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Volano Solutions

Benefits of Mobile Apps for Your Field-based Teams

November 21, 2018
by
Organization at your fingertips.

Mobile Apps for your field-based teams can improve productivity and enhance efficiencies in your business operations.  Here are a few mobile app benefits:

You need to track the location of your field-based teams. Using the location tracking features of a smartphone or other device in your mobile app has a few different benefits.

First, you can monitor where your field team members are going during working hours. This will create accountability, and reduce or eliminate personal side trips that may not be approved.

Location tracking is also beneficial if you have an urgent service call come in during the day and need to see which team members are closest to the job site where a technician is needed. 

A custom mobile application will enable your technicians to get any required customer signatures simply, by asking the customer to sign the screen. Their signature is then uploaded instantly to the cloud. No paper necessary.

Even if your field-based team members are in remote areas (or large buildings) without access to the Internet, your mobile app can be designed so it will continue to work. They will be able to view and enter job details; and if they need to report a potential problem they can do it while it is fresh in their minds. Any related information such as digital photos can be added.  When the app detects that they are back in range of an Internet signal the information they added will be uploaded.

When a different field team member or technician goes into a job, they need as much information as they can get. Giving your field team members the means to detail their findings and results of a job makes it easier to work with a client going forward. Any promises made or problems encountered are readily available to the next technician who services this client.

One of the key benefits of a mobile app is that it syncs information to and from the field, ensuring your in-office teams have the same information as your field teams, and vice versa. Cloud sync ensures that everyone has access to the same information in real-time.

Schedules change – that is the nature of field service. Whether a customer requests to change a date or cancel an appointment, you want your field team to get as much warning as possible. With the ability to look at the current status of projects, dispatch will be able to coordinate should an issue arise. If a team finishes a project early, or if it looks like a project will run late, dispatch can see this without needing to pick up the phone and ask.

With a complete history at their fingertips, field team members are able to make better decisions in less time. Too often, technicians have to make snap decisions with little information. A mobile app can ensure that all of the details they need are in one place so that those quick decisions are informed, not just quick.

If a customer takes the time to provide details when they make a service request, the last thing they want is to be asked to repeat those details again and again. Your custom mobile app makes it easy for field team members to get right to work based on specifications your client provided.

If your company takes it a step further and provides your clients with a mobile application, they can use it to view status updates about their service call, view and pay invoices, make service requests, update service requests and even view timely updates of when they can expect their technician to arrive.

Exceptional customer service leads to repeat business and recommendations, without additional marketing. 

Humans aren’t perfect. From not remembering precise instructions to missing pertinent information in a work order, manual errors are going to happen. You may not be able to get them down to zero, but you can significantly reduce them with automation.

Your field app can automatically make calculations that are currently being done by the technicians and a calculator. Your custom mobile app can create reports, capture GPS coordinates, prompt the tech for more information, correct errors, prevent closing a work order if information (such as a customer signature) is missing, and so on. This saves time on-the-spot and saves time and money later when you avoid sending your tech back to the job site to get missed information.

If you want to really impress your clients, having the ability to provide automated quotes on the spot is a big plus. Field apps make this not only easy, but quick. With some customization, you can make sure that all pertinent information is included in the quote so that there are no surprises after you get the job.

Depending on your industry, you may need a way (void of tampering) to document that the job has been completed, when and by whom.

With a custom mobile app you can automatically capture the time and GPS coordinates of the team member when they complete certain actions (such as taking a photo, getting a signature, recording data).

You then have documented proof of when and where the information was captured. Hand-written job notes do not provide this level of detail and may not be enough proof in the event of a conflict.