The Role of Dispatch in Operations Management
Whether it’s responding to an urgent maintenance request in a matter of hours instead of days, delivering home healthcare on a reliable schedule, or getting the best sales team in front of the highest value prospect, companies across a range of industries rely on skilled workers in the field. The better the dispatch management, the more effective field service operations can be.
High-performing field service companies use dispatch scheduling software that integrates with the existing tech stack to centralize key information and manage the full scope of customers’ needs, workforce availability and qualifications, and business goals.
How does dispatch management impact operations?
Through streamlined dispatch management workflows, office and field teams enjoy better collaboration, powered by timely, data-driven insights and clearer communication.
Specific outcomes for field service operations include:
- Improved productivity – Field worker productivity directly informs the volume of service a company can provide. Accurate, agile dispatching means field workers spend less time re-doing or re-visiting jobs, and wasting less time traveling to canceled or rescheduled jobs. A more productive field service operation means the rest of the company can get more done, too, ultimately reaching more customers and driving business growth.
- Improved workforce utilization – Nuanced scheduling algorithms make better use of skilled field service technicians’ time. They are matched to jobs that suit their qualifications and schedules, and they spend less time calling back and forth to share updates or request new jobs. This frees dispatchers and technicians to spend more time on customer-focused work and less time on rote administrative tasks, transit, delays, or costly downtime—driving up workforce utilization rates.
- Decreased costs – Smart scheduling and optimized route planning bring expenses down over time as field service workers travel more efficiently and deliver more first-time fixes. Improved job matching reduces fuel costs, lost time, and wasted materials. More efficient resource allocation across the board prevents unnecessary overtime and surcharges.
- Increased customer satisfaction – Qualified, punctual workers who make good use of customers’ time earn higher satisfaction scores (CSATs) and cultivate brand loyalty. Operations managers can study CSATs and other relevant customer satisfaction KPIs, like first-fix rate, wrench time, and responsiveness, to accurately gauge field service performance. By studying these data points and customer feedback, field service leaders can find new ways to improve customer satisfaction: for example, lower CSATs for urgent jobs compared to recurring jobs causes field service leaders to adjust the dispatch strategy to place higher priority on urgent jobs, while ensuring adequate coverage for routine jobs.
- Improved agility – Effective dispatchers are optimally responsive, and the real-time recommendations provided by AI-assisted software help them handle urgent jobs, unexpected absences, or other unanticipated hurdles with minimal disruption to overall operational efficiency and customer satisfaction. Mobile-first dispatching apps push updates promptly to field workers so they can pivot when conditions or job assignments change, and live monitoring keeps dispatchers and managers informed.
- Better forecasting – As dispatch management optimizes productivity, field service cadence and quality become predictable. Steadier performance generates more reliable data for capacity planning, training, inventory allocation, anticipating seasonal trends, and accommodating customer needs. Dispatch software that integrates with key operational platforms (like HR, ERP, and CRM) prevents information silos and enables comprehensive data analysis to drive accurate projections and stronger operational strategy.
Well-utilized employees tend to be satisfied employees, which means they’re more likely to satisfy customers, too. And that’s vital, because 86% of customers are willing to switch to a different company based on a bad experience. With the undeniable role that dispatch plays in operational efficiency, businesses cannot afford to risk steep and preventable costs by relying on a manual dispatch process.
Case study: how smart scheduling empowers field service workers
Tyrells’ Property Inspections was struggling with the workload of manual scheduling and dispatching processes, resulting in overworked employees and high overtime costs. Field workers relied on disparate tools for scheduling, dispatching, CRM, and comms, creating more inefficiencies.
Review the full case study to learn how deploying Skedulo within their existing Salesforce environment reduced manual processes by 90% and cut dispatch time in half. Skedulo’s mobile-first UI was easy for office workers to implement and field workers to adopt, improving overall field service operations.
