Someone comes out, you get the report
Not everything can be fixed remotely. When an antenna has to go up, a cable has to be run or a zone has to be brought back online, you open a field visit from the app. A technician vetted by WiNet takes the job, goes to the site, and closes it with a written report you find in your zone.
Open a field visit from your zone
A field visit always starts from one of your zones. You open the router page, request a visit, and that is it: the request belongs to that zone and to no one else. Another manager will never see your request, and you will never see theirs.
You can also open a visit with no router attached, when nothing is installed yet and that is exactly the job: the premises are there, the hardware is there, all that is missing is someone to put it together.
Three things matter when you file the request: what you want done, where it is, and when it would suit you.
- The type of visit: setup, repair, or "other" when it fits neither box.
- The description: what you are seeing, in your own words, such as "no signal on the terrace since the storm".
- The area: the neighbourhood or the town, so the request reaches the technicians who cover it.
- The preferred date: optional, to put the visit in your quiet hours rather than your rush hour.
Changed your mind ?
As long as the technician has not started work, you cancel the visit yourself from the app. Once they are on site and the job has started, it runs through to the report.
From request to report
Five moments, and at each one you know where things stand. Nobody expects you to call back for news.
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You open the visit
From the zone concerned, you pick the type, describe the problem or the work you need, name the area and, if you want, a date. The visit is created with the status open.
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Technicians in the area see it
Vetted technicians see the visits on offer, and can filter down to the areas they have said they cover. A visit with no area set stays visible to everyone, which helps when you cannot name the area yet.
WiNet can also hand a visit straight to a vetted technician instead of waiting for someone to take it.
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A technician takes the job
The first vetted technician to accept it takes it: the visit moves to assigned and you get a notification telling you who is handling it. Their name and number then appear on the visit page, so you can reach them directly.
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They arrive and start
The technician marks their arrival from their own app. The visit moves to in progress, with the start time recorded. From then on it can no longer be cancelled, because the work has begun.
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They close it with a report
On the way out, the technician moves the visit to completed and writes the report: what was done, which parts were used, anything left to keep an eye on. The closing time is recorded.
That report is yours. It stays in the app, attached to the zone. Six months later, when the same antenna acts up again, you know what was replaced last time. So does the next technician.
The statuses, and what they mean
A field visit can only be in one of these states. The wording is the same for you, for the technician and for WiNet. There is no manager version and no field version.
| Status | What has happened | What you can do |
|---|---|---|
| Open | You created the request; no technician has taken it yet. | Cancel the visit. |
| Assigned | A vetted technician accepted it, or WiNet handed it to them. You are notified. | Call them, or still cancel. |
| In progress | The technician has arrived on site and started work. | Follow along; cancelling is no longer possible. |
| Completed | The work is finished and the report is written. | Read the report and keep it as the zone's history. |
| Cancelled | The request was withdrawn before work started. | Open a new one if the need comes back. |
Nothing is ever paid inside the app
This holds for field visits as for the rest of WiNet: you never enter a card or a Mobile Money code to pay for anything in the app. Your sales land on the zone balance, and paid options are deducted from that balance. What is free, what comes off the balance and how the commission works are all set out on the pricing page.
- A submitted profile with a display name, a reachable number and the areas covered.
- A check by WiNet: an administrator reviews the file, it is never approved automatically.
- No field visit before the check clears. The platform enforces the rule, it is not left to good faith.
- A rejected file can be resubmitted once it has been corrected.
Technicians are vetted before they come out
You are letting someone near your hardware and your point of sale, so the least you can expect is to know who they are. At WiNet a technician submits a profile, and that profile is checked by an administrator before it can be used for anything.
Until the check clears, the account exists but cannot accept a single field visit, and WiNet cannot hand one to it either. That is enforced in code, not by courtesy.
A vetted technician sees the visits on offer, takes one, carries it out and closes it. They see nothing else of your account: not your sales, not your balance, not your other zones.
You can put yourself forward too
Any manager can apply to be a WiNet technician from the app, free of charge and without giving up their manager account. You stay the manager of your zones and become eligible for field visits on top. You give your display name, your number and the areas you cover. Note that applying is not the same as being cleared. The identity check is still done by a WiNet administrator, for everyone, and nothing can be accepted before it clears. This is about trust rather than money: a technician walks into people's premises.
Read next
A field visit is one link in the chain. Here is what sits around it, from the hardware to running several sites.
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