The Results Are In…
One of the hardest aspects of my job as a Customer Success Manager is acquiring information to help serve and retain our customers. I constantly have questions running through my mind like - what information do customers really care about? How can the app be updated to better suite customers’ needs? What pain points do our users face? Phone calls with customers are crucial in my plan to gain these insights, but there is only so much time in the day. So, with the help of our marketing team, we developed an end of the year survey campaign to gather valuable information we could use moving into the new year. This campaign ran from Monday, November 22 to Friday, November 26 and we received an overwhelming number of responses. I’m going to highlight some of the significant findings that came from this campaign.
Dave Thomas, Customer Success Manager at OnStation, presenting his analysis on the most recent survey study done for OnStation.
It’s Easy
One frequent problem I hear regarding technology and construction is that the implementation of new tools/software is difficult. Knowing this, I was amazed that every single respondent rated OnStation as “Easy” or “Very Easy” to use in our survey. Not only do these results show us that implementing the OnStation app takes minimal effort, but also how new users can start reaping the benefits after they login for the first time. This validates one of our core tenets - to leverage equipment and terminology that our customers will understand.
One of the most consistent pieces of feedback I get when talking to customers is that they use the app multiple times a day (an average of 6.5 times a day to be exact!). All this information confirms that our app has become a core tool on roadway projects. Customers want our app on all their projects because it makes their job easier and they can increase their work efficiency.
As Lionel Richie would say, “It’s easy like a Sunday morning.”
Reliable Location and Documentation All Day, Everyday
Ever spill coffee on an important piece of paper? How about standing outside with project plans in not so optimal weather conditions? Or roaming around a project trying to find the correct location to a station when the markers have eroded away? I hear these story’s too often when talking to potential customers. Our survey analysis has presented that we support all these pain points within roadway construction in our app. One of the survey participants even stated:
““There are several benefits including: locating points on the project, seeing items in a position where they go, being able to view plans without having to carry a large print set, being able to set flags and chats to communicate with others on the project along with photos of the areas of concern, and having a method to record items for record keeping.”
This sounds like a good list of benefits for the roadworkers, but there are also benefits for the individuals in the office as well. Managers on roadway construction projects know that communication and documentation/reporting can be a hassle. It’s like when you have that one friend that communicates with you on all different forums, then when you need to refer to something they sent you can never find it. Our goal is to limit this frustration by centralizing all communication and documentation. There are so many pictures, and notes, and other forms of data collected over the course of construction projects and many of our managers had remarkable things to say about our documentation features.
““I feel that OnStation is a worthwhile investment for projects due to it being accessible by any person on the project with a tablet or a phone. They can use it from the basic functions to just see what we are building to being able to document project progress and potential issues. I like that we can add layers to account for each discipline or information needed. It can help reduce mistakes by adding clarity in seconds to what we are building”
When I consider comments like these, I cannot help but think about all the exciting new developments our dev team has in place. This really gets me fired up for the future of the app. Our users love OnStation because our app helps to organize everything on a project-by-project basis.
Staying Safe
It is no secret that active jobsites are inherently one of the riskiest work environments. According to United Stated Department of Labor, “One in five deaths among U.S. workers is in the construction industry.” This is honestly a terrifying number and we take safety very seriously at OnStation.
One big job that we are going to help with is a 4 lane repave of US 30 in Indiana. Part of the work for this project involves paving at night. The station lathe set up for the project is in the median of the highway – which means the workers must cross 2 lanes of traffic to take a measurement from the lathe. With OnStation – these workers can get their station reading from the safety of their truck. This company is excited that OnStation will remove that potential risk by providing digital stationing.
Conclusion
Overall, the findings from the survey provided me with the insight that our app is doing what it is supposed to do, make roadwork easier and safer. As we move forward into the new year, we will focus on providing users with more tools and training to help them on projects.
If you would like to chat more about this, or about my dog Penny, feel free to schedule a meeting with me by clicking HERE.
Written By: Dave Thomas
