For businesses that operate both within and outside of an office, providing onsite services to customers, field service management is a key concern. Simply put, field service is the aspect of a business’s operations that cover onsite and in-person services offered to clients and customers. Examples can include telecom installations, utilities recording and management, construction, as well as repairs and maintenance.
It can consist of an array of operations, such as liaising and scheduling appointments for customers, sending out technicians and specialists to sites, tracking employee progress in real-time, logging complaints and issues that arise and recording ticket resolutions.
Because of the extensive nature of field service, managing the many different moving parts and operations can quickly become complicated, especially when businesses resort to manual interventions and methods that can’t keep up with the fast-paced nature of the role.
Field service is exceptionally important to a business’s reputation, often being the sole point of direct contact that customers have with an organisation. This makes it crucial for businesses to optimise their field service operations so they meet and exceed customer expectations to retain their customer base and reinforce customer loyalty.
Salesforce Field Service is designed to help businesses do just this through a completely digital-first approach that puts their field service operations on autopilot.
What is Salesforce Field Service?
Salesforce Field Service is an extension of Service Cloud that allows organisations to coordinate and optimise their in-person field operations. Common use cases for Field Service can include but are not limited to, equipment maintenance, installations, repairs, on-site assessments and monitoring and evaluations.
These tasks require careful coordination and communication between support agents, dispatchers, technicians, workers, customers and more. It requires the right kind of tools and technology to facilitate seamless collaboration between different parties to deliver the kind of field service customers expect. Through its capabilities, Field Service can provide businesses with:
An end-to-end view of data
Field Service centralises all information on a single shared interface, breaking down data silos that form between dispatch teams, operators, and support agents and providing levelled access to the data every team member needs to excel at their role.
Team members can share data updates in real time that reflect across the platform and access knowledge and resources necessary to plan and take action without waiting on data feedback or confirmation from other members. Teams can also collaborate on the same platform and support each other with case resolutions.
Enhanced operations
Field Service utilises artificial intelligence (AI) and automation capabilities to help field service teams streamline their management processes, with minimal manual intervention necessary. For instance, dispatchers can select technicians and workers for appointments based on their live schedules and expertise areas and customers can also track the progress of their support cases to completion, receiving updates on their preferred channel of choice.
A more connected customer experience
Through Field Service, businesses can ensure they’re providing the correct level of service by providing accurate information about service contracts. Businesses can use the insight gained from this data to generate new cross-sell and upsell opportunities for existing customers, creating a more personalised, connected experience for customers.
Who Uses Field Service?
Support agents
With Field Service on their side, support agents have the power to personalise every customer interaction, using the vast array of data at their fingertips. Agents can use AI capabilities to automate their workflows, interactions and responses and access knowledge articles to get up to speed on particular problems to resolve them more quickly. Visual remote assistance also allows agents to schedule live video sessions to support customers in real-time as they work towards resolving customer issues.
Field service managers
Instead of manually managing multiple different operations across different platforms and channels, field service managers can access and oversee all of their processes from a single interface. From the convenience of their tablet, laptop, or even mobile device, they can review appointments and schedules, track case progression, communicate with team members, sync tasks and updates, and collaborate with team members to find solutions to issues before they impact customer satisfaction. Online and offline mobile capabilities mean that managers have the resources they need to do the job from any location, no matter how remote.
Dispatchers
Field Service completely digitalises the field service management experience. Dispatchers can say goodbye to whiteboards and map schedules when it comes to making appointments and checking technician schedules. When scheduling an appointment, the Salesforce Field Service system will recommend the next available technician or specialist, pairing dispatchers with the employee with the right skills and expertise for the task.
Unexpected changes to schedules are also handled, with Field Service automatically sourcing and recommending a replacement specialist. If customers cancel their appointment, the system will also reassign the employee to a different appointment or task that aligns with their skills and abilities. This frees up dispatchers’ time to focus on more complex tasks and building better relationships with customers.
Technicians and onsite employees
Technicians no longer have to rely on drips of information being fed to them from dispatchers about their appointments, schedules and customers’ requirements. From their mobile devices, they can access the data they need, updated in real-time as appointments are added to their schedules. They can review their schedules, access information about their appointments, and plan for them by ensuring they have the correct, necessary tools and equipment with them before making the trip.
Implementing Field Service successfully within an organisation and integrating all of its features and capabilities into the necessary workflows requires careful planning and coordination to prevent interruptions to productivity and success. For this reason, it’s important to partner with a skilled and experienced implementation partner who can facilitate a completely seamless transition.
CloudSmiths is Africa’s largest Salesforce implementation partner and trusted advisor. We offer end-to-end Salesforce consultation, implementation, development and support services:
- Consulting and advisory services
- Salesforce development
- Salesforce licences
- Managed services and support
- Salesforce implementation
- Salesforce Training
We’ve recently launched the CloudSmiths Centre For Excellence For Field Service in South Africa, making us the ideal Salesforce partner to facilitate and implement Field Service across your organisation.
