What is a field technician?

Nearly every industry relies on its own types of field service technicians to ensure that on-site machinery is being kept in proper working order. And just as there are many kinds of field technicians, there are a variety of paths an individual may take to become a field technician:

The most obvious path to becoming a field technician is to attend a university and earn a degree. Many prospective field technicians pursue engineering, communication, or technology majors. At the same time, many vocational and technical schools offer field-technician courses and programs.

For those who are less interested in earning a full degree, many colleges offer specialized courses. These programs are designed to cultivate the skills and technical knowledge future field technicians will need to establish themselves in the field service industry. Often, college courses will offer some form of certification in lieu of a full degree.

It is not necessary for a prospective field service technician to become certified or earn a degree before securing employment. An apprenticeship with a company focused on construction or related can provide the hands-on work experience many employers look for when hiring in-house technicians.

The entry requirements to become a freelance field technician are generally less defined. In most cases, securing contracts with employers will mean first gaining certification and demonstrating sufficient experience.

For businesses that employ or contract field service technicians, there are many organizational and strategic challenges to consider. As new service tickets arise, field technicians working on independent projects may have a difficult time effectively prioritizing, scheduling, and fulfilling the various jobs required of them. Field service management allows organizations to coordinate their field service operations, handling scheduling, dispatching, labor tracking, and invoicing without distracting off-site specialists from their primary tasks.

Effectively employed, field service management helps eliminate redundancies and increase productivity and customer satisfaction. However, to do this, businesses need to consider the following best practices:

Field service technicians tend to interact directly with customers, which means that customers often have valuable insights into how that interaction should play out and whether it was a success. Organizations should follow up on service visits by soliciting customer feedback. This can be managed through customer portals in field service management solutions.

Feedback from field service personnel can be just as valuable as—or even more valuable than—customer feedback. Similar to the previous point, organizations may use online portals to help collect and organize technician feedback.

In the past, technicians operating out in the field have had to work isolated from valuable digital resources. This is no longer the case; field service management makes it possible for organizations to augment their field service specialists with mobile tools delivering real-time communication, collaboration, and support. This allows technicians to view updated schedules, review warranties and customer service histories, make accurate cost estimates and quotes, calculate billable work, and access other essential information.

Improving field service means first being able to evaluate field service, and that means identifying and tracking relevant field technician KPIs (Key Performance Indicators). Two of the most important KPIs to consider are FTFR (first time fix rate) and MTTR (mean time to repair). These metrics provide insight into how effective the technician is and whether there might be any issues in the chain of service. Field service management provides tools for tracking these and other KPIs in real time.

Field technicians are valuable resources. Unfortunately, many organizations find that too much of their field technicians’ time is spent manually entering data and completing paperwork. Automated solutions can minimize the need for manual input, freeing up field personnel to complete more jobs in less time, while also improving data accuracy.

Businesses aren’t the only ones that benefit from real-time information about service tickets. Portals in field service management systems may be configured to allow customers to access and manage appointments, check ETAs, and more. Offering self-service options improves the customer experience, while also helping reduce support-center call volume.