Scheduling and dispatch are critical for the success of operations at your company. Either you can retain customers for a very long time by providing an engaging customer experience or lose them just after the first booking by keeping them in the dark. The operations department can perform based on heuristic approaches such as first-in-first-out, shortest delivery time, etc. But lack of pre-planning and optimization may lead to inefficient route planning, scheduling, and dispatch processes resulting in low productivity of the field teams and eventually lower profits. So, if you want to grow your business, your scheduling and dispatch processes must be driven by data and strategies rather than hunches.
Let me share four easy steps to take control of your schedule and dispatch process so that you can expand your business operations and land in a high-profit margin region. Also read> reverse address lookup.
Get Right Dispatchers on Board
Dispatchers play a vital role in the scheduling and dispatch process. So, the dispatchers that you have onboard must possess the right attitude and necessary skill set in addition to having experience in crew and field team management, the dispatcher must have good communication skills, multi-task and work under pressure situations, be well-versed in navigating through local routes, and strategically plan the routes effectively to manage the scheduling and dispatching process.
Plan Your Day in Advance
Every business has its own business model for managing operations’ schedule and dispatch. Planning your day would give your dispatcher an upper hand to look at each of your crew and equipment’s schedules. Looking at the balcony view, the person responsible for the crew member and fleet management would better manage the workload and utilization of the fleet and crew.
During the planning process, keep in mind to load your first half of the day while keeping the second half-light. It will enhance your field teams’ efficiency and equip you to address urgent calls and requests in the second phase of the day.
Supercharge Your Communication
Communication, either interdepartmental or between your field teams and crew, is the key to the success of your business. Communication helps you understand different stakeholders’ needs, set expectations for your customers and different teams, and work effectively towards the common goal. So, you must set up an efficient and robust two-way communication channel so that the stakeholders’ concerns and feedback reach you quickly to take action before the damage has been done.
Adopt a Powerful Digital Platforms
To compete and grow your business in the modern era, you must modernize your company by letting paper-based planning go and adopt technological solutions for your scheduling and dispatching. Selecting the right product to address your business needs from a plethora of platforms available would indeed be a tedious and time-consuming process. Opting for the wrong software would be a waste of money and result in long-term customers and reduced crew productivity.
The right tool to meet your business needs must have the following characteristics.
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Easy-to-understand interface: The interface of the field crew management must be easily understood by any layman.
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Integrated Platform: The software must provide you with a platform integrated with multiple applications, CRMs, and add-ons to don’t need to do the manual labor to copy-paste data.
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Efficient Route Optimization Engine: The schedule and dispatch software must have the capacity to run thousands of simulations simultaneously without getting stuck and suggesting an efficient route in terms of cost and time.
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Can go paperless: The companies will now be paperless and adopt digital mechanisms for paper-based operations. So, the solution that you put your hands on must allow you to collect data digitally.
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Allow Data-driven Decision Making: The platform must have the capability to generate a report based on the data collected and help in future decision making.
Arrivy’s scheduling and dispatch platform provides the solution to solve your problems related to inefficiencies in your operations. I would highly recommend you to check out their website.
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