Time Tracking Tool for Service Techs

Service and support is one area you need time tracking. Probably because the margins are thin, and there's enough competition to steal your customers if they can find a more efficient means of servicing them. So tracking time for service techs and route drivers ensures that you know where your time is spent.

Service Techs Need to Track Time

After tracking those travel and support hours, you have to ask yourself a few questions:

1. Are those travel and support hours within our expectations?
2. Do they match priorities we have set for each client?
3. Are secondary clients consuming too much time?
4. Should we shift priorities to VIP clients?

"Our VIP customers are getting the shaft"
"Let's realign priorities"

Scroll down below the video for a deeper discussion of service and support time tracking.

What should you track for service and route drivers?

Consider focusing on these items. They should tell you everything you need to know about the time aspect of the business. Of course, there are so many other aspects to worry about, but these should cover time. Use categories to track these items independently.

1. Customer or project
2. Travel time
3. Meetings
4. Support time
5. Admin time
6. Setup and tear down
7. Prep time
8. Office hours
9. Mileage
10.Vehicles used

"Perfect for service techs!" 

Can this time tracking be done with barcodes?

Yes, you could print bar-code labels for each client or route. Scan those codes from a smartphone when the route begins, or when switching tasks. In other words, scan the "Travel" category when the route begins, then scan "Meeting" when you step out of the vehicle. The timer creates new time logs for each event. Those time logs contain the customer and project, a username, and a category describing the kind of work being performed.

"Scan to start the timer"
"Scan again to stop it"

Are barcodes required?

No, that's just a suggestion. The time tracking apps on smartphone are also just a suggestion. You can use them with or without bar-codes. Or, you could use laptops or notepads to collect time and mileage.

Smartphone syncs with the cloud

If you do use smartphones, they will likely be Android or iOS. Those time tracking apps sync with the cloud. That means the information lands in your corporate database a few minutes later. You'll start to see time logs show up every few minutes, which allows managers and executives to check up on route drivers. Where are they? Which customer? What job? How many miles? All that comes in from the smartphone data connection, and it's available as soon as it comes in.

Reporting time and expenses

Most of your reporting will be for time logs and expenses. (Mileage is considered an expense.) You can choose a single client or project. Or a date range to find all the records for a specified time period. Of course there are many other ways to filter and group reports. But you'll get the exact information you're looking for. Scroll up before the video for a reminder of the kinds of information you should consider tracking. All that will be included in the time and expense reports.

"We got everything we needed"

1   This article Time Tracking Tool for Service Techs was first seen on http://www.stdtime.com