• Replies 10 replies
  • Subscribers 2 subscribers
  • Views 2 views
  • Users 0 members are here
Options
Related

Anyone else struggling with technicians not using the mobile app consistently?

Ray DeLuca

Look, I know this isn't a new problem, but I'm hitting a wall here. We've got 14 techs in the field, and I'd say maybe 6 of them are actually updating job status in real time. The rest? They'll mark everything "complete" at 4:30 PM from their driveway. Or worse, they don't mark anything at all and I spend my mornings playing detective.

We've tried:

  • Weekly reminders in the team meeting (ignored)
  • Making it "required" in their performance eval (too vague to enforce)
  • Texting individuals when jobs sit open (works for a day)

The frustrating part is the app works fine. They all have company phones. It's not a technical problem, it's a... I don't know, behavioral thing? Cultural?

I'm not looking for lectures about accountability. I want to know what actually worked for your teams. Bonus points if you figured out how to get buy-in from guys who've been doing this job for 15+ years and think paperwork is for "the office people."

...and yes, I've seen the mobile app update post. New dashboard looks nice. Doesn't help if they don't open it.

Parents

  • Thanks so much for starting this thread — we're dealing with the exact same thing! Our team is about 20 techs and I'd say it's split right down the middle.

    What ended up helping us was actually getting the early adopters to train the resistant ones, rather than management always being the messenger. We started a little friendly competition — most real-time updates in a week got a $25 gas card. Nothing huge but it made it fun? And the peer pressure did more than our reminders ever did.

    But I'm curious — what do you do when the job runs long and they can't finish the paperwork right away? That's our big excuse lately. Also, has anyone tried just making the dispatcher do all the status updates instead? My manager suggested it but that feels backwards...

Reply

  • Thanks so much for starting this thread — we're dealing with the exact same thing! Our team is about 20 techs and I'd say it's split right down the middle.

    What ended up helping us was actually getting the early adopters to train the resistant ones, rather than management always being the messenger. We started a little friendly competition — most real-time updates in a week got a $25 gas card. Nothing huge but it made it fun? And the peer pressure did more than our reminders ever did.

    But I'm curious — what do you do when the job runs long and they can't finish the paperwork right away? That's our big excuse lately. Also, has anyone tried just making the dispatcher do all the status updates instead? My manager suggested it but that feels backwards...

Children