Field service technicians, asset inspectors—employees out in the field on the frontline with customers—need to be connected to their colleagues back in the office or warehouse to feel involved with their organizations, to feel engaged. Many depend on mobile technology to keep connected to head office, customers, and each other. Their smartphones or tablets empower them to make decisions with increasing levels of self-sufficiency. this is why a connected worker platform is vital.
The engaging side of a connected worker platform
But the work of a field service worker is so much more than the job itself. It’s the sense of accomplishment that comes with installing, inspecting, or servicing an asset well. The sense of inclusion that comes from being kept in the formal communications loop in a way that both solicits feedback from the field and shares important organization information with timeliness, transparency. And perhaps most critically, the feeling of connection and camaraderie, loyalty, and engagement.
Passé practices
By its very nature, field service work involves documentation, and lots of it. Work orders, parts requisition forms, asset manuals, inspection and service checklists, health and safety reports. On and on it goes, all in the name of validation. Unfortunately, passé practices like manual document processing and hard copy forms remain entrenched in the field service sector. That should be a worrying concern. Making changes to these forms is another concerning issue in an age when agility reigns supreme. Combined, these dated methods are sure to leave those that still use them eating the dust of digitally advanced competitors.
The hazards of out of sight conditioning
How is an HVAC inspector empowered to be more efficient and productive when the checklists they use leave little room for observations or recommendations? If forms and any explanatory diagrams or notes have to be scanned and emailed when the technician gets home, lengthening an already long day? For many field workers, this extra administrative paperwork is an unpaid energy and time-depleting chore. It’s a common misnomer to carry on doing things as they’ve always been done: an out of sight, out of mind conditioning.
Workflow disconnect
What about field service peers in the office, the people receiving customer calls and—manually— coordinating, scheduling, and dispatching resources? Where’s the time efficiency in that? Where’s the agility customers are looking for?
What about those responsible for parts requisition and inventory control? How does field service responsiveness look when a customer’s equipment needs repair, downtime threatens and parts are, quite simply, unavailable?
Mobile apps and connected worker platforms designed exclusively for field service organizations empower and connect frontline workers with similarly empowered and connected coworkers across departments and leadership levels. This digital technology is the foundation for enterprise-wide digital transformation by:
- Giving greater visibility to data captured in the field
- Heightening transparency through real-time monitoring and reporting capabilities
- Deeping workflow and strategic operational insights through data analysis
- Facilitating streamlined efficiencies based on insights
- Drawing closer lines of connection and exchange between different parts of the organization
Improved asset uptime
ProntoForms’ connected worker platform offers dynamic field service collaboration capabilities. A next-gen feature, called ProntoForms Teamwork, optimizes form routing, dispatching, and workflow management. By dramatically reshaping how people and resources are connected in the field, flexibility is elevated to unprecedented levels. Complicated service schedules can be managed more fluidly, whether that involves last minute service requests, unexpected personnel changes, accommodating complex asset requirements, or switching in a more senior, specialized technician to tackle a specific service aspect partway through an undertaking. The result? Improved asset-based service uptime.
Mobile phone access to digital forms and work-in-progress records lets technicians share tasks and collaborate. Work can be transferred or offloaded back and forth seamlessly.
All of that operational connectivity and visibility give dispatchers, supervisors and senior leadership added insight, placing field workers in clear sight, top of mind.
And a connected worker platform gives first line employees out in the field a stronger sense of belonging at a time when inclusion and connectivity have never been more important.
Learn more about our connected worker platform
Request a demo to learn how to increase field worker safety and efficiency, send field collected data to connected systems and discover how to put Prontoforms Teamwork’s capabilities to the test.
