Field Service: The Key to effective and efficient on-field support and service

Field Service is an on-site job management platform with real-time collaboration capabilities. Salesforce Field Service is an extension of Service Cloud, offering a comprehensive package to efficiently run successful field services and operations.

Any company with a mobile workforce or employees, service technicians, or professionals required to visit customer sites for various requests can benefit from Salesforce Field Service solutions.

The capabilities are not limited to service activities alone; they extend to managing multiple visits, preventative maintenance, inventory control, and tracking resource availability and work progress.

Major components of Salesforce field services

Key Personas involved:

• Field Service Admins - They configure the system
• Customers - Service requestors
• Service Agents - They handle client interactions, create cases, work orders, and appointments
• Dispatchers - They triage service requests and track the status
• Field Service Agents - Professionals who work on service requests and perform jobs at client locations

How does Company A, dealing with industrial equipment, leverage field services in their day-to-day business?

When a customer contacts Company A's call center to report a machine suddenly ceasing to function, expressing its impact on production and delivery, a Service Agent creates a case in Salesforce. This case details the problem as explained by the customer. Additionally, the service agent generates a work order outlining the required actions to address the issue. During this process, the agent identifies that a small part in the machine needs replacement, and adds the spare part replacement activity as a work order line item.

Given the high priority of the service request and the customer's urgency for resolution, the service agent schedules a service appointment for the next day.

The dispatcher, responsible for managing and triaging the workload, uses the field services features on the dispatcher console to identify an available resource with the necessary skills at the required location. The dispatcher assigns the service appointment to a qualified field technician.

Once assigned, the field technician receives a notification on their field service mobile app containing the appointment details and work order specifics.

The technician promptly follows the appointment location, arriving on-site with access to inventory details through Salesforce. This enables the technician to quickly replace the necessary parts, resolving the issue effectively. With the machine up and running again, the technician updates the status of the appointment and work order, leading to the closure of the connected case.

Throughout the process, the dispatcher effectively tracks the technician's movement and status through the console. This enables the dispatcher to prioritize cases and efficiently replan the technician's day, ensuring seamless adaptability to any changes in the day's program. The technician remains aligned with adjustments thanks to their field service mobile app, which proves to be an invaluable companion throughout the day's tasks.

Advantages of Field Service Lightning for Customer Service

• Quick collaboration and communication between dispatchers, field technicians, and customers
• Field service objects are interconnected with accounts, contacts, and opportunities, enabling seamless data flow between them.
• Access to all data functionalities from any location and device, with the added advantage of working in offline mode.
• Automation of various field service tasks and activities, including service report generation, service appointment creation, status updates, work order updates, work progress tracking, asset tracking, inventory management, and annual/preventative maintenance for specific customers.
• Automatic generation of work orders for maintenance contracts.
• Point-and-click allocation of field technicians, with dispatchers having a holistic view of technician availability, current location, customer preferences, employee absences, and appointment assignments in one view.
• Real-time visibility to all information, including customer data and problem details, facilitating a better user experience for technicians.

Conclusion:

Field service app can be implemented by admins in a point-and-click manner, providing seamless service support and establishing close connections between customers, dispatching teams, on-field professionals, inventories, and skills. The field service mobile app is a boon for on-field consultants to track their appointments and stay in touch with the customer. The configurations and automations can be tailored to the client's business processes.