Field service and booking software is the software a service business uses to send its staff out to customers, or to book customers in at its own premises. Both kinds of service must be delivered by a person, in person. One kind of business sends a technician to the customer's door. The other kind receives the customer at a salon, spa, gym or studio.
Consider a dental clinic in Nagpur in May. During a heatwave, the clinic's air conditioner stops cooling, and the clinic calls the air-conditioner company. The company's field service management (FSM) software creates a work order, a record of the job to be done, with the address, the fault and the model. It picks a technician who knows that model, checks that the part is in his van, and adds the visit to his route for the next morning. The technician closes the job on his phone with a photo, the clinic's confirmation and an invoice.
A business that sends technicians also needs spare parts in the right place. Service parts management software plans which parts to stock, where to stock them and at what price. It is used mostly by makers of machines, such as tractors or factory machinery, which they must keep running for years after the sale.
Small trades businesses need simpler software. In the United States, many plumbers and electricians run their whole business in one app, from the customer's call to the payment. That app is field service software for trades.
The booking side works the other way round. Salon and spa software books the customer in for an appointment, a class or a gym visit. It also handles the bill at the counter, the stock of products and the staff's commissions. Customers often find a class through a separate consumer app, a fitness class booking app, which lists the classes of many studios.
Many customers reach these businesses through an app of their own, such as a home-services app. The software on this page is different. It is what the business itself uses to plan its people, its parts and its time.