Rising operational costs, callbacks creeping up, and customers ringing to complain. When inefficiencies start showing in a field service business, they rarely arrive one at a time, and without the right field service metrics in front of you, it's hard to tell which problem to tackle first.
Most trade businesses collect plenty of data, but none of it is organised into numbers a manager can act on. This guide covers 38 field service KPIs across six areas, with a definition, formula, and example for each.
The Nitty Gritty
Metrics and KPIs sound similar but do different jobs: metrics record activity, and KPIs measure it against a target.
Tracking the right 38 KPIs across productivity, scheduling, jobs, finance, customers, and assets gives you a complete operational view.
The most useful dashboard is the smallest one. Pick eight to twelve KPIs tied to current priorities, assign owners, and agree on a review cadence.
Simpro's field service management software produces these KPIs as a by-product of how the business runs.
Field service metrics vs KPIs
The two terms get used interchangeably, and most of the time it doesn't matter. The distinction becomes useful when you start building dashboards.
What are field service metrics?
Metrics are raw measurements of what happened, such as jobs completed, average travel time, revenue invoiced, and parts used. They describe activity but don't tell you whether what occurred was good or bad.
What are field service KPIs?
A KPI is a metric tied to a target that reflects a business goal. KPIs have a benchmark, a direction of travel, and someone accountable for moving the number.
For the broader strategic view, our guide on how to turn operational data into actionable insights covers how high-performing trade businesses move from raw reporting into real decisions.
Technician productivity KPIs
These KPIs measure how effectively your field workforce converts paid hours into completed, billable work. Technician time is usually the largest cost in a field service business.
1. First-time fix rate
The percentage of jobs resolved on the first visit, calculated as:
(jobs completed on first visit ÷ total jobs) × 100.
This is the most-watched KPI in field service, because every callback costs a second labour and travel hit plus customer goodwill.
2. Technician utilisation rate
The share of paid hours spent on billable, productive work, calculated as:
(billable hours ÷ total paid hours) × 100 per technician per week.
Anything under 65 to 70 percent usually means you are paying for time that isn't generating revenue.
3. Jobs completed per technician
This is the number of jobs that each technician completes successfully, calculated as:
Total jobs closed divided by active technicians over the same window.
This is useful for capacity planning and for spotting performance gaps between team members on similar work.
4. Average job duration
The average job duration is how long a job takes to complete on average and is calculated as follows:
Sum of on-site hours across all jobs divided by the number of jobs, segmented by job type.
Trended over time, it shows whether work is getting more efficient or scope creep is eating margin.
5. Technician idle time
Technician idle time is the time that technicians are not busy with assigned work whilst on site, calculated as follows:
Paid hours minus billable, travel, and break hours, per technician per week.
High idle time usually points to dispatch and routing problems.
6. Rework or callback rate
The rework or callback rate is how often technicians are called back to redo a job, calculated as follows:
(Callback jobs ÷ total jobs) × 100
There is a separate cut for warranty callbacks. The inverse of first-time fix is worth tracking separately because it surfaces quality and warranty exposure.
Scheduling and dispatch KPIs
Scheduling KPIs measure how well work is matched to the right person at the right time and how reliably the team turns up when promised.
7. Average response time
The average response time is the time from a job being logged to a technician arriving on site. Measured as follows:
Sum of response times divided by the number of jobs, split by priority.
For reactive and emergency work, this is often the biggest driver of satisfaction.
8. On-time arrival rate
The on-time arrival rate is the percentage where the technician arrives within the booked window, calculated as:
(Jobs arrived within window ÷ total scheduled jobs) × 100.
Wide windows don't count as on time if the customer has been waiting hours.
9. Average travel time
The average arrival time is the mean time spent driving between jobs, calculated as:
Total travel hours divided by the number of jobs.
Excess travel eats utilisation and fuel and is often the easiest productivity win available.
10. Schedule adherence
Schedule adherence is how closely the actual day matches the day that was planned and can be measured as:
(Jobs completed as scheduled ÷ jobs originally scheduled) × 100.
Low adherence means dispatchers are constantly rebuilding the schedule, which costs admin time.
11. Dispatch accuracy
Dispatch accuracy is how well a job is matched to a technician with the correct skills for that job and is measured as follows:
(Jobs dispatched correctly ÷ total jobs) × 100, where "correctly" is defined by your job type and skill matrix.
Poor dispatch accuracy is a leading cause of failed first-time fixes.
12. Emergency job response time
Emergency job response time is the response time isolated to your highest-priority work, calculated as:
Sum of emergency response times divided by the number of emergency jobs.
Slow emergency response time is where SLA penalties and reputation risk live.
Job performance and operational efficiency KPIs
These KPIs cover what happens once the technician is on site. They link directly to throughput, contract performance, and how predictable your operation is for customers.
13. Job completion rate
The job completion rate is the share of scheduled jobs closed out on time, measured as:
(Jobs completed in target timeframe ÷ jobs scheduled) × 100.
Jobs should be completed rather than carried over, parked pending parts, or escalated.
14. Mean time to repair (MTTR)
The mean time to repair is a critical measure of business reputation and contract performance and is calculated as:
Sum of repair durations divided by the number of repairs, measured from ticket open to close.
A contract and reputation KPI for businesses running maintenance agreements.
15. Service call resolution time
Service call resolution time is the on-site time from arrival to job sign-off, measured as:
Sum of on-site durations divided by the number of completed service calls.
Distinct from MTTR because it excludes scheduling and parts wait.
16. SLA compliance rate
SLA compliance rate is the percentage of contracted jobs meeting the agreed service level, calculated as follows:
(Jobs meeting SLA ÷ total contracted jobs) × 100, segmented by contract.
Every breach is potential revenue lost to penalties or contract churn.
17. Work order cycle time
Work order cycle time is the total elapsed time from work order creation to invoice issued and is calculated as:
Sum of cycle times divided by the number of work orders, in days.
A cash flow KPI is just as much an operational one.
18. Parts availability rate
The parts availability rate is the share of jobs where every required part is on the van or in stock on arrival, calculated as follows:
(Jobs with all parts available ÷ total jobs) × 100.
This drives first-time fixes, callback rates, and satisfaction, which depend on this rate all at once.
19. Inspection or maintenance completion rate
The inspection or maintenance completion rate is the percentage of scheduled inspections or planned maintenance visits that are completed within their agreed timeframe. This is calculated as:
(Inspections completed on time ÷ inspections scheduled) × 100.
For businesses with planned maintenance contracts, the share of scheduled inspections completed in the contracted period.
Financial performance KPIs
Operational KPIs tell you how busy the business is. Financial KPIs tell you whether that activity is making money.
20. Cost per job
The cost per job is the fully loaded cost of completing one job and can be calculated as:
(Labour + parts + travel + allocated overhead) per job, averaged by job type.
Every quote should be checked against this KPI.
21. Revenue per technician
To calculate revenue per technician, you use the following calculation:
Total revenue divided by the number of active billable technicians, monthly or quarterly.
A simple but useful productivity-to-profit measure.
22. Gross margin per service call
Revenue minus direct cost per job, as a percentage. To calculate gross margin per service, you do the following:
((Job revenue minus job direct cost) ÷ job revenue) × 100.
This is the cleanest read on whether individual jobs are pulling their weight.
23. Quote-to-job conversion rate
The rate of jobs that result from quotes as a percentage. To calculate the quote-to-job conversion rate, you use the following formula:
(Quotes converted ÷ quotes issued) × 100, segmented by value.
A leading indicator for revenue and a read on pricing positioning.
24. Invoice cycle time
Invoice cycle time is how long it takes to invoice a customer after job completion and can be calculated as:
Sum of days from job completion to invoice sent, divided by the number of invoices.
Cash sitting in unbilled jobs is the most common field service cash flow problem.
25. Average job value
This measures the average value of all jobs over a period of time. This is calculated as:
Total revenue divided by the number of completed jobs, monthly.
Trended over time, it shows whether the business is moving upmarket or sliding into smaller, less profitable work.
26. Contract attach rate
Contract attach rate is the percentage of one-off service jobs or new installations that convert into an ongoing maintenance contract and can be calculated as follows:
(New contract customers ÷ eligible one-off customers) × 100, monthly.
Contract revenue is the foundation of a predictable, scalable business.
27. ROI for service operations
This measures the ROI for service operations and can be measured using:
((Service revenue minus total service costs) ÷ total service costs) × 100, annually.
This is the final read on whether the cost base of running the field business is justified by what it returns.
Customer experience KPIs
Customer KPIs are where every other number eventually gets judged. You can have brilliant operational metrics and still lose the business if customers don't want to call you back.
28. Customer satisfaction score (CSAT)
The customer satisfaction score tells you how happy your customers are with work done and can be calculated using the following:
(Satisfied responses ÷ total responses) × 100, with 4 or higher on a 5-point scale counted as satisfied.
This is a direct measure of how customers feel about a specific job, captured straight after.
29. Net Promoter Score (NPS)
The net promoter score is a customer loyalty metric that measures how likely customers are to recommend a business to others and can be measured using:
(Promoters scoring 9 or 10) minus (detractors scoring 0 to 6), as percentages.
It is useful for trending sentiment over time rather than judging individual jobs.
30. Customer retention rate
Customer retention rate is the number of new customers that remain at the end of a period and can be measured by:
((Customers at period end minus new customers) ÷ customers at period start) × 100.
This is the cheapest revenue you'll earn because you have already spent money acquiring the customer the first time.
31. Customer effort score (CES)
The Customer effort score is the measure of effort spent managing customers and can be analysed using the following:
A survey question scored 1 to 7 on ease of dealing with the business, averaged across responses.
Low effort is a stronger predictor of repeat business than high satisfaction alone.
32. Complaint rate
The complaint rate is the number of complaints received compared to jobs completed and is calculated using:
(Complaints ÷ jobs completed) × 100.
A low but rising complaint rate is often the earliest warning of a service problem.
33. Repeat customer revenue
Repeat customer revenue is revenue earned from returning customers and can be measured using the following:
(Revenue from returning customers ÷ total revenue) × 100, monthly.
A leading indicator of how dependent the business is on constantly winning new work.
Asset and maintenance KPIs
If your business sells planned maintenance or manages customer-owned equipment, asset KPIs measure whether you are protecting that equipment effectively.
34. Equipment uptime
Equipment uptime is the time equipment runs without failure against its scheduled hours and can be measured as follows:
(Operational hours ÷ total scheduled hours) × 100, per asset.
The headline KPI for any contract tied to asset performance.
35. Preventive maintenance completion rate
The preventative maintenance completion rate is the measure of completed jobs versus scheduled jobs for preventative maintenance and can be calculated using:
(PMs completed on schedule ÷ PMs scheduled) × 100.
Missed PMs are the leading cause of reactive failures, which are more expensive to attend.
36. Asset downtime
Asset downtime is the number of hours an asset fails over a period of time and can be measured using:
Sum of downtime hours per asset over the period.
The inverse of uptime, tracked separately to distinguish planned outages from failures.
37. Maintenance contract profitability
Maintenance contract profitability is the measure of how profitable maintenance contracts are and can be measured using the following:
((Contract revenue minus all contract-attributed costs) ÷ contract revenue) × 100, per contract per year.
Contracts often start profitable and quietly erode as scope creeps and prices stay flat.
38. Planned vs reactive work ratio
The planned vs reactive work ratio is a measure of how many jobs are planned versus reactive and can be calculated using:
(Planned job hours ÷ total job hours) × 100.
Healthier businesses skew planned because it is more predictable, profitable, and easier to staff.
How often should you review field service metrics and KPIs?
The right review cadence depends on how fast a number can move and who needs to act on it.
- Dispatch KPIs move daily.
- Productivity KPIs are weekly.
- Financial KPIs are monthly.
- Customer and asset KPIs need a quarterly window.
Daily: Schedule adherence, on-time arrival, emergency response. Anything a dispatcher or service manager can act on inside the same shift.
Weekly: Utilisation, jobs per technician, rework rate. Enough data to spot trends without overreacting to a single rough day.
Monthly: Revenue per technician, gross margin, average job value, invoice cycle time. Aligns with billing and payroll cycles.
Quarterly: NPS, retention, contract attach rate, asset uptime, and contract profitability. These move slowly and need a longer window to read clearly.
Every KPI on a dashboard needs a named owner. A number that is everyone's responsibility never gets measured.
For more on the frictions these reviews are designed to surface, our breakdown of the field service challenges every trade business faces is a useful companion read. Industry bodies such as AIRAH also publish benchmarking guidance to calibrate internal targets.
Track field service performance with Simpro
Building a dashboard of 38 KPIs in a spreadsheet works until it doesn't. Data sits in different systems, and within a quarter, nobody trusts the numbers. Simpro's field service management software pulls operational, financial, and customer data into one platform.
Dashboards let you slice any KPI by technician, job type, branch, or customer. The answer to "how are we performing this week?" is on screen in 30 seconds.
Trade businesses are also using AI in field service management to turn the same KPI data into forecasts, scheduling recommendations, and automated alerts when a number drifts off target.
Better field service performance starts with better visibility
Thirty-eight KPIs are more than any business needs on a single dashboard. The point of the list isn't to track all of them. It's to give you a menu so you can pick the eight to twelve that map to your current priorities.
Pick the KPIs that match the decisions you actually need to make in the next 90 days. Assign each one an owner. Agree on the review cadence. Then build the dashboard that puts them in front of the right people.
To see how Simpro turns the metrics in this article into a live operational view of your business, book a demo, and we'll walk through it using examples relevant to your trade.
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