How Salesforce Field Service Can Transform Your Field Operations

There was a time when the dispatchers used legacy field service applications and heaps of spreadsheets to track the activities of technicians. It was time-consuming for organizations to keep up with increasing customer demands.

The landscape of managing field service has evolved through the years.

And yet, organizations find it challenging to manage their team of service technicians or field agents efficiently within the specified time and budget.

Field service has got no room for miscommunications between customers, field agents, and in-house staff. Even with an assortment of processes and solutions, the way to get all this done with finesse was tricky.

Salesforce addresses this problem with a complete solution designed to eliminate the challenges of managing field service operations and streamlining the experience from start to end.

Enter – Salesforce Field Service, an extension of Service Cloud!

But what is it and how does it help augment customer experience with its real-time collaboration capabilities?

Let’s quickly touch base more on this. Shall we?

What is Salesforce Field Service?

Salesforce Field Service (SFS), formerly known as Salesforce Field Service Lightning is a software that equips your teams with a suite of tools to tackle field service challenges.

It helps you:

• Resolve field service calls faster
• Boost employee productivity in the field
• Automate appointment scheduling
• Deliver intelligent customer experiences

It has three main components to provide your team with an end-to-end field service management solution. They are:

• Core Field Service features
• Scheduling and optimization from a Managed Pack
• Mobile app for the workforce

Why is Salesforce Field Service the Right Tool for Efficient Operation?

SFS can be used to complete every task necessary for managing an efficient operation. It offers a smarter way to increase customer satisfaction by enabling your workforce with personalized and direct data, right from their very own mobile device!

Here’s what you can ace with it:

• Standardize field service tasks by utilizing maintenance plans and templates.

• Provide customers with the tools they need to have a simple experience with a quicker case resolution time because the technician is ready to handle the job when they arrive.

• Stay up to date on the status of inventory, warehouses, customer sites, and service vehicles.

• Use AI-powered scheduling tools to set up recurring appointments for customers based on maintenance schedules.

• Reduce your team’s manual efforts with Dispatch Console managing your resource assignments for every work item created.

• Create reports for customers to inform them about the progress of their service.

• Get information about which technician should show up where, what resources they’ll need, and other information that will enable them to perform their jobs efficiently.

• Use multilevel service territories to keep track of the locations where your employees are controlling.

• Enable leadership teams to get access to all the data they need to spot trends and improve operational processes.

• Increase agent productivity significantly by sending appointments, communication, and all data points straight to your team’s phone with the mobile app.

• Manage technicians, agents, dispatchers, and in-house staff in a centralized space.

• Equip admins with the ability to configure and manage work rules to manage territories, business priorities, and service level agreements (SLAs).

How Does Salesforce Field Service Work?

SFS enables you to deliver speedy and efficient on-site service at scale.

It seamlessly integrates with your other Salesforce Orgs and third-party systems and IoT devices to provide your field service teams with accurate, real-time data at their fingertips.

Now that we’ve explored the what and why of SFS, let’s decode the three essential partners in the whole process to understand how SFS works.

• Call Center Executive (CCE) – A CCE is the first point of contact who provides assistance to the customer and if the customer raises a request for service, the executive makes a corresponding record in Service Cloud. Also, the CCE can book an appointment for a specialist known as field service technician.

• Dispatcher – The dispatcher handles the records, work orders, and appointments to coordinate with field agents. The dispatchers use the Dispatcher Console built on Service Cloud Console within Salesforce.

• Field Service Technician – The technician takes care of the service orders and updates them using FSL mobile applications. The technician gets the complete picture of client records and all related data through the application.

Now let’s get into areas taken care of by SFS that make the life of field executives a lot easier.

Service Cloud Console: Automate appointments and work orders within Salesforce which can also be integrated into existing records, accounts, contracts, etc.

Smart Scheduling: Increase efficiency in managing field workforce.

Dispatcher Console: Enable dispatchers to schedule, optimize and dispatch service requirements all within a single platform.

Mobile App: It’s a customizable tool for field service executives to stay on track no matter where they are.

Beyond these components, SFS has many supporting features to bring everything together. Some key modules within the SFS application include:

• Operating Hours
• Work Types
• Work Orders
• Service Appointments
• Service Resources
• Service Territories
• Skills
• Time Sheet
• Product Items

Wrapping Up

When set up properly, SFS can be a powerful tool to enable users across multiple teams to deliver better CX from start to finish — all while providing visibility to help your team to amp business performance.

Want to Learn More about Implementing SFS for Operational Success? Talk to us!