Prove It! Benefits of GPS

I wrote, in a past blog post, about the ethics involved in using GPS tracking with your employees.  You can read the post  here. 

The question of ethics comes into play when employees feel like “Big Brother” is watching.  However, the benefits of using GPS tracking go far beyond the notion of time theft.  In fact, there are many benefits for employees as well as businesses.  I will discuss them in this post and future posts. 

Have you ever had this happen?

Customer:  Wow!  This bill is huge!  I know we had you move that wall 3 times, but I can’t

believe it took this many hours. 

You: Well I had 3 guys here for 2 days full time.

Customer:  Prove it!

HOLD ON!  How do you “prove it?”  Show them scribbles on time cards?   Showing upset clients time cards can give you the upper hand in a negotiation, however it’s just writing on paper,  you will probably have to give up a few hours to keep your customer happy.

Is there a better way to handle billing questions like this?  Is there a way that leaves little room for questioning or negotiation? Wouldn’t it be even more convincing if you could actually “Prove it?”

Situations like this are where GPS and GEOFence Tracking are most beneficial.  Imagine showing your customers that your employees were actually on the job-site, working hard.  Let's try this scenario to show what this same situation is like when using a mobile resource management system that incorporates GPS Tracking as a feature.

Customer:    Wow!  This bill is huge!  I know we had you move that wall 3 times but I can’t believe it took this many hours. 

You: (Looking at your iPad) Well, you can see here that John, Jose, and Larry  were on your job-site from 8am to 11:30am.  Then they took a half hour lunch. But, you can see they clocked back into your jobsite at 12:05pm and worked until 5:00pm.   So the bill is accurate.  Unfortunately, it can be very costly to make these types of changes. 

Time records showing GPS coordinates, proving your employees were on the job-site when they clocked IN and OUT, are invaluable when trying to resolve a billing dispute.  As the old adage says “don’t bring a knife to a gun fight." When it comes to billing disputes make sure you bring GPS tracking to the discussion and eliminate the fight.