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Tag: Field Force Reporting

  • Which Trends are Shaping the Future of Field Service Management?

    Which Trends are Shaping the Future of Field Service Management?

    Managing your staff, whether it is the sales department or the dispatch department, needs organising. Keeping track of their tasks and the progress of each task is an important job for the manager. Gone are the days when these tasks were done manually with pen and paper. Managing targets and performance is generally time-consuming. Field service management as of today can be a breeze if organisations consider incorporating field service software. 

    Companies have begun to manage their on-field personnel with ease and efficiency thanks to cutting-edge field service software. To give you a head start for the trends that will be shaping the industry in the coming year, here are some pointers that we’ve put together on the future of field service management.

    Trends in Field Service Management in 2022

    1. Contactless service

    COVID-19 changed customer and field sales personnel interactions, and many customers are less interested in returning to pre-pandemic service standards. Many businesses also implemented safety protocols, such as contactless capabilities, to keep employees and customers safe during the pandemic. These organisations may find it easier to maintain these changes than to return to previous standards.

    Organisations must assess whether they can do more with contactless options to continue using them. For example: 

    Contactless service appointments- With this, field service personnel can do their jobs while limiting the number of customers they see, thereby lowering contact risks. Customers can be contacted to ensure their information is up to date, CRMs can be tailored to their preferences (such as contactless interactions), and data can be made more predictive for future needs.

    1. Using Data To Offer Superior Customer Experience

    Customer data comes in through a multitude of channels these days, including email, social media, mobile phones, and so on. Businesses must build a holistic analysis of each customer’s data by putting together a complete picture of their experiences across all channels. Customer service will increase rapidly if data is properly examined and marketing, sales, and communications decisions are made based on it. Because today’s customers want individualised communications via mobile sales app and customised experiences, data becomes critical in determining the customer’s activity patterns and tailoring their experience accordingly.

    1. Cashless/Digital payments

    Due to health concerns and constraints, fewer customers have utilised cash throughout the pandemic. The use of money in B2B transactions has declined, while the use of digital payments has soared. Customers prefer mobile payments to cash or physical cards because they are more convenient and secure.

    Mobile payments via mobile sales app can be enabled in different ways for organisations that cannot afford to invest in contactless card readers. Customers could, for example, pay online via a secure portal on the company’s website, a smartphone mobile sales app, or a separate service, or through a third-party payment processor such as PayPal, Square, or Stripe. 

    1. Inventory management 

    Supply chain concerns have caused delays, material and product shortages, and price rises in the trade and construction industries throughout the pandemic. To manage supply chain difficulties and track inventory changes in real-time, many businesses turned to inventory management software. The software may help keep track of inventory and spot price changes for better pricing. In the field service management arena, AI and machine learning-enabled applications incorporated with Field Sales Mobile App aid field service providers improve their efficiencies. Through the appropriate utilisation of data, forecasts of upcoming field service requirements may be made, and service scheduling decisions can be left to the software for better predictions. 

    1. AI-enabled automation

    Organisations in the healthcare and manufacturing industries are aggressively investing in IoT and AI. These technologies may also be beneficial to field service management in the future.

    Field service employees can use IoT sensors and augmented reality glasses to identify where customers need assistance and deliver remote assistance and support. COVID-19 also wreaked havoc on the supply chain. As people leave the workforce, the field service business, in particular, confronts a skills deficit. As a result, many businesses have embraced AI and automation. AI automates procedures and can schedule field service employees using algorithms, allowing enterprises to deliver jobs ahead of schedule and increase profitability. AI also delivers fresh data that firms can make use of to better understand customer experience, its strengths, and areas that need improvement. AI data can assist firms in developing reactive and proactive approaches to meeting service needs.

    Conclusion

    There are a lot of changes that will happen as we progress into the future. Having dealt with a pandemic, it is clear that we will increasingly start deploying technology in all walks of life. Field service management is one space where tech deployment and future advances will be seen progressively and it makes sense to trust those that change with the times too. Platforms such as Happisales are among those that are in touch with the trends and keep up with the advancements. Schedule a demo today and check for yourselves! 

  • Top Four New Year Resolutions to Boost your Sales Team Morale

    Top Four New Year Resolutions to Boost your Sales Team Morale

    As we head towards New Year 2022, most of us take the opportunity to reflect on the passing year and plan what’s coming next. And while the age-old traditions of weight loss and healthy eating resolutions remain popular, the New Year is ripe for businesses to set new goals. 

    The sales industry is always changing, and the most effective salespeople keep up. Sales managers should reflect on their team’s accomplishments and shortcomings over the last year and utilize this information to plan for future achievement. In light of this, your sales resolutions should be well-thought-out and properly designed to set the tone for the coming year.

    4 Effective Ideas to Inspire the Sales Team this New Year:

    Consider these 4 New Year’s resolutions to ignite your sales team’s performance in the coming 365 days if you want to motivate them to work at a higher level.

    • Focus on Time Management – 

    Working in sales may rapidly become daunting, from prospecting and lead qualifying to cold calling and client meetings. But, amid the chaos, appropriate time management skills can help level out the creases and create a healthy structure.

    The necessity for proper sales strategic planning technologies has grown rapidly, and in-person business is reduced. Manual processes are prone to errors and obstruct your ability to make strategic quick decisions. And hence the need for further technological assistance. 

    • Improve Sales Productivity – 

    Maintaining your sales team’s motivation and drive to achieve their objectives should be a top priority. In today’s market, achieving a competitive edge requires identifying actionable insights, defining KPIs for your firm, and remaining current with your data. 

    You may improve sales strategy and performance by using data-driven planning and gathering insights. With a sales tracking software, you can always manage the performance of your sales team and scale up their productivity.

    • Celebrate Achievements – 

    While a year-round sales incentive program is beneficial, short-term sales sprints are an extremely effective strategy to boost performance during traditionally weak periods. 

    It’s essential to business success to deliver relevant, compelling, and timely short-term rewards. Also, choose recognition awards that are meaningful and presentable, strategic, and immediately gratifying.

    • Embrace New Technology – 

    It’s realistic to expect that the percentage of buyers asking to meet the salesperson can rise in the following year as communication technology advances. 

    As a result, it’s critical for salespeople to become familiar with the tools, apps, and procedures that clients prefer to use. Besides adopting new communication tools, it is crucial to leap into field Force Automation solutions to optimize sales further.

    Final Words:

    The start of a new year is a time for reflection, but it’s also a time to get ready for the year ahead. New Year’s resolutions may appear fabricated, but the core principle is goal-setting, which is critical to achieving a competitive advantage. 

    Take an effort to learn more about your Field Sales Team and celebrate their contributions. Only by embracing new technologies and diversifying your communication strategies can you stay on the cutting edge of your industry.To know more feel free to visit us at happisales.

  • Is ‘Happisales’ the comprehensive field force engagement platform your business needs?

    Is ‘Happisales’ the comprehensive field force engagement platform your business needs?

    Regardless of how much the digital revolution has transformed consumer purchasing behaviour; certain things will continue to demand the active presence of humans. For example, when selling insurance, many of us prefer to speak with a human rather than a bot. We feel at ease chatting to a real creature in person, asking questions and nodding along. Some firms cannot survive in the absence of a field force. It is critical that they go door to door. Field sales has advantages and it also has disadvantages.

    Diversions are much too prevalent and thorough monitoring and tracking of your field sales reporting typically determines its success or failure, especially when you consider the number of resources going into fueling your field sales, aside from time. This covers the ongoing expenditures of fueling up field cars, as well as many others such as phone bills, meal bills, marketing material prices, and so on.

    Field force automation is a subset of management of workforce and this involves – tracking field sales, scheduling, dispatching people, ensuring safety standards are followed, and controlling field personnel’s real activities. The administration of other components on-site, such as inventory control, billing, and personnel systems, must then be merged with all of these aspects. Customer dissatisfaction, poor productivity, and unsafe circumstances can all result if adequate field force management is not implemented.

    Because there are so many aspects in field sales reporting, many companies are increasingly preferring to use the cloud and sales force automation software to keep track of everything and guarantee everything works well. Apart from this, typically an automated system also doubles down as a backend software that will often be available in both mobile applications and computer devices. Cloud services facilitate the collection, analysis of massive volumes of data, and thus making managing field staff easier.

    About happisales

    Happisales is a (an end-to-end) comprehensive field force engagement platform for field sales people, supervisors, field force manager, and higher management. The software was created with the express purpose of improving the day-to-day lives of field executives, and with our expertise in producing over 100 digital products, we did it correctly by focusing on usability, security, and scalability. Happisales frees up the salesperson’s time by automating reporting and administrative responsibilities. By gathering relevant data, Happisales field sales reporting engine assists field force managers and heads in identifying hidden opportunities and correcting problems before they occur. Happisales covers field sales executives’ end-to-end operations and assists them in increasing their productivity by reducing administrative work and closing more sales by better managing their client interactions.

     Benefits of using the happisales platform

    Now that we know a few things about field force management, let us look at the benefits of using the Happisales platform to manage the sales force. The software is designed with care to help field executives to work on what they set out to do for the day!

    1. Transparency in the organization

    Integration of back-end services with user-friendly software for field staff can enable businesses and employees to readily communicate about any concerns that may arise in the field. Businesses that have implemented a field sales reporting system can rest assured about accessing reports at any point in time and anywhere. Having instant access to reports helps sales personnel on the ground to make changes to marketing strategy, understand metrics and optimize their sales agenda to convert clients into customers.

    As a business, having transparency in all forms, be it reports or status of tasks, inventory, client closures etc also helps the employees have better faith in the business. This also enables better communication between the headquarters, the departments across the organization and the staff on the ground.

     2. Management at a push of a button

     With the data available at the push of a button, a field force manager can get an idea about where his team is or what clients they are talking to, and so many details. Even the management at a company’s headquarters sitting in another city or country can be aware of the status of the tasks. Field force managers using the field sales management software like happisales can analyze the field services that need to be carried out. This increases transparency and better management of resources.

     3. Identification of problems and materializing solutions

    By using the sales force automation software such as happisales, organizations can quickly identify problems and reduce repeated service calls. This also allows organizations to implement guided resolution steps such that it will not affect productivity and continuity of business.

     4. Highly customizable

    Field sales reporting software like happisales are very customizable and you can pick and choose the features you want to add to manage your organization. Not all businesses are the same, each one has its unique needs and demands, so such sales force automation software can be customized according to your needs.

     5. User friendly

    Needless to say, field force management software is pretty simple to use that even your staff at the end of the supply chain will be able to pick it up very quickly. You can think of arranging a session for your staff to acclimatize them to the features of the software and how they can use it.

    6. Real-time tracking

    Organizations can use field force tracking apps to track where staff is, where the company’s vehicles are, but also what tasks are being worked on at any given point in time. Payments can be processed immediately via the app instead of the staff needing to get back to the office to finish the billing. Tracking can also be done to identify any specific problems affecting the staff’s productivity so that they can be resolved sooner rather than later. Be it sales, collection, order or service, Happisales lets your field executives log data effortlessly. Set discipline right in your field activities by streamlining their tasks. The software is designed in such a way that it simplifies tasks for your field force and paves way for swift communication.

    • Live-track the journey of all your field executives     
    • Push notifications based on activities and tasks performed in the field 
    • Works even without internet access
    • Gain better customer insights

    7. Better customer engagement

    With this sales force automation software, your field executives won’t miss out on appointments. Enable them to achieve better reach, better engagement and thus achieve better results! Happisales allows the field force to set a visit/call appointment/task by themselves and their peers automatically and sync them in their work calendar. Happisales provides loads of features that help field executives to reach their customers effectively and push themselves to achieve more.

    8. Create a motivated team

    Happisales appreciates the work done by the field executives by acknowledging their personal achievements and notifying the same to their respective Team lead. The field force management software improves visibility for the field force which in turn helps them learn and perform better!

    • Individual appreciation
    • Set incentives 
    • Let individuals know where they stand in the team based on targets
    • Personalized reports

    9. Measure and track your teams’ progress 

    Progress tracking helps build better relationships and increases productivity! The field sales reporting software measures 15 parameters relevant to your field executives and monitors individual as well as their team’s progress for those parameters. Understanding the capabilities of each and every field executive helps in bringing out the best in them. Happisales provides researched information using data and facts gathered about each and every individual. This helps our field force tracking solution to create a better relationship between the field force manager and the executives.

    • Set clear targets for the field executives and track them easily
    • Get progress reports of individuals and team
    • Get customizable reports on customers 
    • ML-based suggestions

    Now that you’re pretty aware of the features of the platform called Happisales, why not schedule a demo pronto and get things rolled out as per your convenience!

  • Can sales force automation help the Pharma industry in the pandemic?

    Can sales force automation help the Pharma industry in the pandemic?

    The Pandemic has hit every industry in the country. The second wave was ruthless and the pharmaceutical industry wasn’t left either. As the country shows resilience in the face of the third way, industries have adapted to new ways of life and have shown significant changes in the way they operate. The pharmaceutical industry is touted to rise again from the ashes to become one of the leaders in the economic charts. Industries have taken to the idea of sales force automation widely and the pharma industry has quickly stepped into it too

    When it comes to the pharmaceutical industry, sales is a big deal. Even as an outsider, one could find pharma reps in clinics and small health care institutions trying to win over the prescriptions of a doctor. Back in the pre-internet era, one could find a rep waiting for hours just to gather a day’s appointment of the doctor. 

    Although things have changed dramatically over the last few decades, sales in the pharma industry have been quite a challenge and take a day’s time from the sales team. A Mobile Sales App helps the sales crew manage multiple prospective clients where he could schedule appointments and meet more than two people rather than warming the waiting bench. If you are from the pharma industry, you would know better, but if you would want to know how sales force automation can help during these dire and testing times, here are a few things that can help you with.

    Streamline the Sales team

    Any sales force automation system implemented in any business has its priority set straight. The app’s primary gift to a business would be to manage, operate and execute sales in a very structured way. It’s not the first time we have spoken about this particular point. Try reading one of our blogs here to help you understand (in detail) how automation can help better your sales team more. 

    Reduce cost through digitalisation

    One of the most traditional ways of keeping track of business transactions is filling up the filing cabinet. A look at the combined yearly expenses spent on files and papers could put a frown on your finance team’s face. What if you could cut down on such expenses, or find a way around it. This is where sales force automation lends a helping hand.

    Adopting a sales force tracker app in your establishment can do a lot more than your average filing cabinet. The app can store every data that you would need to pull out in the near future under any circumstances. Bills received, invoices raised, new client agreements, date of purchases, credit periods, customer disputes – everything and anything that happens between the business and its customers are noted with fine precision and in real-time. Apart from reducing your expense on papers and petty cash needs, it also organises your files automatically and can help you look out for information based on time or customers whenever and wherever needed. If this doesn’t put a smile on your finance team, we can help you with more!

    Spotless order & inventory management

    Let’s be honest. The pandemic was and still prevails to be a hard-hitting punch to the guts of many businesses around the world. The worst part of it was the inability of the business to have its manpower restored to its optimal levels. Such cases had overworked crew, chaos on the sheets and numbers that mismatched with the actuals.

    It is no surprise that small scale businesses adopted salesforce automation to tackle such a dire consequence. A sales force tracker app tracks the inward and the outward movement of goods with zero errors. The user-friendly UI makes the user understand the details on screen more than on paper. Keeping track of the orders that come in along with the location of the order and the expected time of delivery, and matching it with the available goods in the inventory/warehouse gives for proper planning and execution. This way your orders can be executed with precision and eradicates any chance of inventory mismanagement

    Tasks & reports automation

    Managing a team of more than 5 would be a handful while working remotely, and to think of getting updates and providing them with their tasks is horrific. The pandemic has pushed the management to think out of the box and sales force automation has made it easier than ever. 

    Forget spending time on conference or status calls, the sales force tracker app helps you manage your team without having to move from your couch. Assigning tasks and tracking your team’s whereabouts are now possible with the GPS tracking modules and real-time data inputs. This way, you would know what Vinodh was doing at 12:46 PM last Monday! No more spending time on calls, you can now use all that extra hours to usher a new age of sales vibes into your sales reports! Forget keeping up the team’s sales standards, It might even help your team get an extra client or two than be

    Workaround pandemic restrictions

    The restrictions have been severe in the last few months and businesses were forced to surrender their operations. As businesses were forced to operate with closed doors, and their employees working from home, the major network of the sales team was disrupted and possibly left alone to rot. 

    An Sales Employee Tracking App helps manage such situations. It helps the management team to understand the best possible way to cater to the needs of new leads. It helps find people of the sales team closer to a possible lead and can let them connect with them from the comfort of their geographic location. Even more, with the help of an automated sales force, people could get things done with ease.


    Let us just put a thought into your mind as we end this long essay. With a workforce management app giving you the benefit of cutting down costs and comforting you sales team, one could use the saved up costs to sponsor them the covid shield vaccine without a second thought.- Give it a thought, but if you are thinking about getting your industry automated, visit us at happisales and we would love to give you a demo!

  • Is Your Current Sales Force Automation Failing? Here’s Why!

    Is Your Current Sales Force Automation Failing? Here’s Why!

    We all know that sales force automation is the usage of software for automating sales-related tasks, including sales activities, customer management, sales force management, and information sharing. This is frequently a component of a system that connects and integrates sales activities with the rest of the organization’s operations. So the success of the sales force as well as the overall organization depends on it. Upon implementation, these systems are seen to fail to deliver the expected benefits and can be attributed to several factors. Let us delve into the reasons as to why the current sales force automation is failing. Here are 13 reasons. 

    1. Lack of long term vision 

    The reason for implementing field sales reporting should be well and clearly defined, with a clear objective and vision of what it should achieve in the short and long term. One cannot create a technology roadmap simply because everyone else is doing it. Your teams may be doing well with manual processes and meeting your targets, but the automation of the process should be made clear to everyone, right from the top management to the employees, on how it can help you further optimize your sales processes and team performance. 

    1. Lack of commitment from management 

    Even if management decides to implement a field sales reporting system and commit significant resources to the effort, the system may not be successfully marketed internally. This is frequently misinterpreted by the sales force as a lack of support from the management for the system to be implemented. This can lead to a careless attitude among salespeople. Senior management commitment is thus critical to the success of any software implementation project. 

    1. Non-alignment of expectations between management and salespeople

    When implementing field service software, we can see two types of expectations – one for effort and the other for performance. Effort represents the user’s view of the amount of work required to use the system effectively. The perceived cost of using the system rises as effort expectancy rises. Performance expectancy, on the other hand, represents how the system’s benefits are perceived. If the imagined costs outweigh the benefits, the system is far less likely to be used. Compared to salespeople, the management tends to underestimate the effort required for a salesperson to use the system and overestimate the performance benefits. This brings about a mismatch in expectations.  

    1. Setting unrealistic goals/objectives

    Adoption and implementation of field sales reporting in existing business modules serve specific goals. Deployment of an automation process does not necessarily mean that it is not a complete one-size-fits-all solution. A module integrated with CRM has specific goals and should not be expected to generate exponential results or perform micromanagement on its own. For example, the automation software can assist you in improving team performance by engaging them, providing real-time performance visibility, public recognition, and rewarding them for their efforts. However, you cannot control attrition because there are numerous other intangible factors at play.

    1. Implementing field sales reporting but without delegating the responsibilities

    The automation journey cannot begin without defining the roles and responsibilities – Who will be the eventual users, who will be reviewing the data, the role of MIS teams, training and abidance of sales teams. All of these questions are extremely important. Otherwise, you’ll just be circling the wagons without actually implementing and adopting sales force automation. The well-communicated value proposition provides a sense of ease of work, improved output, and, most importantly, more time to explore more productive opportunities.

    1. . Lack of proper training

    The system’s complexity results from a lack of information/training or from only having theoretical knowledge of the subject. Companies must recognize the value of investing time in end-user training. More interactive, on-the-job, case-based, practical, and inclusive training is required. Ascertain that your end-users and sales representatives understand the fundamental concepts of automation and automated factors. The training goal should be to change the way people think and not be afraid to use it. 

    1. Improper implementation of multiple workflows

    It is a known fact that improper implementation of anything will affect all workflows. So, when implementing Field Service Management Software, it should be carefully planned and scheduled – steps such as installation, training, and go-live date can be worked out. Adequate time should be allowed for each stage of implementation. This saves all participants from the hassles of deployment and network integration, among other things. It will be a good idea to get help from experts for deployment of the automation process with minimal hitches. 

    1. Poor data management

    Sales Force Tracker is entirely data-driven. It has been found that more than 50% of implementation failures were because of poor data quality. The master data must be structured and sorted per the KPIs and parameters (product hierarchy, attributes, retailer data, contract dates, etc.). This data must be clean, correct, and relevant. It is also necessary to have a thorough understanding of business processes, customers, distributors, etc, to integrate functionalities into your solution. Poor quality data also leads to a loss in revenue. 

    1. Poor customer service

    Lousy customer service results in an irate customer, thus losing them. Regardless of your process/business size, ensure that you provide exceptional customer service at any point in time – be it before or during or after deployment. A 24/7 customer service line has become a prominent and undeniable differentiator for almost every product/service and should never be overlooked. 

    1. Complex functionalities

    Most automation systems attempt to be jacks of all trades, which leads to increased complexity. Instead of assisting sales representatives in entering meaningful data and making reporting tasks easier, these feature complexities make reporting difficult. Adoption becomes difficult if reporting, planning, and other basic functionalities are not intuitive. Excessive data fields and repetitive entries also add to the complexity.

    1. Unnecessary inconvenient additional functions 

    Sales force automation systems have become more multifunctional in recent years, and there are some that include marketing functions and integrated analysis tools. However, if these functions do not match the objectives of your system, even if there are many of them, they will be useless for your company, and you will end up with a difficult-to-use system.

    1. System integrations

    A sales tracking software solution is not a stand-alone system. It must be integrated with existing platforms such as CRM, ERPs, accounting software, and legacy systems. When it is not financially or technically feasible to integrate into these systems, it becomes difficult to utilize the solution’s potential fully. Keeping data and operations separate is not the best way to maximize its benefits. The success of the solution is also determined by the training provided to its users. 

    1. Lack of end-user interest

    What good is a sales force automation solution if its intended users are unwilling to use it? No matter how much money you invest in it, getting the actual users on board is critical. User acceptance determines the success or failure of a setup. User resistance can be overcome by training and knowledge sharing. It is also a good idea to learn about their challenges before implementation to address them through automation. 

    If you are interested in exploring implementing field force automation for your business, do get in touch with us today. Click here to get all your queries related to automation answered. Happisales is all set to implement sales force software in your field.