Notes from the Front Office Breakout Track

DWC Recap: Front Office Admin Sessions

The Front Office Administration breakout sessions were designed specifically for front office staff and administrators, offering a deep dive into ServiceTrade’s newest features as well as best practices to enhance efficiency and communication.

Here are the highlights.

Session 1- Embrace the New: Dashboard, Dispatch, and Scheduling

Led by Reinhard Kampf and Ginny Allen, this session showcased the latest features for dispatch, scheduling, and the dashboard.

Note: You can learn more about the new capabilities in our help center:

• Dashboard
• Dispatch
• Scheduling
  

Here are the key highlights.

New Features and Benefits

Dispatch/Schedule

Show/Hide Offices: Customizes visibility settings to focus on relevant offices and techs.

Timeline Customization: Reduces scrolling by displaying only relevant data.

Clock Events Toggle: Allows hiding unnecessary data points.

Available Jobs Drawer: Enhances search capabilities within the Jobs Drawer.

Job Queue: Provides a dedicated space for “on deck” appointments.

Day, Week, Month Views: Offers various views to accommodate different scheduling needs.

Tech Profiles: Customizable profiles with color-coding and availability information.

Dashboard Customization

Widget-Based Dashboard: Provides real-time data and interactive insights.

Deep Linking: Directly links to detailed data for actionable insights.

Filtering Capabilities: Allows precise data filtering for better insights.

Session 2 – ICYMI: New Features Overview

Hosted by Alex McGinnis, this session focused on the latest software enhancements designed to streamline front office operations.

Here are the key highlights.

Staying Updated

You can subscribe to the Help Center’s Release Notes to stay informed about new features.

Features Discussed

Clock-Out Checklist Workflow

Ensures technicians complete necessary actions before clocking out.

Clock-Out “Incomplete Reason” Workflow

Captures reasons for incomplete services at clock-out.

Automatically Resend Submitted Quotes

Automates resending quotes before expiration.

Recurring Service Generation

Allows scheduling maintenance and inspections up to 13 months in advance.

Item Code Visibility

Displays item codes on invoices.

Group by Service Default Visibility

Organizes items under corresponding services on quotes and invoices.

Display External Customer IDs

Adds external customer IDs to quotes and invoices.

Parts Purchasing

Manages parts status to facilitate job completion.

Session 3 – Agents of Change: Managing Change Effectively

So many updates and changes! All of it for the better, of course. But how do you help your team adopt new features and workflows? In this session, Chris Ruzika and Ricky Robinson focused on strategies and tools for effective change management.

Here are notes from what they shared.

Types of Change:

Adaptive Change: Incremental changes for continuous improvement.

Transformational Change: Large-scale changes affecting strategy and processes.

Strategies for Managing Change

Setting the Stage: Raise awareness and understand the reasons for change.

Planning and Preparing: Break changes into achievable steps, identify champions, and communicate plans.

Executing the Plan: Engage staff, measure progress, and celebrate successes.

Tools for Change Enablement

Project Management Tools: Asana, Monday.com, Smartsheets.

Knowledge Bases and SOPs: Notion, Microsoft OneNote, Loom, AI-assisted documentation, Lucidchart.

Communication and Documentation: SOPs and FAQs to reinforce messages.

Starting the Change Process

Setting the Stage: Raise awareness and understand the reasons for change.

Planning and Preparing: Break changes into achievable steps, identify champions, and communicate plans.

Executing the Plan: Engage staff, measure progress, and celebrate successes.

Tools for Change Enablement

Project Management Tools: Asana, Monday.com, Smartsheets.

Knowledge Bases and SOPs: Notion, Microsoft OneNote, Loom, AI-assisted documentation, Lucidchart.

Communication and Documentation: SOPs and FAQs to reinforce messages.

Measuring Outcomes

Use data to track success and make informed decisions.

Session 4 – Customer Communication Cuts Chaos

Focused on improving customer communication using ServiceTrade’s Service Link, this session was led by Dorothy Westall and James Jordan.

You can learn more about using Service Link here.

Here are the key highlights.

What is Service Link?

Service Link is a live link that updates service details in real-time as your technicians collect information in the field. Service Links will impress your customers and improve
customer engagement and loyalty.

Dorothy shared the impact that regular use of Service Link can have. In short: it’s a powerful tool for improving your customer experience. Here are some stats:

Smart AI Enhancements

Smart Transcribe

Transforms voice-to-text for easier communication.

Your techs don’t have to tap on tiny keyboards to convey information. You can ask them to show and tell with audio and video recordings. Then, when that information hits the office, you can simplify the review process by transcribing the attachments into readable text.

Smart Comment

Converts technical jargon into professional comments.

You can use Smart Comment to further refine that tech talk into
something that’s not only easier for YOU to read and understand, but is also
professionalized and ready to share with the customer.

Smart Summary

Compiles detailed job summaries for customer reports.

Finally, you can pull all that together with all the other job information into a
Smart Summary. The purpose here is to create a Service Link email worth opening that doesn’t sound formulaic and is customized to each individual job.

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The Front Office Administration sessions provided insights and practical tools to enhance efficiency and communication in front office operations. By leveraging the discussed features and strategies, attendees can implement these changes to drive success within their organizations. We encourage all attendees to stay connected with ServiceTrade for future updates and ongoing support, participate in the beta programs, and chat with your account manager about features that can help you run your business more efficiently.