The Pest Control guy came to our house to eradicate a roof-rat problem. Rats had made their way into the attic through an opening where the rafters meet the chimney. The pests made a cozy home up there.

The pest control tech performed an assessment, where upon we agreed that work should be done immediately.

He set some traps and left us with instructions that he would return to examine and remove the traps at selected intervals, after which he would seal the opening.

He returned for the first scheduled revisit and removed two traps that had become the last home of two unfortunate critters. He then reset new traps before departing.

The following week, we were surprised when a different tech arrived at the door. He said that the previous guy had left for an unscheduled family emergency and he, the new guy, would take over the account.

He wanted to know what the problem was. I was surprised that he was asking such a question.

Was he not advised by the previous tech? Answer no.

Did he not come with the paperwork from the previous visit? No. The office had dispatched him to the job site with just sketchy information, and besides he was new on the job and had not met the prior tech.

Believe it or not, this tech then asked me if I had a flashlight for him to see in the darkness of the attic. After reviewing the traps, he then called the dispatching office and asked permission for them to send a purchase order to a nearby hardware supplier for him to pick up the construction foam material which was needed to seal the hole beside the chimney.

This guy then left for the hardware store and we were forced to wait another twenty minutes before he returned. When I asked what took so long, he said that he also had to return to the warehouse to get a longer ladder to complete the job.

Amazing! A fifteen minute visit took close to an hour, from the time of arrival to completion.

How could these problems have been avoided? How could this account contract been more efficient?

	The Problems	TaskCaddy Solutions
1	The initial assessment and documentation was done on paper	Documentation inputted into the TaskCaddy mobile device at the point of use
2	The initial assessment and documentation was done on paper	TaskCaddy reduces the dependency upon paper and its related handwriting problems
3	The assessment documentation could not be shared until after it was inputted into the computer by a third party at the office	All data related to the project is stored in that project folder and is sharable to all concerned parties, immediately
4	Even if the documentation had been inputted into the computer, the technical would have had to print out the information prior to leaving the office.	When a new tech is assigned to an established assignment, all related documentation are available for the new person to see on their mobile device
5	The hardcopy documentation could not be shared with the technician if he were at home	The tech would receive all the new task orders or works orders when he turns on his mobile device, regardless of where he is in the state or country
6	The technician did not have the appropriate tools to address this particular assignment – no flashlight, no ladder, no information	The TaskCaddy systems would have recommended the hardware tools required for the assignment
7	The technician did not have any repair supplies when he arrived at the job site	TaskCaddy would have requisition all repair supplies when the project was created and the technician would have arrived at the job site with the recommended repair supplies.
8	The tech had to handwrite the job completion document in triplicate	TaskCaddy prints a work completion document in the field, complete electronic customer signature.

For more information on how Pest Control companies could benefit from the utilization of affordable field services technologies go to www.taskcaddy.com

 

Instant Benefits from TaskCaddy

 

 

-Using the TaskCaddy system, the project manager can input all task orders into the database. Task steps are defined once, and used often, so that the job ticket creation for routine maintenance projects is dramatically speeded up.

-All job standards – Task duration, scheduled stat time, planned material usage and other costs are measured against actual

-The field tech can print the work acknowledgement directly unto a mobile printer in the presence of the customer, thus speeding up the approval process and reducing return calls, faxes and unnecessary correspondence

-Using TaskCaddy, the supervisor would match the technician with the assignment before deploying the project

-Using TaskCaddy, the supervisor would attach installation instructions and other support material if required, to be viewed on the PDA or on the host server via the mobile device.

-Using TaskCaddy, the supervisor may automatically assign multiple projects to multiple techs (paperless)

-Using TaskCaddy, the system would match tasks by qualifications and certifications

-Using TaskCaddy, the tech start-stop activity would be logged and sent to the main server

-Using TaskCaddy, the tech would capture an electronic customer signature and print a service acknowledgement

-Using TaskCaddy, the system would automatically compute inventory usage upon job completion

-TaskCaddy provides the ability to store and reuse estimates from previously completed jobs for current or future use

-You can Incorporate the ability to use GPS for driving optimization and Location Based Tracking

-Using TaskCaddy a field tech has the ability to take a before and after photo capture of the job site

-Using TaskCaddy mangers can capture the task completion metrics and feed to Excel or other business reporting systems

For more information on how Pest Control companies could benefit from the utilization of affordable field services technologies go to www.taskcaddy.com