For service companies, obtaining regular, concise, timely and meaningful data from the field is often the difference between success and failure. Details of customer engagements, well documented and available to the central office are necessary for invoicing, understanding your business, managing people and assets, and gaining insight into field service activities. While long the standard, paper forms are no longer adequate for gaining true competitive edge.
There are numerous problems with paper. Paper tickets are not smart, they don’t enforce standards, they get mangled or lost, and fail to serve customers’ needs on so many levels. By using digital tools, laptops and mobile devices, and well-designed ticketing solutions that allow you to work offline in the field, companies can structure data collection systems to intelligently collect and record field engagement details.
A good ticketing solution should be flexible to allow for custom user interfaces, collecting relevant data points and details, and should result in output to back-end systems and reports specific to any company’s needs. Good ticketing solutions also provide processes for managing workflows like dispatching and approval. Security and audit logs work to help control who can see what, perform various functions, and maintain insight into what users have done.
By implementing digital ticketing solutions, data is collected in a managed and appropriate manor, whether online or off, and syncs to the central office in near real time, giving back office personnel insight into field activities allowing them to manage assets and employees.
By truly connecting the field to the office, digital ticketing solutions close the information gap that exists otherwise. Companies gain insight into field activities, can manage their resources, identify idle resources, and drive businesses to success. Don’t be left behind as the digital age moves forward. The ship has already left the dock. It’s not too late to get onboard. Failure to do so will be done at your own peril, as your leading competitors will be doing so soon, or perhaps already have.