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Digital field service management is an umbrella term for how a company conducts its field operations. Field service management extends to scheduling services, dispatching technicians, tracking job status, invoicing and billing, and interacting with clients. This becomes digital field service management when companies integrate digital technology like AI, AR, and collaboration tools.
Importantly, field service management is a rapidly growing industry. Currently valued at $3 billion USD, the field service management industry is expected to grow to $5.1 billion USD by 2025.
Field service management works by organizing the daily processes related to field operations, including distributing and scheduling work orders, dispatching workers to various job sites, communicating with workers in the field when they have questions, handling product inventory, and gathering data from the field operations.
Structuring your business around the customers’ needs is paramount these days. By deploying frictionless, customer-centric field service management (FSM), your business will see an increase in customer satisfaction as well as boosted profits, KPIs, and increased operational efficiency.
Optimizing field service management doesn’t only help companies retain customers, it also helps them generate new business. In fact, in a recent poll, 51% of consumers report that they recommended a company to their family and friends after a good client care experience. By integrating best practices from emerging field service management trends, you can enrich your company’s brand value, transforming your business into a best-in-class competitor.
A digital transformation has recently seized the field service management industry. The days of the lone field technician armed with requisite tools, a phone, a notepad, and a pen are over. Streamlined workflows, which are now being integrated into field service management, are the key to operational superiority.
The digital transformation of the field service management industry enables companies to deliver improved service offerings to customers and boost their ROI. The evolution of FSM is made possible by companies adopting technologies such as:
Field service management is also changing in response to modern consumer expectations. Recent consumer trends have seen users increasingly place customer experience above the value of the product. To respond to this switch in priorities, companies are focused on business areas like after-sales services as workflows where they can distinguish their customer support.
Field Service Management uses various tools and software to support work order tracking, scheduling, reporting, and optimizing field interventions and service processes. Digital service management software refers to tools that help companies run their operations as efficiently and safely as possible.
Selecting a field service digital tool will depend on your company’s needs and scope of activities. Some top apps and platforms include the following:
Some solutions can even be used in tandem. For example, ViiBE can be integrated into any existing tech environment thanks to its web SDK which companies can implement to integrate ViiBE into their website, CMMS, CRM, proprietary tool, etc. to start using visual assistance in just 30 minutes.
Omnichannel is a content strategy that integrates multiple communication channels. The integration of channels boosts customer experience by allowing organizations to connect with users across multiple points of contact such as Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. Simply put, omnichannel is innovation through integration.
The ability to access, on a single dashboard, all the information transmitted between customer and agent across all touchpoints is key to providing comprehensive customer service. Whether the customer initiated contact on Instagram or Facebook, their entire ticket history is readily accessible to call center agents. Upon initiating contact, the increased customer-centric knowledge gathered from the disparate touchpoints, immediately gives agents the full context of the customer’s situation. This in turn empowers the agent, allowing them to get to work without delay.
Omnichannel support adds tremendous value to field service management by enriching customer relations. Omnichannel technology, such as the integration of video calls and chat features, deconstructs barriers to communication, giving the user unprecedented connection to an organization. With omnichannel communication, businesses are able to provide the users with what they value most: fast, simple problem resolution as a result of clear, open pathways of communication.
Omnichannel is quickly becoming a cornerstone of field service management. To prove that point, a recent Microsoft survey found that 59% of consumers used three or more channels to get their questions answered. With customers switching from channel to channel, being able to transform disparate touchpoints into cohesive customer service is a must.
A well-run field service management operation prioritizes the customer. By avoiding common frustrations, businesses are able to create better experiences which increase customer loyalty.
Take first contact resolution (FCR) for example. FCR is a KPI for customer loyalty and measures whether an issue is resolved in a single engagement. According to a Microsoft survey, a majority of consumers said that the most important aspect of quality customer service experience was their issue getting resolved in a single interaction.
Modern customer demands are crystal clear: provide rapid, yet thorough service and loyalty will increase.
Companies like ViiBE provide technology that targets user satisfaction KPIs like first contact resolution. ViiBE also tracks net promoter score (NPS), a metric describing the likelihood of a customer recommending a product to a friend.
ViiBE’s technology seamlessly integrates with best-in-class CRM tools such as Zendesk and Salesforce making it a one-stop-shop for handling CRM-related field service management operations.
AR remote assistance is a tool that can be used to optimize both internal operations and B2C functions.
Internally, AR remote assistance has a proven track record of decreasing truck rolls and operating costs. AR remote assistance connects a customer to a call center agent via an AR-enabled real-time video. The agent has the ability to interact with the customer’s environment, enhancing their ability to navigate the customer through the problem-solving process.
AR remote assistance boasts first call high-resolution rates and often eliminates the need for a dispatch, decreasing operational costs. In the event that a technician is dispatched and runs into a problem, they can use that same remote assistance to contact a specialist. That specialist can then help navigate them through the resolution from the comfort of the call center, helping to avoid a second, possibly redundant dispatch.
The use of AR remote assistance also has important implications for improving customer satisfaction. When scheduling a technician visit, it’s not uncommon to be told that the tech will arrive sometime in a five-hour window, effectively cancelling the customer’s productivity for that day. With AR remote assistance the problem resolution takes place at a time convenient to the customer and is overall a more seamless process.
Properly managing customers’ tickets is paramount to maintaining consistent customer service. In a recent study, a majority of respondents said that support agents only occasionally had access to their service history. This disconnect between the customer’s information and the agent’s knowledge can hurt satisfaction levels. Optimizing this white space is a must.
Ticket tracking empowers agents by giving them a complete dossier on each customer and increases customer satisfaction by creating a personalized service experience.
Take for example a customer whose treadmill has re-broken. By accessing the customer’s previous ticket, the technician can see the customer’s history as well as what previous technicians have done to solve the repeat treadmill problem. The ticket information tells the technician what did and didn’t work in previous encounters, allowing him or her to make the most informed decision on how to resolve the problem at hand. This spares the agent from redundant work, ultimately saving time which is beneficial for operational costs and customer satisfaction.
High turnover rates in the field service industry can plague companies and leave gaping holes in their field operations. Within the last year, a reported 11% of field service employees left their jobs, most of whom were older specialists with valuable company knowledge. However, such burdens are avoidable.
By archiving expert knowledge, field service companies can ease the burden of high turnover rates, decrease costs spent on training, and empower rookie field agents. With access to archived expert knowledge, a rookie technician in the field has access to all relevant cases, enabling the technician to use past information to inform his or her current actions. Access to such a vast reservoir of knowledge transforms even the least experienced technician into a capable field specialist.
Knowledge archiving systems are also useful tools for training rookie field operators. By watching pre-recorded videos trainees can learn directly from experts without needing the experts to be present. Additionally, by saving case information, companies can shorten training cycles. Trainees can be field-operational more quickly to independently manage real cases.
There have been more changes to the field service management industry in the past 12 months than there have been in the previous 12 years and this trend is only accelerating. Thanks to the digital Field service transformation sweeping FSM, companies are lowering operational costs while improving customer satisfaction. However, embracing new technologies has gone from a service perk to a must-have. Companies that don’t offer features such as omnichannel support or ticket tracking risk falling behind tech-savvy competitors. In order to stay ahead of the competition, using technology to optimize your field service management is imperative.
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