The world of work has changed radically, even in the last few years.
In the old world, there were jobs for life. Now people have many jobs over a lifetime and there are more start-ups than ever before. In the old world there were employers and employees. Now, self-employed contractors and freelancers often outnumber salaried staff. Large bureaucratic, inefficient organisations are gvigin way to smaller companies working together in groups.
Customer satisfaction is no longer just important, it is life or death for a company when customers can post bad reviews instantly, and they can go viral.
And expectations are much higher in the internet age. Customers expect things to happen quickly, they expect to be informed, they expect to be delighted.

In the past there was a huge focus on productivity. Make more widgets, achieve economies of scale, keep all resources busy.

Now the focus has shifted to super-efficiency: the best use of resources to achieve the highest possible levels of customer satisfaction.
It’s not just the number of jobs done – it’s the number of jobs done well, on time and with a happy customer at the end.
It is a huge challenge to deliver higher levels of customer service with less control over a work force.

The inflection point has been reached and there are winners and losers. Companies who have embraced the new world include Rolls Royce Aerospace, Airbus, Formula 1 teams, Dell / Apple, Casio, Tesco, Amazon and Tesla. They are all leading the way in their respective fields.

So , how have they done it? With customer satisfaction being the main goal, companies have shifted from batch work to connected job flow.
Batch work is about keeping resources productive, connected job flow is about keeping ever-more-demanding customers happy.

Batch work is siloed, task-focused and inward-looking.
In the old world, improved productivity could be at the expense of customer satisfaction. After all, you are only as productive as the rate at which you are able to keep jobs flowing.

Doing more jobs with the same resources grows your business. Without JOB FLOW it is very difficult to satisfy the customers.  With JOB FLOW it is very difficult not to satisfy the customers.
Which means you are more efficient and your customers are more satisfied.

With multiple sites, multiple resources and multiple customers, it is easy to lose control.
Communication can be slow, or break down completely, and progress can be hard to track.
Companies that don’t crack this problem will fall short against customer expectations. In short, they will lose.

The winning companies have embraced technology which enables connected job flow.
One place where companies, customers, contractors and employees are all connected. They can log in, communicate, see real time information on a platform which gives technicians the tools to succeed. Highly visible, you can see progress of every job at every stage.

By 2020, over 40% of field service work will be performed by technicians who are not employeesof the organisation that has direct contact with the customer.

The customer doesn’t know this, and doesn’t care. As far as they are concerned, the person they are looking at is You.

By 2020, more than 75% of field service organisations with over 50 users will deploy mobile apps that go beyond simplified data collection and add capabilities that help technicians succeed.

This changes everything.
Before, teams were disconnected, miscommunication caused errors and delays, and  information flow was disjointed, with a mixture of Emails, phone calls and instant messages, all taking too much time.
Companies were drowning in paper and admin, meaning they couldn’t expand and were inefficient.

With Okappy, everyone involved in a job is connected and can communicate in real time.
Job flow happens at the touch of a button through a dedicated app. It is paperless, scalable and super-efficient. reducing the amount of time and effort it takes to manage jobs, customers and contractors.

Gartner has said that by 2020, 70% of organizations will cite customer satisfaction as a primary benefit derived from implementing field service management, up from approximately 50% today.

Jobs make money. So, more jobs means more money, but (and this is the critically important bit), not at the expense of customer satisfaction.
Super efficiency means more work and greater satisfaction.

But don’t just take my word for it. Our customers are the best advocates for what we do.