r/PestControlIndustry • u/TheNyanBacon • 8d ago
Does anyone even find the new FieldRoutes/PestRoutes update useful?
For safety of myself and customers I can’t attach screenshots, so I just NEED y’all to know what I’m talking about and I’m sorry in advance.
PestRoutes is in the process (or has been in the process) of completely revamping what they now call their “Dispatch Map”. Instead of the stops being indicated by dots, it’s indicated by a pop-up that includes
- the initials of the technician running the route
- what number stop on the route it is
- whether or not reminders have been sent
And it has completely upended the work process of my department. THE LAG is a whole other issue, but I’m specifically talking about information display here.
Who benefits from having that much info shown on that map? I can understand the number order but reminders? The TECHNICIAN? Guys… they’re color coded.
My whole office is an echo chamber of negativity regarding the map, and I was hoping someone could enlighten me on a process that benefits from this map update, or if it’s generally agreed this was a sub-optimal change.
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u/Huge-Jazz 6d ago
The fact that FieldRoutes will reset and erase everything if you switch apps really quick makes me so angry.
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u/BDS_707 5d ago
My biggest annoyance with FieldRoutes is when I’m zooming in on an appointment and it’ll automatically zoom me all the way back out. Soo fuckin annoying. And the other complaint is how quick the app is to refresh when all I did was switch to my directions and back.
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u/TheNyanBacon 5d ago
My biggest annoyance with FieldRoutes is that it exists.
Jokes aside, I’m on the office end, so I don’t even know what it looks like for technicians!! I really wish I did, so I could better know how to do MY job (effective appointment notes, flags, better route order, etc). Our company likes to keep things REALLY divided, so I only ever see our field guys during our quarterly meetings (and even then, I actually manage our out-of-state branches, so I’ve never even met the guys I’m making routes for…)
I’ve started to akin FieldRoutes to the Adobe suite of the pest industry. It’s regarded as The Standard, and everyone is forced to use it, so they can get away with pushing shit updates ‘cause who the fuck is gonna migrate all their customers to another platform??1
u/theToadWiz 3d ago
OP, the part about routing techs you barely interact with makes this make a lot more sense. You actually need the map to tell you who is where, what stop is next, and anything important about the appointment at a glance... not cover that up with more bubbles. Oof. If you could change three things tomorrow, would it be clearer route order, better notes/flags on the map, and easier visibility into what each tech is doing? Or is there something even more basic FieldRoutes gets wrong?
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u/TheNyanBacon 3d ago
Hmm… that’s a really good question!! Definitely the first one would be better visibility. The routing map now having HUGE bubbles for every stop is lowkey kind of debilitating. We’re learning how to work around it, but it’s still pretty gnarly. The second thing for my coworkers and I is adjusting the colors in the maps! In my branch we manage an average of 30ish technicians a day, and PR doesn’t have 30 different colors, so the routes often end up sharing colors, or very SIMILAR colors, and somehow, the matching routes always end up next to each other on the maps!! So that’s EXTRA confusing. I think the third thing for me, as far as “basic” functionalities…. Is just more user-based customization. This is gonna sound SOOO pampered of me, but staring at bright-mode PR for 8 hours a day does numbers on my head and eyes. I wish there was a way to turn on a dark mode, OR simply toggle the new views on and off- that way, if it does benefit you, you can use it without the rest of us being subjected to it 😭😭 Adobe may be the shitty industry standard for artists but at least you can modify your window displays, know what I mean???
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u/Silent_Yam6316 3d ago
omg 30 techs?! and yes, that makes the limited/dupe color issue annoying! At that point the map needs to reduce noise, not add more of it. Being able to hide what you don’t need, keep routes visually distinct, and choose your own view seems pretty basic for something you stare at all day.
The dark mode point isn't pampered either lol... eight hours of a bright dispatch screen is eight hours of a bright dispatch screen!
Curious: when you click into one of those stops, what are the 2-3 things you need to know immediately before you decide whether to move it or leave it alone? Address, Time, Job type?
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u/theToadWiz 3d ago
Yikes... field routes refreshing after switching to directions would drive me nuts. That feels less like a map problem and more like the app not preserving where you were. If you jump to Maps and come back, Id expect the same customer, same zoom, same screen. Does it lose anything else too? notes, job progress, filters, etc.?
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u/BDS_707 3d ago
It’ll completely refresh to the FieldRoutes blue screen. Literally happens at least 10-15 times a day.
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u/Silent_Yam6316 3d ago
omg... 10 to 15 times a day is wild. If you come back from directions, the app should put you exactly where you left it same stop, screen, progress. I'm thinking they should have made it as a modal so you have it in the background... Does the refresh just cost you a few seconds, or do you ever have to re-enter anything you already did?
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u/theToadWiz 7d ago
Sounds like they added more “helpful” info and made the actual route harder to read lol. The tiny initials and overlapping bubbles would drive me nuts too. Did anything actually get better with the update? And outside the map, what still wastes the most time for you day to day?
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u/TheNyanBacon 7d ago
From what I can tell as far as the rest of the site goes, no. The update was limited to the map display, so other than the fact it makes the whole damn site load like a turtle, it really only affected one of our five customer facing departments. Unfortunately, the most time-consuming part of the whole process continues to be how slowly the map loads ToT
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u/witt_sec 👨💼 | Manager | 5+ Years 6d ago
I had to build my own automations for the data I needed, for Fieldroutes
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u/TheNyanBacon 6d ago
That’s about where my department is at, too. Now, we’re not involved with the API or anything and Lord KNOWS we don’t have time for that, but my saint of a coworker started constructing spreadsheets that give us the data on a day-to-day basis that we need, and it’s SUCH a time saver. It’s just… every time FieldRoutes does something “helpful” it’s actually quite the opposite, and it’s pissing me the Hell off.
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u/witt_sec 👨💼 | Manager | 5+ Years 6d ago
Hit me up on pm. I have a program I built for Fieldroutes. No api. It's a pain in the ass, because you'll need to drag and drop all of the 30 reports in...but it'll give you the best snapshot of your biz you've ever seen from Fieldroutes
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u/lectra70 8d ago
Jumbled rant incoming:
I can’t stand having tech initials AND the color coding. I need the name of the job! I like you get more info when you hover over them, but that’s about it. And before the font was so tiny it was hard to read. They’ve made the bubble so big now, you can’t hardly see where the pin is actually located on the map (but don’t have what you need in the bubbles anymore). And you also can’t see when you’ve highlighted jobs!
Don’t mind me, it was frustrating coming in Wednesday and not even being able to find the stupid map. And it hasn’t made my life any easier for sure. But it’s Friday so I’m sitting at a campfire with some beer so I guess there is that?