The agri-input industry plays a huge role in helping farmers improve their yield sustainably. It is a growing industry due to the rising importance of agriculture and thus relies on field agents to market or sell agri inputs like seeds, fertilizers, or advisory services.
This process involves visiting farmers, dealers, farmer conventions, etc. to promote your agri inputs. However, managing agri field these teams can be tough. Rural markets often lack network connectivity and issues like cancelled conventions are common.
So, how to maintain workflow and ensure your agri input business meets its objectives? Well, field workforce management software is the answer. It has revolutionized the agri-input industry. Let’s learn how.
6 Ways Field Workforce Management Software Has Revolutionised Agri-Input Industry
1. Real-Time Workforce Tracking
One of the key features in any good field workforce management software is real-time location tracking. Using GPS technology, the software monitors the live location of all agri sales agents.
It also displays their activity status, so managers are aware where their field teams are and what they are doing. Top performing employees, territory-wise density of employees, total orders, and expenses are some of the metrics the software displays on its centralised dashboard.
This helps managers evaluate team performance in real time. They can ensure better and faster communication between agri-input field teams and address issues as they arise. Managers can also:
- Track employees even when offline or out of network service area.
- View the battery and network status of agents’ devices.
- Send immediate alerts and notifications to agri-teams.
2. Smarter Planning of Field Visits
With field workforce management software, agri-input businesses can better plan and track where their field staff are going each day.
- Field staff get their daily tasks and locations on their mobile phones.
- Managers can assign visits based on location and priority.
- Travel routes can be optimized to save time and fuel.
- Teams can visit more farmers and devote more time to them.
- Let employees create ad-hoc tasks and self-allocate or reschedule tasks.
- Managers upload voice notes, images, documents or detailed text descriptions to thoroughly explain tasks to agri agents.
Managers can also view the task status (completed, pending, in progress). They can make quick decisions and address task issues like overlaps, repetition immediately.
3. Faster and More Accurate Reporting
Say good bye to pen and paper!
Field staff tracking software lets agri agents collect farmer data using mobile apps. Here’s how:
- Managers create custom forms with all necessary fields.
- Agri sales agents access these forms via their mobile app.
- Agents can add enter farmer details, feedback, orders, or demo results on the spot.
- For data collection in bulk, agents can share forms to farmers or retailers using URLs and QR codes.
Thus, farmers can log their data on their own. This feature comes in handy when you have to collect feedback on a large scale or trying to onboard farmers at a convention.
The farmer data is stored digitally and transformed into detailed excel sheets for easy analysis. This method of surveying helps agri businesses to reduce their field agents’ workload and engage a large number of farmers at the same time.
The result?
Faster decision-making and better farmer insights.
4. Reports and Data Analysis
The collected farmer data is useless unless it is properly analysed. You can’t use spreadsheets and manual number crunching to do so. You need time-efficient methods like using field workforce management software.
It allows managers to generate various reports to
- Identify workflow issues.
- Forecast agri input demands.
- Review agri agents’ performance.
- Check the most in-demand agri inputs and territories.
- Track number of new farmers onboarded.
This data helps agri input companies to come up with personalized marketing strategies, maintain supply of top products and make informed long-term decisions.
5. Accurate Attendance Marking
Tracking remote agri-input agents’ time can be a hassle. They often go offline due to network issues, deal with unpredictability in traffic or weather, and work without much communication with supervisors.
Yet, their attendance has to be recorded to maintain timesheets. Paper punch cards are out of the question and in-office attendance marking is not practical.
The solution?
Automated attendance reporting using field workforce management software. It lets executives punch-in from a set geofenced location. Agri employees can also upload geotagged and time-stamped selfies while marking their attendance for added security.
This allows managers to ensure all agri agents are visiting the designated locations, completing their shift times and not indulging in proxy attendance marking.
6. Building Stronger Farmer Relationships
Farmers are the primary customers of agri-input businesses. Building a good rapport with farmers, dealers and retailers is a key objective of agri-input agents.
How do they do this?
By understanding farmers’ challenges and solving them effectively. Using market research, carrying out farmer profiling and personally collecting feedback, agri sales teams gather valuable insights.
They then offer personalised solutions to farmers suitable to their land size, crop preferences, soil type, weather patterns, etc, increasing the chances of high crop output. Consistent follow-ups and timely deliveries also build loyalty and trust.
Satisfied farmers mean repeat sales and good word-of-mouth in the market. Field workforce management software lets agents:
- Use survey forms for farmer profiling and feedback collection
- Ensure accurate order placement and timely deliveries
- Maintain digital farmer directory and for regular follow ups
Conclusion
The agri-input industry is fast evolving. Managing on-ground operations and field teams manually just doesn’t cut it anymore. Agri agents are often scattered across remote areas with varying farmer requirements.
This necessitates the use of field workforce management software. Why? Well, because it simplifies complex workflows, improves farmer satisfaction, aids in surveying and data profiling, and lets you monitor every activity in real time.
If you still need more convincing, explore field staff tracking software like TrackoField today.