Mobile Inspection Apps Let Service Companies Adapt on the Fly

Learn how you can adapt your field force to meet your organization’s shifting needs with a customizable, cross-platform inspection app.

Go behind the scenes at any warehouse, repair depot, or service organization and you’ll find that one of the toughest challenges mangers face is conducting competent inspections, which are crucial to daily work, but often take up too much valuable technician time.

Inspection managers and safety directors are required to complete a vast array of complicated inspections to comply with internal and external standards. Without a quick and flexible system, companies risk wasting resources and time on unbillable labor.

So what does a quick and flexible inspection system look like and how do we get there?

Glad you asked! Here we’ll go over the importance of inspection adaptability as the fourth and final part in our “Simplifying Field Inspections with Mobile Technology” series. We’ve already gone over how mobile inspections liberate companies from paper-based inspections, how businesses can work smarter with a safety inspection app, and ways to quantify hard to measure service qualities.

Now, with a cross-platform app and adaptable forms, managers can use inspection data for more than just complying with safety regulations and checking “inspection” off their to-do list. With greater adaptability, managers can increase inspection detail to make their service organization more data-driven.

Cross-Platform Apps Adapt Across Devices and Operating Systems

One way you can choose a mobile inspection app to be more adaptable to your business is to make sure it runs cross-platform. By choosing the perfect cross-platform application, your field techs can use any device and run on any operation system, which allows you to switch providers without worrying about switching apps and opens your mobile strategy to a BYOD policy.

Better yet, if you get a cross-platform app that also runs native, your inspections will be even faster and more consistent. Companies that use native inspection apps don’t have to rely on the web-browser or internet connection to determine whether they can use the app or how fast it will run. Because native apps work offline, you’re building more than just a web-form; you’re building a custom native application every time you create an inspection form.

Customize Forms and Sync with Technician Mobile Devices in Minutes

Once you’re set up with a cross-platform inspection app to keep your mobile strategy flexible and adaptable, you’re ready to explore how your new solution can help perform, save, and send inspections across the organization.

Flexible inspection apps let service managers update forms, then instantly sync with technicians’ mobile devices. You can add questions and choose a variety of answer types including drop-down menus, radio buttons, numeric entry, date & time entry, multimedia and more, then automatically push the changes as alerts to field inspectors. Don’t worry about printing, recording, or organizing the inspection data separately; it’s all automatic!

After field inspectors submit the inspection, the information is automatically documented and displayed in the organization’s web portals system so service managers can track trends and strategize ways to become more compliant and productive.

Example: Maintenance Checklists on the Fly

Now that we have a general idea of how a cross-platform inspection app makes inspectors more adaptable and companies more organized, let’s get a little more concrete and see this adaptability in action.

Let’s say your organization performs a variety of maintenance checklists a week and requires a range of inspection forms, many with up to 100 checkpoints, ranging from chemical hazards to heavy machinery, fire safety and worker equipment.

As you review the current form, you realize there are several areas in the checklist that need more detail so you simply go into the form, add the fields you need, and sync the new form to alert inspectors in the field.

And to add to the detailed inspection form you just created, inspectors can take pictures and attach them to the form, as well as collect signatures to finalize or sign off on a completed inspection.

Conclusion: Adaptability Means Freedom

When you’re in charge of managing a business and getting all the little pieces to fit together, nothing’s more frustrating than when a piece won’t fit. Having the inspection forms you need when you need them on any mobile device or platform ensures that your inspections strategy will fit perfectly without any extra time or stress.

A Buyer’s Guide to Mobile Field Service Software: 9 Tips for Choosing a Mobile Solution that’s Right for You

In the market for a cross-platform or cloud-based mobile app for your field service organization? Learn important tips, guiding questions, and to-dos in our free, educational whitepaper: “A Buyer’s Guide to Mobile Field Service Software.”

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