Unplanned Software Outages: Impact on Service Business

With today’s reliance on modern technology, if you and your business are going to put your trust in a field service management platform, you had better make sure it works—and more importantly, you’d better make sure it keeps working. Unplanned downtime can lead to tons of problems and can cause irreparable damage to your reputation and your relationship with your clients. So let’s take a look at some of the ways software downtime can affect your service business. 

Revenue loss

The number one factor? Revenue loss. Your field service management software is tied directly to your company workflow. Without it, you lose access to countless functions that are essential to keeping your business running as it should. 

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  Losing access to your system can jeopardize existing SLAs with your customers. An unexpected outage with your software could lead to a violation of these contracts—leaving you in hot water with your client when you fail to live up to your agreement. 
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  Loss of access to basic functions like dispatch, scheduling, quoting, and invoicing will leave you in a situation where technicians don’t know which jobs they’re scheduled to work and without the ability to track project progress for the ones they’re already on. Not to mention that you’ll be forced to backtrack to paper invoicing—which will tie up back-office resources and lead to an overall slowdown in your ability to complete your ongoing jobs.
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  Trying to establish new contracts during a service outage can be a nightmare. Your new jobs could be deferred due to your inability to add new accounts to your service software, which means decreased revenue for your business. 

It Hurts Team Morale

Think about it; your team is used to the sleek and streamlined workflow provided by your service software. Technicians in the field have access to all the information they need to make their lives easier on the job site, while your back-office employees have access to digital processes, eliminating the need for tedious manual tasks of the past. Then, suddenly, during an unforeseen outage, these quality-of-life changes disappear. Your administrative staff will be back to tracking invoices with pen and paper, and your technicians will be left asking questions and running after information they used to have right at the tips of their fingers. It leads to more work and decreased productivity across the board—neither of which is good for your service organization.

It Affects Customer Service

Not only does a service outage affect your ability to serve potential customers, but it also hurts clients who already do business with your organization. Losing access to your field service management platform means you and your team won’t have access to the tools you need to create a seamless and positive customer experience. Customers might become frustrated when your technician fails to turn up at the job site. A breakdown in day-to-day operations always trickles down and impacts your client relationships. 

It Impacts Your Reputation

You’re a trusted name in your industry. Clients rely on you to provide best-in-class service that keeps them coming back when they need a job done right. That means they trust you to use reliable platforms to keep things running smoothly and according to schedule—unfortunately, all it takes is one negative review to tarnish a perfect reputation. The service industry relies on people and relationships, and you want to ensure that the perception of your business remains positive. 

BuildOps prides itself on the reliability of our platform. Have you ever experienced an outage with your service software? Check out our product demo and see if switching to BuildOps is right for you and your business.