Read how Baker Pool eliminates paperwork with mobile forms
Baker Pool provides new pool installations and pool maintenance services for the mid-West. The company understood the value of switching to paperless processes and having digital operations for their pool maintenance visits, so they set the goal to go completely paperless for their service technicians.
With Device Magic’s mobile forms solution, Baker Pool was able to achieve its paperless goal and optimize their pool maintenance and quality control processes.
“We didn’t want to have paperwork floating around in a tech’s van,” said Patrick McCormick, President of Baker Pool. All paperwork is now completed on tablets using the Device Magic mobile forms app and the data is recorded on the spot.
Filling a Software Gap for Field Data Collection
Every spring, Baker Pool opens about 600 pools and completes weekly pool maintenance and repairs throughout the season in the Greater St. Louis area. Although the company had a software that met most of their operations needs for scheduling and billing, they needed a solution for collecting the information gathered by service techs and to provide access to the historical data while a tech is onsite.
McCormick struggled with another mobile forms provider to get forms built and deployed. After months of waiting on the forms to be built by the vendor, it became imperative that a solution was put in place prior to the busy summer season.
McCormick found Device Magic, and within two weeks had completed a product trial, built all of the forms himself that his service techs would use, and was able to deploy mobile forms with the service team on about 20 devices.
Weekly Maintenance Data Collection
Baker Pool service techs use Device Magic for data collection during weekly pool maintenance visits throughout the summer. During each maintenance visit, techs monitor the condition of the pool. This includes taking six different water chemistry readings.
These readings create a pH history of the pool water that can be referred back to should a problem arise. Previously, these readings were collected on a paper form and needed to be scanned into a computer at the office.
Now with Device Magic, the weekly maintenance form is always available on a tech’s mobile device and can be easily completed for each visit. And if a problem appears with the pool, historical data is available to track when the issue began.
Baker Pool collects between 20-30 submissions per pool each season with Device Magic. The data is then used to create an overview record of the pool for that year. Device Magic ensures that all of the necessary data is accurately collected and recorded.
Tracking New Pool Maintenance
“When we were deciding on a new forms solution, the Dispatch feature of Device Magic was exactly what we were looking for,” said McCormick. This feature is especially helpful after the construction of a new pool.
When a new pool is first installed, techs go out twice a week during the first 30 days to perform maintenance and check in. A checklist must be completed for each of these visits.
With Device Magic, the tech fills out the checklist during their visit and use it on the next visit to see exactly what was done previously. Sometimes a different tech will perform one of the weekly visits. In that case, they can pull up a Dispatch of the form that was begun earlier in the week and know exactly where to start.
Dispatches sent to techs live on their tablets and can be accessed at any time, instead of being stored back in the office or somewhere else less accessible.
Giving Supervisors Access to Important Quality Data
Baker Pool field supervisors use Device Magic to help keep track of the work their team is doing. This allows the company to maintain digital quality control data and access it any time. If an issue arises with either an employee or a pool, managers can easily check the data to determine if this is a one time issue, or a chronic problem.
Having this data readily available enables faster troubleshooting and the ability to address problems more quickly, thus ensuring quality service.
Baker Pool knew that paper wasn’t an efficient part of their workflows, and understood the value of having access to data from the field in real-time. Device Magic makes managing work during their busiest season easy. After a fast initial implementation, Baker Pool has expanded their forms to include pool openings and closings and winter maintenance, along with weekly maintenance.