Continuity Of "Care": What Field Service Is Missing Without Mobility

Bob Ashenbrenner, Xplore Technologies

No one wants to be “that guy”. The field service professional that can’t answer a simple customer inquiry until they get “back to the office” and are sitting in front of a computer. Or, worse, the contractor that delays a customer quote – or even the service itself – another week because they don’t have the right tools or information access to follow through right then and there. Yet, this is a regular occurrence.

Just last week my colleague was telling me that she had five different service professionals out to her house, each expected to complete various repairs on a house they were moving back into after being tenant-occupied for six years. Yet only one was able to complete the assigned job right then and there: The alarm company technician armed with a rugged tablet and, therefore, the information and tools he needed to address any issue on the spot. Three of the other four “professionals” pulled out a pen and paper pad to take notes on what needed to be done, and one opted for a mental notation strategy. The problem? All four non-tech equipped pros walked away from a valuable sale the second they walked out that front door without completing the job. Not because of their incompetence, rather because they…