Features, PublicNet: 11 March, 2016
The challenges of aggregating reliable data and analysing it effectively to drive field service excellence can be made easier if all field service systems are integrated seamlessly across one platform, automating the field service workflow. Indeed, the more a system communicates throughout the process, the more tailored an experience that can be provided to the end customer.
If a field service organization has an end-to-end suite of back office, telematics and workforce management solutions, integrating these with technician’s mobile devices out in the field will offer innumerable benefits. Automated workflows help to avoid the unnecessary task of having to manually enter the same information, multiple times, into different systems and duplicating work. Field service organisations then have complete control over what information is gathered, in a reliable format and this minimises human intervention and touch points, increasing the reliability and consistency of information further. What’s more, by allowing this information to flow freely through the different systems, the entire organisation has complete visibility of the data received, allowing individual departments to access and analyse what data they need to do their jobs which they can then use to base strategic decisions on.
The journey to automated field service
Once an organisation understands the manual processes it’s using and why they do things a certain way, it can start to re-evaluate how to do those processes in an automated system, with fewer touch points and more immediate responses. The journey to automation starts in the back office, with a single, common, integrated system that manages customers, calls, service contracts, estimates and work orders along with assets, inventory and billing, all from one place.
Information stored in the back office can be pushed out to workforce management systems, tool and inventory databases and scheduling engines to allocate shifts, tasks and appointments intelligently. Integrating these systems with CRM applications is also important so that businesses can look to prioritise customers, ensure that a technician arrives on-site at a time that is convenient to the customer and that service level agreements are met.
For technicians that are on their way to visit a customer, the type of information that is stored in the back office is extremely valuable and having on-demand access to it is critical to their success. Being able to pull up work orders, warranty, parts inventory, service contract information and customer data via a smartphone or tablet enables them to complete jobs on-time, first-time round, resulting in lower operational costs and higher customer satisfaction. What’s more, having access to historical customer data empowers them to make valuable service recommendations. Customers feel as though they are getting a personal service and view the field worker as a proactive, valuable partner.
Visa versa, technicians also need to share information with back office and workforce management systems, such as issuing a new service ticket to be scheduled, updating customer records and their at-work hours, which can then be sent directly to the HR system to be documented if this is integrated too. Faster billing can also be achieved if technicians have the ability to complete work orders, have customers sign off on their mobile devices, and are able to bill the customer onsite for same-day billing and faster turnaround. No more losing paper billing forms or miscalculating due to illegible handwriting.
Read more on FIELD SERVICE MANAGEMENT: TRANSITIONING FROM MANUAL TO AUTOMATED PROCESSES…