Numerous energy, cable, and telecommunications providers are essentially mobile. Field sales and service personnel are spending an increasing amount of time at or between customer sites and significantly less time at the workplace in front of a desktop or laptop. While employees actually are physically mobile, businesses continue to rely significantly on paper forms for client invoicing, work orders, territory assignments, and other time-consuming paper-based business operations.
For electric, cable, or telecom companies that acknowledge the negative influence paper-based procedures are having on field sales and service teams, there are a few strategies to take into account to cost-effectively convert paperwork to fully configurable mobile apps that boost mobile workforce productivity, lower costs that are associated with paper waste and inefficiency, and improve customer experience.
The following vital aspects must be considered while creating an app for field workers:
INCORPORATE INTERNAL STORAGE FEATURE
As with any technology, mobile solutions will contain flashy features that are good to have but not necessary. Resist the urge to go for a wow factor with mobile capabilities that will sit unused and inactive on the mobile devices of your field employees. Instead, concentrate on the operations that use the most time in your company now, and verify that any cloud-based mobile app solution you use can deploy and support those processes. Concentrate on features that allow you to store all of your data instantaneously to the cloud-based mobile app. If data is accidentally erased, this might assist in retrieving the information.
EASY OFFLINE & ONLINE AVAILABILITY OF FEATURES
Most current business applications require a mobile phone signal or an Internet connection to function. By adopting offline mobile app development, you ensure that consumers may use your app without being concerned about the lack of a Wi-Fi or cell signal. Such a distinction may appear insignificant, yet it may make all the difference. Offline availability allows your field personnel to access service jobs on their iOS or Android devices even when they are not connected to cellular or internet. The majority of the functionality is not available in an offline mode.
There is a great urge to build something fresh. Focus on features like
1.Image Capture
2.Signatures
3.Barcode Scanner
4.Upload Database
5.Forms Filling
6.Attaching Image
7.Report Generation, which may also be scanned offline.
You must also focus on the easy accessibility of
1.Location
2.Destination Tracking
3.Relevant and Pertinent updates that are needed for the easy workflow.
ACCESSIBILITY
There may be specific sorts of devices that field workers have gotten accustomed to or that would represent sunk hardware investments if you were to move to a new set of devices, depending on how much mobility has already infiltrated your business.
Mobile apps won't be of much use to your staff if they can't acquire a functional version if they are utilizing a range of mobile devices. Be familiar with all the platforms that employees may require access to, including iOS, Android etc. Determine which mobile device kinds (smartphone, tablet, ruggedized, etc.) best suit how your field personnel do their daily business and check the app's compatibility on all suitable devices.
PROVIDE A SIMPLE USER EXPERIENCE
Because employees have established working habits, change is never simple, especially for field personnel who are accustomed to using new technologies. The less probable a move is to be successful, the more complexity it demands. Because sales teams, technicians, and other field service personnel will be the ones utilizing the mobile app on a regular basis, it is crucial that they have a positive user experience.
In comparison to current paper-based procedures, the mobile user experience must be easier to use and more straightforward. Consider how easily the app can be navigated, how many steps are required to utilize it, and how it feels to tap from screen to screen.
Finally, without support from the workforce, adoption will fail, therefore it's critical to promote real-time input and make adjustments as needed. Because they don't have a place to store their work gloves, electric utility personnel, for instance, could hesitate to enter work orders on their phones. The issue may be easily fixed by giving them a clip to keep their gloves on when using a smartphone or tablet.
Therefore, it is preferable to employ a bespoke development service rather than a ready-made template that has no relation to the actual use case. This is an essential component that must be incorporated and taken care of since by creating our own app, it will be simple to create an app that takes user concerns into account.
ENSURE COMPATIBILITY WITH EXISTING SYSTEMS
A mobile app solution that does not easily interface into your current back-end systems, customer databases, and other business applications is the most crucial thing your company wants to accomplish in order to replace the inefficient paper forms and laborious Excel spreadsheet operations.
Your mobile business app may be developed and integrated in a matter of days thanks to the excellent work done by leading cloud-based mobile providers to keep this integration process as frictionless as possible. As a consequence, your company won't need to wait a long time for mobile technology to become fully functional or struggle with a new technology that doesn't work with its current IT infrastructure. Instead, it may profit from mobile's full potential in terms of productivity and efficiency right now.
Sales teams and service workers sometimes spend lengthy stretches of time out in the field before returning to the office for businesses in the power, cable, and telecom industries. As a result, it may take several days for the client information to be entered and processed, which not only delays providing services to the customer but also prevents corporate decision-makers from having access to the timely information they need to take appropriate action.
Cloud-based mobile business software solutions may boost productivity and save costs right away. They can also be easy to use and powerful. To achieve a seamless shift away from burdensome paper business forms, like with any IT project, it's important to follow a set of best practices.
WRAP UP
An excellent opportunity to win the race and assist the field workers in increasing their effectiveness is to build or design something that increases production. Because today's field workers are equipped with Android smartphones but lack the proper software, app developers have the chance to build something original using accessible technology.
Customer happiness and loyalty are greatly influenced by an effective field service management app. Field service firms may use these programs to track staff location, handle daily work and client meetings, and interact with field employees.
With the help of these management technologies, employees may meet with clients for longer periods of time, spend less time traveling back and forth between the office and the job site, and deliver goods and get money more quickly.
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