Offline Capabilities of a Mobile Field Service App

To achieve efficiency in field service operations, you need to embrace the uncertainties, and build systems to work around the ground realities. One such uncertainty is the lack of internet availability for your mobile field service app. Right now, you may think of it as a rare scenario where your technician is not able to access the internet. Consider working in the following locations:

● A construction site
● A newly constructed building
● An underground establishment
● A mining site
● On an oil rig
● In remote areas
● Under a cell tower
● In the middle of a city, between towering structures.

In essence, each time your technician is traveling to work in the field, he or she might have to deal with low or zero internet connectivity. Even if this happens with one technician per month, the overall impact on productivity can be significant. A weak or unavailable internet connection could mean inaccessible service history, billing delays, documentation errors, or a complete halt to the service call.

As a field service organization, when moving from manual, paper-based to technology-based processes, you want (and need) reliable solutions. Technology that is consistent and doesn’t leave you hanging in the middle of the job is paramount. To reduce the chances of a technological failure, look for a mobile solution that allows you to continue working, with or without an internet connection.

Here’s what to expect from a robust mobile field service app:

Consistent Service – Offline Checklist Access

The trademark of a good service company is consistent service, and checklists are an integral aspect of providing consistent service.

With checklists, it becomes easy to maintain regulatory requirements, service quality, inspection standards, site surveys, and compliance standards. A service manager can attach a fully customizable checklist with each work order, ensuring technicians have clear instructions and do not miss any steps in a service call.

Using the checklist feature provides standardization. Without access to offline checklists, a technician is not able to view or update a checklist due to the non-availability of internet access, which can lead to chaos. For example, when inspecting the smoke alarm of basement construction, a technician may not have internet connectivity, and consequently would be unable to access the list of regulatory inspection requirements. This scenario would lead to negligent service, potential safety hazards for the people working in the building, and a poor reputation. If your technician has offline access to the mobile field service app, he or she can follow the inspection protocol and reduce the margin of error.

Customer History Consistently at your Fingertips

Imagine going to a service location without knowing the contract’s terms, warranty agreements, or even worse, not knowing the repair history of the machinery you are going to fix. Such incomplete or inaccessible work order details can put your technicians in a tight spot. To save your technician’s day, ensuring dependable access to a customer’s history and work order information is a must, even in situations where there is no internet connectivity.

Uninterrupted access to previous work orders, equipment information, contract terms, and repair notes equips your technician to deal with customer issues professionally. For example:

• Ready access to past repair notes helps technicians make informed decisions.
• Access to warranty agreements can save you from inaccurate billing.
• Years of work order history aids the technician in diagnosing issues much faster.

Overall, access to customer history can help your technicians improve on first-time fix rates and provide a higher level of customer satisfaction.

Input Now, Sync Later

Consider the following scenario: your service technician does major equipment repairs on a mining site. Due to a lack of internet connectivity, he or she cannot input any repair notes, part and equipment data, job hours, or update the job status. In this case, the technician ends up writing down all the information on a piece of paper, which is hardly ideal if your company is looking to upgrade operations and move away from manual, paper-based processes.

To avoid such risky scenarios, a field service mobile app with offline capabilities lets you input information even when offline. You can update work order status, parts, and equipment data, add notes, input job hours, and enter other work order-related information. The input information is updated across all devices as soon as you have a network connection, helping your technician perform his or her job without worrying about network connectivity.

Be Prepared for a Rainy Day

Issues of low or no connectivity are bound to happen for one reason or another; be proactive and prepare for these scenarios by equipping your team with the right mobile solution for their field service operations. By preparing in advance, your company can achieve increased efficiency, which is not dependent on environmental or external factors. Consider the offline capabilities of your mobile field service app now to boost your productivity both on and off the internet’s radar.