Ticket approval system for and method of performing quality control in field service applications

Abstract

Methods and apparatus for facilitating oversight and quality control of a plurality of locate and marking operations performed by a plurality of locate technicians forming an approver group reviewed by an approver. An approver logs-in to access an approver inbox comprising a plurality of displayed locate technician windows, each locate technician window associated with one locate technician of the approver group. The approver selects a first locate technician window representing a first locate technician, and in response information relating to a first operation performed by the first technician is displayed. The approver provides an approver quality assessment input representing a first quality assessment of the first operation, and an electronic record of the first quality assessment is generated and stored.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS[0001]This application claims the benefit, under 35 U.S.C. §120, as a continuation of U.S. non-provisional patent application Ser. No. 12 / 204,454, filed on Sep. 4, 2008, entitled “Ticket Approval System for and Method of Performing Quality Control in Field Service Applications.” Ser. No. 12 / 204,454 in turn claims the benefit, under 35 U.S.C. § 119(e), of U.S. provisional application Ser. No. 61 / 076,253, filed in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office on Jun. 27, 2008, having the same title.[0002]Ser. No. 12 / 204,454 also claims the benefit, under 35 U.S.C. §120, a continuation-in-part (CIP) of U.S. non-provisional application Ser. No. 12 / 029,732, filed on Feb. 12, 2008, entitled “Electronic Manifest of Underground Facility Locate Marks.”[0003]Each of the above-identified applications is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.BACKGROUND[0004]1. Technical Field[0005]The present disclosure generally relates to quality control in field servi...

AI Technical Summary

Problems solved by technology

Since there may be numerous field technicians, each of whom are assigned numerous tickets, implementing and performing meaningful oversight and quality control activities in a timely fashion may be difficult.

As a result of the limited quality control activities in certain field service applications, customer satisfaction may be adversely affected.

Additionally, the time, effort, and cost that is associated with re-performing work in the field or with correcting and / or improving poorly performed field calls may be unacceptable.

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