Users now can engage their end customers with step-by-step visibility for the field service last mile with a live map view, job details and ETA countdown via a Glympse-powered journey...
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Nov 23, 2018 • News • End to end field service • field service management • field service technology • Glympse • Service Management • Software and Apps • MSI Partners • Customer Satisfaction and Expectations • Managing the Mobile Workforce
Users now can engage their end customers with step-by-step visibility for the field service last mile with a live map view, job details and ETA countdown via a Glympse-powered journey...
MSI, a leading developer of cloud-based field service management software, has partnered with Glympse, the pioneer of real-time location technology, to bring rich technician tracking capabilities to customers of its Service Pro field service management solution. The addition of Glympse will enable MSI to strengthen the powerful value Service Pro delivers to its customers.
The partnership creates new capabilities for MSI to offer to field service teams using its leading cloud and mobile applications. In particular, Glympse will further help those companies meet and exceed customer expectations on the first visit, empower technicians to provide more responsive, proactive service, eliminate costly manual processes, and track technician location and status in real-time.
“Glympse is a clear leader in harnessing location and mobility to positively impact the customer service experience,” said Harvey Shovers, MSI President. “MSI is excited to add Glympse to the Scheduling, Mobility and Customer Experience suite of capabilities of our Service Pro platform, enabling thousands of field service appointments to exceed expectations with a real-time experience for the service customer.”
Through the partnership with Glympse, Service Pro users will now be able to:
- Initiate the customer-facing Glympse experience as soon as an appointment is booked – via SMS, email or push notifications – so end-customers can review appointment details, add to their calendar or connect with their provider right from the interactive web viewer
- Provide end customers with progressive updates and ETA countdown as the appointment draws closer so customers can more effectively manage their day
- Offer a real-time, live map view of the technician on the way to the appointment, including an ETA countdown, and culminating in an arrival confirmation
- Collect feedback via the Glympse Journey to view as soon as the technician completes the field service appointment, adding the ability to follow up with the customer quickly if necessary
“Glympse has a strong history helping field service teams communicate with their customers during the most critical step of a service appointment - when the end customer is waiting for their representative to arrive to their home, their office or even a construction site,” said Chris Ruff, CEO & President of Glympse.
“MSI has demonstrated a precise expertise in building modern field service solutions for diverse industries ranging from cable, HVAC and construction to medical equipment and manufacturing. We’re pleased to add a new layer of engagement to the solutions they’re delivering for these industries and most importantly, to help them give back time and control to the customers ultimately waiting for these critical services.”
For more information about Glympse, visit http://www.glympse.com, or follow the company on Twitter @Glympse, or on Facebook, Instagram or on LinkedIn.
For more information about MSI and Service Pro, visit http://www.msidata.com, or follow the company on Twitter @msidata, or on Facebook, Instagram or LinkedIn.
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Nov 21, 2018 • video • Features • Autonomous Vehicles • field service • field service management • Service Management • Brønnøy Kalk AS • Driverless vehicles • Volvo Trucks • Parts Pricing and Logistics • Managing the Mobile Workforce
In a landmark agreement between Volvo Trucks and Norwegian mining company Brønnøy Kalk AS, six autonomous Volvo FH trucks will transport limestone over a five-kilometre stretch in a mine. Tests of this solution have been carried out successfully and...
In a landmark agreement between Volvo Trucks and Norwegian mining company Brønnøy Kalk AS, six autonomous Volvo FH trucks will transport limestone over a five-kilometre stretch in a mine. Tests of this solution have been carried out successfully and will continue throughout 2018 to become fully operational by the end of 2019.
The deal represents Volvo Trucks’ first commercial autonomous transport solution that will run in a real operation. It is a new solution whereby the customer buys a transport service where Volvo Trucks takes full responsibility for the delivery of the limestone to the crusher.
Whilst we may be still some way from seeing autonomous vehicles being used in service logistics, this is an interesting and possibly pivotal new development.
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Nov 21, 2018 • Features • AI • Artificial intelligence • Future of FIeld Service • future of field service • MArne MArtin • Workwave • Chatbots • field service • field service management • field service technology • IFS • Service Management • Service Management Technology • Wrokforce Management
Artificial Intelligence has increasingly become a key discussion in all industries and its impact in field service management is predicted to be hugely significant, but how should field service organisations leverage this powerful...
Artificial Intelligence has increasingly become a key discussion in all industries and its impact in field service management is predicted to be hugely significant, but how should field service organisations leverage this powerful twenty-first-century technology? In the first of a two-part feature, Marne Martin, President Service Management IFS, offers her expert insight...
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Artificial Intelligence (AI) will impact every industry and every business discipline—including field service management. But how quickly will practical solutions be available that enable the typical medium to large field service organization to take advantage of AI? And by practical solutions, I mean AI that delivers knowledge efficiently, processes solutions to complex data sets, and automates repetitive activities to allow human workers to focus on personalized service, solving complex problems and escalations, i.e. what people do best.
In some cases, these easily applied solutions are still on their way to market. In three specific areas, however, practical AI applications for field service are already commercially available as proven, commercial off-the-shelf software delivering real business value.
AI For Customer Interaction
First impressions matter. And unfortunately, the first interaction a customer has with your service organization often involves several missteps. Chief among these are long wait times on hold due to high call volumes. And then, as a customer attempts to reach out through multiple channels including email, chat and phone, the resulting data stream goes into separate siloes that are disconnected from each other, resulting in disjointed communication.
"Today, AI solutions can solve both these problems, but it requires more than “just” chatbots..."
Today, AI solutions can solve both these problems, but it requires more than “just” chatbots. Commercially available AI software that ties into chatbots is capable of learning which answers posed in a chat are appropriate for each question and automating a significant majority of chat interactions. A chatbot can be taught to answer commonly encountered questions, like inquiries about when a technician is scheduled to arrive. Of course, at some point, the AI chatbot may get stuck when personalized service is required, and a human agent takes over the discussion thread without missing a beat. This should be seamless not only to the customer but for the internal customer service, ticketing and support systems as well. The chatbot—regardless of whether driven at a given moment by AI or a human agent—should update the same customer record as other channels including social media, phone and email.
And from interactions, the AI functionality learns from answers provided by human agents and gets better and better at answering questions through learning processes. A truly advanced AI chatbot will also seamlessly hand off the chat to a human agent when the extent of its learning is overtaken. Only then can the entire customer experience be unified and consistent, even with a static number of agents handling a rapidly growing fluctuating volume of customer interactions.
AI-based chatbots, for instance, can enable a good agent to handle up to five or more chats at a time. It can capture Facebook messages and tweets and direct them to an agent or to AI for intervention. AI alone can handle, typically, between 50 and 60 percent of requests, freeing up human capacity or lowering staffing levels required to handle a given volume of activity.
Enables Management By Exception
In the case of AI applications for the service organization, a primary driver for ROI is that it enables humans to manage by exception. A high volume of activity can be automated, and humans intervene primarily when a situation falls outside the business rules or logic built into service management software. AI doesn’t eliminate the need for human interaction—it makes the human interaction more focused on what humans do best—handle escalations and complex decision making for unique cases.
At one IFS customer, an AI chatbot handles about 50 percent of interactions— primarily those reaching out to cancel their service after a free three-month trial period. Interactions cancelling a free subscription are handled entirely through automation. But if a longer-standing customer is cancelling their service, the interaction gets routed to an agent dedicated to saving the account.
Some interactions are by default easily handled by AI. If 30 percent of inbound contacts are requesting information on the arrival time of a field service technician, it may be possible to automate 90 percent of that 30 percent of contacts. But it is also important to consider the demographics of the customer base. Millennials are more likely to communicate via chat or social media, so if a significant percentage of customers are under 40, heavier reliance on chatbots and AI may help you increase engagement by streamlining your customers’ preferred method of interaction.
"Management by exception is also more successful when an AI application has access to extensive information about each customer..."
Management by exception is also more successful when an AI application has access to extensive information about each customer. So full integration with enterprise resource planning, field service management and other enterprise tools is essential. AI tools can be more effective if they have more rather than less information on the status of the customer’s account, including their maintenance or service history and warranty or service level agreement entitlements.
Integration between an AI chatbot, email, voice, social and enterprise applications is important for another reason. It enables one version of the customer record. Lacking this, a customer can send an email, and get no response. They send a direct message through Twitter. Then call and sit on hold. Then initiate a chat. All these interactions may not appear in a central customer record, but there have been three attempts to contact the company. Right from the first contact by email, the clock started ticking on a service level agreement.
Full integration can also enable a customer service team, once a customer request is resolved, to close off all queuing activations at the same time for the various contact methods associated with a customer case. Failing this, a service organization may spend a significant amount of time chasing customer requests that have already been resolved.
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Nov 16, 2018 • Fleet Technology • News • Ctrack • field service • field service management • field service technology • fleet management • Service Management • vehicle tracking • City Technical Services
City Technical Services, a leading provider of green energy servicing, maintenance and installation solutions, has adopted an advanced telematics system from Ctrack, an Inseego company. Ctrack Plug & Play, a self-installed tracking solution, will be...
City Technical Services, a leading provider of green energy servicing, maintenance and installation solutions, has adopted an advanced telematics system from Ctrack, an Inseego company. Ctrack Plug & Play, a self-installed tracking solution, will be used to monitor a fleet of 133 vans used by City Technical Services’ nationwide network of engineers. This will enable the company to make best use of mobile resources while ensuring vehicles are driven in a safe and efficient manner.
“As a green company, with over 10 years of experience in the renewables and energy efficiency industry, our focus is to cut emissions and save energy both for customers and within the business,” explained Kenny Henderson, Managing Director of City Technical Services. “Ctrack Plug & Play will help us operate responsibly and minimise our environmental impact by reducing mileage and fuel usage, as well as support our strong commitment to health and safety.”
Ctrack Plug & Play connects directly to the OBD II diagnostic port, so can be installed in a matter of seconds and quickly switched between vehicles when required. The tracking solution will provide City Technical Services with real-time visibility of its mobile assets, along with vehicle specific information from the on-board systems, driver behaviour monitoring and crash detection.
In addition to targeting efficiency and safety improvements, City Technical Services will use the tracking solution to enhance customer response times, especially for its emergency repairs service, by identifying the nearest, available engineer to an incoming job. The company will also take advantage of a comprehensive suite of reports to better understand fleet performance. It will use this added insight to address speeding and driving violations, identify excessive fuel usage and verify timesheets.
Steve Thomas, Managing Director of Ctrack commented: “The Ctrack Plug & Play solution is one of a wide range of telematics options we supply that also includes hardwired and long-life battery units. All of these different unit types report back to a common interface allowing our customers to mix and match their hardware deployments to meet individual fleet and business requirements.”
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Nov 15, 2018 • News • field service • field service management • field service technology • Service Management • OnPRocess • OPTimize • Service Value Chain • Parts Pricing and Logistics
OnProcess Technology, a global pioneer in service value chain optimization, today announced OPtimize a digital transformation service leveraging predictive analytics to improve post-sale business outcomes.
OnProcess Technology, a global pioneer in service value chain optimization, today announced OPtimize a digital transformation service leveraging predictive analytics to improve post-sale business outcomes.
Building upon OnProcess’ domain, AI and automation expertise, OPTimize enables businesses to drive unparalleled gains in service revenue, cost savings and customer experience.
“Post-sale service is vital to OEM and service provider success. Not only does it drive customer loyalty, it accounts for the vast majority of a business’ profitability. Many companies struggle with managing the fine balance between revenue, cost and customer experience, and more often than not, one or two get sacrificed for the other. When that happens, business suffers,” said Mike Wooden, CEO, OnProcess Technology. “OPTimize enables OEMs and service providers to streamline critical business processes and maximize those three service components. We make it possible for businesses to unlock new levels of post-sale value.”
“Service Council’s research has benchmarked thousands of service leaders over the years, highlighting how top-performing organizations (Service Champions) combine a holistic approach to out-performance; establishing a balance between operational and customer-facing commitments to yield commercial business success,” said John Carroll, CEO of Service Council. “OPTimize is positioned to solve service and executive leadership’s conundrum of finding an equilibrium between what has long been considered adversarial forces: profit, cost and customer experience. This is an exciting release and OnProcess is a vendor to watch.”
OPTimize provides the visibility, intelligence, automation and exception management required to improve the service value chain, from sales order management, remote triage and inventory management, to field service management, fraud prevention, warranty management, and even end-of-life services. Using OnProcess’ proprietary real-time control tower, predictive analytics and award-winning solutions, OPTimize ensures the precise balance of revenue growth and cost to serve reductions, with an optimal customer experience within your post-sale service value chain.
- Reduce Cost to Serve: Clients dramatically reduce capital expenditures, minimize operational costs and improve efficiencies throughout their post-sale services.
- Grow Revenue: OPTimize speeds time-to-revenue, reduces revenue leakage and boosts customer retention, all of which result in greater post-sale revenue.
- Enhance Customer Experience: Clients eliminate needless triage cycles, improve service quality and resolve customer issues quickly. Service events are transformed into productive, positive engagements that consistently meet and exceed customer expectations.
Click here or email sales@onprocess.com for more information about OPTimize.
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Nov 14, 2018 • News • 5G • Connected Field Service • Future of FIeld Service • IIOT • field service • field service management • IoT
Fujitsu Limited and Ericsson have entered an agreement to deliver end-to-end 5G network solutions and related services under a strategic partnership. The two companies are joining forces to develop this based on their combined portfolios – spanning...
Fujitsu Limited and Ericsson have entered an agreement to deliver end-to-end 5G network solutions and related services under a strategic partnership. The two companies are joining forces to develop this based on their combined portfolios – spanning radio access and core network – for the dynamic 5G market in Japan, connecting communications service providers to the global 5G ecosystem.
The two companies aim to initially provide systems and solutions for the Japanese market, and seek to further expand their collaboration to other customers globally.
In the 5G era, mobile communications service providers anticipate the ability to provide highly scalable, and intelligent services through open and globally standardised technology for core and radio access network for more efficient network operations.
Ericsson and Fujitsu’s strength in research and development will ensure the best path for bringing global 5G solutions to Japan, as well as exploring a wider global market.[/quote]As a leading network technology provider, Fujitsu is making concerted efforts to support open standards activities driven by major telecommunications providers and aims to achieve broad interoperability for its radio access products in global markets.
As a world leader in 5G, Ericsson has worked closely with mobile operators around the world in the development of 5G, through standardization, trials, and prototyping.
Ericsson and Fujitsu’s strength in research and development will ensure the best path for bringing global 5G solutions to Japan, as well as exploring a wider global market.
Tango Matsumoto, Executive Vice President, Head of Network Business Group at Fujitsu, says: "Through this partnership with Ericsson, we will provide flexible 5G network systems that are open and standard compliant, and will leverage our expertise in wireless technologies and network integration to a wide range of customers in and outside of Japan. From mobile broadband, expected to be the first widespread use case of 5G, to the Internet of Things (IoT) and beyond, this partnership holds out the promise of exciting new business opportunities."
Fredrik Jejdling, Executive Vice President and Head of Business Area Networks at Ericsson says: “Our global expertise in 5G combined with our understanding of the local market puts us in an excellent position to support the introduction of 5G in Japan. By working closely with operators and partners, we are creating solutions that will bring successful use cases and applications to the market. With Fujitsu we get an excellent partner to accelerate this development.”
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Nov 14, 2018 • Features • Augmented Reality • Future of FIeld Service • Knowledge Management • Nick Frank • Remote Assistance • field service • field service management • field service technology • Service Management • Si2 partners • Field Technologies • Peter Maier • Managing the Mobile Workforce
We've been asking for some time now how Augmented Reality will fill its potential as a central fulcrum within the future of field service. For Nick Frank the key is for it AR to become entwined with Knowledge Management...
We've been asking for some time now how Augmented Reality will fill its potential as a central fulcrum within the future of field service. For Nick Frank the key is for it AR to become entwined with Knowledge Management...
The English philosopher Francis Bacon once said: “Knowledge is power,” In earlier times, knowledge was usually kept to oneself for personal gain. Today, it is the sharing of knowledge that leads companies to success, especially in times of increasing digitization.
This ‘sharing’ involves collecting data, transforming it into insight and then getting it to a place where people can use it to make a difference. Benefits are only seen when the ‘knowledge chain’ is completed and any break in the chain nullifies our efforts.
So when industry commentators tell you that a particular technology is the “silver bullet” to success, it really is an oversimplification!
The problem is that knowledge is often “hidden” in the various IT systems and applications, or lost in the heads of employees who leave the business. For field service, this problem is particularly severe as the service portfolio is significantly larger than the current product offers due to longer product lifecycles and ever faster new product introductions.
On the other hand, service knowledge must be immediately available, in a distributed fashion, to achieve quick solutions and to ensure customer satisfaction. For service, we should view the challenge as being to provide customers or field technicians with that extra piece of know how that will help them solve problems more efficiently. A kind of “Augmented Knowledge” for expand it and provide it in a targeted manner. Existing information stored in different systems is merged. This can be structured data such as parts lists and unstructured information such as service tickets or service reports.
"Unstructured knowledge – text or prose – is analysed using text mining tools and integrated with the structured data. Large amounts of data can then be digitised and used intelligently..."
Unstructured knowledge – text or prose – is analysed using text mining tools and integrated with the structured data. Large amounts of data can then be digitised and used intelligently.
Urgently needed information is provided easily and quickly. Being able to network across databases makes it possible to recognize contexts, to analyze causes of failures and to create transparency. By using the system and verifying or excluding results, users continuously enrich it with expert knowledge. The current problem may already be the solution for the next user.
A classic example is finding similar cases (or problems). If an engineer is looking for the cause of a failure, the system looks for similar case and offers potential solutions.
The source for this could be the targeted evaluation of completed service cases (e.g. service tickets). By analysing which solutions were chosen by the engineer, the associated repair instructions, and confirming them as successful (or not successful, as the case may be) after the repair – the system learns through this interaction.
In fact, this process can go further and develop new insights from existing information. By visualizing and recognizing patterns, correlations can be identified, and appropriate measures initiated. For example, as part of a maintenance action or repair, the system can recommend the maintenance or repair of other elements to avoid subsequent failures that have arisen in similar situations.
But how to get that information to the point of need?
Augmented Reality (AR) technology, with its capability to supplement a real object, such as a machine or a component, with additional digital content is an ideal tool for this. It is not just the traditional approach of an expert communicating with a technician, it is extending it to ‘’smart’ databases supplying answers to questions.
"There is much to learn about the ergonomics of Augmented Knowledge and how to integrate it into people’s working lives..."
For example, in addition to the live video image on a tablet, smartphone or smart glasses, information and instructions can be augmented to the display to help solve the problem. These may be created by an expert remotely or they may be rendered as step by step instructions by the knowledge management system.
The individual steps necessary to solve the problem are now available in the form of AR annotations and can be subsequently edited and saved. This is another advantage of the AR system: The repair process gets documented and can be used again for similar cases.
So, if the engineer encounters this problem again in the future, they can reuse the annotations of the first repair without having to consult the expert. In addition, the solution is also available to all other engineers.
This saves significant time and effort. The caveat is to be able to present information to users such that they can use it. There is much to learn about the ergonomics of Augmented Knowledge and how to integrate it into people’s working lives.
This is a good example of how by turning information into transportable and analysable data (some call this digitisation of their processes), it is possible to accelerate service delivery, saving time and money for both the service provider and the user of machines.
Our experience is that by breaking down Knowledge Management and Augmented Reality into smaller pilot projects, we learn how to provide Augmented Knowledge to the Technician. Not just the technology, but actually how people brains cope with having access to this additional insight.
This may seem as bit ScFi and daunting at first, but you would be surprised how much of this you already do. Our advice is don’t look to anyone technology being pushed at you as the unique solution to your problems. You must develop your Knowledge Management, Augmented Reality and People capability in parallel.
For more information on how to start this digital journey, you can contact authors at peter.maier@si2partners.com or nick.frank@si2partners.com
Nick Frank, Managing Partner at Si2 Partners
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Nov 13, 2018 • Features • bybox • field service • field service management • Service Management • Servitization • Simon Fahie • Parts Pricing and Logistics • Managing the Mobile Workforce
In a recent episode of The Field Service Podcast, Kris Oldland, Editor-in-Chief, Field Service News spoke with Simon Fahie, Managing Director of ByBox, and in what was a wide-ranging discussion the two touched on a number of key topics affecting...
In a recent episode of The Field Service Podcast, Kris Oldland, Editor-in-Chief, Field Service News spoke with Simon Fahie, Managing Director of ByBox, and in what was a wide-ranging discussion the two touched on a number of key topics affecting field service organisations today...
Our industry is evolving rapidly. It seems like only yesterday when I first returned to the service sector and began writing about the key trends within field service, at the time for the now sadly departed Service Management magazine. In fact, that was some six or seven years ago now and crikey an awful lot has changed in that time.
Back then the over-riding discussions within the sector were around the practicalities and benefits of moving field service from its traditional position as a cost centre to becoming a profit centre.
Fast forward to today and the concept of field service as a core revenue-generating part of the business has become firnly established. Indeed, as we have covered extensively in Field Service News, more and more companies are becoming increasingly focused on delivering advanced services, a strategic shift in thinking that has become known as servitization.
Yet, whilst servitization promises to hold the key to increased profits, a greater share of customer wallets and deeper, longer term contracts that offer far greater financial stability, it is not a particularly easy nut to crack.
Perhaps the biggest shift in thinking from traditional break fix based centric service agreements and their servitized equivalent is the move away from service level agreements to guarantees of uptime. In an era of IoT and connected assets, the move towards predictive maintenance that such an approach requires could be deemed relatively easy to establish once the right processes and technologies are put in place.
The theory is relatively straight-forward. The asset feeds back real-time data, when it falls out of set acceptable parameters that have been determined to be indicators of probable forthcoming failure an engineer is dispatched to fix the fault ahead of the asset going down - giving the end customer a continuous service whilst allowing the service provider to schedule their field service operations far more efficiently.
"Whilst servitization promises to hold the key to increased profits, a greater share of customer wallets and deeper, longer-term contracts that offer far greater financial stability, it is not a particularly easy nut to crack..."
An obvious win-win all round - easy as that.
However, one of the obvious spanners that can be thrown into the works is the parts logistics aspect fo the equation. Getting the right engineer to the right place, at the right time has been the field service manager’s mantra for as long as I can remember. However, it all becomes a moot point if the engineer hasn’t got access to the right parts.
And in an age of increasing congestion, which can put a huge strain on service logistics - getting the right parts to an engineer can cause a huge problem for field service delivery, and when it comes to advanced services this issue becomes even more significant.
“I look at servitization and for me, it really exposes some of the weaknesses in a supply chain or the process of getting parts to the engineer,” explains Simon Fahie, Manging Director, ByBox when he joined me for a recent episode of the Field Service Podacst.
“Certainly, we are seeing conversations that are saying yesterday we could do a next day fix, now we are able to do a four hour fix. But it is not just fix-times that are open to discussion. Obviously, in a servitization scenario, you have lost revenues that are at stake,” he continued
“If the asset you are supplying is not working not only do you have a disgrunteled customer, you also have no revenues coming thorugh. In fact, in some instances, not being able to provide a fix stops the use of consumables as well.”
“So what we are seing as a growing trend is the need to position inventory actually on site, or very, very close, to be able to provide the very short fixtime that servitized contracts require.”
And this is exactly where ByBox come into the equation - with a network of lockers across the UK and Europe they offer an effective means of acheiving this - in the UK for example, Fahie states that most of their customers will have a locker within just a few miles of their location.
"If the asset you are supplying is not working not only do you have a disgruntled customer, you also have no revenues coming through..."
Yet their is more to the solution than just conveniently place lockers.
“The challenge is how do you control the parts?” Fahie asks retorically.
“How do you give secure access to them? How do you know that they are there? How do you know that they’ve gone out of stock? You can’t just hand over a cardboard box of parts and say leave that by the machine for the engineer when he comes. It is a lot more challenging than that.”
ByBox’s solution to these challenges is in many senses relatively simple, yet is hugely effective in overcoming exactly these problems. The lockers themselves are enabled with secure bluetooth functionality for delivering and removing parts which allows for the movement of parts to be logged - providing essentially visibility into the parts management process, which in turn opens up the doors to even greater streamlining possibilities as well.
“What this enables is the better efficiency of the field workforce,” explains Fahie.
“If you think about the scheduling challenge if a field worker has gone and got a part at 9 am they are then committed to that job that requires them and that part. However, if the part is available and can be collected at any time by anyone with the appropriate authorisation, the efficiency of the scheduling could be increased.”
“If we add into that mix the rise of the flexible or contingent workforce, now we are trying to get a part to a place that may be able difficult to deliver to, now we can have a part picked up and delivered by a person that you have never met before and may never meet again - but that is where the felxibility of the app base dcontrol comes into play - and it could lead to some really interesting new ways of improving the service supply chain that simply couldn’t have existed before.”
Indeed, given the increasing burden being felt within service logistics due to things like pedestrianisation of city centres and ever more congested roads, for servitization to thrive as it should, it is exactly such innovative ideas that field service companies will need to embrace.
Our industry is evolving rapidly, but fortunately, it appears we have the tools to hand to adapt with it.
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Nov 13, 2018 • News • Workwave • field service • field service management • Service Management • Software and Apps • Field Service Engneer • Field Technologies • Managing the Mobile Workforce
WorkWave, a leading provider of software solutions for the field service and last-mile delivery industries, recently announced its aim to reestablish its focus on customer experience, both through initiatives that further its position as a strategic...
WorkWave, a leading provider of software solutions for the field service and last-mile delivery industries, recently announced its aim to reestablish its focus on customer experience, both through initiatives that further its position as a strategic partner to its customers, as well as with new features and functionality to promote better end-user engagement. As WorkWave’s customers are looking to not only run their businesses with ease but also grow and expand, WorkWave is committed to providing the tools and insight to enable their customers to differentiate themselves in the marketplace.
Along with its reestablished commitment to customers across multiple fronts, WorkWave is rolling out updated features that have a fresh, new look and feel, as well as new WorkWave PestPac® branding.
“WorkWave solutions have always enabled pest control companies to run seamlessly through its end-to-end platforms,” said Marne Martin, CEO of WorkWave. “Based on our experience and leadership in the space, we are now in a position to take our relationships to the next level and not only be a solution, but also a strategic partner enabling our customers to grow their businesses and provide the best possible service to their end customers.”
In an effort to increase WorkWave PestPac’s focus on bolstering the value it provides to its customers, WorkWave is holding an Executive Advisory Board during PestWorld. This meeting includes senior leadership from the top 15 pest control companies in the world, allowing WorkWave to have access to constructive feedback and industry insight, staying ahead of where the customer needs it to be. WorkWave also put in place its new Customer Success teams and initiatives, which combine customer relationship management and intricate product knowledge to help create and sustain solid relationships with its customers.
To help its customers differentiate themselves against the competition, WorkWave PestPac also unveiled a number of new features that are geared toward the end user, ensuring that they are receiving timely and quality service, and keeping them coming back for more.
These features include:
- Sales Assistant: A convenient way for customers to select, schedule and pay for services right through a pest control operator’s website. Sales assistant provides 24/7 customer accessibility to a business online.
- Route Op: Includes a new visual optimization tool that allows the user to make subtle adjustments to routes, as well as a new flexible workday calendar to add custom dates or holiday schedules. With Route Op, users have the ability to compare cost statistics, view drive time and mileage from each stop, and edit constraints right from the map.
- CustomerConnect Portal: Features a dashboard that provides convenient access to important documents and bills through targeted communications.
- EPay: A simplified payment process where the customer will receive their invoice via text or email, allowing for payment right through the link with no login.
These new features enable pest control companies to put the customer first and provide ways to ensure differentiation between their business and the competition. This not only enables pest control companies to succeed in the marketplace but also to expand and grow.
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