Which financial strategy holds greater value: cost-saving measures or profit-building initiatives?
The answer? Both.
A fairly obvious observation, but for a field service business it’s not always so clear. Oftentimes, decision makers and techs are focused on profit building rather than consolidating the costs of “everyday expenses” like second truck rolls, PM tasking, and customer credits.
The numbers reveal the truth — showing that cost-saving measures here & there add up to serious bottom-line revenue. Field service businesses using technician-focused software like XOi typically see a significant reduction in those everyday expenses — a 40% reduction in second truck rolls, 30% reduction in customer credits, and a 20% reduction in time per task to name a few.
Let’s do some quick math: Say a midsize commercial/resi business averages 50 second truck rolls a month. If they reduce second truck rolls by 40%, with a $500 average cost to roll a truck, the business will save $120,000 per year.
So, how can a field service business categorize and consolidate profit vs. savings? Let’s walk through a few specific tactics:
Saving: Reduction in second truck rolls, callbacks, and customer credits
Using technology to take jobsite processes from manual to digital saves more than a technician’s time on site. Turning predominantly written tasks like checklists, note taking, customer correspondence, and data analysis into simple digital experiences keeps all jobsite work documented and captured in a single, centralized location — not kept in the tech’s brain or lost from device to device. Streamlined processes equal reduced discrepancies on a job, cutting back the need for customer credits, truck rolls, and callbacks.
Saving: Cost of in-house phone support
Expenses associated with in-house technical support can rapidly accumulate. Typically, companies appoint their most seasoned techs to fill these support roles, resulting in an annual average cost of $144,000 for full-time, in-house support. Senior tech professionals in a “part-time” support role dedicate approximately one full work day per week to assist green techs in resolving issues.
By embracing the assistance of an XOi Mentor, you stand to save up to 42% in hiring costs while simultaneously liberating your most seasoned techs to concentrate on their own specific tasks in the field. XOi Mentors are equipped to deliver timely support precisely when your technicians require it the most. They improve first-time fix rates and explain the “why” behind issues so that your technicians build knowledge and skills for the next time.
Profit Building: Increase revenue per service and preventative maintenance calls
40% of the time a technician answers a service call, they find additional work is needed outside of what was originally quoted. When techs are able to communicate additional work with photo and video evidence of what’s actually occurring, there’s little room left for discrepancies and disputes regarding the necessary tasks and their timely completion. This practice of augmenting profit for each regularly scheduled job may seem modest on a per-job basis, but in the grand scheme of things, it translates into substantial long-term gains.
Profit Building: Improve first time fix rates
Leveraging XOi, before a technician even gets on site, they can download manufacturer and component failure data to predict the root cause of the issue, understand which parts are
needed, ensure proper inspection of heating/cooling elements based on the season, and know which technician is right for the job based on the model they work on most often. The job is halfway done before a tech even enters the jobsite — greatly improving the likelihood of the issue being fixed the first time around.
Profit Building: Upsells
Over 17% of the time a technician performs a job, they find a recommendation to increase efficiency or extend the useful life of the equipment they are servicing. A specific example of this in practice is XOi’s aggregation of essential end-of-life data on each piece of HVAC equipment in a company’s ecosystem.
Having tangible evidence of this data streamlines the technician tasking process and provides a clear, accessible scope of work for the customer. By easily extracting and understanding in-field datai, you’ll forecast additional work accurately with customer and equipment specificity to better sell, plan and execute contracts.
Tell us: Are there specific ways technology has helped you save and/or make money for your business? Reach out to us on LinkedIn to share your story, or shoot us a message via our contact form below.
Want to better understand how much value XOi can bring to your business? Use our value calculator to calculate your potential cost savings and increases in revenue you’ll gain with our technician-focused software.
