5 things you can do using Hellotracks

Imagine, you are a small business that is focused primarily on work that deals with your employees in the field. Your business is growing as everyone comes to realize what a great service you offer them. However, you are finding that the use of spreadsheets, multiple dispatchers, multiple softwares and google calendar to try and keep track of everything that is going on. This is a lot of manual pen and paper use.

This, unfortunately, is a very common occurrence in the field service management space. More often than not, managers don’t realize how quickly that running multiple systems and processes with a growing company can lead to many headaches including: missed appointments, disgruntled employees, poor communication, stupid errors and poor cash-flow because of the poor operations management. Well, I am here to let you know that solutions are out there for these issues, that’s where Hellotracks and field service management software (FSMS) enters the scene.

1. Real-time tracking

Mobile GPS tracking brings you top-level field service management. Hellotracks allows your team to optimize your operations with live location data 24 hours a day no matter where your team operates. Tracking allows you to access your team’s registered routes and location history. Real time location updates happen every 20 seconds and you can actually follow all the individual points that your team registers well out in the field, all in real time. The benefits of real time tracking include:

1. Minimizing phone calls by being able to monitor your team’s progress from your web platform.
2. Improved customer service when following all issues that arise in field
3. Reduced labor costs due to needing fewer field staff to complete the same amount of jobs
4. Increased productivity can lead to reduced service calls. Furthermore, with real time tracking dispatchers can follow employee actions in the field, can reinforce better work habits, including driving habits, and let employees know they are being monitored while at work
5. Reduced fuel costs with optimized routes and real time data that can help improve decisions in the field

While real time tracking perhaps seems a bit overrated by some managers, it cannot be stressed enough how popular this feature has become in field service management. If you are looking to continue to compete against your competitors you need to use the same set of tools that they use. If so, you should think about using a FSMS that offers real time tracking.

2. Job management and dispatch

Field Service Management software allows for a standardization of your business workflow: from dispatching field employees to final invoicing. Hellotracks has many features around job management and dispatch:

1. Hellotracks allows you to assign multiple jobs in order to create a route and make sure it is the most optimized route to your team’s destination.
2. Hellotracks allows you to import jobs from spreadsheets and emails to populate automatically in the software, which saves you time and resources to spend on other tasks
3. Hellotracks allows you to choose who is assigned to which job, you can do this easily with drag and drop or assigning tools, there are also options to optimize jobs by distances, zones and team members with the click of a button. These tools aim to help increase efficiency and make dispatchers have a simpler set of solutions to help them complete their job to the best of their ability.
4. Hellotracks allows you to track the completion of your jobs in real time and to notify your clients as soon as they are done with multiple automation tools.
5. Hellotracks has a series of indicators that allow you to track the progress of jobs and your employees in the field through the day to make sure they are completing their daily tasks.
6. Hellotracks allows you to archive jobs so you can keep track of all your work on the cloud without having to deal with folders or extra paperwork
7. Hellotracks allows you to clone or copy jobs that occur on a regular basis to quickly speed up your dispatch operations

The benefits of FSMS allows you to equip your team’s devices with already built in GPS systems which can identify their position and assign the nearest job orders to save time and effort.

The Hellotracks system can be updated in real-time throughout the workday which eliminates the overlapping and duplication of tasks and allows users to see the availability of employees to be sent for urgent calls. Moreover, it can automatically or manually re-assign field staff for higher priority tasks, or when a team member is unable to fulfill a task because they arrive late, do not have the right skills, etc.

3. Data Analysis

Data analysis is one of the most important parts of the Hellotracks software offering and it gives you the option for flexibility and efficiency . While it is not possible to deep dive into all the features of data you will have access to, we will cover a few of the more important ones Hellotracks offers.

1. Filtering through all the information you receive on a daily basis can be a time consuming and frustrating task, however Hellotracks makes this a much simpler process giving you access to drill down into the data you are looking for.
2. Understanding trends in underlying data from the Reports features which break down data from high level general statistics to deep dive analysis of individual team members and the distance they drive.
3. Hellotracks allows for improved decision making regarding decisions from staffing on certain days to optimized routes based on distances, geo-fences or team members.
4. Higher return on investment with the software as you can automate a number of features that used to be done manually releasing resources for other areas of your business.
5. Lower cost services due to lower overhead and reduced operations costs, this is something you can pass onto your clients.

While data analysis encompasses a great many things, Hellotracks aims to help your business by focusing your data analysis on your operations in the field.

4. Mobile Access + Communications

Just as everything else in life has seemingly moved into the digital realm, so too is everything moving to mobile. Due to the nature of the field services industry (i.e. workers in the field), FSM software has to provide a flawless mobile-first interface. Hellotracks is a cloud-deployed FSM software with a focus on offering the best user interface for any mobile technician. This mobile app provides access to all of Hellotracks most important features. Using Hellotracks mobile field app, your team members can view their schedules, communicate with other team members and dispatchers, send messages with attached locations, track every route with speed, distance and elevation metrics, use 3D driving mode, check in and out manually or automatically to job sites, and more.

Mobile interfaces also give technicians access to instructional resources to help them in the field. Hellotracks has access to a help section which takes them directly to help resources if they ever find trouble with in app features. They can use these resources to more efficiently diagnose and resolve errors. The benefits to having mobile access with communication are endless and if you are reading this and are looking for an FSM software then you likely already know.

5. Zones & Places

Zones and Places in Hellotracks operate as automatic recognition systems for your business operations. Places operate as either small (100m) or large (300m) geofences either located at a particular address like your headquarters or dispatching center. It can also be used for business or stops you make regular work at. The point is to ease the amount of work you have to do when dealing with little things like check-ins and check-outs. Zones are a polygon forming geo-fence system that can be custom sized to whatever zone you want to create. Geofencing is a simple location-based service in which an app or other software, like Hellotracks, uses different sets of GPS, RFID, Wi-Fi or cellular data to trigger a pre-programmed action when a mobile device enters or exits a virtual boundary set up around a geographical location. The benefit of Zones in Hellotracks is it allows you to start optimizing routes by individuals within zones, so you can optimize which team members in a zone deal with any jobs that arise. At the end of the day, there are different reasons to use geo-fences, some geofences are set up to monitor activity in secure areas, allowing management to see alerts when anyone enters or leaves a specific area, like business premises. Businesses can also use geofencing to monitor employees in the field, automate time cards and keep track of company property. Hellotracks is constantly trying to increase the usa case for zones and places to make running your field operations simpler.

Making improvements to your field service offering is always a good business choice. People are coming to expect more out of the services they are required to pay for. In field service, making those improvements can mean more than happier customers, it can also mean an increased efficiency and cost savings. Improving your field service operations does not have to be difficult, if you are looking to improve your field service operations then take a look at Hellotracks and see what solutions and advice we can offer you.