With the availability of cheap smart phones especially on Windows Mobile platform, a lot of specialized hardware and software in industries like Field Service, Dispatch Management etc. are fast becoming obsolete or avoidable costs. Taking this trend forward, RivaService has announced its support for Windows Mobile Software for its flagship Field Service Software with a full fledged mobile field service technician module implemented.

RivaService is an integrated Web & Mobile based Field Service and Dispatch Software which is available on a Software as a Service (SaaS) model. Companies can subscribe to this service with the number of users and pay easy monthly subscription fee without having to worry about hosting, IT management or product upgrades.

RivaService Field Service Management for Windows Mobile is a full fledged mobile module allowing Field Service technicians to access their field service call schedules, check for required parts before dispatch, update labor and parts after the job completion and take client confirmation. The mobile module also allows technicians to update their daily schedule and activities so that companies can have a complete technician performance overview.

Registration for RivaService free field service software trial is now open and you can register for the same here www.rivaservice.com/signup

Public beta of RivaService Field Service Software is now open. You can now sign up for a Free Field Service Software Trial on RivaService with sample demo data and look at the functionality provided.

Functionality provided includes Call Center Management, CRM, Client Management, Dispatch Management, Mobile Technician Module, Invoicing and Payment Tracking.

We are expecting this public beta to be a short one before launching the full-fledged service. Appreciate all feedback or comments on the system.

RivaService Team

In Field Service Business, like any other small business, success depends to a large extent on the new leads they can generate and customer calls  received. This is especially true for independent contractors like Builders, Cleaning services, Computer Technicians etc. While these businesses traditionally used to generate leads by being available on Yellow Pages, Local Ads, Word of Mouth etc, this is rapidly changing to online visibility where customers are searching for their service requirements.

Here are few pointers which a small business can use to generate more jobs for their field service business, and most of them are absolutely free.

1. Create Your Own Website

For field service business owners, no matter how small or large the business, having a website is an absolute necessity. Customers search and find your services online. They find and compare credentials, your work, testimonials, service hours and costs with your competitors before deciding to give you a call. Having a website also makes it easy for customers to recommend you to their friends easily.

Creating a Website is also very simple and you may be able to do it yourself without help of any designers or software developers.

Google Sites (http://sites.google.com)

Google Sites is a free and easy way to create your website. With its easy to choose templates and integration of other Google Apps like documents, calendar etc. this is one good simple service for small businesses.

Create Website with Google Sites

2. Get Listed in Business Directories

Traditional yellow pages and local directories are replaced now with online business directories. Most of these directories give you a free basic listing and an enhanced listing for a fee. Getting listed on these directories will take only few minutes of your time, but can generate sufficient number of leads for your business.

Google Local Business Center (http://google.com/LocalBusinessCenter)

Google Local Business Center allows Small Businesses to get listed with their service details. Listing includes business contact details, map location, business hours, services offered, payment options you offer. You can also maintain multiple listings if you have offices in different cities. Yes, its free.

Google Business Listing

Similar Options
Yahoo.com Local Features
http://listings.local.yahoo.com/

Bing.com
https://ssl.bing.com/listings/

(Note: This section was not working when we tried.)

Craiglist (http://craigslist.org/)

Craigslist is a supremely popular listings site, especially in US. It provides local classifieds and forums for jobs, housing, for sale, personals, services, local community, and events. You can list your field service business in this directory as per the location you operate. Payment is per classified.

Criaglist classifieds for service jobs

Yell.com (http://www.yell.com)

Yell.com is UK’s local search engine, providing access to classified business information, including business website, addresses, phone numbers. A very detailed listing site with service offering ranging from free listing to classified ads etc. Recommended.

Yell.com for free Business Listing

3. Join Field Service Market Places

One of the new ways of generating business leads is from Field Service Market Places. Market Places allow customers post specific requirements, or search for contractors. Service Providers can list their services and also bid for these opportunities. Typically Market Places charge a transaction fee or monthly fee for these services.

ServiceMagic
http://servicemagic.com – For US
http://www.servicemagic.co.uk/ – For UK

ServiceMagic allows customers to post their requirements and match them with field service professionals. Listing is free, ServiceMagic charges for each customer lead generated depending upon the service category.

ServiceMagic Market Place

MyBuilder (http://mybuilder.com)

UK based field service, independent contractor market place. Service Companies need to register to access the work profiles posted. Fee is 40 Pounds per quarter.

MyBuilder Market Place

4. Internet Advertising

You can also advertise your service offerings on the Internet without any outside help. When customers are searching for specific requirements on search engines like Google or Yahoo, your business can appear with the search result listing. Payment is for the number of clicks (leads) and the type of words you have bid.

Google Adwords (http://adwords.google.com)

Google AdWords is the most popular form of pay per click advertising for small businesses, partly because of Google’s popularity and prominence.

Google Ads or Small Business Ads

Yahoo Ads (http://advertising.yahoo.com/smallbusiness/ysm)

Similar to Google, delivers highly targeted customer leads to your business by showing your ads within paid search results across the Web. Both Cost and Traffic generated is slightly lower than Google.

Yahoo Search Ads for SMEs

Its been sometime since this blog is updated. We have been pretty busy with managing our existing Beta Customers and adding new functionality and features. We are pretty excited about few of these features and want to share how they are shaping up.

With RivaService you can now track performance of your field service technicians. You can view performance of your technicians on a single screen with details like the Number of Service Calls he/she has handled in the week, Revenue generated in the past week, details about the Service Calls, Timesheet information etc.

Field Service Technician Performance Tracking

Right. After months of long hours, discussions and many coffees RivaService is officially out in the open. We have started our official beta with few of the existing clients and hope to sign up few more in next few months.

Just like any other product development process, this has been really a culmination of months and months of design, development, testing and rework. Given that RivaService is a full fledged field service management software we are rightly proud that it has taken such a short time to be in beta, which we expect it to be for few months more.

RivaService field service is an enterprise grade system built with the detailing and precision required for critical systems. We are hoping that in the next few months we will be able to fine tune the application much more to get best field service software out there.

Let us know if you are interested in the beta process. We will be glad to show our work, please sign-up and we can create a demo account for you.

RivaService Team