So, spring has arrived. About time! After a few months of winter with chilly temperatures and lots of rain and snow, the sky has finally cleared, flowers start to show up in gardens and parks, and birds are chirping happily to celebrate warmer temperatures.
The arrival of spring is something we usually link to a time of renovation and fine-tuning. That’s probably why many people take this time of the year to clean around the house, in the so called spring cleaning. But this revamp frenzy should not be limited to your home, and expand also to technology. In the end, your field service company is based on it thanks to the use of field management software (and if you’re not using it yet, what are you waiting for?).
Here are a few tips that will help you do some spring cleaning in your field service company’s technological set-up – including, of course, your field management software.
Clean your devices, inside and out
If we’re talking about spring cleaning, we should start by the most basic tip: keep your devices clean! Did you know that computer keyboards can be even dirtier than toilet seats? So, if you’re all day typing in your field management software, it’s probably not the best working tool…
So, go ahead and apply some good spring cleaning to all the elements in your computer set-up. Not only the keyboard, but also mouse, screen, printer… and don’t forget the inside of the CPU as well! With one of those compressed air sprays you can easily remove excessive dust which, if left untouched, can end up having a negative impact on the computer’s performance.
One thing to take into account: your eagerness to clean shouldn’t be limited to the outside of the device – that is, the hardware. The inside (the software) also needs some cleaning from time to time to ensure proper functioning. Take a look and erase temp files, downloaded files you no longer need, ancient apps you no longer use, and generally speaking, any unneeded archive. This excessive data can slow your computer down to the point of rendering it unusable with your field management software.
You can use apps like WinDirStat for Windows or Disk Inventory X for Mac, which help you detect larger files, and also tools like CCleaner, with which you can easily perform all necessary cleaning and maintenance tasks in your computer.
Keep your field management software up to date
Besides cleaning your devices inside and out, another key element in the use of technology applied to field service companies is to always keep your field management software up to date.
With the release of new versions, field management software not only adds new tools and improvements that can help you be more productive and offer a better service to your customers, but also includes fixes to possible bugs and security flaws. This is why you should also use spring cleaning time to make sure the field management software in your company is updated to the last version.
The most recent version of Synchroteam, for instance, includes a new time tracking module that allows you to control time devoted to each task down to the minute. And in a field service company, we all know time is money!
Check security in online profiles
If you’ve already adopted technology in your field service company, congrats! You’ve taken a very important step towards improving performance, increasing productivity and giving your customers the service they expect – and deserve! With the proper field management software like Synchroteam you can grow as a field service company, and also thanks to social media like Twitter or Facebook you can have a closer, more personal relationship with your customers.
However, all these efforts are useless if you don’t work on keeping this technology safe. One key point here is to always have your field management software up to date, like I mentioned before. But it’s also important to keep an eye on your company’s social media profiles, and teach your employees to follow certain basic security guidelines when using technology at work.
Keep up with new times!
And if you haven’t taken this step yet, what are you waiting for? Make use of the spring cleaning season to give your company a more modern, up-to-date look and put it right ahead of your competition. Don’t miss the chance to start using field management software today, and forget about having to print reports, taking dozens of papers on visits to customers, keeping old paper records in dusty file cabinets. Synchroteam makes it really easy for you with this free trial!
