Asset tracking is a system implemented to monitor fixed and non-fixed assets. Today, tracking involves attaching a tag to the physical asset and pairing it with asset management software. Once that is done, the possibilities are limitless.
The company can monitor the asset’s location, condition, maintenance records, which staff members serviced it, and much more.
The company can keep a single database to act as an asset register that gets updated in real-time. This makes for easier auditing, valid provisions for depreciation, and minimizes the risk of fraud.
In addition, a company can pass the benefits to customers to establish better relationships and grow the customers’ value. Here are a few ways asset tracking can improve the customer experience.
Faster and Efficient Services
Proper asset-tracking will make your organization’s service efficient.
When it comes to maintenance, asset tracking will maximize the uptime of your equipment. Your team can schedule maintenance early enough and conduct it during the slowest time of the day. This reduces downtime for clients.
You can also streamline the distribution processes in your company, assuming you have several warehouses within a single state. When a customer places an order, the warehouse nearest to them should be the one to fulfill the request. Your organization will be able to better manage its inventory by checking the stock levels in different warehouses.
Better Admin Services
When customers call your service line, they expect the person to serve them to answer all their questions. Sometimes it is hard to predict what the client may ask. Asset tracking helps to always have answers ready.
If your business involves delivering and installing assets at a client’s premises, then your clients might call and ask what time your team will get there. Through tracking, the call-center admin can give an expected time of arrival. The client might also call to ask when the installed asset is due for servicing. The call-center admin can also retrieve such information.
Sometimes, the admin may be given inaccurate information from clients attempting to take advantage of potential loopholes in your system. For instance, they might say your team never delivered a package or failed to conduct a scheduled service on equipment. A field asset tracking system makes the organization foolproof.
Such capabilities help shape a positive image for the company and lead to more business from existing and referral clients.
Proactive Maintenance and Monitoring
Some organizations must monitor their assets continuously to ensure they are fit for use. Take, for instance, organizations that deliver fresh produce across state lines. They must ensure that their freezers are working because it could compromise the quality of the product delivered. Hospitals must ensure their blood warmers are working correctly.
Small failures could expose these companies to legal liabilities. When a possible fault is noted, the organization can undertake proactive steps to ensure they always give customers consistent services.
The same works when the asset is in the hands of a customer. For example, with a leased solar power unit, the leasing organization must keep track of the asset and collect performance data. When data reveals a drop in the unit’s efficiency, the organization will dispatch their service team to act.
Trends in Asset Tracking Technologies
Asset tracking has evolved in significant ways since the 1970s when barcodes came along. Today, you can scan barcodes and QR codes on your phone. QR codes, in particular, are helpful because they can store details on the location, use, and maintenance of assets.
GPS technology is still the standard method of tracking items in transit or that are being used away from company premises. Companies can actually use GPS to allow customers to track their order delivery progress.
We are set to see greater functionalities added to existing asset management software. One such trend is real-time analytics. Data from assets gets collected and analyzed for real-time decision making. Real-time visibility and analytics also reduce the possibility of theft.
Another trend likely to be seen is adopting blockchain data records to store information on assets’ life. Assets can stay at an organization for years or decades with periodic maintenance, repairs, and valuation. Blockchain is best suited to protect the integrity of such information.
Conclusion
Whether your service business has 25 or 25,000 technicians, digitized asset management can help drive efficiencies throughout the entire field service process.
Get started on driving customer satisfaction while increasing service revenue with digitized asset management today. Request a demo now.
