Forced by the realities of the present situation, we are all stuck in a lockdown, willingly or unwillingly. Things have changed dramatically over the past few weeks owing to the COVID-19 pandemic, which has created chaos across the whole world upsetting the world economy. Businesses and services except for a few, have come to a halt.
Meanwhile, as governments and communities are fighting to contain the novel Coronavirus outbreak, people have resorted to the internet and telecommunication channels to work and be active partially and virtually. Obviously, Field Service has also been hit hard. Only some, like in essential services, are allowed to work during the lockdown.
If you are in field sales or service management in any way, you surely like to serve your customers and protect your team or workforce, during these difficult times. You can do this to an extent by virtualizing your office and possibly the operations, which also reduces the risks physically and financially. Here are some useful tips.
Go online, and work virtually. All those organizations able to transfer their business or service, or parts of it, onto the internet can be working online. Forced into this lockdown situation, not only businesses but many other sectors including governments, have adopted the ‘work-from-home’ concept. This is when a field service management software is useful if already installed or if adopted immediately. Check up with requirements to access your computers, or mobile devices, remotely and integrate them properly to start work digitally online.
Digital scheduling & Dispatching. Skip the paperwork for now and go digital. Step up to digital business management of your field sales & service. Digitize most of the work, as you can, with the field service software, with no need for physical exposure to either your customer or your team (of executives). Adopt field service management tools with more benefits to your system, like automating the scheduling of tasks and dispatching of deliverables, increasing efficiency, and profit margins.
Access computers remotely. If you have the right software, then most of your staff can work online – work from home, during the lockdown. However, if not be able to access important documents in your central computer at the office, due to technical or security reasons, find the technology or expertise to remotely access and you have a better way of functioning.
Work from Home, and reach customers. If you don’t have the built-in option, to start off ‘work from home quickly, you can choose a remote desktop application like Chrome Remote Desktop or Teamviewer. But it must be properly configured in the remote system. see that it supports even mobile platforms (iOS, Android) and works remotely easily at any level.
Reach out to your customer by using video-calling apps. In the case of consumer electronics or consumer durables, instruct how to intervene to rectify issues, if necessary. You can communicate to generate a quote or estimate, if necessary, for any field sales or service task with the help of a module. For this and many other tasks, a lot of free tools are available, including video calling. Some popular ones are WhatsApp, Skype, Google Hangout, and FaceTime.
Digital Invoicing & Payments. Remote estimates and customer support can be followed by invoicing, all online. Generate a digital invoice after a sales or service support is addressed to your customer. It can be delivered digitally too (not physically), without risking exposure to anyone. Collecting payments can be done digitally by using credit cards (no cash), payment gateways, mobile apps, internet banking, etc. Just incorporate a payment module m in your software. Easily collect money digitally at the job site, sales point, and send automated confirmation by email, SMS, etc.
By setting up a virtual office and online operations, via software and a mix of devices, deliver a good quality of service to customers to retain or sustain your business, with no physical contact, and protect your team. If you have a field force management system that’s web-hosted and integrated with a mobile app, you simply use the communication lines to connect and work with your team from anywhere.
A field force management solution like Trinetra iWay provides is supported by an integrated mobile app. It offers easy accessibility online, anytime, in real-time, to boost efficiency and productivity. Get equipped with a versatile, integrated a software that merges into your system and processes. For more info visit us @ – https://www.trinetraiway.com/. Just submit an enquiry form, mentioning your requirements and Trinetra’s team will help you out with an apt solution.
