The work order process is central to the success of almost every service-based business. The speed and efficiency at which these businesses can collect, approve, and take action on work requests can directly impact long-term profitability and customer satisfaction.
An effective work order process doesn’t happen by accident, nor is it built overnight. Businesses must dedicate time and energy to building a process that works for them — and they need to use the right tools and software.
If you’re looking to improve the efficiency with which your business deals with requests, here’s how you can create the perfect work order process today.
What are work orders?
A work order is simply a task or job for an employee in the field services industry. It can either come from a customer request or originate within the company. The work order will include details of the specific job or set of tasks an employee or contractor must perform for the client.
Work orders are issued for all sorts of fieldwork. Common work orders include safety inspections, property inspections and resulting maintenance work, HVAC installation jobs, and equipment maintenance.
The work order process is the system by which a company receives work order requests, processes them, assigns them to employees, and completes them. There are many moving parts, which means even the most efficient companies can improve their processes.
Why optimize the work order process?
A streamlined and effective system can lead to a successful and profitable business, whereas a convoluted process can lead to delays, unhappy clients, late payments, and missed opportunities. Those are just a few good reasons to improve your work order process, and there are plenty more.
When you spend time analyzing your processes, you may see patterns and common requests that you can act on, according to work management software provider monday.com. “If you’re checking your work orders, you might notice some trends in the type of work requests that are coming in. As a result, you can identify any areas of improvement in the delivery of your work.”
Improving your work order process with the use of technology can lead to much greater information gathering, governance, and compliance. For example, a typical paper form often doesn’t contain the space needed for staff to record all relevant details, writes Kelechi Asagwara, a senior solutions specialist at Hippo CMMS.
“[Technicians] need to know which tools and spare parts to use, where they’re located and any related work orders,” he explains. “They may also need to refer to documents such as O&M manuals or spec sheets. Warranty info, serial numbers, and ID tags are also helpful to organize and manage each work order.” Getting this level of information is only possible when you improve your work order process with a software-based management system.
Ultimately, a better work order process also makes your business much more efficient. This, in turn, makes it easier to allocate resources and process more jobs, writes D.P. Taylor at The Blueprint. The more efficient you are with resources and the more jobs you process, the more profitable your company will be as a result.
How to create the perfect work order process
Work order management software is the most common way to improve your work order process, and it’s one of the most effective by all accounts. According to Salesforce, a study of more than 550 companies that use this kind of software saw significant benefits — equipment downtime and costs were 20 percent lower. They also gained a number of other advantages.
You don’t have to shell out a lot for an expensive solution, though. A tool like Jotform is ideal for automating many aspects of the work order process. Jotform comes with over 250 ready-to-use work request form templates businesses can use to automate the collection of requests. Each request will automatically populate a Jotform Tables template, from which you can track and manage all requests.
If you’re looking to automate even more of your work order process, you can use Jotform’s workflow templates to handle any type of flow, whether that’s customer invoicing or a maintenance request process. Customize any of the existing templates or build a new one from scratch to create the perfect work order process today.
This article is designed for business owners, operations managers, and service professionals in industries like facilities management, property maintenance, HVAC, and field services who want to streamline how they handle work orders.
Photo by Guilherme Cunha on Unsplash
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