SERVICE SCHEDULING SOFTWARE

What Is Service Scheduling Software?

Service Scheduling Software empowers service businesses with the tools they need to schedule appointments with customers, manage technician schedules, assign jobs to field technicians, and more. Some service scheduling apps are standalone solutions that just do scheduling, while others are a part of cloud-based field service management software that offer scheduling alongside dispatching, call booking, job management, and more.

What Are the Common Features of Field Service Scheduling Software?

Service call booking: Service scheduling software typically offers some type of job booking system to record customer information and job details while on the phone with customers or prospects. With ServiceTitan call booking, CSRs and back-office staff benefit from: 

• Greeting callers by name and offering personalized customer support with the ability to see who’s calling before picking up the line.

• Having customer information automatically populate into the appropriate fields as calls come in.

• Guided workflows that ensure they ask all of the necessary questions.

• The ability to view property data that can help spot sales opportunities.

Service scheduling: Scheduling software provides systems to schedule jobs with customers and assign technicians to jobs based on their availability. With ServiceTitan, CSRs and office staff benefit from:

• Being able to access scheduling directly from the call booking page.

• Easily viewing technician availability that automatically filters for technicians with the correct skill sets for the job. 

• Adjustable capacity planning that allows you to automate the implementation of a capacity planning strategy, such as creating more or less calendar space for certain types of jobs.

Service dispatching: Scheduling solutions generally offer dispatching functionality to help get the right technicians to the right jobs. With ServiceTitan, dispatchers benefit from:

• Intelligent scheduling optimization that assigns technicians to jobs based on geographical proximity and route efficiency.

• The ability to easily navigate last-minute scheduling curveballs such as car trouble, traffic delays, etc.

• Being able to send and receive SMS messages with technicians right from their dispatch board.

• Automated job confirmations that save CSRs from the need to make confirmation calls, and help you stop wasting time on no-shows.

What Additional Features Are Included In Field Service Management Software (FSM)?

Technician mobile app: FSMs typically provide a technician mobile app that empowers technicians with the tools they need to succeed in the field. With ServiceTitan, field techs benefit from:

• Access to detailed customer histories, including previous estimates, recurring services, existing equipment, previous invoices, photos, and videos from previous jobs, and more.

• Job forms that require customer signatures such as warranty agreements, as well as forms that foster accountability and better customer service (such as service and installation checklists, or pre-appointment customer experience checklists).

• Seamless pricebook integration that allows techs to build attractive estimates and multi-option proposals on the fly, right from their mobile device.

• The ability to easily generate invoices and send them to customers in a variety of ways.

• The ability to accept payments from customers on-site via check or credit card. 

• An intuitive and user-friendly interface for field service teams.

• Offline functionality that gives techs access to all key features even when they’re out of cell service zones.

Quoting and estimates: FSMs offer features for building quotes and estimates from the office or field. With ServiceTitan, service businesses benefit from:

• Access to pre-built estimate templates for common jobs to reduce the time it takes to deliver quotes to customers.

• The ability to create Good-Better-Best proposals with a series of options to help increase average ticket prices.

• Seamless pricebook integration that ensures accurate pricing.

• The ability to include images, videos, and other compelling details such as energy savings that aid in the sales process.

Work order management: FSMs generally offer features to create, track, and manage work orders throughout the job lifecycle. With ServiceTitan, service businesses benefit from:

• Automated work order creation based on customer and job details collected during the call booking and estimating processes. 

• The ability to create or access work orders from the office via our desktop application, or the field via our mobile app.

• Work order updates rolling out in real-time.

• Direct connection between work orders, purchase orders, and inventory management. 

Invoicing and payments: FSMs usually offer capabilities for creating and managing invoicing and billing, along with accepting payments. With ServiceTitan, businesses benefit from:

• Invoices that are automatically populated based on sold estimates and work that’s been performed throughout a job. 

• The ability to easily send invoices to customers from the field or office.

• Links within invoices that allow customers to pay their bills online.

• Seamless integration into ServiceTitan’s accounting features.

Accounting software and integrations: FSMs tend to offer accounting features or integrations that help to streamline field service accounting processes. With ServiceTitan, businesses benefit from:

• Real-time financials that are updated automatically as jobs are completed in the field. 

• The ability to click and view job costs from any invoice in real-time (which isn’t possible in traditional accounting software such as QuickBooks).

• Efficiency gains that provide a greater ability to scale your business without adding to your accounting team. 

• Integrations with top accounting platforms such as QuickBooks, Sage Intacct, and Viewpoint Vista.

Field service CRM: FSMs often provide customer relationship management features or integrations with popular CRM software. With ServiceTitan, service businesses benefit from:

• Call booking workflows that allow CSRs to make better first impressions and provide top-notch customer satisfaction over the phone. 

• Automated job confirmations and notifications that keep customers up to date on their appointments.

• Convenient online payment options via our technician mobile app and customer portal.

• Follow-up functionality that helps ensure follow-up happens, helping you to close more unsold estimates.

• Optional add-on features to drive more revenue with done-for-you email marketing campaigns.

Inventory management: FSMs generally provide some type of inventory management system, or integration to connect your field service operations to your inventory management system. With ServiceTitan, service providers benefit from:

• The ability to view and filter through all of their inventory to get the information they need, from item names and codes to quantities on hand or on order.

• Automated tracking of equipment and materials by location ( truck, warehouse, etc.), and real-time updates to reflect the number of items needed in a given location.

• Purchase-order management to requisition equipment and materials for jobs, create and send purchase orders to the appropriate vendors, and track those orders through fulfillment.

• Workflows for managing adjustments, returns, warranty parts tracking, and more. 

GPS tracking: FSMs often provide some form of GPS tracking that allows dispatchers to know where their techs are throughout the day, anticipate delays or potential issues, and optimize technician routes. With ServiceTitan, field service companies benefit from:

• Optimized technician routing that helps businesses get the right techs to the right jobs at the right times.

• Seamless integration with timesheets to accurately reflect working time, which helps you audit time spent on visits for billing and payroll.

Field service reporting: FSMs generally provide reporting and/or dashboard features to track key performance indicators (KPIs) from revenue and profitability to employee performance. With ServiceTitan, field service business owners and managers benefit from:

• Customizable dashboards that can be tailored to display the metrics and KPIs that mean the most to your business. 

• Real-time reporting data that’s automatically updated as jobs are completed in the field.

• The ability to view high-level metrics such as revenue and trends by day, week, or month — or just as easily drill down into fine details such as job costing data for a specific job.

• Access to real-time data about field technician and CSR performance to hold teams accountable, spot coaching opportunities, and maintain visibility throughout the business.

Time tracking: FSMs often include timesheets and/or time tracking functionality to help streamline payroll. With ServiceTitan, service businesses benefit from:

• Having technicians’ drive time, vendor runs, and wrench time automatically documented on their timesheets.

• Clock in and clock out from the same digital workspace.

• Integration with ServiceTitan dispatching so your team always knows who’s available for the next job.

• Each employee is able to digitally sign off on their timesheet at the end of a pay period to ensure its accuracy.

Field service project management: Some FSM platforms offer features that help to facilitate project management for complex jobs. With ServiceTitan, service providers benefit from:

• Project tracking tools that help you accurately track progress and profits, in real-time, from one place. 

• Real-time visibility for every line item, so every project stays on budget.

• Automated generation of applications for payment to efficiently manage progress billing.

• Project job costing to know sooner if a project is off track,  allowing time to fix the problem to protect profit.

Service job costing: Some FSMs provide job costing features to track costs and monitor profitability for projects. With ServiceTitan, service businesses and project managers benefit from:

• Job costing flyouts that give you a quick breakdown of job costs based on materials, equipment, PO, commissions and labor burden so you can see your profit on every type of job. 

• Real-time updates from your whole team—from inventory and payroll managers to the foreman and technicians on the job site.

• Project Summaries that help you stay on top of your accounts receivable and improve cash flow.

What Are the Advantages of Using Service Scheduling Software?

Prepare for complex, unique jobs: With ServiceTitan, you see your schedule weeks—even months–in advance to ensure the right techs are available at the right times to get the job done.

Categorize jobs for better organization: With custom tags, ServiceTitan users can flag specific jobs for special tools needed, languages spoken, prior rescheduling, and more to make sure your techs arrive ready to work.

Anticipate technician availability: With ServiceTitan, dispatchers can actually see where each tech is in the job cycle — in real time. That way, they can easily queue up new jobs for techs finishing up their current call.

Seamless connection between CSRs and Dispatchers: Most service scheduling software, including ServiceTitan, offer workflows for call booking, scheduling, and dispatching that all work together within one system, ensuring seamless coordination between CSRs and dispatchers.

What Separates ServiceTitan From Other Scheduling Software?

ServiceTitan offers some unique features that set our scheduling software apart from most FSMs, including: 

• Schedule Assistant: ServiceTitan Schedule Assistant helps to streamline scheduling and improve margins by suggesting a date, time, and service technician for a given job that minimizes drive time. It can be used directly from the call booking screen, displaying the optimal day and time to schedule jobs based on drive-time efficiency, and reducing the amount of time it takes to find the optimal field technician for the job.

• Adjustable Capacity Planning: Adjustable Capacity Planning allows service providers to define, automate, and implement a capacity planning strategy, which optimizes their schedules for profitability by increasing or decreasing technician capacity for certain types of jobs based on seasonal demand.

What Types of Businesses Use Service Scheduling Software?

Scheduling software solutions are beneficial for small businesses up to enterprise operations in a wide variety of service industries, including trades such as HVAC, plumbing, and electrical, as well as businesses in healthcare, fire safety, pest control, industrial engineering, facilities management, property management, and more.

ServiceTitan’s field service scheduling solution is tailored for the following industries:

• HVAC

• Plumbing

• Electrical

• Garage door

• Chimney sweep

• Septic 

• Roofing

• Irrigation 

• Water treatment

• Appliance repair

• Alarm

• Pool service

• Landscaping

• Lawn care

• Pest control

• Air duct cleaning

• Commercial food equipment

• Audio visual

• Locksmith

• Painting

• Residential construction and remodeling

What Is the Best Platform for Scheduling?

Of the two types of scheduling platforms — standalone scheduling solutions and field service management software with scheduling features — many businesses can benefit more from field service software because it seamlessly integrates scheduling with the other workflows involved in service operations.

To better understand the options available on the market, and to see how we compare, visit ServiceTitan’s comparison hub for head-to-head comparisons between our product, and popular platforms such as Housecall Pro, Jobber, Service Fusion, and more.