A service company sends people out and then, for most of the day, cannot see them. That is the structural fact this whole category exists to manage. Everything the office knows between eight in the morning and five in the afternoon arrives from the app in the van, which is why the office half and the field half of the product have to be judged as one thing.
The board is only as fresh as the last completion
If marking a job done takes four screens, it happens at the end of the day, and the board is a plan rather than a picture until then. That single latency decides whether a dispatcher can answer a customer or has to interrupt a technician, which is the difference the software was bought to make.
Five states cover almost every service company
Booked, on the way, on site, done, needs a return visit. More states feel thorough and get used less. Fewer leave the office guessing. This particular five have survived in trade after trade because each one changes what somebody would say to a customer who rings.
What it costs when the picture is stale
On the worked example this site publishes, 14% of 655 calls a month are moved, taking 16.5 dispatcher hours and $528 at $32 an hour. A stale board adds to that number in a way nobody measures: the calls made to find out what is happening are not scheduled work, they are the tax on not knowing.
One board, not a board per department
Service companies that grow tend to end up with a board per trade or per branch, reconciled by somebody. Reconciliation is a job that never finishes and is only noticed when it has been skipped. One board with views is more work to set up and considerably less work to run.
Questions people ask about dispatching software for service companies
How many technicians before we need this?
Two, because that is when the office starts holding two versions of the day. Below that a phone is genuinely fine.
Can the office update status instead?
It can, and the board will be as accurate as the last phone call. That is better than nothing and much worse than a tap in the van.
What does it cost?
Three free worksheets, and Dispatchzo Pro at $69 a month for the whole team rather than per technician.