How to run a field service team: a guide for plumbers, electricians and repair services

Typical problems in field work

In a business with a field team the day usually goes like this: the customer calls, the office writes it on paper, the technician gets the address from a WhatsApp group, does the job, posts a photo to the group, takes cash and tells the office "done" in the evening. Along the way, these get lost:

• Which job is with which technician,
• When the technician will arrive,
• Whether the job really finished, and how,
• The materials used,
• The payment taken.

The result: the same customer calls twice asking "is someone coming?", the photo from the previous visit can't be found for a warranty job, and at month end the till doesn't match the jobs done.

Reduce the flow to five steps

1. Request and job order

Every request becomes a job order with:

• Customer name, phone and address (floor, flat, door code included),
• A description of the problem and any photo the customer sent,
• Priority (urgent fault or planned maintenance),
• Estimated duration and required skill (electrical, gas, air conditioning).

If it's a returning customer, past visits should appear beside the job order; "we replaced the boiler last month" speeds up diagnosis.

2. Planning and assignment

Give the job to the right person at the right time. When assigning, consider:

• The technician's skills (not everyone does every job),
• Their other jobs and areas that day,
• Materials and tools needed.

Giving one technician consecutive jobs in the same area cuts travel time significantly. Giving customers a time window (10:00–12:00) rather than an exact time is both realistic and safe.

3. Setting off and arriving

What bothers customers most is uncertainty. When the technician sets off, send a short notice: "Our technician Murat is on his way and should be with you in about 30 minutes." On arrival the technician marks the job "started"; the office sees who is where.

4. Closing the job: photo, note, signature

When the job is done, the technician records:

1. 01
   Work done: a short, clear note.
2. 02
   Materials used: which part, how many.
3. 03
   Before and after photos: for warranty, disputes and the next visit.
4. 04
   Customer signature: proof the work was handed over.

Photos and signatures are the strongest evidence when "that job wasn't done properly" arrives months later.

5. Payment and invoice

Payment taken in the field should be recorded at once: amount, method (cash, card, transfer), who took it. Jobs left without payment should be flagged "to collect". The invoice should be raised from the job order without retyping the lines.

Large jobs (replumbing, air-conditioning installation) start with a quote; see our price quote guide.

Team rules

• Every technician has their own account. A shared phone or password blurs who did what.
• Technicians see only their own jobs. They don't need the whole customer list, and data protection law agrees.
• Job changes are recorded. "Murat couldn't make it, we gave it to Ali" should be visible on the job order.
• End-of-day check: open job orders, unpaid jobs, missing photos.

Maintenance contracts and recurring jobs

Air-conditioning service, lift maintenance, pest control, periodic cleaning: recurring jobs are a field business's steadiest income. Instead of planning them by hand each period, define them as contracts: which customer, how often, which job. When a period comes due, a job order should be created from it.

What to measure

1. 01
   First-time fix rate: what share of jobs finished in one visit? If low, look at materials and diagnosis.
2. 02
   Time to arrive: from request to arrival on urgent jobs.
3. 03
   Jobs per technician per day.
4. 04
   Uncollected amounts.
5. 05
   Reasons for repeat visits: returning to the same address for the same problem soon after means something is missing.

Example: a summer day at an air-conditioning service

Picture an air-conditioning service with four technicians. On the busiest summer days nearly 30 requests come in: faults, installations, maintenance.

08:30: the office turns overnight requests into job orders. Faults are marked urgent, maintenance planned. Installations are linked to the quotes already given.

Planning: technicians are split by area; Ali covers the north of the city, Burak the south. Installations go to two-person teams. Each technician has an afternoon gap for an urgent job.

During the day: when a technician sets off, the customer gets a "technician on the way" message. On starting, the technician marks the job order "started". When finished, before and after photos, refrigerant and parts used, the customer's signature and the payment are recorded.

A change: in the afternoon one of Burak's installations runs long. The office moves his next fault to Ali and tells the customer the new time window.

18:30: the end-of-day check shows two open job orders: one waiting for a part, one where the customer wasn't home. Both are planned for tomorrow. One job is unpaid; the customer will transfer tomorrow, and a reminder date is set.

In this setup, nobody needs to make calls in the evening to find out who went where, did what and collected what.

Common mistakes

1. 01
   Incomplete addresses. Missing floor, flat, door code or parking details cost time at the door.
2. 02
   No room for emergencies.
3. 03
   Photos left on the technician's phone.
4. 04
   Leaving field cash until the end of the day.

Field service in Era

Era's Home service module holds work done at the customer's address: who goes, when they arrive, signature and photos. A visit is created and dispatched to a team member; if needed it's handed to someone else, updated, finished with signature and photos, or called off.

Visit times are planned with Appointments and team availability; the customer is linked to one Customers record where past visits and invoices appear. Quotes for large jobs and Invoices and Finance for after the job use the same record.

Era works with each member's permissions: a team member sees and closes the jobs given to them; records they have no right to stay hidden. You can ask in chat: "Which visits are still open today?" or "How many times have we been to this address in six months?" The home and field services page shows ready-made setups for plumbers, electricians and cleaning companies.

Starter plan

1. 01
   Decide the job order fields.
2. 02
   Enter technicians' skills and working hours.
3. 03
   Set up setting-off and arrival notices.
4. 04
   Make photos and signatures mandatory when closing a job.
5. 05
   Make recording field payments on the spot a habit.
6. 06
   Define recurring maintenance as contracts.
7. 07
   Check the first-time fix rate at month end.