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How do you balance route efficiency with technician skill matching?

Deja Washington

Hi everyone! We've been using FieldPulse for about 6 months now and our dispatch team is running into this constant tension — we want to optimize routes to save time and fuel, but we also need to make sure the right tech with the right skills ends up on each job.

Right now we're kind of winging it, honestly. We have a spreadsheet of who is certified for what, and we cross-reference that with the schedule, but it's getting unwieldy as we grow. We went from 8 techs to 17 in just a few months!

How are y'all handling this? Are you using FieldPulse's skills/tags features? Do you prioritize proximity or expertise? And what do you do when your most skilled tech is 45 minutes away and someone closer could probably handle it but might take longer?

Would love to hear what's working for your teams! Thanks so much!

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  • We don't overthink this... closest tech who isn't already overbooked gets the job. If they can't handle it, they call for backup or we reschedule.

    Customers care more about showing up on time than getting the world's greatest technician. Missed windows cost us way more than occasional callbacks.

    That said — we do keep a "don't send" list. Like, don't send Dave to commercial refrigeration. Learned that one the hard way.

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  • We don't overthink this... closest tech who isn't already overbooked gets the job. If they can't handle it, they call for backup or we reschedule.

    Customers care more about showing up on time than getting the world's greatest technician. Missed windows cost us way more than occasional callbacks.

    That said — we do keep a "don't send" list. Like, don't send Dave to commercial refrigeration. Learned that one the hard way.

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  • in reply to Ray DeLuca

    Ray's got a point about callbacks vs. late arrivals, but I'd push back on "call for backup" — that's expensive and kills your tech's day. Better to get it right the first time.

    Pro tip: we use FieldPulse's job notes template to force the office to document why a specific tech was assigned. Creates accountability and patterns start to emerge. After 90 days we had solid data on which "stretch" assignments worked and which didn't.