From service technicians to healthcare professionals to contract workers, mobile workforce management has revolutionized the customer experience for businesses with employees out in the field. Today’s customers demand a fast and painless experience—no matter where they are—and if they don’t get it from you, you can bet they’ll find someone else who can deliver.
Consider customer data collection. Your business revolves around collecting signatures, approvals, surveys, customer feedback, and other info out in the field. You can’t function without it, but you’re probably spending way too much time gathering it. There’s an easier way: mobile data collection.
The Problem(s) with Manual Data Collection
If you were a data collector in England in the late 1080s, you probably would have wished for a different career path. That was when William the Conqueror conducted the “Great Survey,” sending representatives of the crown to every home in the country to learn who lived where, who owned what, and how much they should be taxed on it.
Imagine the paperwork. Imagine the error rate. Imagine the sheer amount of time it would take to amass the necessary information.
While the Great Survey might be an extreme example of data collection, more recent practices aren’t much better, especially for companies with a mobile workforce. Manual data collection requires the deskless worker to go through several unnecessary steps, costing your business time and money::
- The deskless worker brings a big stack of forms with them to every job site.
- The customer fills out the necessary form (often after the appointment is done, while the mobile worker waits around).
- The mobile worker takes the form back to the office.
- Someone in the office enters the information on the form into the system.
- If something is missed, the deskless worker has to make a special trip back to the customer’s location to fix the error or collect more information.
- Rinse and repeat.
Think about all the ways manual data collection can go wrong:the paperwork gets lost in transit, the customer missed an important field on the form, there’s an error in the transcription process. Even if everything goes exactly according to plan, you’re still wasting time and making the work more difficult for mobile employees and, most importantly, you’re not getting the most value out of your employees—their skills and time to serve more of your customers.
It’s time to get rid of the challenges that come with manual data entry and manual scheduling. It’s time to go mobile!
Mobile Data Collection Benefits Your Business and Your Employees
Intelligent mobile workforce management systems reinvent the way your business functions. They provide your field workers with the tools they need to get their job done quickly, increase productivity, and decrease costly errors—including tools for data collection.
The benefits of manual data collection include:
Reduced Paper Waste
Mobile data collection allows you to use less paper, which helps the environment, reduces waste, saves your company money, and boosts your image as an ecologically sustainable company.
Streamlined, Real-Time Updates
When all your data is stored in the cloud, it’s easier than ever to make changes or updates in real-time, ensuring everyone on your team has the most current information (regardless of where they are). This benefit goes both ways — mobile workers are more connected to each other and more productive, and Operations staff have better visibility into the workforce.
Improved Customer and Employee Experience
No one loves filling out mountains of paperwork, and requiring your employees to do so might be negatively impacting their experience. With mobile data collection, the process moves quickly and mobile workers aren’t burdened with time-consuming, tedious tasks. Instead of presenting the customer with paper and a pen, you’re having a conversation: asking questions, getting answers, and building a relationship between the customer and your company.
Increased Safety and Security
Computers break. Files get lost. Paper gets damaged. By storing your information in the cloud, you’re ensuring that no matter what happens, you will always have access to your customer data.
Improving Workforce Operations with Mobile Data Collection
Mobile data collection makes your team and business more effective. Effective teams and businesses earn more money and create happier customers. And because 80% of the workforce is already deskless, failing to provide the proper tools for better support in the field could put your business at a disadvantage to competitors. The time is now to implement new technology that sets your deskless workers up for success!
Learn more about how the right mobile tools can be used to improve workforce visibility for more efficient operations.
