Service companies often struggle to break away from overpromising and under-delivering. These companies realise that when they cannot deliver on their promises, their reputation will ultimately suffer, and it will have a negative impact on their business. Furthermore, poor productivity from fieldworkers can be difficult to identify. For example, when your remote workforce only hands in timesheets at the end of the day or, in some cases at the end of the week, it becomes challenging to truly assess their level of productivity or the quality of their work. Businesses that really want to excel in the area of service delivery need to consider real-time visibility over their entire workforce. Business owners should, therefore, aim to manage expectations and deliver on their promises on time, at the correct location, and with superb quality.
The South African challenge
Under normal circumstances, managing a workforce that is not physically present where you are can pose significant challenges to business owners and supervisors. In South Africa, the challenge becomes even more unique and nuanced since field workers and contractors may have limited English language skills, limited educational attainment, not necessarily in possession of smartphones and unable to afford data. Even if they could afford smartphones and data, field workers and contractors often work at remote locations where connectivity and infrastructure can become a challenge. These challenges can severely impede fieldworkers’ and contractors’ ability to communicate with supervisors, receive instructions from the field office, report or escalate exceptions, and complete their tasks on time.
The solution – real-time visibility
To alleviate the challenges mentioned above, Xactco relates fieldworkers’ precise location using real-time GPS location tracking and provides physical proof of presence and time spent during the completion of any service or task. Supervisors can now monitor their workforce live from a single cloud-based platform (Observer) with a user-friendly interactive dashboard. In addition, Xactco assists and guides fieldworkers in completing specific tasks, such as servicing expensive equipment. It facilitates immediate feedback and real-time escalation of non-compliance exceptions, and so ensures the quality of service delivery. Since Xactco’s daily escalation reports are automated, they simplify feedback for stakeholders and overcome the potential language barrier.
Xactco combines smart Internet of Things (IoT) with cloud-connected components such as BTLE, NFC tags, QR codes and GPS to meet field asset maintenance requirements. Xactco further ensures that both legislative and regulatory requirements and standards such as OHS and ISO, are met.
Giving your team of fieldworkers or contractors the right solutions and training will set them up for success from the minute they enter the field. With Bloodhound’s Xactco workforce optimisation and equipment maintenance solution giving field workers access to the correct information that they can understand, implement, and respond to in real time has never been easier.
See how Xactco was utilised to achieve exceptional service delivery for Enviroloo.
