If a paramount challenge for managers is motivating employees to meet and exceed an organization’s goals, that objective can be particularly hard when it comes to managing the field service staff. In recent years, much thinking has focused on ways to improve the productivity of these invisible employees, who work out of view, often at their own pace, in industries such as cable, courier services, high-tech consumer equipment security, and telecommunications.

Most field service improvement programs traditionally rely on detailed productivity metrics and reports that tell executives only what happened in the past, thereby missing the opportunity to make improvements. Now, however, some companies are using new technology to get a more timely and accurate view of the field force, so managers can make decisions as events unfold. This approach uses real-time information flows from the field (for example, the wireless transmission of signals that indicate when technicians start jobs, test equipment, and finish), combined with the statistical analysis of consumer demand for services. The result tends to be a more actively engaged dispatch center that helps field managers to raise the utilization rate of their workforces.

Beyond a flexible approach to scheduling and a more attentive management style, these...