Do you know that about 40 percent of sales organizations reportedly use GPS tracking for their field sales reps, Statista?
This number is expected to escalate by 15 percent in the coming three years, showing acceptance within the sales industry.
If FMCG and CPG brands are striving to analyze the real-time performance of their field sales reps today, it is because they are not onboarding employee GPS tracking tools!
Consumer goods brands have to acknowledge that their business completely relies upon the performance of sales executives on the field; the more business they bring in, the better their revenue will become.
Therefore, I will point out the major benefits of integrating GPS tracking tools into consumer goods brands, a journey from tailoring productivity to customer satisfaction.
What are the challenges brands deal with when tracking employees manually?
Sending out sales representatives on the field comes with a lot of challenges and problems that hamper the overall performance and effectiveness:
It is infeasible to track the accurate location of field employees if they work across many locations, so managers need the real-time location of field workers.
It is impossible to comprehend the amount of effort employees have put into the field, making it difficult for managers to dissect each one’s performance. So, there is an abundance of unproductivity in the field.
Each team member is assigned an authorized location to work in. Still, brands need to access the number of hours each one has put in the particular location, the number of stores visited, new customers added, completion of meetings with clients, and so on.
The success of any business relies solely upon its decision-making ability, the well-structured decisions, the better results, i.e., brands need to access real-time data, which leads to delays in the process.
Compensating field employees without reliable data, like how much time field workers have traveled and what number of customers they have visited, might be a tedious and time-consuming process and will cause inaccuracies in determining the payroll of employees.
Lack of transparency between the brand and the customer owing to the inability to trace delivery vehicles and packages
The inability to track, analyze, and optimize the field operations leads to hampering business scalability.
Not having a proper system or dashboard to communicate with all field employees to assign new tasks as per real-time requirements.
Not onboarding employee GPS tracking apps has several drawbacks to consumer goods brands, but the most critical one is that it prevents brands from having competitive advantages.
What does GPS tracking mean to the FMCG/CPG industry?
In simple words, it is a way of monitoring and analyzing the activities of employees, including their work hours and breaks, with the intent of knowing the level of their productivity in real time.
It assists brands in drawing an invisible wall, also called a geofenced area, on a map whenever someone gets in or heads out of that area with a tracking device. Brands will get notified.
Also Read : Ultimate Guide to Salesman Tracker Software 2024
The tool is not restricted to location tracking only, though it comes out with several capabilities:
- Route Optimization
- Time Tracking
- Task Management
- Proof of Service
- Data Analysis
- Quickbook Time
Benefits of employee GPS tracking apps for FMCG brands.
Before investing in employee GPS tracking apps, it is important to know how accurately onboarding such tools will save you time and money.
Hence, I am here to point out some of the core GPS tracking features that will benefit you in making data-driven decisions:
Streamlining the attendance management process
The concern is about more than just the arrival and departure time of the field workers, but the way it is done. Manually clocking in and out will waste the crucial time of each field employee, which they could utilize on the field itself.
GPS tracking app not only automates the entire process of punching in and out but also assists managers in seeing the exact location of all employees at the same time, through which managers can make sure their employees are in the right geographic area.
It is easy to maintain communication with field workers regarding their activities, no matter where they are located, with the help of in-app chats and updates.
Managers can even relocate their field workers, spread across various locations, as per the situation and requirement since “employee GPS tracking gets managers a remote to monitor their workers.”
Reckoning timesheet with automation
It is imperative to know the accurate number of hours each employee has put in after arriving on the field. For that matter, managers use manual ways to calculate timesheets, which directly wastes their time and hampers productivity.
Time tracking apps not only determine employees’ productivity on the field but also track the break times of each worker, ensuring errorless deduction from their work hours.
Managers can now easily access the performance of each employee in real-time, with the assistance of an employee GPS tracking app, to reward them according to their accomplishments on the field.
Virtual boundaries for team members
Have you ever wondered about real-time visibility into what exactly your team members do on the field and which geographical location they are, be it field workers or remote teams? Employee tracking apps assist managers in monitoring their workers’ every movement.
One of the features of GPS tracking apps, i.e., drawing a virtual fence, also called a geofenced area, on the map, will get managers real-time notifications if any of their field employees enter or leave the assigned area.
The purpose of having a geofenced area is simply to alert managers and take data-driven actions accordingly.
Refining the sales reporting process
You might feel like you need clarification as to how an employee GPS-tracking app streamlines the process of collecting, organizing, and summarizing the company’s sales since it must only have to do with tracking the real-time location of employees.
However, some great tracking apps assist businesses in getting access to real-time sales data by just monitoring the frequency of visits, time spent on the field, and the level of activity by field employees, which ultimately leads to forecasting, planning, and optimizing.
Visibility into logistics and delivery
The most essential department in any consumer goods brand is its operations; customers will lose faith in brands if they are disrupted. For instance, the delivery boy needs to fulfill the order on time.
GPS technology assists businesses in accessing real-time visibility into their delivery vehicles and packages, eventually boosting transparency by eliminating ambiguity and uncertainty.
It also has the benefit of geofencing around the delivery locations, which lets managers know the proof of delivery, cuts out future disputes between brands, and improves customer experience.
Furthermore, If brands share reliable delivery tracking info with customers, they feel valued and respected, which will end up building trust between brands and customers.
Ensures safety and security
Employee GPS tracking apps are efficient in tracing employees who are working alone in remote areas or hazardous environments to respond to them quickly in emergencies or accidents.
Managers will instantly get alerts if employees enter an unauthorized geographical location, which will assist them in reminding and making employees accountable if they resist.
Customer Satisfaction
The ultimate success of any consumer goods brand depends solely upon “how satisfied their customers are.” If anything goes wrong in the process of making them feel satisfied, it will directly affect the revenue of the business.
Hence, GPS tracking features can focus on employee effectiveness, transparency between brands and customers, and the most critical part, i.e., communication between managers and field workers, which will eventually ensure customer fulfillment.
Final thoughts on employee GPS tracking apps
Consumer goods brands have to understand that the manual ways of doing business are going to take much work. Instead, it needs to be updated in today’s time since every tiny thing is rapidly evolving as per the needs and demands of the consumer goods market. So, you have to ensure you adopt new methods and techniques to get ahead of your competitors!
There is a need for GPS-tracking apps for your business to streamline sales and distribution, improve the visibility of workforce management, make data-driven decisions, allocate resources efficiently, and so on. These are some of the benefits that brands get after implementing GPS-tracking apps.
However, it is critical to be familiar with the aspects of exploiting these apps. i.e., they should not be used for micromanagement or surveillance, leading to the creation of a negative work environment in organizations.
At last, it is vital to weigh the benefits and drawbacks of onboarding this GPS tool before deciding on anything.
