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Why Offline Mobility for Salesforce is a Gold Mine for Field Workers – Real Case Demonstration

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One of the Most Common Use Cases: Break & Fix Scenario – Jacob’s Story, Part 1

The global field service market is estimated to jump from $1.58 billion in 2015 to more than $3.5 billion by 2019, according to the research firm Markets and Markets.

If you haven’t invested into field services, you should do it now. To keep costs of field service at an all-time low, the key to it, is: Mobility. It propels service businesses to deliver a better customer experience.

Is the back office team in your company utilizing Salesforce on their PCs? If so, great! But the truth is, field service continues to get a bad reputation. Today’s companies need to take on a proactive approach and get ‘e-savvy’ with their customers. The paper-based approach or even using a customer relationship system (CRM) on a PC alone, just isn’t enough anymore. It’s not about replying to emails and recording calls.

Modern companies are mobile orientated, rethinking proactive service approaches & using the right “intelligence”, to enhance customer experience.

Mobility in the Field – Introduction

A regular field service operation usually includes 3 types of workers/divisions in a company:

  • Field Manager – a person that is responsible for the timely and efficient completions of each field service case
  • Dispatcher – a person taking and recording requests from customers
  • Field Agent – often called a field technician or simply a field worker, is someone who goes on-site to a customer’s location to make a repair, do an inspection and deliver/pick up products

Note:  Field technicians need some kind of electronic device(s) to accomplish their on-site task(s).
All-in-one Device in the Field
Imagine if you could manage all field service processes within one device? Well, now you can. And it’s pretty simple.
all-in-one-device

Mobility in the Field – Typical Scenario

Let’s have a look at a case of a service technician visiting a customer’s site. Except, the technician is equipped with Resco Mobile’s field service app for Salesforce.
work-orders-salesforce
Meet Jacob, a renowned field service technician specializing in servicing & heating repair
The service company specializing in furnace heating repairs, provides quality heating services, including inspections, maintenance repairs, and replacements of furnaces, boilers, and other heating products. The company offers a diverse inventory, specialized techniques, and tools to make the service job as swift as possible. In order to carry out high-value on-site service, Gold Star Heating & Air aims for a mobile-first enterprise strategy.
The most common furnace repair technicians perform is what we call, a ”break and fix scenario”. To provide better insights to customer repairs, a service technician in the field can now document pictures of all furnace parts and damages needed for repair and work with them in real-time, even with no Internet connection.

Service companies today struggle with customers in providing detailed reports to assure and gain trust in what’s being worked on in the field.

How is Jacob’s company trying to gain customer trust and in essence, revolutionize the use of technology in such a traditional line of work?
The formula for success lies in individuals who want to progress, and technologies that increase the productivity of your everyday job with ease. Everyone involved in a field service process (repairs/inspections), a field manager, field technicians, and even dispatchers share the company’s core value: proactive approach towards the customer – mobility can make it happen.
Jacob, relies on mobility in the field. How does he solve a particular case?

Read Jacob’s story, a field technician at Gold Star Heating & Air that successfully solves a case of a broken down furnace, showcasing prepared inventory, and assuring the customer of timely repairs.

It’s a typical day at Gold Star Heating & Air with busy phone lines. On the other side of town, one of the loyal customers is dealing with an unforeseen problem with the furnace in the underground of a business center.
 1. Dispatchers use location-based task management to minimize costs and operational efficiencies 
When dispatchers at Jacob’s company receive a call regarding the furnace that requires a checkup and might even need to be repaired, they open the Salesforce solution. Gold Star Heating & Air access data via Salesforce every day with their PC screens to manage field service operations.
Dispatchers immediately look up the customer in Salesforce, review details and any previous history. Once they review who’s available appointment-wise, they simply create what we call, a new case.
Now, dispatchers are able to coordinate and schedule a new case: “Furnace Inspection & Repair “.
Thanks to the field service app, dispatchers know where each agent is, so the app automatically sends a notification to the specific agent that is available and nearest by. Once the case is sent to a right field technician, they receive and accept the task, and the new case created by dispatchers now becomes a work order.
Role of mobility?

  • Smart task management
  • High level of service delivery to the right person/location
  • Location based assignments
  • Maximized time savings and new bookings made

 2. Jacob receives the alert of an unexpected customer visit (aka – Furnace Inspection & Repair)
Jacob is only a few blocks away from the customer’s site, and just finished up with a scheduled furnace service repair. He’s well ahead of his tasks in his schedule for the day. After getting an alert, he opens up the work order within the app, and accepts it, thereby agreeing to meet the customer and do a Furnace Inspection & Repair.
With mobility, technicians have all the information about each client as to what’s needed to be repaired but at the same time, seeing previous work done, as well.
Role of mobility?

  • Manager and technicians can handle unexpected operations straight away
  • Highly prioritized cases are managed more effectively
  • Customer satisfaction is increasing

What happens next? How does Jacob get all prepped for the customer’s visit? How does Jacob’s performance at the site go? Is he ready to deliver a superior repair job while using the mobile field service solution for Salesforce?
If you’re curious as to how the story continues, stay tuned and follow next week’s newsletter…
In a meantime, feel free to drop us a line at mobilecrm@resco.net. Let us show you Resco’s field service app working alongside your Salesforce in action!

TO BE CONTINUED…

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