Salesforce Field Service (FS) – Bringing Efficiency to On-site Services

Field service leaders often find it challenging to make sure their teams are working efficiently. Getting work done on time, delegating work, and monitoring them are some of the major challenges that they face. However, in order to make everything streamlined, Salesforce introduced Field Service (FS).

So, what exactly is FSL and how does it help advance field service in your organization? In this blog post, we will learn about it in detail.

Understanding Field Service Lightning (FSL)

Field Service Lightning (FSL) is a Salesforce product that brings customers, employees, and products together on a single platform to provide exceptional on-site services. This is an extension of Salesforce Service Cloud that offers a complete view of workforce management.

It also enables the customer support teams to intelligently delegate work to field service technicians and constantly monitor them. Besides, it lets them manage customer records and field data directly from Salesforce.

Field Service Lightning works with Service Cloud, adding functionality for dispatching, monitoring, and reporting the activities of field service representatives.

It also helps in assigning the right technician to the right location at the right time. In a nutshell, it optimizes and automates the core field service business processes.

Who are the Key Users of Salesforce Field Service Lightning?

The key users who use Field Service Lightning are:

• Admin: The admin is in charge of configuring Salesforce and Field Service features as well as user setup.
• Service Agents: They are responsible for recording cases, customer queries, and creating work orders.
• Dispatchers: They schedule service appointments and assign them to technicians.
• Technicians: They are referred to as on-site technicians or mobile workers.

After installing the field service managed package, an administrator can create permission sets for the above personas using the guided setup.

What are The Common Terms Used in FSL?

• Service Appointment
  A service appointment details the scheduling and assignment of a field service visit to a customer, whether onsite or remote. A service appointment can be scheduled with or without an arrival window based on a customer’s appointment time.
• Appointment Scheduling
  When a service appointment for a customer-facing service requires a specific execution time, you can assign an arrival window using appointment booking. The arrival window ensures that the service appointment begins within the specified time frame. Customers can book their own appointments and choose an arrival window from the available time slots by using the appointment assistance feature.
• Work Order
  A work order is a request for on-site service. It contains the work type as well as other pertinent information for scheduling the service appointment. A work order may contain several work order line items representing various types of work that must be completed or assets to be worked on.
• Asset
  An asset is a commercially valuable item that a customer has purchased and installed. A warranty or entitlement to a service under a service contract can be attached to an asset. The asset object allows you to track important performance indicators like asset downtime. An asset can be serviced on a scheduled basis or on an as-needed basis. A work order is automatically generated when an asset requires service in accordance with a maintenance plan.
• Mobile Worker
  A mobile worker (also known as a service resource or technician) is a worker who performs service appointment jobs based on availability. The Field Service mobile app allows mobile workers to update their job progress.
• Availability of Resources
  Operating hours, time slots, and shifts are all types of time intervals that can be used to schedule a resource.
• Service Territory
  In Field Service, a service territory is the most basic grouping of service resources. Its classification can be based on geographic regions such as neighborhoods, cities, or countries, or on product lines or customer types. Depending on how your business is set up, you can assign service resources to territories and create territory hierarchies.

Salesforce Field Service Scheduling and Optimization

Scheduling is the process of assigning service appointments to mobile workers or teams. Manually creating an efficient field service schedule can be a difficult and time-consuming task. Scheduling and optimization in Field Service do the work for you by generating an optimal schedule based on scheduling policies that define your organization’s priorities and constraints. Schedule optimization enables you to meet service-level agreements while reducing travel time, overtime, costs, and no-shows.

The scope of optimization can be defined in a variety of ways such as:

• Global Optimization — Assess time slots and mobile worker options to schedule upcoming appointments in the most efficient manner.
• In-Day Optimization — It is the service day or date that optimizes the schedule for one or more territories.
• Resource Schedule Optimization (RSO) — It optimizes the day of a specific mobile worker and reshuffles existing appointments to make room for high-priority appointments.

Importance of Field Service Mobile App

The Field Service mobile app is an essential tool for mobile workers who are always on the go. Technicians get the information they need to do their jobs well and go from one place to another. The app provides a platform that helps improve “first visit resolution” and lets technicians report back on their progress without any hassle.

Enhancing the FSL Capabilities With Grazitti’s FS Booster

Investing in FSL can help streamlining communication, inventory, scheduling, and other processes. At Grazitti, we have created a Field Service Booster that enhances the capabilities of Salesforce FSL. It is helpful for field service implementation and optimizing your field service agent’s iterative work. It comes with a set of utilities that add to the FSL implementation.

Benefits of FS Booster

• Reduces Unsuccessful Visits
• Bridges the Gap Between Sales and Field Service
• Manages Work Order Inventory Management
• Enhances Location and Work-Order Accessibility

Once you install the FSL package, you can change any of the FSL Booster utilities to fit your needs.

Have Questions About Salesforce Field Service Lightning and Grazitti’s FS Booster? Let’s Talk!