Driving Business Growth with Field Data Collection: 5 Strategies for Success

Data can be particularly powerful when it is drawn directly from the source. This is the lure of field data collection, where information is collected in an uncontrolled environment, in-person in a specific location such as a work site.

While there’s the obvious benefit of moving away from paper-based systems to digital, the collection and creative use of field data can offer a wealth of other advantages, many of which can have a marked effect on organisational performance.

What are these perks, and how might they improve your organisational efficiency and effectiveness? In truth, the ways in which field data can enhance your operations are limited only by your imagination. But if you’re looking for inspiration, the following 5 examples are a great place to start.

1. Conduct customer surveys on-site and in real-time

How do your clients feel about your organisation? There’s no better way to find out than to ask them, ideally while you’re on site.

Create a customer satisfaction survey that they can complete while you’re undertaking work such as an inspection or service. If you conduct these surveys regularly you’ll collect a treasure trove of client sentiment, which you can organise, analyse and gather important insights from.

What aspects of your service do clients like? What don’t they like? How do they believe you can improve? What problems do they have that you could potentially solve? The field mobility data generated by a well-constructed customer survey can prove incredibly valuable.

2. Automate equipment inspections

The work of service-based organisations, both in the public and private sphere, is inherently laborious. This is particularly the case when equipment is geographically spread and demands that workers travel for simple inspections, most of which don’t identify issues.

But with the emergence of the internet of things (IoT), key equipment can now be fitted with sensors that can perform regular – perhaps even constant – inspections to ensure that everything is working as it should. This field data is fed back to headquarters, where technicians can review it.

The time and cost savings of such a system can be both instant and incredible.

3. Use AI to predict potential breakdowns

Not only can field data be offered up in real-time for technicians to analyse, but artificial intelligence can also take much of the weight of analysis off these experts’ shoulders.

AI is simply better at crunching the telematics captured by equipment sensors. It can be trained through machine learning to identify the smallest operational blip, which could be the very first sign of a potential breakdown. Prevention is better (and far cheaper) than cure, so this information can prove invaluable, solving problems before they even occur.

4. Capture competitor information

Is your organisation one of many equipping and servicing a client? In this case, field mobility data collection can turn a run-of-the-mill on-site inspection into an intelligence-gathering operation.

What services and equipment is a competitor providing to the client? How does their equipment, service and process compare to yours? Is there something that they’re doing that you aren’t?

Your workers can capture a wealth of information, in the form of photos, notes or data, which you can then use to identify ways to enhance your service and differentiate yourself from your competitors.

5. Identify ways to grow customer relationships

Further to the above, by using field mobility data to understand a client’s needs, you can better cater to those needs. Capture and analyse on-site information and use it to suggest ways that your client could use your services to enhance their own operations.

Perhaps a technician is responding to a break-fix order. They see that the client could benefit from more preventive maintenance and suggest increasing the regularity of check-ups. The technician may even be able to complete the new service contract right then and there via a mobile app.

Exploit field mobility data with Seamless

Because the potential uses of field data are so broad, it can be hard to know where to start. That’s where we come in.

At Seamless our expert team is ready to guide you on the whats, whys and hows of field mobility data, from how to set it up to how to make the most of it.

If you’re ready to capitalise on the incredible potential of field data, we’re ready to help. Get in touch with our friendly team today!