If you’re struggling with limited resources, a small staff, or too much on your plate, you might see incident reporting software as an excessive luxury. However, these are the exact reasons why you should consider implementing a proven incident reporting software.
Incident reporting software doesn’t just make the lives of your guests easier and safer—it makes the work done by your team quicker and more efficient, and ultimately safer from potential liability issues.
In this blog post, we’ll help you gain a strong understanding of incident reporting software, why it’s important to you and your guests, and the features to look for when you’re ready to implement.
What Is Incident Reporting Software and Why Is It Important?
Incident reporting—also referred to as incident management—is the process of tracking, documenting, managing, and resolving incidents.
Incident reporting software is used by both large venues and smaller properties, greatly simplifying the incident reporting process by:
- Allowing guests to easily communicate with the software user through various methods
- Tracking information associated with incidents in the software application
- Categorizing complete documentation of incidents from start to finish
- Assigning staff to attend to and resolve the incident
Although this is the baseline for the majority of software platforms, not all of them utilize mobile features. With the ability to track data across your facility on a tablet, you can track incidents just like you would on a computer so you can address incidents from wherever, whenever.
To make your life easier, the right incident reporting software allows dispatch queues to be configured to your needs through:
Building Customized Workflows
You know your operations better than anyone else, which means a templated workflow isn’t going to cut it. By customizing your workflows, you have the ability to automatically assign certain types of incident reports and dispatch the right personnel, avoiding miscommunication and ensuring resolutions happen as fast as possible.
Maintaining a Detailed History of All Incident Records
Incident reporting software is as beneficial to the guest experience as it is to your operations. Although we hope it never happens, every operations manager eventually comes face-to-face with liability issues.
By maintaining a detailed history of all incidents, you have the reports to back up your story and prove that you followed all protocols to ensure the safety of your guests and employees.
Adhering to Protocols and Standard Operating Procedures
When it comes to incident management, you can’t afford to allow any “gray space” in your policies and procedures. Reporting, documenting, and addressing procedures require that your employees abide by the cut-and-dry operations protocols you have established.
The Benefits of Mobile Incident Reporting Software
We hear it all the time: “Communication is key.” Plenty of leaders talk about the value of agility to create clearer, less siloed communication, which is the base ingredient for the benefits of using mobile incident reporting software.
When you begin with clear communication, you benefit from:
Greater Employee Involvement
As we’ve touched on, communication is the basis for a well-run organization. Communication also translates to well-run processes. If your current incident management process is tracked on a paper-based process or spreadsheet system such as Excel, it’s unlikely that your employees are as active in reporting as possible.
With mobile devices and mobile apps used for incident tracking, reporting an incident is simple and quick. All they need to do is pull the phone out of their pocket, read the information from an alert, and head to the location.
This simple approach empowers your employees to be more actively involved. And that’s exactly what you want—more attention and faster responses to make your venue safer.
Improved Guest Experience
You want your staff to be more involved, proactive, and responsive for one main reason: to make the guest experience the best that it can be.
When you take steps to ensure your operation is running efficiently through quicker incident response, your guests experience fewer frustrations and enjoy more safety as the impact of incidents is reduced.
Improved Operational Efficiency
You know your operations are running efficiently when you see the results: Your staff is responding quickly and your guests are satisfied with their experience.
You can improve your operational efficiency with the right tools in place, such as a mobile incident reporting software that tells you:
- The exact location where the incident has been reported
- The status of corrective measures that were assigned at a previous point
- How reports from previous years match up to current reporting
Reduced Liability
You know the importance of addressing liability. As we’ve addressed in a previous section, incident management software comes with documentation features that cover all your bases such as witness signatures, time stamps, and a database that keeps an easily accessible history of reports.
Improved Compliance and Safety
You’ve experienced firsthand the necessity of compliance protocols, with COVID-19 compliance protocols being the newest in an incredibly extensive list. Every year, venues are hit with compliance penalties, which means staying in compliance is one of the key ways to save money and time.
In addition to the many features that come with mobile reporting software, you’ll benefit from convenient access to the guidelines, safety measures, and health requirements you and your staff need to follow. When someone has a question, the platform provides a simple way to identify and communicate with the right person, making it easier to achieve and maintain compliance goals.
What to Look for in an Incident Reporting Software
The market is growing at a steady rate. If you choose to research every available software platform, you’ll not only end up wasting time but also feeling overwhelmed. For that reason, here are 10 features to identify as you consider the right incident reporting software for your venue.
1. Instant Communication
Whether it’s through text, email, or software communicator, your mobile app needs to receive the details and status of an incident, as well as the ability to fill out incident forms immediately.
2. Color-Coded and Configurable Dispatch Queue
Certain incidents need to be addressed faster than others. By color-coding incidents in the dispatch queue, your users can see which incidents need to be resolved immediately (such as dangerous scenarios).
3. Configurable Incident Forms
Resolve incidents based on incident type, your specific processes, or your departments by adding both short and long forms that document as much detail as necessary while enabling immediate dispatch.
4. Multimedia Uploads on Incident Records
While on the scene, users can upload photos, videos, and other attachments related to the incident to be included in the incident record. These media files stay with the incident record and are accessible in your incident logs.
5. Extensive Documentation
Every record, note, detail, change, and associated user needs to be included in all documentation. Additionally, all history of modifications needs to include time and date stamps to ensure an extensive audit trail that can never be manipulated.
6. Immediate Dispatch
With just one click, you should be able to assign people, teams, or devices to incidents to ensure they are resolved quickly and documented appropriately. This also ensures that communication occurs with the right personnel without ever leaving the queue.
7. Mobile Incident Reporting
While any incident reporting software is a necessity, not all have a mobile incident reporting element that allows users to report, document, and resolve incidents on the go.
8. Process Automation
Improve processes and ensure best practices are followed when an incident occurs by setting up workflows and inputting standard operating procedures so that you minimize the risk of a situation where a first responder doesn't follow protocols.
9. Reporting and Analytics
You need the ability to generate any and all reports related to your incidents based on the data collected in your configurable form builder. A platform that allows you to format your charts and schedule your reports to be automatically delivered to you or a group of team members ensures that you always have the right data directly in your inbox.
10. Integrations with Modules and Technologies
Finally, you need numerous opportunities to streamline your operations, including the ability to integrate with a myriad of platforms so that you can stay abreast of what’s going on in your operations 24/7/365. For example, two major platforms that 247/7 Software integrates with are Ticketmaster and WhatsApp (the world’s number one instant messaging platform).
Mobile Incident Reporting Software with 24/7 Software
The answer to your struggles and stresses is clear: Simplify.
With incident reporting software, you’re able to make the lives of your guests easier and safer by automating reporting and documentation, customizing workflows, addressing incidents faster, and so much more. That’s exactly what you get with 24/7 Software’s Mobile Incident Reporting Software.
Ready to take your venue operations to the next level? Request a demo today!
