Resolving 85% more service jobs with iForm Pro
The Challenge
Geolift specialise in the rental, sale and service of new and reconditioned material handling equipment. We have a UK-wide customer base and an ever increasing fleet size to look after. The service team has doubled in size over the past twelve months as we successfully service our client base in one of the most challenging economic markets in the past thirty years.
Our service team has doubled in size over the past twelve months due to an increasing number of customers coming on board who require fleet service. The distribution of our clients has demanded that we look for more efficient ways of communicating service outcomes, spare part requirements and financial sign-off for ad-hoc service work.
Working in accordance with UK LOLER standards, material handling equipment must be tested every six or twelve months and these inspections frequently highlight the need for unplanned maintenance or even part replacement.
Traditionally ad-hoc repair work often needed a second site visit in order to rectify the problem. This was not driven by the lack of available spare parts, but the difficulty of communicating effectively with the client. Briefing the client of the problem, the resolution action and the associated cost verbally was almost impossible.
Paper-based service reporting also meant that the engineers struggled to return service paperwork in a timely manner. It often took up to fifteen working days to have paperwork returned to our head office. We often had a three-week window where we had little or no knowledge about services delivered on the client site. This meant that we also had a three-week delay on getting invoices out for services already delivered.
We needed to implement a smarter way of working that would allow information to be accurately sent and received the same day.
The Strategy
iForm ProTM from Footprint Solutions provided an instant, easily usable and paper-free method of meeting our real-time reporting requirements.
Whilst the solution is iPadTM based, it is also simple to use and was met with no resistance from our service engineers in adopting the solution.
The Footprint Solutions team reviewed our existing form artwork and developed the iForm Pro forms in a matter of days. We couldn’t believe how quickly the solution was developed and the delivered form designs looked superb and required very little end-users training. iForm ProTM delivers service forms from any site in just 15 seconds allowing the customer care team at head office to understand exactly which services have been delivered and whether a job is complete. This has allowed us to engage fully with our clients and deliver higher levels of service.
Ad-hoc service requests are no longer an issue as the solution is able to capture engineer feedback (including photographs)
of unplanned work that may be required. Since this information can be sent back to our contact centre in real-time we can usually discuss the service requirement with the client and sign-off any repair works immediately.
The real-time information delivered by the system has allowed us to resolve 85% more service jobs in a single visit when compared to running paper-based forms.
Key to the rollout success was the solution’s ability to capture handwritten information and automatically process photos.
The Result
iForm ProTM was simple from the very beginning. A trial solution was set-up in days and the team transformed our service sheets incorporating the Geolift brand.At the end of the day we have our vans branded with Geolift colours so why not our business forms?
The trial was an immediate success and we knew that iForm ProTM was going to transform the way in which we did business. The solution is a win-win really and allows the clients to receive a higher level of service. 85% of all unplanned maintenance is now completed on the first visit and all service paperwork is sent to the client the same day.
For head office, we achieve same-day invoicing for jobs (previously invoiced on day 15) and service sheets are delivered throughout the day as jobs are completed rather than huge volumes hitting the admin team every once in a while.
We can also monitor job progress as we know exactly when an engineer has finished on-site as the form is delivered just before they leave. We have also removed all of the old administrative tasks that we used to have to do such as scanning service sheets and re-keying data into our sales system as the system provides PDF output as standard. After just 3 months we couldn’t imagine having to run our business without iForm ProTM.
The cost of running iForm Pro is cheaper than the cost of running a paper-based reporting solution and the Footprint team were able to provide our iPads with no up-front investment. There really is no downside to adopting iForm ProTM.
What Geolift has to say about Footprint
The benefits of iForm Pro are impressive and the team delivered our forms in a matter of days. We have gone from receiving service reports twice a month from our engineers to receiving them before they leave the client site.
The solution is really simple to use, it’s like using a magic sheet of paper. I still write my service form information down, it’s just written onto a tablet and not a carbon service form” commented a senior engineer. The photo capture is really useful too. Photos are automatically inserted into the back of the form to provide supporting information to head office and the client. The fact that we can write notes onto photos was just the icing on the cake really.
We are aiming to become the leading supplier of handling equipment on England’s south coast and iFormPro will be instrumental during this period of growth.
I have already referred several other companies to Footprint Solutions and I couldn’t be happier with iForm Pro, invoicing the same day we finish a job has transformed the cash flow of our business.