A picture paints a thousand words, as they say.
Before, during and after pictures of the project - that is the order of the day. After all, we live in the 21st Century - it's not hard to do. And yet so many field service companies still fail to do it. And in the long run that's going to cause you some aggravation, maybe even some financial pain. We'll tell you why later, if you don't already know.
Stop acting like a sheep when you're really a goat.
WLet's take a simple example of why you need pictures of the work you do. If you take card payments, one day you are going to get someone who makes a chargeback on your card. (See here for what is a retaliatory chargeback. Might be because you did a bad job, might be because you had an argument with them, might be because you couldn't resolve their problem, might be just because they are a crook. Whatever it is, if you want to defend it (we are assuming you are in the right here!) you are going to need a picture to say you were there.
No picture = no defence.
Take pictures when you start the job. Have a look about. Is there any damage here already? Something you might get the blame for? A dink in the wall, a broken window, a broken vase? Whatever it is get a picture of it and inform the customer. This is called evidence and we guarantee this will save you some money and a big argument one day.
Now take some pictures during the job, they are great for social media - see below..
And finally, take a picture at the end of the job and upload it to Flobot. If the job is taking place over several days, make this your process every day because you never know if this is your last day on the job. And there isn't anything worse than not getting paid for a job your have done - except maybe a dropped ice cream.
Now all these pictures are great and hopefully they will never be used in anger but they can be used every day for social media. Because customers love before and after pictures and Google, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram love free content so people can look at your pictures on their platforms. So, give the people what they want. And by giving them what you want - you will get more people, more enquiries and more customers.
Flobot saves all the images in one easy to access section, so now there is really no excuse not to get them posted and let the World see just how good you really are!
Covering Sunderland in the North East of England and offering gardening services such as turfing and seasonal maintenance for domestic and commercial customers, TG Gardens have been using Flobot since 2016 .
'Flobot does everything for our business, scheduling the regular garden maintenance, invoicing, even counting the amount of hours off each customer we provide the garden maintenance fr each month and visit. And the pictures allow us to show the customer we have visited and maintained he garden. We can send the job sheet and the images to them even when they are away.'
Graham Robins - TG Gardens.
Before you've done the job and certainly after it, a visual record for a jobsheet makes for a happy customer and puts you in a great position for a quicker payment.
Take as many pictures as you need directly into Flobot Field app, add a description if you like to provide some narrative and this will be imprinted onto the jobsheet for everyone to see.
Flobot Field allows you to attach any picture that you might have stored in your phone, that might even be a schematic for example.
Well, it means that you have evidence of the job being complete - helpful if there is a dispute, but also a nice professional touch for your clients. The jobsheet can be shared with the office of course but also the customer portal.
Can't get a connection? Don't panic. Flobot stores the image on your phone so you will be able to send it if you can't get a 3G, 4G or 5G signal. And when you do get one, it will sync with the server automatically imprint the photo into the jobsheet and send it off to where it belongs.
The Flobot app is for those who work outside the office 'in the field' - but most likely in a van. So if that's you, it gives you everything you need to do you job - the customer's address - which it will navigate you to, the details of the job, the telephone numbers and email address. Press a button and it will send an sms to your customer to tell them when you will arrive.
In combination with Android's voice recognition capabilities, Flobot allows you to speak directly into your smart phone or tablet to update job notes. It's great for slow typers and you'll be amazed at how quick and accurate it is. The notes will be added to the client's record. You can even add pictures and video to upload directly to Flobot so that your office team can see exactly what's happening on site.
You'll know that in business, getting your customer to sign-off work that's been completed is an important way of protecting revenue and avoiding disputes. Flobot app allows you to capture these signatures electronically and transmit them alongside the job data safely and securely.
Thanks to Flobot app's built in, secure GPS functionality, you can see where all of your field team members are in real time on a map. The 'En-route' button lets client know that your field team member is on their way by sending an SMS, and it will even calculate their ETA. Every check in and check out is geo-location stamped so you'll always be sure that your engineer is at the right place at the right time.
Many service industry sectors require completion of certificates, such as Gas Safety Certificates or Waste Transfer Documents and these have historically been paper based and cumbersome. If you have an app for them just attach them to Flobot and send them into the office. It means you can ditch the triplicate pad and complete your certificates and documents electronically. Simple, efficient and quick.
Flobot is simple to learn but why not save time? Find out it will work for you with a real-time demo. What are you waiting for?
