How Hydrojetman Uses FieldSurf Field Service Management Software
Hydrojetman is a high-tech drain cleaning service which uses the latest hydrojet machines to clear even the most stubborn stoppages from main line plumbing pipes and sewer lines. Hydrojetman owns several sophisticated hydrojet machines from US Jetter, and provides drain cleaning services throughout metro Los Angeles. At any one time, Hydrojet has several technicians working in different locations in the field. As Hydrojetman grew, it became necessary to automate and make things easier for everyone – the office staff and the field techs. There was too much paperwork, too many scheduling and dispatching errors, too much miscommunication between office staff, management and field techs, and other problems faced by any home service business. So they looked into field service management software and decided that FieldSurf best served their interests. Hydrojetman has been using FieldSurf for over a year, and it has changed the way the company does business. And they made more money last year than ever before. Everyone at Hydrojetman is thrilled with FieldSurf. And they recently sat down with us to answer our questions about how they use FieldSurf and how it might be improved in the future.
This is how Hydrojetman uses FieldSurf on a daily basis:
Scheduling
Hydrojetman’s schedulers love FieldSurf’s dual calendar system — one for regularly scheduled calls and one for emergency calls. When a call comes in, the scheduler can instantly see on the Calendar which times slots are open. If a job needs to be rescheduled for any reason, a simple click-and-drag does the job. A job changes color when it has been completed by the technician, so everyone knows when a ticket is open and when it has been closed.
Dispatch
Dispatching is a dream with FieldSurf. Hydrojetman’s dispatcher looks at FieldSurf’s GPS map and locates the nearest technician available for that time slot. When he assigns that technician to a new job, FieldSurf informs the tech by SMS texting. Once a technician has been scheduled, FieldSurf will prevent a dispatcher accidentally assigning that technician to another job at the same time. Hydrojetman’s dispatchers love FieldSurf because it eliminates errors, no more double-booking, and there’s a huge reduction in paperwork. No more Post-It Notes all over the place, no more scrambling to see which jobs have been done and which are still being worked on. And Hydrojetman’s field techs use FieldSurf to clock in and out of each of each job, so dispatchers (and supervisors) can know at any time which techs are on a job and which techs are not. FieldSurf makes Hydrojetman’s dispatchers’ life a whole lot easier.
GPS Tracking
Hydrojetman’s people use FieldSurf’s incredible GPS tracking feature to locate the techs in the field. The position of each field tech is pinpointed on a GPS map. So when a new call comes in, the dispatcher simply has to glance at the GPS map and schedule a tech who is close by. With FieldSurf’s GPS tracking, Hydrojetman’s schedulers and dispatchers can instantly see where everyone else is.
And FieldSurf has another unique GPS feature called “geofencing”. This allows Hydrojetman to draw virtual borders around real physical borders. Hydrojetman has set up FieldSurf so that if a technician arrives in a certain geographic area – say, Beverly Hills – an SMS text alert is sent to those in the company who need to know this information in real time. Likewise, when Hydrojetman’s technician leaves Beverly Hills and enters West Hollywood, SMS embedded texting instantly informs all who need to know.
Work Order
When a Hydrojetman scheduler creates a new Work Order, if the customer is a repeat customer, all fields will be automatically populated. If not, they will have to be filled in by the scheduler. All details of the job are documented in the Work Order, which can later be easily referre3d to by anyone authorized in the company. And the best part? AN Invoice is automatically created when you create a new Work Order. Hydrojetman’s management loves this feature, because technicians often go out to an emergency job site without the right invoices, or have to write up the invoice at the end of the job or the end of the day. With FieldSurf, Hydrojetman gets the Invoice to the customer on the technician’s smartphone.
Credit Card Swiping
Hydrojetman’s field technicians use FieldSurf to accept credit card payments at the customer’s location. By adding a simple card-swiping device to the technicians’ smartphones, their techs simply swipe the customer’s credit 
card at the end of a job. If for any reason the physical credit card isn’t available, the credit card details can be added onsite and a confirmation number received. A beautiful feature that Hydrojetman really likes is FieldSurf’s ability to accept credit card payments onsite even if there is no Internet/WiFi connection available at the time. This happens often as many of Hydrojetman’s customers are homeowners in the Hollywood hills, where Internet service can be tricky. In such cases, Hydrojetman’s technician enters all the customer’s credit card details into FieldSurf, and as soon as the tech is back again in WiFi reach, FieldSurf automatically enters the information online and generates a confirmation number for the transaction. FieldSurf solved a huge problem for Hydrojetman with its remote credit-card swiping features.
Electronic Invoicing
FieldSurf’s electronic invoicing feature helps Hydrojetman’s techs get their invoices to their customers much more quickly and efficiently. When a hydrojetting job is completed, Hydrojetman’s technician doesn’t have to write up a paper invoice: the customer simply signs off for a completed job on the technician’s smartphone, and the invoice is emailed instantly to the customer’s Inbox. No more invoices in triplicate, no more coming back to the office to create and send out invoices.F
SMS Communication
One of FieldSurf’s most unique features is built-in SMS texting. Hydrojetman uses FieldSurf’s SMS feature hundreds of times every day. The integrated texting system is used to dispatch technicians, inform customers of technician’s arrival time – or any delay in arrival. Hydrojetman’s customers use FieldSurf’s SMS texting to communicate with the Hydrojetman office and their field technician. Hydrojetman’s management can send and receive a huge variety of text messages to anyone in the company. All this text messaging is embedded into FieldSurf, and Hydrojetman chooses to authorize certain company employees to see any or all of these messages, so everyone who needs to know what’s going on is on the same page.
Payroll & Accounting
Hydrojetman takes full advantage of FieldSurf‘ ability to calculate payroll and perform all their accounting functions. Hydrojetman’s field techs use FieldSurf to clock in and out of each job and each day. It can then automatically calculate Hydrojetman’s payroll for the current pay period.
Hydrojetman’s accounting department loves FieldSurf for the ease with which it performs all their accounting functions. Hydrojetman was using Quickbooks before they started using FieldSurf, but FieldSurf integrates seamlessly with Quickbooks, so they simply imported all their Quickbooks data into FieldSurf.
Reporting
Hydrojetman’s management uses FieldSurf as a management tool to stay on top of every aspect of their business. At any time, management can see where all their field techs are at any time; management can look at the Calendar and know which jobs are still being worked on and which jobs have been completed; management can communicate with everyone in the company with FieldSurf’s integrated SMS texting feature.
As a reporting tool, Hydrojetman’s management uses FieldSurf to generate reports on just about everything to do with their business. Management can analyze sales for any period, and can compare them with any other period. Hydrojetman’s management uses FieldSurf to see which techs are doing well and which techs might need some encouragement. And Hydrojetman’s management loves that FieldSurf generates all these reports in real time. Anyone with authorized access at Hydrojetman can stay on top of everything and supervise anything from anywhere.
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