To be sure, Earl isn’t designed for the urban masses, nor is it marketed specifically to industrial markets. But conceived more as a “backcountry survival” device, it boasts a number of features that service managers and field engineers might love, such as:

• Android OS. Earl runs on Android’s 4.1 Jelly Bean OS — a more open and developer-friendly platform than Apple’s app ecosystem.
• Impenetrable screen. Earl sports a 6-inch e-ink screen (similar to those on many e-readers) that water, mud, dust or shock can’t touch.
• Waterproof. In its hard case, Earl can swim — in up to three feet of water for up to 30 minutes. (Try that with a Phablet.)
• 2-way radio connectivity. Earl gives users a 20-mile range for two-way radio communication and adds an AM/FM/SW/LW radio tuner — all features that are still uncommon on most tablets but pretty handy for tech-to-tech and tech-to-office communication.  
• Solar-powered. Unlike any other rival tablet, in addition to its 3000-mAh battery, Earl is also solar powered via a pull-out solar panel. Five hours of sunlight yields 20 hours of continuous operation.
• “Glove-friendly” touch screen. The screen’s IR touch array allows for normal usage while wearing gloves. Not a unique feature in the rugged marketplace, but certainly not a universal standard. It’s a nice touch for industrial use. 

Last but not least is the friendly price tag. Many industrial rugged tablets run well over $1000 per device. The Earl is a crowd-funded product, meaning customers can reserve a device for just $249 — 30 percent below expected retail — with shipping expected to start in late summer.

Wondering about the name? So were we. The Earl is named after its creator’s dog, an Italian Greyhound.

The post Earl: A New Ironman Tablet for Field Duty? appeared first on SmartVan.

Why does change require management? Because change brings about uncertainty, and uncertainty causes fear. Your employees are comfortable with the status quo. Asking them to change the status quo will bring about emotions that can turn into resistance, which will quickly get a technology deployment off track and prevent you from achieving the results you’d like. So do yourself a favor, and plan ahead to manage any change you are introducing. Trust me, you’ll be glad you did. Here are some tips for building a good change management plan.

Obtain Employee Buy-In as Early as Possible

You may be leery to get your employees involved in your technology evaluation/selection process, and I get it — you don’t want too many opinions to muddy the waters and make tough decisions even tougher. But communicating with your employees from the outset will make the adoption much smoother. Explain to them why you’re investing in the technology, and get their thoughts on what they think would make the best solution. You don’t have to take every suggestion, but empowering your employees to be part of the process will make them feel a sense of ownership that will translate to better adoption of and compliance with the new solution. If you have a large workforce and can’t include everyone, select a group, or ask for volunteers to act on behalf of the mobile workforce.

Provide Proper Technology Training

You can’t expect employees to use a solution properly if you don’t show them how. Document how you want them to use the solution, provide classroom training, use a train-the-trainer approach, or conduct ride-alongs to help familiarize your workers with the technology in the field. Or do all of the above. Just make sure that you provide them all the tools necessary to understand how the solution should work and to use it effectively. And remember, if they don’t first understand why the solution is being put in place, this step will be virtually futile.

Conduct Ongoing Performance Management

If you’ve done the first two steps well, you’ll be in good shape to measure and coach their performance over time. Rather than settling for just the initial benefits the solution provides, you can get more out of it by thinking of it as an ongoing improvement project versus a one-time activity. It’s also important to continue to obtain feedback from your mobile workers — they might have wonderful ideas on how the solution could be used in another way or functionality you could add that would provide exponential benefits.

This is written by Sarah Howland, editor-in-chief of Field Technologies magazine, and is reposted here with permission.

The post Upgrading Your Field Technology? How to Turn Your Engineers Into Early Adopters appeared first on SmartVan.

Caterpillar, the iPhone killer? Hardly. But as the world’s largest maker of construction and mining equipment, Caterpillar understands better than most companies all that can go wrong with mobile devices in the field. And as far as the rugged tablet market goes, there’s plenty of room for improvement.

Coming Soon to an Outlet Near You?

Dubbed the CAT B15, this phone means business. Aimed at construction and industrial workers, it features a 4-inch screen and the Android 4.1 Jelly Bean operating system. Caterpillar boasts that it’s built to survive a 6-foot fall and can be submerged in up to three feet of water for 30 minutes. It’s got an aluminum body encased in a rubberized layer, a scratch-proof screen and — brace yourself — three sizes of earbuds. What’s more, its touchscreen is designed to work with wet hands, a huge plus for service techs.

Last but not least? It weighs less than six ounces and offers turn-by-turn navigation (another bonus for techs in the field).

But whether Caterpillar has a promising future in the rugged tablet market remains to be seen. The B15 follows by a year the debut of Caterpillar’s first rugged smartphone, the CAT B10, and is available only on the company’s website for $350. 

There’s no word yet of any deals with a U.S. wireless carrier, but Caterpillar says that’s only a matter of time. The company has teamed with British mobile developer Bullitt Mobile to manufacture the phone.

The post Caterpillar: The Future King of Rugged Phones? appeared first on SmartVan.

Peterson lists 14 forms of advertising, and put them in three different categories: “great,” “good” and “bad.” While a simple discussion regarding return on investment would be a way to rank these 14 methods of getting a company’s name out there, Peterson went a step further with some funny takes on specific ways ads can truly fail. His advice boils down to one thing: is the advertising method going to encourage people to become customers, or is it just a way to make the person and/or company writing the check feel like a big shot?

What advertising methods does Peterson consider “great”? He listed two specific practices that cost the least but arguably require the most effort:

• Professional networking: Peterson suggests not just joining groups like LinkedIn, but also contributing, starting a group and being a leader in the space.
• Word of mouth: The key according to Peterson is to be active — ask your customers to tell their friends if they appreciate the services you provided.

After only two “great” advertising methods, Peterson lists six “good” ways to advertise. None of these are perfect, but they can all be useful … if done correctly.

• Yellow pages: Only if your name and number come free with a business number. “Don’t waste your money on even the smallest ad,” Peterson writes.
• Newspaper ad: The advice here is to write the ad for the homeowner. Tell them about specials, timeliness, neatness, and other things they’re worried about. Don’t boast about things homeowners don’t care about, like fancy tools or how modern your service vehicles are.
• Truck/van signage: Peterson says to keep it simple and small: the company’s name, logo and number is all that’s necessary. The more your truck or van is covered with advertising, the lower the resale value will be on that vehicle.
• Manufacturer advertising/website listing: Only necessary if the manufacturer advertising your company is well known and not also promoting your competitors.
• Company website: Every company should have its own website; Peterson recommends keeping the site simple and clutter-free. He also says if you aren’t technically inclined, hire someone who can create a good-looking site, as poor quality sites turn customers off.
• Event/charity sponsorship: It might not always be effective advertising, but helping others is always a good practice, according to Peterson.

So we’ve learned that networking with people is “great,” and some forms of advertising are “good” as long as they don’t waste money. But what about the “bad” advertising, the stuff that boosts egos but not revenues? Peterson doesn’t just list forms of advertising that are expensive, but risky mediums that can come off as “hokey” or, even worse, annoying:

• Billboards: Apparently people “hate” them. That might not be universally true, but the ROI probably isn’t worth it.
• Television: If you only have money for a low budget TV commercial, don’t bother.
• Cold calling: Most people are aware of how unpopular telemarketers are. Plus, most field service companies are too busy to spend time calling strangers.
• Door knob hangers: More of a tree-killer than an effective advertising tool.
• Postal mailings: Direct mail campaigns have the same effect door knob hangers do. Just more paper for people to recycle or toss into the trash.
• Trinkets: Stuff adorned with your company name like pens, screw drivers, keychains or any other kind of “low quality plastic junk” is a terrible way to advertise your company.

One way to advertise that Peterson didn’t mention was social media. From the tone of his article, we assume he probably feels like social media would be either a “good” or “great” way to promote one’s company, since it might fall under the umbrella of “professional networking.” It also isn’t the kind of advertising that Peterson advises against: throwing money at something that may boost the ego of whoever’s business is being advertised, but will probably be scoffed at or ignored by customers.

Read more about employee training on The SmartVan

More about ServiceMax

The post Top 8 Ways to Advertise Your HVAC Business appeared first on SmartVan.

In what ways do service managers think they’re getting it right but really aren’t?

One area where there’s quite a bit of a breakdown is that it’s easy, especially nowadays when there is a greater emphasis on providing great customer service, for management to put ideas down on paper, create mission statements and preach customer service — and then not review the interactions that take place with customers.

Companies sit back and proclaim that they’re focused on customer service, but then they let service happen the way it’s always happened without any follow-up with customers themselves to see if the service made a difference or if the customers appreciated the service.

In what other ways do they mistake good service for bad?

Another area where companies tend to fall short is they simply have someone available to assist customers and then consider that great customer service. Companies need to address the actual needs of the customer to provide a better overall experience.

I tell a lot of companies that I work with that it’s great to publish a phone number on their website, but customers might prefer to engage by accessing information on their own, whether through Facebook, Twitter or online live chat. Companies can have a phone number and an army of experts available and still fall short. If customers go away feeling disappointed, even if they received the correct answer, then the service wasn’t good.

How do you balance the need for customer self-service with great quality?

You can have the greatest field service technicians, but customers’ problems don’t always require a technician — even if he or she showed up on time. We’ll see more self-service opportunities, but at the end of the day, field service will never go away. In the future, I think field service will shift toward the upper-tier, escalated issues. Field service technicians will transition into doing more remote-based work.

How can technicians make the transition to more online support?

It varies by industry, but one hot area that I’m seeing, especially in the technology industry, is enabling more telecommuting opportunities for field service technicians where they work on semi-escalated issues from home. They’re out in the field, close to potential customer sites, but a lot of their work is done remotely, through either a remote desktop or through live chat, but they’re still dispatched when needed.

What other ways can service teams hit the mark?

Organizations that are able to take their service execution to the level where they actually have an emotional connection with customers are successful. Customers are really hungry for that, and they show loyalty to companies that interact with them on a personal level, whether through more human corporate communications or companies that allow field service technicians to be more personal. Put a human face to the organization so customers connect with the company almost as they would a close friend.

Also, invest more in getting customer feedback — and using that feedback. The last thing you want is for a customer to post a review that you may or may not see online. Hopefully it’s positive, but especially if it’s negative or contains constructive criticisms, you need to provide a channel where customers feel comfortable suggesting small adjustments when it comes to service delivery.

Best ways to solicit customer feedback?

I don’t advocate for one model. It’s something that each organization figures out by evaluating their customer base and how customers engage with the company. However you think your customers will respond best is a good way to try. But, at a minimum, have a channel that’s active, open and honest.

The post Flavio Martins: Why Simply Meeting Service Expectations Isn’t Enough appeared first on SmartVan.

How did your mobile workers respond to the idea of deploying a fleet management solution? Did you run into any challenges, and if so, how did you handle them?

Well, there was a lot of skepticism involved, especially with some of the older drivers that we have in our fleet. Not being familiar with smartphones, many of them scoffed and said, ‘This awful, this is terrible, I’d rather write out the ticket like I always have.’ The younger drivers were a little bit skeptical, but they knew how to use the phones.

The older drivers got used to it. Some of them complained about the buttons being too small, so I got a stylus for every driver to use, so they can tap on the keys easier.

There was a little bit of concern about the location tracking. The field is growing and moving so fast, it’s hard for the map companies to keep up with the new roads. Every month there are new lease roads created for new wells that aren’t mapped yet. It’s gotten better. The companies are pretty good about getting us GPS coordinates, and by having those the drivers have been able to get to the locations with less difficulty.

This Q&A was previously published on Field Technologies Online, and is reposted here with permission.

The post Love It or Hate It? What Mobile Workers Think About Fleet Management appeared first on SmartVan.

But heads up, killjoys. Field service could be just one of several industries Google Glass will impact in the years ahead — and unlike office-bound professions, field service is better suited to put the device to work in more immediate and practical ways.  Gadi Eichhorn at Realise Data Systems – a U.K.-based field service technology firm — offered his take on how that might break down. Here are some additional insights for service managers to consider:

Better Training, Monitoring & Research

What makes Google Glass so cool — and so scary for privacy and security watchdogs — is its voice-activated video-recording capability. It’s intended to allow for hands-free video recording anywhere and at anytime. For field service, however, this will vastly improve training, writes Eichhorn. Service techs will be able to create training videos based on real encounters in the field. Video will also allow field service outfits to monitor employees’ work and conduct research and development, he says.

Live Support & Remote Collaboration

Next, Eichhorn predicts that the ability to use Google+ Chat through Google Glass will enable field techs to contact HQ from anywhere. Google Glass combined with Google+ Video Chat will also allow technicians who encounter an unexpected problem at a customer site to reach out to other company experts and, if necessary, receive step-by-step instructions on the proper fix remotely.

Fail-Safe Directions & Fewer Fines

Google Glass promises to deliver 3-D directions, literally, right before your eyes. This should reduce missed turns and other driving errors that can cost service organizations time and money. Hands-free GPS will also allow techs to call company dispatchers without losing track of where they are going or breaking traffic laws.

Self-Service & Remote Repairs

These areas may just be the beginning of the changes in store for field service, courtesy of Google Glass. Think about it: how could a hands-free, all-encompassing device for repairs not be a hit in an industry that is, by definition, totally hands-on? Customers could receive step-by-step repair instructions talking with a remote service tech via video chat. The cost savings could be enormous.

Better yet, what if a Google Glass-wearing customer could show a technician the precise problem before an on-site visit? Given the need to improve ‘first-time-fix’ rates and to always focus on enhancing customer service, the answer to the question of whether Google Glass is good for field service seems obvious.

The post Google Glass in the Field? No Joke — 5 Ways It Could Impact Your Business appeared first on SmartVan.

What are the best new ways to market a promising new field service business online? Alexander “Sander” Daniels, co-founder of the regional services portal Thumbtack, has grown his own business around finding new ways to source professional services — from house cleaning to marriage counseling to field service. The promise to small outfits operating on shoestring marketing budgets are obvious: for free or a nominal fee, businesses can list themselves in a local directory and tap into a stream of new customers. Daniels shared his marketing insights in a SmartVan Q&A.

How can field services benefit most from new online services like this?

Most businesses are open to our pitch where we say, “we’d like to bring you more leads and more business.” The one thing that’s different in the field services sector versus others is that field service people are always on the go. So they use mobile a lot more than desktop so we’ve invested a whole lot of work into making our website mobile-friendly. We’ve run A/B tests on site design and optimization on mobile and it’s obvious that any time we make a page that’s mobile-optimized the pros love it and use it a lot more.

How can service companies can generate more customer leads?

The biggest new feature that we’ve had in the last year is something we’re pushing out this month. It’s called the “Public Questions” feature. Previously, we’d send businesses a lead with an email address, zip code and a ton of information about the lead. Then businesses would have to decide whether or not to respond or not. If they did, they’d have to pay. This new feature allows you to look at the lead and then ask questions to the consumer about the job before deciding to pay. The questions are public — all pros who received the lead can see the question and response.

Thumbtack SEO Sander Daniels

We’ve found that a lot of pros are very savvy about this tool and using it to make sure the lead is the right type of job and that the consumer is engaged. Not every consumer lead is a good lead. If you ask questions and the consumer responds with good information, it can remove a huge pain point.

How have you managed to grow in a category dominated by companies like Craigslist and Yelp?

In the first three years we spent most of our efforts marketing to service pros, and we signed up about 250,000 across the country in all different types of categories. Over the last year, we haven’t spent much effort marketing to this group because we felt like we already had some good success. Instead we’ve been marketing towards consumers and and we’ve increased the number of consumers coming to our site about tenfold. Most of our traffic comes from Google search results. About five months ago we started doing a lot of paid advertising with Google AdWords, which makes up a big chunk of our traffic. We see about one million unique visitors per month.

There are fewer opportunities for smaller players to get into the [online local services directory] game because there’s a lot of consolidation at the top. HomeAdvisor is still the 800-pound gorilla in terms of home improvement leads. Angie’s List is starting to get really sophisticated in online marketing, so they’re starting to get a lot more online traffic. There are a lot of tech startups that are trying to get into the business: Bizarre.ly, TaskRabbit. They haven’t been that successful.

Why are so many more customers and businesses signing up?

More businesses are coming online than ever before. It might seem crazy to you and me that not 100 percent of businesses are online. A lot of small businesses are becoming more sophisticated with their marketing. Frankly it takes a certain amount of sophistication to participate in the lead generation game, but more businesses are figuring out that this is a good channel for them.

Consumer signups are lagging behind business signups. Consumers are, for the most part, still used to the directory model of finding local businesses. We’re trying to build a quote feature so consumers get more used to coming to a site, telling us what they need done, where, the problems they’re having and then getting quotes from a handful of businesses. Consumers are slower to adopt this model because it’s a big change in behavior to what there used to be before.

The post New Tactics in Service Marketing Online: Q&A with Thumbtack Co-Founder Sander Daniels appeared first on SmartVan.

But his opinions touched off a nerve with some service techs, notably Scott Molinari, general manager of Germany’s Adduco Digital e.K. who argued passionately that in-house technicians give service outfits an incomparable advantage. Others read their debate here and weighed in.

We thought it would be useful to recap the discussion and let you decide which hiring model works best. First up: Cannone’s claim that independent contractors are an increasingly attractive option for companies looking for more flexibility in their staffing. With temporary workers, companies don’t have to spend the time and money, hiring, rehiring and retraining full-time workers, says Cannone. Instead, they can adjust their staffing levels according to current customer demand, thereby achieving a better balance between revenues and expenses.

It didn’t take long for Molinari to counter. In Molinari’s eye, there’s a high price to pay with the “rent-a-tech” model – in terms of time, professionalism and competitive advantage – and that too many service firms fail to recognize the return on investment in their technician workforce. “The service team is the cherry on your (hopefully) high-quality product pie land to make sure that cherry is really sweet,” insisted Molinari, “you must invest in your service team and stop looking at them as costs.

Cannone offered a rebuttal, in which he one more highlighted the benefits of outsourcing. But he also noted that neither model is “superior.” In fact, he argued, many companies are blending the two methods to create an optimal workforce, he wrote.

Now cue the SmartVan community. “John,” wrote that Cannone and Molinari both make good points, but that both models work depending on the company and its specific culture and needs. He then described which model works best for different types of businesses.

Tell us what you think. If you are a field service operator, how are you hiring these days. If you’re a service tech, do you prefer the flexibility of the independent-contractor model or does full-time employment work best for you? Post a comment below.

The post Reader Roundtable: Hiring Contractors vs. Full-Time Technicians appeared first on SmartVan.

A New Zealand-based electricity distributor, Counties Power, is reportedly looking into the use of drones, a.k.a. unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) for emergency repairs. When power poles and telephone lines are damaged, the need for a rapid response is critical. Counties Power isn’t looking at mid-air repair jobs using laser beams; rather it is contemplating the use of drones for aerial images so that techs arrive on the scene of a disaster debriefed on the fix required and armed with the necessary equipment.

The payoff: faster restoration of power and minimal damage control. ”We thought it was a bit ‘pie in the sky’ at first, but now we’ve looked into it we’ll probably do it,” said Richard Deihl, systems development manager of Counties Power.

As an example, Deihl cites a car crashing into a power pole. “We could launch the drone, send it to the GPS coordinates of the pole, have it circle around, take pictures and video and send them back well before anybody could get out there,” said Deihl.

The post Coming Soon: Drones Working in the Field? appeared first on SmartVan.