There never seems to be enough time in the day. It’s true for our personal lives, and for countertop fabricators, it’s especially true in the office. Luckily, with some fancy scheduling, you can save some time here and there throughout the day. It might not seem like much, but those little bits of time here and there really add up—and wouldn’t you like to take a day off every once in a while!? Here are six scheduling tricks to save you time.
Hire a Data Person
Hiring a data person can give you valuable insights into your fabrication business that you might not otherwise realize. Not only can they show you where to save time in the schedule, but they can also help you make more informed decisions from top to bottom and create a more efficient company overall.
Yes, “hiring” is a bad word right now. It’s not easy to find new employees. But if you can find a candidate who has experience working with technology (especially if they have countertop fabrication experience), hiring a data person is a no-brainer. They’ll pay for themselves in no time by finding better (and cheaper) ways to get the job done, easing the decision-making process, and finding you extra time in your day with more efficient scheduling.
Take Time to Organize Your Scheduling
It might seem “counter”intuitive to spend more time on something to save you time, but that’s exactly the case when it comes to your schedule.
Scheduling takes time and effort. If you neglect it, you’ll end up having to deal with inefficiencies that cost you more time in the long run. It’s like Abraham Lincoln says, “Give me six hours to chop down a tree, and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe.”
Spending time organizing your schedule—or “sharpening your axe,” so to speak—will help you more efficiently manage your time.
To simplify organization, it’s a good idea to use scheduling software like Systemize. For countertop fabricators, it’s easy to get caught up in in the process, creating a backlog of work. By organizing your schedule with Systemize, you can see who needs to be where and what needs to be done. From anywhere, at any time, too. This keeps you right on schedule for every job. You might even have a few minutes to breathe!
Better Scheduling
Yes, you have to spend precious time organizing your schedule. No, you don’t have to do it all yourself. There are plenty of ways to automate your scheduling, so you can save time while you’re saving time!
With the auto-schedule feature in Systemize, you can set it to automatically create activity sets based on preset rules. For example, once you set a date for templating, based on your rules, it will create a date for fabrication. The auto schedule is a way to get all of the game pieces on the board, so nothing falls though the cracks.
You can create several rules to keep the workflow moving, even if you’re not sitting at the computer 24-hours a day.
Map Your Crew’s Routes
The biggest time waster when it comes to countertop jobs is travel. A poorly mapped route can waste countless hours of diving back and forth all over the service area. To cut back on wasted travel time, it’s a good idea to thoroughly map your crew’s routes.
Mapping your crew’s routes is a great way to ensure each one of your team members are spending less time in the truck and more time actually installing countertops. Spend some time looking at route maps and plan stops in a logical and orderly fashion.
Some countertop fabrication software solutions, like Systemize, can even help you with mapping routes. In the Map Activities screen, you can view all your crew’s routes with a Google Maps integration.
If you see a crew member who’s scheduled to inefficiently retrace their steps throughout the day, you can easily make a change to keep everything nice and efficient, saving your company time—and gas money!
Connect Office and Field
How many times have you heard your office staff say they didn’t know something that went on at the jobsite? Or vice-versa for that matter! One of the keys to saving time in your schedule is to limit the inefficiencies and double work that inevitably goes on between the field and office staff.
One of the best ways to connect your office and field is with communication software like Job Well Done. That way, your entire team can work together on an integrated platform, making it easy for everyone to see everything that’s going on!
Not only will this make life easier for both your office and field teams, but communication software can also integrate with Systemize to keep all your time-saving solutions in one easy-to-find location. You’ll be saving so much time you won’t know what to do with it!
Remind Customers with Software Integration
Keeping up with customers is one of the most time-consuming parts of countertop fabrication. You have to maintain regular contact with customers throughout the process—and the time spent writing all those emails and messages really adds up—and you have to hope you don’t forget anyone. If you do happen to forget to update a customer (don’t worry, we’ve all done it), it takes even more time to go back and fix the problem.
Instead of keeping up with customer contact manually, why not automate the process!? Software solutions that integrate with Moraware, like PinPoint, directly connect your installers and customers on a single platform. This gives you an easy and instantaneous way to keep up with customers (and vice-versa). Plus, it can even automatically remind customers based on programmable rules.
For example, you can set up the software to automatically follow up with a customer after a job is complete. Once your technician marks the job as finished, PinPoint will automatically send a follow-up email or text, asking the customer about their experience. It’s the perfect way to save you a few minutes and avoid a forgetful situation.
Enjoy Enough Time to Take a Breath, or Two!
It seems like countertop fabricators are always go, go, go. While that might just be part of the game, there are ways to save yourself a little time to breathe every now and then. Scheduling tricks like hiring the right help, taking time to work on your schedule, and using automation software might just allow you to finally take that vacation you’ve been putting off!
At Moraware, we know the world of countertop fabrication can be hectic. That’s why we’ve designed several software solutions designed to make your life easier. Between easily mapping routes and staying in touch with your team to process automations, you’ll have all the help you need to save plenty of precious time throughout the day.
Have some scheduling tricks to share? Let us know in the comments!
