Managing and recording inspections is a key part of any inspection agency’s activities. However, sharing schedules can prove to be difficult – a schedule being posted in the office can require inspectors to check in frequently and can be resistant to changes. On top of that, recording the start and end time of inspections manually can lead to mounds of paperwork needing to be managed.
The inspector scheduling solution serves to eliminate these issues. By making use of a suite of interconnected tools, it’s able to answer each of these challenges from a single place.
With an automated solution that makes use of QR code technology to simplify the process of recording the beginning and end time of any inspection, including the recording of any significant notes on the spot, agencies can keep track of who has verified their inspections at the click of a button This provides a full picture of what has and hasn’t been completed and how long any given inspection has taken.
This solution also includes a dynamic way to display inspector scheduling that can be updated and pushed out at the press of a button. If the schedule gets shuffled, inspectors can see it right away. Even better, announcements of these changes can be pushed out, so inspectors know about changes as early as possible.
If this sounds complex, that’s alright. Here’s an example to make it easier to follow:
ABC Agency has several inspections scheduled for the next two weeks. They need to share these inspection times with their agents and they also want to send the specific dates to the sites being inspected – but they don’t want to share the entire schedule with the sites. For regulatory reasons, they also need to identify the start and completion time of every inspection.
They could do this by manually posting the schedule internally and sending out messages to every inspection site, but this requires an incredible amount of time – both for inspectors to check a hard-to-update physical schedule, and for agency staff to send out all the notifications to all the sites. Not to mention all the paperwork that would need to be kept and stored for hand-written records of inspection start and end times.
Instead, they could use an automated solution where they simply need to fill out virtual forms at the start and end of each inspection, collecting all those relevant details at once. Such a solution allows them to set rules on what gets shown to everyone who sees the schedule, so inspection sites and inspectors can be sent the same page, but only see the information they need to see.
Without a doubt, this automated option saves time, paper, and makes the overall process more efficient and easy to update. This solution is even located in one central platform so agencies don’t need to sort through layers of paperwork or multiple online tools.
How to Set Up an Inspector Scheduling Solution
The most critical steps of setting up an automated, digital inspector scheduling solution are having a strategy, figuring out the set of tasks needed to build the process, and finally, finding the right digital tools to build the perfect screening and check-in process. It is a big job, since it involves substantial technical labor and skills.
Fortunately, inspection agencies do not have to build this solution from scratch.
SimplyCast anticipated the growing need for an inspector scheduling solution and built a ready-to-go system that can be customized for every inspection agency.
All you need to do is to follow these basic steps to get your inspector scheduling solution ready:
Step 1: Accessible Schedules
The core of this process is your online schedule. Spreadsheet-based or physical schedules can be a challenge to share and are even more of a challenge to update. This solution makes use of the conditional visibility feature of landing pages to present the schedule to inspectors but restricts what can be seen by those outside the agency.
When an upcoming week’s schedule is ready, it can be posted on the landing page, and easily updated as needed – so inspectors only ever need to check one place!
Step 2: Sending Schedules
When the schedule is ready, it’s still important to make sure inspectors have access to – and are aware of – the new schedule. By leveraging email and SMS tools, the schedule can be sent to inspectors, and they can even be tracked along the way so that the schedule shows the information most relevant to them.
These same tools can be used whenever changes are made, keeping inspectors aware of any major changes.
Step 3: Tracking Inspections
By making use of scannable QR codes, inspectors can easily access forms which they submit when they start and complete each inspection. Whenever these forms get filled out, they are automatically marked with the time they were submitted – thus marking the official start and end of each inspection.
This ensures there is an easy trail to follow for audits and makes it easy to estimate future inspection durations.
Step 4: Recording Notes
Included within the end-of-inspection form, a section can be added where inspectors can record any relevant notes or specific follow-up actions that might need to be taken.
These notes are automatically stored and can be sent to pre-determined staff – including the inspectors themselves. Other information can be recorded and specific follow-up tasks can be generated as well, as needed for any given agency.
Why SimplyCast?
We have a complete, digital engagement-powered inspector scheduling solution.
As mentioned before, it is completely customizable technology so you can tweak the solution to meet your organization’s specific requirements. We have used our in-house marketing automation tool and incorporated our SMS, email, voice broadcasting, and CRM software to build this solution.
Don’t worry about scalability and security! SimplyCast is an ISO 27001:2013-certified company with data centers in the USA and Canada. This means we can assure you that your confidential data is safe on our secure server and the messages you transmit are completely encrypted. Our platform has the capacity to send nearly 100,000+ messages every hour and allows 10,000+ concurrent sessions. We can also get additional gateways and servers if you need them.
Most importantly, we have a 99.5% minimum uptime. With our COVID-19 screening and check-in solution, you can have peace of mind.
Interested?
Don’t wait! Our experts are ready to give you a one-on-one demo to explain how this solution works.
Simply request a demo by clicking the button below and let us show you how our solution can help you manage your inspector scheduling and check-in system more efficiently.
