So, you’re finally getting off pen and paper and looking to bolster operations for your commercial contracting business. Congratulations! Welcome to the future of running your business. But, now it’s time to start thinking about all the manual processes in the back office—and blockers on the jobsite—that have been limiting your commercial service business. One of the most important additions you can make to your professional toolkit is proper service scheduling software for commercial contractors.
One of the things you need to understand before diving head first into making a decision on which software to choose is that, chances are, this isn’t the only consideration you’ll have to make. While stand-alone platforms do exist to handle scheduling exclusively, you’ll probably want to go with a fully integrated platform that helps streamline and optimize multiple aspects of your commercial workflow—but we’ll get to that.
Service Scheduling Software—Why Does it Matter?
If you haven’t noticed by now, each leap forward in technology comes with a sizeable increase in efficiency across your entire commercial workflow—and scheduling is no different. In a world where each job was planned and dispatched based on analog calendars and hand-written work orders, the integration of an automated scheduling system will help maximize your resources and increase your bottom line.
Key Features to Look Out For
Here are some of the key features you’ll want to look out for when deciding on a service scheduling software for commercial contractors:
- The ability to track and manage job progress is critical if you want to make sure projects stay on time, and on budget.
- Generating reports is a feature that will help streamline communication and keep all stakeholders informed as to the status of a given job.
- The ability to manage project timelines will allow you to effectively plan multiple stages of your ongoing projects.
- Task assignment—so that everyone involved knows exactly which responsibilities belong to them.
A Few Tips to Get You Started
- The biggest oversight when implementing new software is not taking the time to make sure everyone that needs access, has access. You can’t stay organized or communicate effectively if you don’t keep everybody in the loop.
- Configure your chosen software to suit the needs of your specific industry. It might seem like a no-brainer, but it’s important to identify which data to track and manage—increasing the overall efficiency of your workflow.
- Finally, it’s important to regularly review and update your software as needed. Doing so will allow you to take advantage of all the latest features and provide you with the best customer experience possible.
How to Choose Scheduling Software for Commercial Contractors
Now it’s time for the fun part, figuring out which type of software is right for you. There are countless different platforms to go with, so how do you decide which one will best suit the needs of your business? Most service scheduling software is simply a single feature in a much broader, detailed platform designed to simplify your day-to-day workflow. The best way to determine which software is right for your business is by identifying other features that will help contribute to your overall growth and success. A few other things to look out for:
Simplicity—your chosen software should be both easy to use, and, more importantly, easy to implement. You and your entire team should be able to understand how and when to use it best.
Cost—this is an investment, so while looking for your next great technological upgrade, it’s important to consider what kind of long-term return you’ll be seeing for your business. You can calculate your ROI from switching to BuildOps here.
Customer experiences—one of the best ways to evaluate the quality you’ll receive when implementing new software is the experience similar companies have had with it.
Ready to take the next step in discovery service scheduling software for your business? Check out the BuildOps product demo here and see how our fully integrated platform can streamline scheduling—and a whole lot of other workflows—for your commercial contracting business.