How frequently has a field technician been sent to a project only to discover that the equipment was out of warranty or that it wasn’t plugged in? For service firms, these technician deployments, commonly referred to as truck rolls, are a major and expensive sore point. 25% of truck rolls are viewed as non-value-added tasks or completely unnecessary by businesses that significantly rely on a technician personnel, and as such, as a huge waste of resources. Businesses must act quickly to comprehend truck roll cost and its effects, look at cutting-edge solutions to ease the pain, and explore fresh markets given the rising cost of truck rolls.
Any circumstance in which a technician is sent to address a problem, whether in a truck or another vehicle, is referred to as a “truck roll.” The field service sector requires truck rolls since technicians must travel to the job site. However, truck rolls are also among the most expensive components of the business and are likely spending more money than you think.
A truck roll’s actual cost entails the following:
The true cost is obtained by adding up all of these expenses and multiplying them by the quantity of truck rolls. The real cost is significant because it shows how much resources you stand to save by using the appropriate tools.
You’re probably underestimating the price of a truck roll when you think about it. The price of tools, insurance, and technician salary are a few examples of direct labor expenditures. Fuel, upkeep, insurance, and depreciation are all direct car costs. But in addition to direct prices, indirect costs also add up. Here are a few examples:
Companies must take into account the Opportunity cost, or the loss of opportunity, while assigning specialists for revenue-generating tasks. A true loss leader is to divert your workers from jobs that generate income so they can fix an item under warranty.
Any downtime is seen as a financial loss in the fast-paced business environment of today, where continuous availability is the norm. Given the rigorous SLA timelines required to fulfil customer expectations and the close to 40% of reported downtime that is attributed to equipment breakdowns and other hardware issues, it should not be surprising that businesses frequently dispatch first and inquire later.
Sometimes a customer’s problem can be quickly fixed in less than five minutes or be of a temporary nature. It is a waste of time and money for the business to send out a service expert to handle these “no fault discovered” problems. Eliminating these pointless dispatches can significantly improve their financial situation.
Each tech dispatch carries some risk. An unskilled or unfriendly technician, a tardy arrival, a lost tool, or a part can all harm the company’s reputation and harm its relationship with a client. 25% of all service calls, according to a survey by Aberdeen Group, need at least one follow-up visit to address the client’s problem. Customer satisfaction is not greatly aided by this data. Customers churn when they are not satisfied.
The expert can typically remedy the issue in under five minutes, negating the need for the truck roll. Instead, the issue could have been resolved remotely.
In other instances, the technician lacks the necessary knowledge or supplies to fix the issue. 25% of truck rolls, according to a report by Aberdeen Group, necessitate at least one additional trip.
According to Aberdeen, it takes an average of 1.6 more trips to resolve a matter that is not resolved on the initial intervention.
Customers have higher expectations and anticipate that a machine or piece of equipment will fail to function as soon as feasible. This promptness frequently makes the difference between a dissatisfied and satisfied consumer.
An expensive truck roll is always necessary, but it becomes considerably more so when more than one roll is required to remedy the issue, when the distance to be travelled is significant, or when it needs to be completed after regular business hours.
Due to the proliferation of the Internet of Things, the truck roll dilemma has become more pressing (IoT). The sophistication of smart homes is constantly increasing, and service providers are offering users a larger selection of services. Organizations are putting more effort into minimizing truck rolls as more clients request assistance with the installation and configuration of the new technology. The prices per gadget also decline as production costs reduce and competition increases. Lower profit margins per device result from this, and the expense of sending a technician on a repair call rises to the level of a major expense for the business.
Service businesses need to develop better methods for managing service truck rolls more effectively and for handling more problems remotely if they want to lower truck roll expenses and inefficiencies.
Any business’ operations inevitably result in costs. The important thing is to make sure that your operating costs produce a profitable return on investment. The price of a truck roll is frequently an unavoidable expense in industrial and field services. However, as we’ve seen above, these journeys are frequently incredibly pricey. When a truck roll is necessary, take into account the following solutions to cut expenses or shorten the time it takes to fix.
You may optimize and dramatically minimize truck roll by implementing a visual assistance system like Plutomen Connect, which offers interactive and visual remote diagnostics. Your personnel can remotely assess the issue and walk the customer through a straightforward troubleshooting process with the use of visual aids. For both your team and your clients, you will save time and money.
When field service is required, it’s crucial to make sure that every expert is adhering to the correct protocols and checkpoints to guarantee that every client receives top-notch service. To fulfil the various checkpoints, you can add digital inspection checklists using Plutomen Workflow. By taking photos and logging the media related to each checkpoint, the technician can also provide evidence of compliance at each checkpoint. The technician can also consult a remote specialist if they are unsure.
Even highly skilled technicians occasionally run into problems on the job. Technicians in the field can work with remote specialists to expedite troubleshooting by using Plutomen Assist tool that is supplemented with collaboration capabilities and Augmented Reality (annotations, document sharing, remote snapshots). By doing so, you decrease additional truck roll and raise client pleasure.
Reduced technician truck roll can be fully addressed by Plutomen’s remote assistance solutions, which are now in use by numerous businesses across numerous industries. The members of our team are prepared to help you deploy visual aid for field service. To learn more or to request a demo, please get in touch with us.
Chirag brings with him 15+ Years of experience in Digital Transformation, and IT Leadership. At Plutomen, he holds deep experience in business with a track record of customer-centric approaches helping them build business transformation.
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