Have you heard about the different ‘collar colours’ in the workplace? White-collar workers spend most of their time behind a desk, inside a cubicle, or in front of a computer. They’re jobs like accountants, administrators, or secretaries. Pink collar workers are mostly people that deal directly with customers, like nurses or waitresses, while blue-collar workers largely work with their hands, like plumbers, electricians, and construction workers.
In the old days, these nicknames were chosen because of work uniforms. Wait staff and nurses mostly wore pink or peach shirts, office workers wore white shorts, and technicians wore blue shirts. These days, a similar system continues, because blue-collar workers don’t spend a lot of time at their HQ. In fact, if they’re sitting at the office, they’re probably not working at all. They might be on a break, picking a cheque, or waiting for assignments.
As the administrator or shift supervisor at a plumbing or electrical company, it becomes really important to know where your technicians are. Because most of their work happens at the customer’s house or office, the quality of your service directly depends on the physical location of your technician. The closer they are to your customer’s venue, the faster they get there, the sooner the problem is resolved, and the happier your customer is.
Anybody home?
Mobile phones are today’s way of keeping tabs on someone. In the past, you’d call somebody and your first word was, ‘Hello?’ Nowadays, it’s more likely to be, ‘Where are you?’ Unfortunately, it’s really easy for someone to tell a little white lie about where they are, and unless you’re using military-style GPS, you have no real way of knowing. Luckily, there are less dramatic ways to keep track of your staff.
Eworks Manager is an award-winning job management software with multiple monitoring tools that make it easier to know where you people are. The software also allows you to assign them jobs remotely and lets them check in with you from wherever they are. These tools include:
- Vehicle Tracking
- Customer Relationship Management
- Offline Mobile Features
- Job Card Diaries
- GPS and Geo-location
Follow that car
Electricians, plumbers, waste managers, locksmiths, emergency medics, and workers in similar industries need an office car to get around. It makes things easier, especially when they have heavy gear and work equipment to carry around. The cars almost always have tracking software installed, both for security purposes and to smoothen workflow.
With Eworks Manager, you can monitor all the cars on a single screen. This helps you assign the closest technician when a customer reports a problem. You can log into the CRM and identify the exact problem. Based on how well you know your team, you can think of the best people to deal with it, then use your vehicle tracker to find out how close they are to the job site. If they’re far away, you can choose someone closer with the skills to resolve the issue.
The Job Card function in Eworks Manager enables you to assign tasks in real-time. Your technicians will get an alert, and they can accept or reject the job in real-time, giving you immediate feedback. This makes it easier to replace someone who can’t make it to the site or to make adjustments if one of your techies is running late, delayed on a previous job, or stuck in traffic on the way to a site.
Check their diary
Eworks Manager also has an offline function on its mobile app, which means technicians who are out of range can still clock in, check their assigned jobs, and make necessary adjustments. Your technician’s phones can be linked to the Eworks Manager’s GPS and Geo-location features. This helps you find out where they are, and it helps you give them accurate direction to the job site.
If you’ve spent any time in customer care, you know the customer’s main pain point. It’s not always about getting their issue resolved. Sometimes, it’s just about knowing somebody cares and is making an effort to fix their problem. The CRM feature on Eworks Manager allows you to stay in touch with customers every step of the way. You can identify their challenge, reassure them, follow up on the progress of your technicians, check the customer’s history, and call or chat with the customer. This way, they know you’re paying attention.
To start keeping track of your technicians, call Eworks Manager today and begin your 14-day free trial.