The field service mobile office may be a fairly new concept to most HVAC businesses. And while your technicians and salespeople should be spending 90 percent of their time out of the office, it only makes sense that they be set up with the proper tools to do so.
A mobile office is defined as:
A setup of electronic equipment that is portable and duplicates the equipment of one's office.
So how does a mobile office work in field service? The Smart Van, which frequently blogs about tablets for field service, has advice on just how smart tablet technology is for field service. It may be the difference of several hours saved in a week versus the ever-piling paperwork back at the office.
1. Track time and inefficiencies for benchmarking.
Not ready to go mobile yet? Have employees track time for a few months to measure the success of your current processes. Then, start out slowly by testing out the efficiency of a tablet or other mobile applications for field service.
2. Get your team trained for mobile.
It's not more efficient if your team doesn't know how to use it. Certain field service courses provide training on new technology.
3. Be realistic about growing pains of field service mobile office integration.
Don't expect an immediate ROI on your new, fully loaded mobile office. Training and integration into the daily routine take time. Six months is a good time to assess the effectiveness of your field service mobile office.