In this age of disruption, businesses are moving mountains to give and get some customer love. They realize that one unaddressed call can turn a loyal customer into a limitless hate-monger. In fact, according to the Customers 2020 report, customer experience has overtaken price and product as the key brand differentiator. But are they really well equipped to give customers what they want, especially when it comes to field service management?
Keeping up with rising customer expectations is the biggest challenge faced in the Field Service management space. According to a study conducted by Field Technologies Online, almost half of field service leaders are concerned about keeping up with increasing customer demands (46%). Customers are impatient now, they want nothing short of the best service without wasting their precious time.They demand shorter appointment windows, better communication and reliable services.
So what’s going wrong?
Truth is, there are several deep rooted problems existing in the field service space that need to be tackled in order to close the customer experience gap. Let’s take a look at the top 5 challenges here:
Challenge #1: Real Time Communication
Assigning work orders to the appropriate field executives can turn out to be excruciating for field service managers, say when they are not able to get the right person with the right skill set. Even the slightest case of mismanagement can be catastrophic resulting in decreased productivity. The last thing you want is your executives spending more time on the road rather than closing the case itself.
Challenge #2: Unable to improve First Fix Rate
One of the major hurdles associated with FSM is the lack of right customer insights across all customer touch points. According to the Aberdeen Group, the number one reason for return visits from field technicians is a lack of customer information, which comes at a cost of $200–$300 per visit. When the agents, dispatchers, and mobile employees are scattered and not connected on one platform, it results in disoriented customer service and decreased first call resolution. Inorder to develop a more personalized customer experience, it is important to streamline operations across the entire retail chain by bringing everyone together in a single system.
Challenge #3: Service Optimization
When work requests keep piling up, it is crucial for managers to know where their field service executives are currently located and whether they are available at a specific time slot. It is difficult to prioritize and finish their work when they are unaware of their team’s current status.
Challenge #4: Rising Operational costs
Field technicians sometimes spend additional time to finish their assigned tasks, like checking on inventory and additional travel requirements. Eventually all these factors add up to the total operational cost associated with the whole process. This is one of the most important obstacles to be addressed by the managers as minute human errors can later on spike up the total amount spent on their resources.
Challenge #5: Lack of automation
How do you measure the service efficacy of your field executives? What are the crucial KPIs that should not be ignored? Manual methods like spreadsheets and other paper documents can only take you so far in assessing the performance of your team against the end goal of your organization. No manager likes to be bogged down with paperwork mounted on their desk just to make sense of how well the team is performing, or how packed they are for the day.
Many companies are turning to field service apps which provide analytics dashboard and reporting modules which can create organization wide performance metrics to track potential issues among the team.
Enter Field Service Lightning (FSL)
Field Service Lightning, an extension of the Salesforce Service Cloud product suite, is the perfect solution to bolster confidence in your service team. Not only does it overcome the said challenges, it can make your Field Service Management a breeze because of its ‘anywhere anytime capabilities’.
Here are some of the benefits of FSL
- Powerful features to automate planning for service appointments.
- Optimize task allocation to assign correct technicians based on their skillset and availability.
- Connects customers, agents, dispatcher and technician on a single platform.
- Offers pre-built reports and dashboard for analytics.
- Eliminates time and effort for deploying different field service solutions as it provides a one-stop solution for any requirements.
- Aids in improving team productivity, service revenue and overall customer satisfaction.
Ready to transform?
You think your customers aren’t demanding yet? Well think again. Maybe they are not demanding today, but they will be sooner or later. To keep up with the rising expectations, you need the best tool in the market and hence the ingenious capabilities of FSL are not to be ignored. It is powerful and can completely transform your field service operations in no time.
Interested in learning more about FSL? Let’s get you connected with our FSL certified specialist here.