Field service management glossary.
Plain-English definitions for the operational terms service business owners run into when comparing scheduling software, hiring vendors, or running their own team.
Scheduling software vendors love their jargon. Phrases like "first-time fix rate", "crew utilization", and "mobile workforce management" show up in product comparisons and sales decks without ever being defined, so it is easy to nod along and end up paying for something that does not actually move your business forward.
This glossary is the operator's translation. Each entry opens with a one-sentence definition a busy owner can read in under ten seconds, then expands into the context, the related metrics, and how Simple Scheduler approaches it inside the product. Entries cross-link to the feature pages, comparison pages, and longer-form blog posts where the term is used in practice.
Glossary entries
Field service management
LiveThe category of software and workflows for running crews that travel to customer locations, covering scheduling, dispatch, routing, mobile execution, and billing.
Route optimization
LiveThe practice of ordering a day or week of jobs so crews drive the shortest, most efficient path between them.
Dispatch software
LiveTools that assign jobs to specific crews, communicate the day's work to the field, and adjust assignments in real time as the day unfolds.
Recurring revenue
Coming soonRevenue from customers who buy on a regular schedule rather than as one-off jobs, the backbone of most established service businesses.
No-show rate
Coming soonThe percentage of scheduled appointments where the customer is unreachable or absent at the scheduled time.
Work order management
Coming soonThe discipline of creating, assigning, executing, and closing out the individual job records that represent each unit of work.
Crew utilization
Coming soonThe percentage of paid crew hours that are spent on billable work, as opposed to drive time, gaps, or admin.
Appointment booking software
Coming soonTools that let customers self-schedule appointments online, including service selection, availability lookup, and confirmation flows.
Mobile workforce management
Coming soonThe category of software that coordinates a workforce that is not at a desk, with field-friendly mobile apps and live two-way communication.
Service level agreement
Coming soonA documented promise to the customer about response time, on-site arrival window, or job-completion deadline.
Jobs per hour
Coming soonAn operational efficiency metric measuring how many billable jobs a crew completes per paid hour on the road.
First-time fix rate
Coming soonThe percentage of jobs completed on the first visit, without a callback, return trip, or follow-up appointment.
Price per visit
Coming soonThe average revenue a service business collects per individual scheduled visit, often the most useful pricing benchmark.
See how the operations actually feel.
Definitions only get you so far. Start a free workspace and put the concepts to work.