered field service management, you’re already on the right path to future-proofing your business. The next step is to connect your field service management solution to your customer relationship management (CRM) platform to get a complete view of your customer. This helps you see what’s working efficiently and what could be improved.

Then, you’ll gain a better view of the important field service metrics, from the tactical – such as first-time fix rate and time to site – to the most important of all field service KPIs: customer satisfaction. If you’re not seeing improvements in these areas, here are simple fixes and capabilities that can power positive results for your customers and reduce operational costs for you.

1. Call volume

Have you seen a decrease in calls?

Customers want service to be as easy as placing an order on an app for food delivery or requesting a lift through a rideshare service. They’re used to getting an accurate, up-to-the-minute estimated time of arrival. 

Call volume can be one of the most important field service KPIs to monitor, helping you get a better handle on efficiency. If your dispatchers are still fielding a high volume of calls with scheduling requests and status updates, use appointment assistance on your customer-facing app. With appointment assistance, you can offer:

• Self-service capabilities: Let customers make and change requests themselves. Enable self-service through a customer portal on your site or customer-facing app. Customers can make and change requests and get answers to frequently asked questions, like how to access their service history or when it’s time for preventative maintenance
• Automated notifications: Keep customers in the know with automated updates. Notify them through their mobile device when service is on the way or if there is a delay.
• Live tracking: Give customers the ability to see where the assigned frontline service worker is on a map with an arrival calculation, similar to what you would see on a ride-sharing app.

2. Time to site

Are your mobile workers arriving when customers expect?

Nothing frustrates customers more than an inaccurate estimated time of arrival. After all, waiting around wastes their valuable time! If you’ve implemented a connected solution, but field service metrics show that your frontline service workers are still not getting to their job sites on time, use the following:

• Route optimization: Help dispatchers effectively manage each location, find the shortest routes, and facilitate planning with a full map view from their screen. 
• Intelligent planning: Tap into up-to-date intelligence with a full view of your mobile workforce. With visibility and AI-generated suggestions, you can assign (or reassign) the right employees and contractors for each job based on location, availability, skill set, and equipment. 
• Geolocation tracking: Embed GPS technology into the field service app to navigate your mobile workers to the shortest route to site and give dispatchers a complete view of resources in the field.

3. Jobs per day

Are you scheduling in the most efficient way?

A major benefit of a field service management solution is having better visibility into field service KPIs that show what’s happening in the field. Dispatchers can optimize simple or complex scheduling and take on more jobs by seeing as little as two weeks and as much as six months ahead to make appointments and account for absences. 

Make sure your dispatchers are using workforce analytics to assign jobs based on a set of business rules:

• Location
• Skill set
• Mobile worker availability
• Equipment availability
• Inventory on hand

With a clear view of updated schedules, dispatchers can also adjust each mobile worker’s schedule and quickly reassign tasks in the event of delays or a scheduling crossover. AI makes this even faster by providing intelligent recommendations.

4. First-time fix rates

Are your workers able to solve issues in one visit?

If your frontline service workers still struggle with resolving cases on the first visit, make sure they have the best mobile capabilities for hitting field service KPIs like this one, including:

• Consolidated information: Give your mobile workers access to concise AI-powered pre-briefing. It can pull out the most relevant job information, customer data, task details, asset history, connected device insight, and schedules from their mobile devices to prepare them before they even walk through the door.
• Offline and online capabilities: Oftentimes, jobs happen in remote areas without reliable cell service or any at all. With offline capabilities, mobile workers can download customer information ahead of time and log updates offline that sync once reconnected to data or Wi-Fi.
• Ongoing support: Make sure your mobile workers have helpful resources for more complex cases, such as AI-generated knowledge articles and AI-powered search. Offer the option for mobile workers to connect directly with a remote agent via video or chat to walk through the right solution. 

5. Customer satisfaction

Is your 5-star effort getting 5-star reviews?

In the past, field service had little to no visibility into customer satisfaction (unless, of course, a customer called to complain). Now, there are more ways than ever to gain insight into one of the most critical field service KPIs: customer satisfaction.

If you still don’t have clear metrics on customer satisfaction, give customers the ability to easily provide feedback through your portal, email, or text messages. You can close the feedback loop with a short survey, open-ended questionnaire, or direct outreach on everything from appointment booking to the experience with a mobile worker.

6. Employee and contractor turnover

Are your processes helping you keep workers happy and productive?

Field service sees a high turnover rate from mobile workers who struggle to get paid on time due to slow, manual time-tracking and approval processes. One of the most important field service KPIs to monitor is turnover, so you can see if employees are satisfied in their roles.

If turnover is still high, AI can help. Integrate AI-powered solutions into your field service management solution. With integrated AI, field service can gather relevant information, such as customer, asset, and service details, to automatically brief contractors, and generate post-work summaries. Your mobile workers can shorten job duration, and focus on higher skilled tasks at hand.

7. Overall costs

Is your field service management solution clearly saving you money?

Your connected field service management solution drives efficiencies for dispatchers and improves productivity in the field with a complete view of the customer. If you have yet to see a reduction in costs because of it, consider the following:

• Faster time to invoice: Some contractors may still use a sheet of paper to begin the invoicing process. With all they have to do, there’s a high chance that paper gets lost along the way from the field to the office. Let all your mobile workers mark jobs as complete right from their mobile app. By giving mobile workers a digital notice through their app, job completion is confirmed from their mobile device, and customers are invoiced faster. 
• Flow of processes: You can optimize field service with a simple flow of low-effort processes using automation. Intelligent scheduling powered by AI helps dispatchers assign the most skilled and available mobile workers and map out planning routes that reduce time spent on the road  and potential overtime costs.
• Job status: Let your mobile workers log updates before, during, and after appointments right from their mobile devices. This gives dispatchers a live view of job status and allows them to effectively create planning journeys.

8. Sales leads

Are your mobile workers able to help customers with additional products and services?

If a customer needs a costly repair or replacement, a mobile worker can guide them through their options. If you haven’t already set up your mobile workers to cross or upsell, connect sales capabilities to your field service management solution. 

Your mobile workers attach opportunities when they log job updates from their mobile device, which filter to reps who can follow up with customers for a personalized sales experience.

When your workers are able to suggest additional products and services, you’ll see a rise in one of the best field service metrics for long-term success: sales leads.

If you’ve found opportunities for improvement after comparing your field service operation against these core metrics, take our field service basics guided course to ensure you’re making the most of your field service management solution.