Scaling to Remote Areas: SurveyStudio

Introduction

SurveyStudio is exclusively focused on photo-based, pre-installation site surveys for Kiosks, Automated Merchandising and Retail Stations. Tyler Jones, CEO and Founder of SurveyStudio, and his team have spent the last nine years focused on bridging the gap between preparation and installation, because they’ve learned that an accurate site survey is pivotal to a successful retail placement. Tyler believes learning from experience is at the center of their innovation.

SurveyStudio and Field Nation: Partners from the Start

During his many years as an independent contractor doing survey work on his own, Tyler traveled the USA, completing onsite projects and training organizations on how to achieve effective, all-inclusive site surveys. “It was a very old school training method, and I realized I couldn’t effectively compete or scale,” remarks Jones. This was when he founded SurveyStudio. “Even from the start of our company, I knew that Field Nation, along with our proprietary mobile app and Salesforce, were the critical technologies that would enable us to create a successfully scalable SurveyStudio offering.” Jones had SurveyStudio up and running less than three months by integrating Field Nation.

Scaling Across North America

The decision to use Field Nation was two-fold,” reflects Jones. “First, we wanted to expand the amount of work we did without having to worry about W2, while being able to painlessly expand geographically. For SurveyStudio, working with regional companies wasn’t a workable solution. They needed to be more distributed across the country. “We were doing work in every state in the nation, from major metropolitan areas to middle of nowhere, and needed the ability to scale without being tied only to key metropolitan areas.”

Addressing SurveyStudio’s need to perform photo-surveys in extremely remote areas was a key benefit of partnering with Field Nation. A recent project in Ketchikan, Alaska, which has very little coverage, makes the point. Field Nation was able to help SurveyStudio find the technicians needed through the Field Nation Marketplace.

Field Nation consistently helps us find workers in remote areas when we get stuck. Of the thousands of jobs we did last year through the Field Nation marketplace, we were able to find a technician 100% of the time. The location distribution of providers is amazing.”

“We were doing work in every state in the nation and needed the ability to scale without being tied only to key metropolitan areas.”

Finding Service Providers

In sourcing service providers for jobs, SurveyStudio uses multiple methods. “We originally relied primarily on talent pools, and recently shifted towards using first-time providers,” says Jones. “We like technicians with strong backgrounds, though also enjoy helping the new ones get work.” SurveyStudio dispatchers look for service providers who have the ability to take photos and are precision-oriented and can closely follow instructions.

Conclusion

In reflecting on SurveyStudio’s decision to use Field Nation, Jones states “The entire concept of using a contracted workforce that we don’t have to manage really appealed to us. We didn’t have to create or manage our own teams in the field. Having Field Nation manage the entire platform allows us to be efficient and having the freedom to simply post the work has really helped us scale.”