Dispatcher Role

The dispatcher is a critical role for service companies and use of SME. The dispatcher is in charge of scheduling the technicians and coordinating the next work order for the technicians.

The goal of the dispatcher includes the following:

• Insure that emergency or critical customer work is completed in a timely manner.
• Make sure that the customer service expectations and Service Level Agreement (SLA) are achieved. For example if a customer has a SLA to receive service within 4 hours, it's up to the dispatcher to make sure the technicians are scheduled to meet this agreement.
• Maximize profitability of the company by getting the most amout of completed work orders for each technician. Idle techicians are not servicing customers or earning revenue.
• Minimize costs by either sending the closed available technician, the lowest cost technician, or most efficient technician for the job. This dispatcher should know the capabilities of the technicians to make sure the "best-fit" technician is sent to the job based on proximity, experience, and cost.
• Know when to use technicians versus outsourcing to subcontractors. For example, jobs that are very far should be handled by subcontractors that are near the job site.

Within SME, the Dispatcher uses the following capabilities:

• Dispatch Board: See what work orders are open and need to be scheduled and see the available technicians.
• Service Orders and Install Orders: See the details of the service or install order to make sure the best-fit technician is sent for the job.
• Inventory: Make sure the right parts are available for the technician to do the job. Although this may not be the direct responsibility of the dispatcher, they may be involved or need to coordinate with inventory controllers to see if the parts or equipment is ready before scheduling technicians for jobs.
• Customer location: See where the customer is located in relation to where the technician is located to get close technicians to do jobs that are close to them. Dispatchers can also use third party GPS tools to track exact location of techs.
• Subcontractors: The dispatcher may be scheduling subcontractors instead of or in addition to technicians.