5 Common Challenges for Field Engineers

In today’s world there are many challenges facing field engineers, especially delays caused by traffic jams or problems sourcing spare parts. Does your business rely on skilled technicians or engineers to repair customer goods? We’ve listed five common issues below.

1. Remote workforce management
   Managing any type of employee remotely has become normalised in recent years due to the pandemic, but this still comes with a range of challenges. Many companies are now using engineer tracking software in the form of geolocation apps to track their field engineers. Using field management software, you can now see exactly where your engineers are during the day so they can respond urgently to customer repairs within their area.
2. Managing work priorities
   With ever-changing schedules and urgent repairs, work order management is no easy task for field engineers. And as schedules are usually very tight, this means there’s not much room for manoeuvre when it comes to extra tasks on top of their expected workload. Making sure they have the right parts at the right time is a constant challenge for field engineers. So, ensuring you have an efficient delivery process and parts management system is key.
3. Customer relationship management
   Managing your customers effectively will ensure loyalty and long-term relationships. Nowadays thanks to Amazon and similar platforms, customers have high expectations, which means they are impatient for deliveries and repairs. Proactively utilising an intelligent Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system will enable your business to thrive. Give access to your field engineers, so they can see a customer’s account and repair history.
4. Controlling stock and parts
   Keeping track of essential parts is the key to timely repairs. But if your field engineers are wasting time travelling between depots to find parts, this can have a knock-on effect for work schedules. And if you only need specific parts for certain repairs, then you also run the risk of holding quantities of items in stock, using up costly storage space. For more efficient stock control, consider Just In Time distribution, where we deliver the parts required when needed.
5. Smart delivery services
   Shipping last-minute, time-critical parts to your field engineers requires a responsive and flexible delivery service. In Night distribution can get your parts to your people during the night at a pre-agreed safe location to avoid any delays. And In Boot deliveries take this a stage further by delivering parts directly to the vehicle boots of your field technicians and engineers. So, no more wasted time for engineers, needlessly searching for spare parts.

GenRev has a range of smart logistics services to help you improve efficiencies and keep your field engineers working to schedule. Not only can we help you increase the productivity of each field engineer by 30% but punctual engineers lead to happy customers. And satisfied customers make your engineers feel more valued, leading to better staff retention rates.

Manage common challenges for your field technicians with smarter delivery solutions for time-critical parts. Contact us to find out more about our services.