Mobile Workforce Software: Digital Methods To Protect Customers And Employees From COVID-19
The COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant impact on every industry imaginable, but perhaps the most affected are those that require some form of face-to-face interaction with customers. These include restaurants, retail – and of course, field service.
The field service industry must adopt new processes in order to protect its technicians and customers. That means minimizing all contact between technicians and customers, and preventing the spread of disease with a highly mobile workforce.
With mobile workforce software, field service providers are given a variety of options to protect their customers and employees from the spread of disease, while simultaneously improving the way they do business. In this article, we take a look at how mobile workforce software, such as FieldConnect, can be used in this manner, as well as some of the improvements that they bring to field service management as a whole.
Use Route Analytics For Contact Tracing
One of the biggest components of any mobile workforce platform is route tracking and analytics. This not only provides managers with real-time updates of field technicians’ locations, but also allows their route data to be stored in the system. This allows for extensive analytics that can help managers plan for greater route efficiency and improved scheduling.
These same analytics can also be harnessed to determine the points of contact between customers and technicians. This allows you to set up an ad hoc contact tracing system within your company, and if you get reports that a customer or a field service technician is at risk for COVID-19, you can use your route analytics to identify who they came in contact with – and inform these people accordingly. With these contact tracing efforts, you’ll be able to keep both employees and customers safe!
Prevent Contact With Customers Until The Last Minute Through Digitized Invoicing And Remote Diagnostics
Face-to-face contact in site visits and exchanges of physical paperwork have been essential parts of the field service experience. But because the SARS-CoV-2 virus spreads via respiratory droplets, and may potentially survive on surfaces and transmit the disease from there, these processes must be minimized. With mobile workforce tools, many of these processes can be efficiently digitized, reducing the need for contact.
Automatic, in-software quotations allow your team to quickly produce quotes for customers without any paper exchanged. These are also more efficient and less prone to errors as they are derived from inventory prices and rate tables, and technicians won’t need to call back to the office and get a breakdown. Customers can then pay with electronic, contactless methods.
Site visits can also be reduced by replacing initial in-person inspections with remote diagnostics. High-quality streaming video and remote sensors can help technicians get an idea of the problem without physically showing up at the site. This reduces the number of site visits, which not only lowers the chance of infection but also increases productivity of your technicians, as they spend less time traveling to and from sites.
Reduce Your Reliance On An Office-Based Workflow With Remote Tools
So many processes in field service management require the all-important office visit, but that, of course, entails the risk of disease transmission. More and more businesses are transitioning to a work-from-home environment, and even field service management will have to adapt to the times.
With mobile workforce tools, service providers can carry out their entire back-office workflow within an electronic system. Dispatching technicians for service orders can be done from any authorized phone or computer, and calendars and schedules can be completely automated and digitized to remove the need for paper records. Reports and performance tracking can all be done within the mobile workforce software, along with payroll and accounting.
These digitized processes have far-reaching implications beyond just the protection of your personnel. By migrating to a primarily digitized system, you save plenty of time and money that would have gone to running an office, while improving productivity through automation.
Field Connect | Protecting Your Workforce and Clientele Through Digitization
Aside from the safety benefits, moving to a mobile workforce management platform can increase productivity while lowering your expenses, allowing you to focus on growing your business. But, how should you get started?
FieldConnect should be your first choice! With its robust feature set, seamless integration between back office and the field, and remarkable ease of use – it’s the most advanced product on the market. Implementing our system can lead to as much as $10,000 additional revenue per technician per year.
If you want to find out how FieldConnect can protect your customers and increase your productivity, schedule a demo with us now!