Mobile Workforce Management Software: Best Solutions For Your Deskless Workers

Easily shortlist the UK’s best Mobile Workforce Management Software to increase visibility, safety, and communication of your deskless workers.

What Is Mobile Workforce Management Software?

Mobile Workforce Management Software (MWM) provides deskless workers with the tools to complete jobs as safely and efficiently as possible in the field.

These tools include easy-to-use mobile apps, digital forms to route planning and real-time engineer tracking.

Deskless workers use these tools to complete jobs as safely and efficiently as possible. This increases the chance of a first-time fix and reduces job revisits.

For supervisors and managers, MWM Software drives real-time visibility and communication of mobile and lone workers. It improves job scheduling and planning tasks, which increase cash flow by taking on more jobs.

At its core, Mobile Workforce Management Software helps meet SLAs and achieve higher customer satisfaction rates.

What Are the UK’s Best Mobile Workforce Management Software Tools?

3 Reasons Service Providers Implement Mobile Workforce Management Software

1. Failing to Meet SLAs

Service Level Agreements (SLAs) are put in place as assurance for the customer. They detail what customers can expect from their service provider and are important for building trust. For example, a company may promise a customer that a technician will be at the job one business day after a work order is raised.

If SLAs are not met, the company’s reputation and customers’ trust are damaged. This has an impact on future business and customer retention. Providers that offer and meet SLAs using mobile workforce management tools have an 18% higher customer retention rate.

2. Field Staff Not Hitting KPIs

Key Performance Indicators are similar to SLAs. They are goals set to be accomplished, like:

• First-time fix rates (FTFR)
• Customer satisfaction scores (CSAT)
• Completed jobs against invoiced jobs
• Jobs completed per engineer

KPIs indicate how productive and efficient your mobile workers are. An example KPI is achieving a CSAT score of 80% or having an FTFR above 75%. Companies with an FTFR of over 70% achieved customer retention rates of 86%. Those with a score of over 90% increased revenue margins by 30%.

3. An Increase In Poor Customer Feedback

A telltale sign of a poor mobile workforce is bad customer feedback. Dealing with customers is an integral part of any field service operation. Therefore, the customer experience needs to be good at the very least. Poor feedback can be a result of:

• Field staff arriving late to a job (45% of customers complain about engineers arriving 15, 30, or 60+ minutes late)
• Customers experiencing a no-show
• The final cost of a job is higher than expected/quoted
• The work is not completed to a high enough standard

How Much Does Mobile Workforce Management Software Cost?

On average, Mobile Workforce Management Software costs between £12 per month per user and £1,500 per month.

This is a ballpark figure that will vary depending on:

• The number of mobile workers you have in the field
• The number of jobs per day assigned to field staff
• How many deskless workers will need access to the system
• Additional feature requirements and integrations (like AI Dashcams and real-time GPS tracking)

The Cost of MWM Software For Small Business

Small field service businesses are typically moving away from using spreadsheets.

They will have around 5 mobile workers and require features like pre-built templates for forms, calendar scheduling, and inventory management.

IT and training limitations mean they need an easy-to-use solution with vendor support.

A mobile workforce management solution that matches these requirements is pro-Forms. They offer a monthly rolling contract including a free 21-day trial. For 5 mobile users, the cost will be £62.50 per month.

Cost of Mobile Workforce Management For SMEs and Medium Businesses

Mid-market businesses have either outgrown their basic workforce management solution or exceeded their spreadsheets’ capacity.

They require a system that is capable of scaling as the business grows. On average, an SME field service operation has 30 mobile workers.

An ideal solution would be a vendor like BigChange. They provide three payment options with a unique set of features. For 30 mobile users or more, prices start at £2,399 per month.

The Cost of MWM Software For Large Businesses & Enterprises

Large organisations are typically looking to move away from their current systems. Either they have outgrown the system, or it doesn’t provide new features they require.

On top of the core features, they’re looking for more advanced features to match scalability. That includes real-time route optimisation, generative AI tools, and customer chat bots.

Service Geeni is a vendor for managing enterprise field services. For an average of 100 employees, prices would start at £4,000 per month. On top of that are implementation fees and extra costs for office users.

Why Mobile Apps Are Key For Successful MWM

iOS and Android mobile apps have elevated the efficiency of mobile workforce management. The most notable benefit is the ability to access data via a mobile device from any location at any time.

This applies to small business services such as plumbing, landscaping, or pest control, or for larger field operations such as utilities and energy.

Offline mobile access gives engineers instant access to job information. Compared to contacting office staff or driving back to the warehouse to check inventory, offline mobile access provides engineers with instant access to job information.

Without offline access, first-time fix rates suffer. This leads to an average wait time of 14 days for customers.

Mobile apps can impact key areas for both managers and lone workers, like:

Real-Time Updates

Coordination across teams and departments requires managerial reports and interfaces that let managers and directors make informed decisions with up-to-date information.

By providing managers with mobile field service apps that give them access to real-time data, you’re empowering them to make better decisions and take corrective actions quickly.

This minimises the impact of incidents and improves your organisation’s overall mobile workforce management performance.

Less Paperwork

It’s crucial to keep the field experts engaged in their core competencies and away from tedious tasks. Mobile workforce management apps help by automating many of the data entry tasks that need to be done in the field.

This can free up time for technicians to focus on the task at hand and also help keep your data organised and accurate.

By automating data entry, you’re also reducing the human error that can lead to lost or incorrect information.

Improved Job Performance

With the ability to track time spent on each task, technicians can more accurately bill for their services. In addition, many mobile field service apps include a library of standard procedures that technicians can use as a reference guide.

Having quick access to this information can help reduce the time needed to complete a task and improve a worker’s FTFR.

It also helps ensure that tasks are completed in the correct order and with the correct steps.

What’s the Difference Between Mobile Workforce Management and Field Service Management?

Although both address the needs of service management businesses, there are key differences between mobile workforce management and Field Service Management (FSM) Software.

• MWM: Encompasses the management and support of all mobile staff working outside of the office, not just service personnel. That includes field service technicians, drivers, sales reps, inspectors, and more.
• FSM: Focuses on the scheduling, dispatch, and tracking of field service technicians only, who provide services like installations, repairs, and maintenance.

7 Considerations When Choosing Mobile Workforce Management Software

1. Costs: Make a list of all costs this product will incur so there are no nasty surprises if you go over budget. Costs can include software licences, monthly subscriptions, hardware installation, implementation, data migration, and support for external application integrations.
2. Features: The best system for you is one that has the features matching your requirements. Whether you need a customisable system or an out-of-the-box MWM solution, it all depends on your specific needs.
3. Industry fit: What might be a good product for one company might not be for you. When researching the best Mobile Workforce Management Software, find product testimonials from businesses in your industry.
4. Ease of use: To improve the speed of uptake among employees, ensure the system is familiar and intuitive with as little friction as possible.
5. Implementation and integration: To reduce the risk of implementation failure, make a note of all your implementation and integration needs. These range from the migration of existing data to integration with existing systems like CRM or accounting tools. Also, understand how long implementation will take so you can plan for services to be down.
6. Vendor support and user training: Ensure your vendor provides the support needed to guarantee smooth adoption. Look for in-person training and online resources to help employees get used to the new system.
7. Scalability: You want a solution that can expand alongside your growth, minimising the necessity to seek an alternative if your size doubles. Keep in mind this may incur extra costs for more users, devices, advanced features, and more data storage.

How Mobile Workforce Management Software Encourages Workforce Optimisation Strategies

Workforce optimisation (WFO) is exactly what it sounds like; optimising how service teams perform in the field. This is the outcome of taking a more data-led approach to job management.

Some workforce tasks can be optimised with manual fixes such as improving communication through mobile devices and shared spreadsheets (52% of field service providers still use manual methods).

However, more successful approaches to workforce optimisation are achieved with tools like Field Service Management Software and mobile workforce management systems. This digital integration enables FSOs to deploy WFO strategies such as:

• Data-led decision making
• Dynamic scheduling and dispatching
• Prioritising customer needs

Before software, technicians were assigned to a job via text message or phone call. But unreliable network signals (or black spots) meant most workers missed calls and jobs were cancelled. Next came PDAs, which, although provided more information and worked via a shared calendar, were also susceptible to unreliable signals. Now, almost 85% of service teams use mobile applications.

In a Comparesoft podcast, Adam Neale, former Field Engineering Director at BT, explained the importance of using software for mobile workforce management:
“Without [software tools], I think now we will probably be needing four or five times the amount of people, which means obviously your costs go up to the customers. And that means the end customer pays more.

If they’re implemented in the right way and you’ve got the right culture, the people trust in using the software.”