Hurricane Sandy was about as bad as people expected it to be, and that was pretty bad. The reporter on the news this morning said there are 7.5 million without power. Wall Street and the NYC subways are shut down. The damage total is not in yet, but we can guess it will be pretty high.
Hopefully you were somewhere safe and the ones you care about are safe as well. But what about your business? While you were busy protecting your family and loved ones, who or what was protecting your business? Did you know that field service software can actually help in the face of a storm, even a Frankenstorm.
Field service software first protects your business by keeping all of your data stored electronically. You do not have stacks of paper lying around your office that are at risk of water damage. Even more importantly, hopefully you have a backup of your data so that in case your computers were ruined by water, the data is still available to you. A field service software contains all the information of paper work orders, customer data and history, employee time records, and invoices in one place. If you are worried of water damage, it is nice to know you can carry out your hardrive instead of filing cabinets and post it notes.
Secondly, field service software contains all of your contacts and a schedule of your appointments. If you are faced with a storm like Hurricane Sandy, you have enough time to quickly and efficiently look up customers’ information. You can see who you were supposed to service and inform them you will need to reschedule. Yes, most customers will probably expect that you will need to reschedule, but showing you take time to call your customers while preparing for a hurricane really says a lot about the morals of your company.
Finally, a field service software gets your company back up and running quickly after disasters. If the office is damaged/there's no electricity (like there won't be on the east coast), you can simply grab the computer (or a backup) and find a place with electricity and start working. If you aren't using field service software and your facility is compromised, it'll take some time to get back up and running.
Plus, if your office is compromised and your techs have Android devices/apps, it doesn't matter. You can schedule them remotely and they don't have to come into the office. All they have to do is check their schedule on their app. You can continue to work without an office and, really, with little interruption to normal operations.
Natural disasters are awful things that cannot be avoided. The best people can do is plan ahead to keep themselves and their loved ones safe. Having a field service software is a good plan to have for your field service business. The software keeps information organized, efficient, and most importantly safe. Invest in field service software today to ensure your business can survive any Frankenstorm
We at HindSite want to send our thoughts to those affected by Hurricane Sandy.