In our second webinar in the Take Control with simPRO webinar series, we discussed the importance of staying on top of your internal communications during COVID-19 and how you can use simPRO to keep things streamlined.
As current challenges bring changes to your workflows, remote administrative work, shifts in job roles and possibly even a reduced workforce, it is more important than ever to make sure that both your office staff and field staff are clear on job details and new procedures.
Part of the benefit of using simPRO for field service management is taking advantage of working from the cloud to keep teams on the same page. simPRO’s internal communication tools help you achieve:
- Accountability
- Collaboration
- Improved workflows
Read on to discover how simPRO can help you optimize your internal communications.
Accountability

Just because your admin teams are working remotely and you aren’t able to meet face-to-face with field staff, doesn’t mean you can’t stay on top of staff operations. In simPRO, setting automated alerts connected to employee tasks is an easy way to communicate who is doing what, and when.
You can also take advantage of the Tasks Completed report to receive a clear picture of the progress of certain tasks, who is on track with their task load and where you may need to make adjustments in the workload if certain tasks are creating a bottleneck effect.
Software tip: Identify reports for tracking progress for your business e.g. Activity reports and Completion reports.
Collaboration

When job information is easily accessible in a centralized system, it encourages collaboration between different departments and between the office and field staff. Use attachments to easily share important information, and use folder structures to keep those attachments organized and easy to find.
You’ll also want to make sure different staff members have access to view attachments and notes that are relevant to their work to cut down on time spent calling or emailing to explain job details that could be easily viewed in an attachment.
Software tip: Ctrl+D in your descriptions or notes will add a date stamp and the logged in employees name to be clear with chronology.
Improved Workflows

If you have a clear workflow structure in place, communications between staff automatically become more streamlined. Do you know how the different parts of your operations flow from one task to the next? How about the key decisions that need to be made at each stage of your processes? Create a map of your workflows to see where you might have inefficiencies slowing down your day-to-day operations.
As you take note of these inefficiencies, work to make improvements. There may be areas where you can use simPRO to create standardized templates or tasks so that anyone can generate a quote or schedule a job, as needed.
Software tip: Creating visual workflows can assist with decisions and amendments.
Contact Tracing
During the easing of restrictions, like many businesses, trade services may be required to track contact between field service staff and customers.
To support customers during this time, simPRO has developed two workflows to process and record all customer and field service staff interactions. Firstly, using simPRO’s eForms you can create a custom digital form to capture and record contact tracing information in PDF documents. And secondly, you can use simPRO scripts via the simPRO Mobile app to assist field service staff with recording contact tracing information on their job cards. For full instructions on how to set up simPRO for Contact Tracing, visit the Help Guide.
If you haven’t already, sign up for the simPRO Learning Toolbox to view a recording of this webinar.
For more COVID-19 resources for the field service industry, subscribe to our newsletter.