Finding the Right Dispatch Scheduling Setting in FieldEdge

Did you know: There are three different ways to schedule a Work Order in FieldEdge?

Oftentimes, CSRs and Dispatchers can be overwhelmed with the amount of options there are to choose from to schedule a Work Order and settle for the first option. 

Although there isn’t a right or wrong way to schedule your Work Orders, there could be a better solution for your company! We’re going to discuss and review each option, so you can decide which option is right for you.

PS – don’t miss our blog on great tips for streamlining the dispatching process in FieldEdge! 

Schedule Now

Schedule Now is the most commonly used option to schedule a Work Order. This may be due to the fact that it is the first defaulted Immediate Action, or for its convenience while booking.  

Schedule Now is a wonderful option to get a Work Order on the Dispatch Board immediately. By selecting Schedule Now, after finishing creating your Work Order, FieldEdge will automatically redirect you to the Dispatch Board. This allows your CSR or Dispatcher to schedule the Work Order on the Dispatch Board right on the spot.

Schedule Now is fantastic for emergencies and companies that typically do not experience a high call volume. As convenient as this option is, it can also cause a bit of confusion for the office, and possible stress for the Technicians.

Let’s say your company has received a massive influx of calls all at once, and your CSRs and Dispatchers are struggling to keep up with their calls. Schedule Now may end up adding to the stress. Since Schedule Now automatically redirects the user to the Dispatch Board, CSRs and Dispatchers may feel pressured to dispatch the Work Order immediately. This can result in overloading your Technicians, as well as an inefficient Dispatch Board, especially if you like to book by zoning. 

We recommend using Schedule Now as your primary scheduling method only if your company typically receives a lower volume of calls.

 

Book for Later 

The second option is Book for Later. This option is one of the most underused features of FieldEdge. It is FieldEdge’s answer to a concept called capacity booking.

Capacity booking for FieldEdge (Book for Later) is a method of booking appointments with blocked appointment windows ahead of time. You are able to view blocks of time for all of your Technicians’ capacity in the future.

If you are in your busy season, sometimes your team may not be able to book appointments on the spot. Instead, you’ll want to give your Customers an approximate time window of when your technician will arrive. This would be what is called a “Promised Time” in FieldEdge. 

The Promised Time is a unique feature only for Book for Later Work Orders. Since you are promising your Customers a time slot, but may not be able to book the Work Order at the time of the call, FieldEdge will give the Work Order a Promised Time. The Promised Time is shown as a date with a hyperlink on the Work Order. This helps the office dispatch the Work Order to the customer at its promised time. Regular Promised Times will be in a traditional hyperlink blue, while a late Promised Time will be in red.

 

By clicking on the hyperlink, FieldEdge will automatically bring you to the date, and highlight the time slot for the appointment for you. This way, all you need to do is drag and drop the Work Order into the corresponding timeslot. 

We highly recommend utilizing the Book for Later method of booking, as it eliminates the guesswork of dispatching while helping your Technicians by not overloading or overbooking them.

Create Work Order

Lastly, we have the Create Work Order feature, which is typically the least used of the three options. When using the Create Work Order feature, instead of being brought to the Dispatch Board, or seeing a capacity booking chart, FieldEdge will redirect you to the Work Order’s Page. 

 

The best part of the Create Work Order feature? You can still use the Book for Later option, or schedule from the Work Order page!  

We recommend this option for companies that want to see an overview of the Work Order before scheduling the work. This is also a great option for companies with a traditional CSR to Dispatcher Model. 

 

If your CSRs are only taking calls and not booking the appointments, Create Work Order will allow the CSR to create the Work Order without booking the appointment. This can leave your Dispatchers to dispatch the Work Order either by using Book for Later, or using the Unassigned List to schedule out the appointment.

Default Immediate Action 

So you reviewed your three options, talked to your staff about which option is best for your company, and now want to go forward with one of the three bookings for the future. 

 

Great news- you are able to choose your default  Immediate Action!

 

All you have to do is navigate to your Global Settings. 

From there, scroll all the way down to the Work Orders section where you can find the “Default Immediate Action.” Click on the drop-down and select the option you want as your default when creating a Work Order. Remember to save!

From now on, your company will default to your selected option when scheduling Work Orders. 

Don’t worry: If you change your mind, or different circumstances arise, the other options are still available to schedule from. This setting only determines which of the three booking options will be your default selection when creating a Work Order. 

 

Want to Learn More about your Settings in FieldEdge?

Our team at Powerhouse Consulting Group is a certified partner with FieldEdge. We will work with you to understand your workflow, audit your FieldEdge settings, and can provide hands-on training for your team. Contact us today for help with FieldEdge Consulting.