In a new series of excerpts from a a recent exclusive Field Service News white paper sponsored by Salesforce we explore how the very definition of  field service is being redefined as we move towards a world of remote service delivery. In part one we will be assessing today's environment and the challenges we face and start to look at some of the tools required for remote service delivery...

---

Want to know more? Field Service News Subscribers can access a White Paper on this topic on the link below.

If you have yet to subscribe click the button below to join 30K of your field service management professional peers and subscribe now to access this content and our entire premium content library now!

---

 

---

Data usage note: By accessing this content you consent to the contact details submitted when you registered as a subscriber to fieldservicenews.com to be shared with the listed sponsor of this premium content Salesforce who may contact you for legitimate business reasons to discuss the content of this white paper, as per the terms and conditions of your subscription agreement which you opted into in line with GDPR regulations and is an ongoing condition of subscription.

---

 

Welcome to the New World...

As the global pandemic swept across the world, many, many things changed. The way we interacted with each other in some ways became more distant; in others, we felt closer to each other than we had ever been before. Those of us based in offices invited the world into our homes through tools such as Zoom, Skype and Got To Meeting. Switchboard recordings notified us that we might hear unusual noises like dogs or children during the call as contacts centres were moved in a surprisingly seamless manner onto kitchen tables across the land. Yet, field service delivery is not such an easy role to transition to a world of lockdowns and isolation.

Field service is by its very definition delivered off-site, in the field. However, with many field engineers being classed as essential workers, and with service and maintenance operations under intense pressure to keeping the world ticking over, while we all endured lockdown, innovative thinking was required to keep service operations moving as much as possible. The result we saw was a massive swing in demand for the delivery of remote services. Before the pandemic, remote services were an option that remained primarily viewed as an offering of less value than the traditional on-site service call. Almost overnight, this switched. Suddenly, the requirements for remote service solutions were of paramount as companies desperately avoided breaking their own carefully erected bio-security measures.

Now, as we look towards building the recovery and establishing a new normal, many field service organisations are discussing a remote-first approach to service delivery. However, there are valid concerns that too much of a swing in the other direction could be akin to throwing the baby out with the bathwater. In this exclusive White Paper, authored by Field Service News, Editor-in-Chief, Kris Oldland, we set out to weigh up the pros and cons of adopting a remote-first as default approach and ask is this the way we should approach service delivery in the new normal of our post-pandemic world?

 

The Tools Needed for Remote First Service Operations:

To begin the discussion, we should first look at the specific requirements in terms of technology for delivering remote services at all. In today’s modern technology ecosystem, it is common to view the different layers of technology required as a stack with one building upon another rather than a self-enclosed platform.

In today’s age of APIs, mostly when it comes to software at least, everything works well in tandem. The advantage of this approach is the flexibility to build a solution that can take the best tools available to you that meet the needs of your organisation. Ultimately though, a robust platform that underpins your service technology ecosystem is crucial. Salesforce, for example, is an immensely powerful application, whether it be as a CRM or an FSM solution. Yet, it is within the flexibility of the app ecosystem, that Salesforce pioneered within business solutions, that the true power of the technology stack lies.

 

"While there are strong arguments for such devices allowing an engineer to work hands-free, the reality is that almost all AR solutions available to field service organisations currently also support tablet and smartphone configurations..."

 

With a rich layer of solutions available, the ability to build a robust and powerful solution to meet all of your field service requirements becomes far easier for companies of all sizes and levels of complexity. When it comes to remote service, there are a couple of fundamental aspects of the technology stack that need to be in place to achieve a seamless and fully optimised approach.

#1 Augmented Reality:

Augmented Reality (AR) is a crucial aspect of effective remote services. Effectively, what AR enables the field service organisation to accomplish is to place experience exactly where it is needed. This could come in the form of engineer-to-engineer (or even engineer-to-customer) assistance that is delivered in a you-see-what-I-see environment.

Alternatively, it could come in a more automated form, leveraging artificial intelligence and pre-programmed guides that can walk the engineer on-site through the various stages of the maintenance at hand. The advantage of AR over alternatives (such as video calling) is the ability to annotate clearly on the screen which area of an asset should be focused upon.

This can even be as granular as annotating which direction to turn a dial or by how much. While on the surface, this could be seen as a nice, but non-essential benefit, the reality is that as humans we take in visual instructions 8 x faster than aural instructions1. In field service, this is vitally important as we are continually looking to seek out every efficiency possible, as this soon scales up to significant resource savings when viewed across the entire mobile workforce. Indeed, one of the critical areas of focus for all field service organisations is being able to maximise resource utilisation, and alongside tools such as Salesforce’s enhanced optimisation engine, shift management and intelligent parts recommendations, the introduction of AR is an essential element for field service organisations to be able to achieve this.

One final point for consideration is that while often we think of AR solutions being based upon smart-glasses (or head-based computers as they are increasingly being termed) this is not necessarily the case. While there are strong arguments for such devices allowing an engineer to work hands-free, the reality is that almost all AR solutions available to field service organisations currently also support tablet and smartphone configurations. This can allow service organisations the ability to begin utilising AR almost instantly without the requirement of any additional hardware other than what the engineer is already using every day.

---

 

Look out for the next feature in this series coming next week where we explore three more key technologies required for remote service delivery.

However, www.fieldservicenews.com subscribers can read the full white paper now by hitting the button below. If you are yet to subscribe you can do so for free by hitting the button and you can access the white paper instantly upon completing the registration form!

 

 

 

---

Further Reading:

• Read the initial news report about the announcement of the latest iteration of Salesforce Field Service @ www.fieldservicenews.com/blog/salesforce-announce-the-next-generation-of-field-service-ai-powered-tools-for-trusted-mission-critical-field-service
• Read more about digital transformation in field service @ www.fieldservicenews.com/blog/tag/servitization-and-advanced-services
• Read more about the impact of COVID-19 on the field service sector @ www.fieldservicenews.com/en-gb/covid-19
• Read previous articles by Paul Whitelam @ www.fieldservicenews.com/blog/author/paul-whitelam
• Find out more about Salesforce Field Service @ www.salesforce.com/uk/products/service-cloud/field-service-lightning/
• Connect with Paul on LinkedIn @ www.linkedin.com/in/paulwhitelam/
• Follow Salesforce on Twitter @ twitter.com/salesforce

Salesforce’s Gary Brandeleer offers six key considerations field service companies should be aware of when approaching how to empower their field workers with best-in-class mobile technologies...

A necessary change in field service is well underway: 71% of service decision makers have made significant investments in mobile technologies and headcount. As customer expectations continue to rise, the new wave of field service workers entering the mobile workforce have their own expectations: that employers equip them with the best tools and technology to do their jobs. 

Many jobs and tasks still require in-person service. When mobile workers have the same capabilities (and visibility) as office-based peers, they work more efficiently, increase the rate of first-visit resolutions, and improve the overall customer experience. If you’ve already made the investment in your mobile workforce — or are planning to - make sure you prioritise these six tools to equip field service workers for success.

 

1. Enable Field Service Workers with a Single View of the Customer

Before the leading 3D printing provider Stratasys implemented a connected field service solution, it was challenging for their field service workers to get background information about the asset or the customer before arriving on site. Now they have full control of customer engagement because of a complete view of the customer and job information from their field service app. 

The Stratasys field service experience should be the norm — but it’s not yet. A mobile worker who has to switch back and forth between screens is not operating efficiently, and 49% still toggle screens on the job. This can cause difficulties in finding customer details and all the information needed to complete a job quickly while on site.

Having all customer information easily accessible in one place on a mobile device helps to boost efficiency and improve first-visit resolution.

A mobile worker’s field service app should enable them to deliver the best customer experience. With the right field service app, a mobile worker will have complete insight to know everything before they even walk in the door, allowing them to log real-time updates and collect any needed data like photos, signatures, and more.

 

2. Give Field Service Workers Complete Access with a Connected Device

Being a mobile worker in field service can be a solitary profession, which is a leading contributor to the high level of churn in the industry. Giving those in the field a connected device allows them to stay in sync with everyone back in the office. A connected device also links to your field service solution via an app or mobile website. This provides mobile workers with a complete set of data and insights they need to perform their jobs from any location, including:

• Customer information
• Work history
• Task lists and recommended next steps
• Schedules
• Real-time alerts from dispatchers
• Knowledge base

 

3. Allow Easily Synced Offline Access

With offline capabilities, mobile field workers download job details before they set out for the day, eliminating any need to print out (and accidentally lose) important information. That information is fully available in offline mode on their device when they’re in remote locations with the same level of access they would have online.

Mobile workers log updates and sync them once in range of service, keeping dispatchers updated on job status. Stratasys opted for offline capabilities to help their mobile workers access job information — even while serving high-security industries — and the result was better service and growing customer satisfaction.

 

4. Enable location tracking to keep everyone in the know

When field service is connected, no one is left out of the loop. Dispatchers know where a mobile worker is through location tracking and can alert them in real time of any cancellations or shifts in their schedule.

Additionally, mobile workers are able to notify dispatchers back in the office if there are any delays. Meanwhile, customers are notified with an estimated time of arrival, similar to the real-time updates they may receive about an Uber ride.

 

5. Provide Visibility Into Maintenance and Inventory

Not all mobile workers can easily tell if a customer is under warranty for a part or service — only 57% say they have that information. Enabling mobile workers to see customers’ warranty information for a part or service helps them view the maintenance information for each asset.

With a complete picture of the asset, mobile workers can better and more accurately serve their customers. When they need a part that’s not on hand, they can instantly ask any field workers nearby if they have a spare and coordinate pickup.

 

6. Offer Support for Complex Cases

When field service workers are on a job and unsure of how to solve a complex issue, they shouldn’t have to muddle through it alone — they should have a knowledge base of articles or video tutorials through their field service app. Make sure mobile workers have additional support by allowing them to connect with a remote agent via chat, video, or phone.

This helps them to achieve a resolution quickly, without needing a second visit. A chat function is particularly important since the new generation of field workers prefer chat over phone calls.

---

Further Reading: 

• Read more about digital transformation @ www.fieldservicenews.com/blog/tag/servitization-and-advanced-services
• Read more about mobile workforce management @ www.fieldservicenews.com/blog/tag/managing-the-mobile-workforce
• Find out more about Salesforce Field Service @ www.salesforce.com/uk/products/service-cloud/field-service-lightning/
• Connect with Gary on LinkedIn @ www.linkedin.com/in/garybrandeleer/
• Follow Salesforce on Twitter @ twitter.com/salesforce
• Read about the recently announced latest iteration of Salesforce Field Service @ www.fieldservicenews.com/blog/salesforce-announce-the-next-generation-of-field-service-ai-powered-tools-for-trusted-mission-critical-field-service

Last week Salesforce announced the next generation of their FSM solution, Salesforce Field Service, which was designed to equip field service organisations with the power of Artificial Intelligence-powered tools to deliver trusted mission-critical field service delivery. To find out more about this announcement Kris Oldland, Editor-in-Chief, Field Service News spoke exclusively with Paul Whitelam,VP of Product Strategy, Field Service Management, Salesforce.

The development of Salesforce as a powerhouse within the field service management sector has always been on the cards ever since they first announced their first foray into the world of Field Service Management (FSM) four years ago back in 2016. As the world's most dominant CRM platform, they had the muscle to grow in this aligned technological space rapidly and have done so at breakneck speed. However, in the last 12 months, their development has been given a turbo-boost with the acquisition of Click (formerly ClickSoftware.) Given that the original iteration of Salesforces' Field Service Lighting was developed using Click's technology, there was always something of an inevitability of the acquisition. Now just over a year after the intention to acquire Click was announced we are seeing the fulfilment of the promise of this more formal union emerge.

As Whitelam explained when I spoke to him just ahead of last week's announcement of the next generation of Salesforce Field Service (now minus the 'lightening' suffix) "we evolved particularly after the acquisition of Click in October last year it has given us an really unfair advantage in terms of accelerating the integration of the Click Intellectual Property into the Salesforce codebase."

 

"Click had hundreds of people with twenty years plus experience in the space which is now infused into the Salesforce ecosystem..."

- Paul Whitelam, Saleforce

 

However, it was not just the best-in-class technology that Click brought to the marriage. As a company that spent years at the fore of the FSM sector, they also brought a wealth of industry experience.

"It [the acquisition of Click] has also accelerated our growth in areas such as go to market implementation capabilities. Click had hundreds of people with twenty years plus experience in the space which is now infused into the Salesforce ecosystem," Whitelam explains.

So, what makes the new iteration of Salesforce Field Service so exciting? Well firstly, much has been made about the ability for companies on the platform to leverage Einstein, Salesforce's own powerful AI offering. Indeed this is something that underpins much of the tools that were central to Salesforce's initial wave of messaging that we saw across the industry trade journals across the last week or so. 

 

Understanding the New-Normal of Field Service Operations:

However, while this is an essential ingredient in the Salesforce mix, perhaps what was also apparent was how the solutions Salesforce have introduced show an increased maturity of understanding of the challenges field service organisations are now facing in a post-pandemic world

"A lot of people are now thinking about the context of what field service means in the face of today's pandemic-centric environment," comments Whitelam.

"The truth of the matter is that in terms of field service, the show must go on. These are mission-critical staff, of course in healthcare, but also elsewhere in industries such as utilities or communications that literally must continue being able to support the various infrastructures these organisations maintain.

"There are some typical ever present challenges field service companies face such as challenges around data being in disparate systems, not having a consolidated view of the history of what has taken place with an asset and information about the customer themselves," Whitelam continues.

 

"We have to ensure a task can be broken down, so that the points where there must be person to person interactions are minimised..."

- Paul Whitelam, Salesforce

 

"However, obviously there are new challenges that come from the pandemic. Safety requirements is a key issue for example. Companies need to be making sure they are not risking spreading the infection and doing everything to safeguard the safety of their staff and their customers alike."

This is at the heart of the dichotomy field service organisations now face. They must continue to deliver mission-critical maintenance, yet still some six months on from the initial lockdowns much of the exact details of the threat of COVID-19 remain uncertain. When dealing with so many unknowns, at the corporate level at least, it is essential to take every precaution possible to mitigate any potential risk while still being operationally effective.

The balancing act required to navigate this particular tightrope requires rethinking many fundamental processes within field service delivery.

"We have to ensure a task can be broken down," Whitelam suggests, "so that the points where there must be person to person interactions are minimised. Companies must do as much preparation for the job as possible in a remote environment. Also can the wrap up of the job be outside of that face to face environment?"

 

Finding a way to clear the backlog built up during lockdown:

While, finding a way to get back to work as quickly and safely as possible is the first and most obvious challenge that field service organisations face, the mountain of maintenance jobs that were put on hiatus during the height of the lockdowns also present another significant challenge.

"For me, I think [the backlog of work] has really put a new light from our perspective on the value of automation," comments Whitelam.

"What we have seen with our platform is that levels of engagement with our customers on our platform are 20% higher than it was before the pandemic. In field service at least, it is not so much a v-shaped recovery, but something more akin to a checkmark because we are simultaneously playing catch up on all of that maintenance activity as well. Companies are going to be best placed to address this new dynamic by automating as much as they can and having their dispatchers and specialists focus on exceptional cases. Automation is the surest way to free up the appropriate time to allow them to do that.

However, while automation will go a long way to helping remove much of the non-essential day-to-day tasks within the field service workflow, it may still not be enough alone to get things back on track.

 

"Elasticity in the workforce is another example of something that as we entered into 2020 was a best-in-class attribute, a nice to have, rather than a necessity. Now, it is essential..."

 

Put simply; there will still be a need for a human pair of hands to resolve issues, even in some of the most routine maintenance work. This is where the concept of the blended workforce must become more prevalent.

"Companies should be making sure they are deploying the full range of workers included badged employees, contract workers and third-party labour," agrees Whitelam when I put this motion forward to him.

"At Salesforce, we have a number of ways of engaging with those third parties. You can very easily set them up in the system and you can allocate work to them and gain visibility into that work progress. Being able to support that kind of work model and having a more elastic workforce is really important."

Elasticity in the workforce is another example of something that as we entered into 2020 was a best-in-class attribute, a nice to have, rather than a necessity. Now, it is essential. This is especially so when there is just such an unknown availability of resources generally.

"If suddenly your people can't come to work, which is still an issue we face as an industry and a society, you've got to be able to pivot and you've got to have alternative options," Whitelam asserts. "Having an elastic workforce to address these new challenges is critical," he adds.

Of course, while some jobs simply cannot be completed without an onsite field service technician, increasingly we have seen service organisations turn wherever possible to utilising remote service delivery as an alternative.

"There are a couple of aspects to this shift to remote service delivery," explains Whitelam.

"One is ensuring the field service technician has got access to knowledge when they are at the point of service. This involves recommending articles and best practices to resolve the problem or connect them with other experts within the field service organisation that have experience of the task at hand.

"However, I think in the future there is going to be more recognition of ways to serve the customer without necessarily rolling a truck. Salesforce has something of an advantage here in that the field service piece is part of the Service Cloud already.

"Field Service is one way to solve a problem, in some use cases it is going to be the only way to solve a problem. However, in many other use cases there may be alternative approaches to finding resolution. These could involve the call-centre, digital engagement tools, knowledge management and even self-service – the fact that you have all of these in one platform, that actually gives a lot of companies many advantages. They can solve a problem in one of many different ways depending on the cost profile and the nature of the issue," he adds.

Indeed, the challenges we as an industry face as we look towards the final months of 2020 and hopefully to a far less turbulent 2021 are many. However, the technologies and tools at our disposal can allow us to not only ride the tsunami of disruption caused by COVID-19 but to come out of this the other side more robust, more resilient and more responsive to our customers' needs.

With this latest iteration of their FSM solution, Salesforce have now absolutely established themselves as being at the vanguard of the organisations delivering these tools.

---

Further Reading:

• Read the initial news report about the announcement of the latest iteration of Salesforce Field Service @ www.fieldservicenews.com/blog/salesforce-announce-the-next-generation-of-field-service-ai-powered-tools-for-trusted-mission-critical-field-service
• Read more about digital transformation in field service @ www.fieldservicenews.com/blog/tag/servitization-and-advanced-services
• Read more about the impact of COVID-19 on the field service sector @ www.fieldservicenews.com/en-gb/covid-19
• Read previous articles by Paul Whitelam @ www.fieldservicenews.com/blog/author/paul-whitelam
• Find out more about Salesforce Field Service @ www.salesforce.com/uk/products/service-cloud/field-service-lightning/
• Connect with Paul on LinkedIn @ www.linkedin.com/in/paulwhitelam/
• Follow Salesforce on Twitter @ twitter.com/salesforce

Combined with Salesforce Customer 360 Platform and Salesforce Field Service, Asset 360 will create the world's most complete field service solution on the world's #1 CRM platform

ServiceMax, the leader in asset-centric field service management, today announced ServiceMax Asset 360 for Salesforce, a new product built on Salesforce Field Service, bringing ServiceMax's asset-centric approach and decade-plus of experience to more customers across a broader set of industries to help them keep critical assets running.

In today's environment, companies across all industries are having to reimagine how they operate. Requirements for equipment performance have intensified, while customer expectations continue to rise. In order to thrive, organizations must advance beyond the standard break-fix model to ensure uptime for important assets in a safe and compliant manner. Service teams must prioritize efficient asset performance, as well as the customer experience they provide.

ServiceMax Asset 360 for Salesforce will deliver a 360-degree view into install base, service contracts and asset performance to maximize equipment uptime and reduce maintenance costs. This advanced insight, natively developed within Salesforce Field Service, will empower customers to shift from selling products to adopting outcome-based strategies that propel businesses forward. This will enable customers to drive operational results, including:

• Accelerating time-to-value to support asset-centric business processes with pre-configured templates and industry best practices
• Gaining greater visibility into warranty coverages and improving service margin by preventing uncovered work with warranty and entitlement management
• Maximizing contract attach rates and renewals by monitoring the install base to ensure warranty-to-contract conversion while delivering on entitlements
• Automating RMA/depot repair processes to efficiently manage returns, meet compliance and lower inventory costs with purpose-built interfaces

The new offering will enable reduced implementation time and deliver new innovation with each release, bringing enhanced workflows directly to customers "out of the box" and access to emerging technologies such as Einstein. ServiceMax Asset 360 for Salesforce will be available in November 2020. ServiceMax will also continue to offer, support and invest in bringing new technologies to its existing Core platform.

"For 13 years, ServiceMax has helped customers keep the world running with world-class field service solutions," said Neil Barua, CEO of ServiceMax. "We are proud to offer this new solution, built on the Salesforce platform, which will enable even more customers across a broader set of industries to benefit from an asset-centric approach in order to run more profitable, efficient service operations and ensure uptime on the world's most important assets."

"The enhanced partnership between ServiceMax and Salesforce continues the market trend of ecosystem relationships to support end-to-end service lifecycle management with an eye to an industry focus," said Aly Pinder, Program Director, Service Innovation and Connected Products at IDC, and author of IDC's recent Market Scape on Field Service Management. "The partnership moves the conversation past 'let's turn more wrenches in a given day' to 'let's enable service to deliver a better, more proactive customer experience that ensures asset performance.' I am intrigued to follow this from a business relationship perspective and see how this partnership supports the future of field service."

"We're thrilled to be bringing a next-generation field service product to market for our customers," said Mark Cattini, SVP of Field Service Management at Salesforce. "And, with the combination of ServiceMax Asset 360 and Salesforce Field Service, companies across industries will have access to enhanced asset management and dynamic resource scheduling capabilities on a single platform. This is the future of field service and it's connected, proactive and intelligent."      

---

Want to Know More? As part of our beyond the headlines series Kris Oldland, Editor-in-Chief, Field Service News, spoke with ServiceMax CEO Neil Barua and CMO Stacey Epstein about the new release to find out more. Look out for that exclusive interview coming soon!

Salesforce has announced today the next generation of their FSM solution Salesforce Field Service. Which has been designed to equip field service organisations with the power of AI-powered tools to deliver trusted, mission-critical field service.

Built on the world’s #1 CRM, Salesforce Field Service includes new appointment scheduling and optimization capabilities as we see the fruits of last year’s acquisition of ClickSoftware bear fruit. The new release also introduces AI-driven guidance for dispatchers, asset performance insights and automated customer communications. In essence the launch comprises of an impressive suite of tools that each can play a significant role in helping field service organisations achieve the most fundamental and important aspect of service delivery – ensuring field service jobs are completed the first time, on time, every time.

When the pandemic first hit, many industries that send employees out to complete jobs in the field had to shut down entirely. But critical machinery still needs to be repaired—medical devices require servicing, air conditioning units need to be fixed and assembly line machines still malfunction. After getting over the initial shock of COVID-19, frontline workers got back to work and have been at it ever since.

 

"It is more crucial now than ever for field technicians to have the right information and tools to maximize equipment uptime and first-time fix rates..."

 

After an initial dip in March, Salesforce Field Service saw usage jump more than 50% between April and July 2020, and is actually now being used 20% more than at pre-COVID levels as companies and frontline workers scramble to clear the backlog of service requests created earlier this year.

It is more crucial now than ever for field technicians to have the right information and tools to maximize equipment uptime and first-time fix rates. This was the feedback that Salesforce heard loudly and clearly from their customers and they have reacted strongly to these industry requirements.

Leveraging the decades of industry expertise and innovation within their ranks, Salesforce have approached building their next-generation field service management product to help field service organisations overcome the challenges they face as we move towards recovery.

Some of these customers include:

GreenThumb (UK)

Greenthumb, conducts approximately 2.5 million lawn treatment visits to customers’ homes every year across the U.K. Just months after implementing Salesforce Field Service, Greenthumb started saving money—and the environment.

Smarter scheduling enabled their field crew to complete at least one extra job per worker per day, which generated more revenue. “By routing crews efficiently, we estimate it will save over £400,000 in annual fuel costs,” said Paul Edwards, Managing Director. “With no more need for paper work orders, we will cut paper requirement by three million sheets per year, which will rise as we gradually replace traditional mail with digital communications. In addition, working on a lightning-fast system has enabled our dispatchers to resolve customer inquiries an average of 45 seconds faster than before—going from seven clicks per case to just three.”

Best Buy (Canada)

Best Buy Canada is transforming how its 500-member support team helps clients with installations, repairs, and technical support. With the Geek Squad agents having access to the Salesforce Field service application on mobile, this helps provide greater visibility as clients receive real time updates of any schedule changes.

“With Salesforce Field Service, we will be able to optimize the efficiency of the team and improve the accuracy of when an agent is due to visit a client,” said Chris Sallans, Vice President, Retail Operations & Geek Squad. “There are now fewer manual processes for our Geek Squad agents, enabling them to spend more time helping clients resolve their technical issues.”

WBP Group (Australia)

WBP Group, one of Australia's largest, independent property valuation and advisory firms, needed to reshape how it operated to minimize contact between employees and customers in response to COVID-19. Service Cloud enabled the rapid launch of virtual valuations, creating a safe no-touch experience for customers and employees.

Salesforce Field Service has increased the efficiency of scheduling appointments for WBP and will be used in the future to manage valuations from end to end.

---

Want to Know More? As part of our beyond the headlines series Kris Oldland, Editor-in-Chief, Field Service News, spoke with Salesforce’s Paul Whitelam about the new release to find out more. Read that exclusive interview here!

We’re at a defining moment for field service management — invest in digital transformation or risk getting left behind writes Gary Brandeleer, Senior Director of Product Management, Field Service Lightning at Salesforce...

Sketching calendars on whiteboards, managing schedules on spreadsheets, and sending mobile workers into the field with clipboards and mounds of paper forms means we’re not giving customers the same level of convenience, personalization, and connectivity in field service they receive in their daily lives. Eighty-four percent of customers say the experience a company provides is as important as its products and services, and that shift is reflective of business consumers as well.

If you’re a business consumer, you still request pick-up via a ride-sharing app, get assigned a driver instantly, see where they are on a map, receive notifications, and leave real-time feedback. The same should be true for your field service appointment.

The business world needs to catch up to what we’re experiencing as consumers. The future of field service needs to be digitally connected from your business to your customer, but transformation can’t happen overnight. So, how do you take the steps now to future-proof field service management?

 

Invest In YOUR Mobile Workforce

Businesses aren’t competing with products anymore — they’re competing with experiences. Delivering in-person service is a competitive differentiator because it connects your company directly with customers, establishing a relationship now and for the future. But the service experience must be streamlined: 89% of service decision-makers say the experience a customer has with a mobile worker is a reflection of their brand.

Seventy-one percent of service decision-makers are already making significant investments with improved technologies and increased headcount. Despite this prioritization, mobile workers still face challenges:

• Only 50% report having access to a connected device
• Nearly half (49%) still toggle between screens to complete tasks
• Forty-five percent have wasted significant time because of inaccurate or outdated job information

Your mobile workforce must have access to current customer information and tasks to turn a critical, vulnerable moment with a customer into an opportunity for loyalty.

In the next section, we’ll discuss how an investment in a connected field force solution drives efficiencies and improves productivity in the field.

 

Leverage A Connected Field Service Solution

Digital transformation connects your entire workforce and drives consumer-like experiences. A connected workforce solution unifies customer data, from service history to communications preferences, for a complete view that’s shared across the entire field service operation. This streamlines communication with customers, drives efficiencies for dispatchers, and gives mobile workers the information they need to resolve cases faster:

• Be customer first. Customers want the flexibility to self-schedule from your site or app. Self-scheduling capabilities allow customers to make, change, and update requests – just as they would schedule a pick-up with a ride-sharing app.
• Automate notifications. Customers don’t want to be kept in the dark on the status of their appointment. Similar to receiving updates when their driver is nearby, customers get notifications about their mobile worker. Location tracking and artificial intelligence (AI) work together on the backend to power these automated notifications, keeping customers in the loop, and free up dispatchers from fielding calls on location status.
• Intelligently schedule. Dispatchers no longer spend time searching for the next-available mobile worker based on time, skill, location, equipment and manually scheduling appointments. Through a workforce field scheduling tool with intelligent capabilities, scheduling is automated to help dispatchers ensure route optimization and on-time appointments.
• Seamlessly reschedule. In the event an appointment needs to be rescheduled, a customer can make updates through an online portal, app, or on their favorite channel of communication. Dispatchers see the change as soon as it comes in and easily reassign mobile workers in the field with real-time notifications.
• Empower mobility in the field. Mobile workers need the ability to understand an issue before they step on-site and communicate with the team back at the contact center. With mobile capabilities, workers in the field get visibility into current job information, schedules, inventory, tasks, and customer data from their phones. They can also log updates before, during, and after the visit and leverage offline capabilities when Wi-Fi or data is unavailable to download customer information.
• Close the feedback loop. Customers easily provide feedback via your site, app, or another preferred channel on everything from whether the issue was resolved to whether their technician was polite and easy to work with.

Define Success Metrics

It’s no secret that digital transformation requires an investment in resources and technology to deliver the experiences all customers expect. To gauge whether it is working, companies can measure effectiveness against a core set of metrics:

• Improved first visit resolution. When mobile workers have visibility into all pertinent customer information and tasks, they are able to get to resolutions faster. If a mobile worker is unable to resolve an issue, they can even connect with a remote expert to walk them through a resolution, decreasing the likelihood of repeat visits.
• Decreased call volume. When customers have the choice to reach out through preferred channels and receive updates on their appointments automatically, call volume diminishes. Dispatchers are free to focus on top priorities and assign cases versus providing status updates.
• Minimized windshield time. Workforce field scheduling reduces the time in which mobile workers spend unassigned to tasks because dispatchers have a full view of who is available in the field. For less complex cases, customers can even connect with a remote agent directly to fix an issue, minimizing truck roll.
• Increased opportunity. Mobile workers can help identify new opportunities out in the field for incremental revenue. For example, if a customer has a need for a costly repair or a new part, a mobile worker can walk them through their options and next steps.
• Improved customer satisfaction. A connected solution puts the customer first, from the minute they schedule an appointment to the moment a mobile worker walks out the door. By putting in place the capability to receive feedback directly from customers, you’ll know firsthand what the experience was like and gather the information you need to improve processes and training.

The future of field force management is now. If you’re ready to take the steps to future-proof your field service operation, learn how to connect your entire workforce with Field Service Lightning.

---

Further Reading:

• Read more about digital transformation @ www.fieldservicenews.com/blog/tag/servitization-and-advanced-services
• Read more about mobile workforce management @ www.fieldservicenews.com/blog/tag/managing-the-mobile-workforce
• Find out more about Field Service Lightning @ www.salesforce.com/uk/products/service-cloud/field-service-lightning/
• Connect with Gary on LinkedIn @ www.linkedin.com/in/garybrandeleer/
• Follow Salesforce on Twitter @ twitter.com/salesforce

In the final excerpt from season 5 episode 3 of the Field Service Podcast, Lukas Fahnroth of Koenig and Bauer and Michael Kuebel of Salesforce discuss why digital transformation and customer-centricity must form the foundations of the new normal we are all currently in the process of building.

---

 

Want to hear more? Head over to our podcast library @ www.fieldservicenews.com/podcasts and look for Series Five, Episode Three 'Adaptability, Customer-Centricity and Recovery ft. Lukas Fahnroth & Michael Kuebel'

---

 

Digital Transfomation Must Simplify Field Service Management

Koenig and Bauer have been an example of excellence and dynamism in reacting to the Covid-19 challenges that we've all faced. Salesforce, as their technology provider were also instrumental in allowing them to make that shift. But the digital transformation for Koenig and Bauer had happened a long time ago, which is part of the reason why they were so agile and nimble and reactive in the first place.

However, one of the things that really came to the fore when Koenig and Bauer's Lukas Fahnroth and Salesforce's Michael Kuebel joined us on the Field Service Podcast was also the importance of customer centricity.

It was interesting during that conversation to see a number of areas echoed that have become something of a recurring theme emerging from the examples of companies that were able to ride the wave of turmoil we have all faced. 

 

"It's not just making sure that your employees are safe, but also making sure that this partnership between a company and the employees is a steady one and that is a good partnership..."

 - Lukas Fahnroth, Koenig and Bauer. 

 

For example, we have seen a simple dual focus amongst companies towards customer centric thinking and providing a safe operating environment for our employees and our customers as well.

In many ways we have perhaps had to condense our thinking into these more simplified, less complex kind of thought processes. Empowerment is another of these themes that keeps returning to the top of the discussion - especially in the field service role itself. We have seen a lot of autonomy being given towards the engineers. Of course, what is empowering them to do that and to have that degree of autonomy in the field is the flow of data brought about by digital transformation and platforms such as Salesforce's Field Service Lightning.

At the heart of the matter, this is what digitalisation is really all about. Taking away unnecessary complexity and facilitating better decision making by making the processes we undertake simpler and more effective. 

"It is really [providing] the simplification towards those partnerships," comments Lukas Fahnroth of Koenig and Bauer. "It's not just making sure that your employees are safe, but also making sure that this partnership between a company and the employees is a steady one and that is a good partnership. I think what we'll see after the crisis to stay is the fact that those partnerships with internal and external stakeholders will really become the most relevant business goal."

---

Further Reading:

• Learn more about work.com @ www.salesforce.com/work/
• Find the full episode of this interview and the entire back catalogue of The Field Service Podcast @ www.fieldservicenews.com/podcasts
• Read more about Digital Transformation @ www.fieldservicenews.com/blog/tag/digital-transformation
• Read more about the impact of Covid-19 on Field Service @ https://www.fieldservicenews.com/en-gb/covid-19
• Connect with Michael Kuebel on LinkedIn @ www.linkedin.com/in/michael-kuebel-fieldservice/
• Follow Michael Kuebel on Twitter @ twitter.com/michaelkuebel
• Find out more about Salesforce Field Service Solutions @ www.salesforce.com/uk/campaign/sem/service-cloud/
• Follow Salesforce on twitter @ twitter.com/salesforce
• Find out more about Koenig & Bauer @ www.koenig-bauer.com
• Follow Koenig and Bauer @ twitter.com/koenigandbauer

One company that stood as something of a beacon for the many of us in the field service sector struggling in the face of the global lockdowns was Koenig and Bauer, whose agile mindset allowed them to adapt quickly to the situation. In this excerpt from the Field Service Podcast, Koenig and Bauer's Lukas Fahnroth and Michael Keubel of Salesforce discuss what recovery might look like for field service companies and how we can get there.

---

 

Want to hear more? Head over to our podcast library @ www.fieldservicenews.com/podcasts and look for Series Five, Episode Three 'Adaptability, Customer-Centricity and Recovery ft. Lukas Fahnroth & Michael Kuebel'

---

 

A NEW NORMAL OF AGILITY FOR THE FIELD SERVICE INDUSTRY

In many ways it is our collective responsibility now to ensure that after all of the challenges we've faced and all of the heartbreaks people have seen across the last few months, we grasp the nettle and hold on tightly to the good that has come from the global lockdowns.

There is a lot of talk about the recovery but what exactly should that look like and how do we get there? How can we use the last few months as a catalyst for embarking on an ongoing continuous improvement journey? What does the conversation look like now in terms of the conversations you're having with customers? Is there a specific strategy or approach we must adopt as we look towards recovery and how you help your customers' customers as well?

"One of the important things that happened during the crisis for us was that we've extended a lot of the digital offerings we've had in place. We've improved on them in many instances" says Lukas Fahnroth, Koenig and Bauer.  "So the conversation for us currently revolves around further extending those actions we've taken and also keeping them in place, even if the crisis disappears. For example, for the hotline services, we've extended the video support calls. A lot of the offerings we've put out there, like the customer community with the analytics functionality, is really something that our customers have got used to, and that we at Koenig and Bauer now see as essential. So we're going to see a lot of those actions stay in place and keep this digital innovation momentum in place in order to further develop our digital strategy, even after the crisis disappears."

As Fahnroth alludes, the digital acceleration of the last few months has been dramatic, not just for Koenig and Bauer, who were already on the path very much anyway, but for many, many other companies. In essence we've already begun the process of building a new normal and that new normal is much more digital centric than what came before. 

 

"Salesforce is offering help here. Using our own platform, we have created a new product suite that we call work.com, which is the probably the first product on the market for organising reopening of businesses and especially addressing these topics..."

-Michael Kuebel, Salesforce

 

"We can split the Covid-19 crisis into three phases that we see," explains Michael Kuebel, Salesforce. 

"One is the fact that most of us have been stabilising and gone through a process to make sure we keep operations running, and I think Koenig and Bauer is a brilliant example of that. We have other clients in many industries that cope very well with stabilising but now they're going to the next phase which is a reopening phase, which also needs a different type of effort, and that is a muscle we haven't yet trained.

"We need to organise a safe return to the workplace by making sure that we don't overfill our offices. We must make sure that we can trace contacts of people in case somebody gets a positive test result, then you can trace back and understand who they met with, allowing you to inform customers to make sure you don't spread the virus any further, keeping transparency.

"Salesforce is offering help here. Using our own platform, we have created a new product suite that we call work.com, which is the probably the first product that is on the market for organising reopening and especially addressing these topics.

"The last phase, once we're all out of the crisis, is going to be continuing the growth path. When we look at the capabilities and the success factors, we feel that leadership in the crisis, out of the crisis and after the crisis is paramount. Lucas was very eloquently elaborating that people, employees, customers and society are watching carefully what leaders are doing and what their priorities are.

"Customer engagement is a super important pillar. Empowerment of people is something that I think is here to stay. And last but not least, business agility. Agility is easily said but difficult to do, especially when you look at Manufacturing. My background is Manufacturing and when it's about products and safety, excellence and perfection is the ultimate goal. Now suddenly, with agility, speed is the ultimate goal.

"I think customers have quickly become used to some new experiences and services. I think that mindsets have changed and if you then have platforms and the right tools, this can enable agility to meet these new mindsets. I think that's here to stay and this will be the muscle that we train today that we will use in the future to establish growth."

---

Further Reading:

• Learn more about work.com @ www.salesforce.com/work/
• Find the full episode of this interview and the entire back catalogue of The Field Service Podcast @ www.fieldservicenews.com/podcasts
• Read more about Digital Transformation @ www.fieldservicenews.com/blog/tag/digital-transformation
• Read more about the impact of Covid-19 on Field Service @ https://www.fieldservicenews.com/en-gb/covid-19
• Connect with Michael Kuebel on LinkedIn @ www.linkedin.com/in/michael-kuebel-fieldservice/
• Follow Michael Kuebel on Twitter @ twitter.com/michaelkuebel
• Find out more about Salesforce Field Service Solutions @ www.salesforce.com/uk/campaign/sem/service-cloud/
• Follow Salesforce on twitter @ twitter.com/salesforce
• Find out more about Koenig & Bauer @ www.koenig-bauer.com
• Follow Koenig and Bauer @ twitter.com/koenigandbauer

In this excerpt from the Field Service Podcast, Salesforce's Michael Keubel and Koenig and Bauer's Lukas Fahnroth discuss why the concept of customer-centricity was critical in being able to navigate the tricky waters of 2020.

---

 

Want to hear more? Head over to our podcast library @ www.fieldservicenews.com/podcasts and look for Series Five, Episode Three 'Adaptability, Customer-Centricity and Recovery ft. Lukas Fahnroth & Michael Kuebel'

---

 

Customer Satisfaction Has to be More than a Tick-Box Exercise in Field Service Management

In a recent episode of the Field Service Podcast, Kris Oldland, Editor-in-Chief, Field Service News was joined by Michael Kuebel of Salesforce and Lukas Fahnroth of Koenig and Bauer as the two discussed how they worked together to ensure Koenig and Bauer were able to remain resilient not only within their own business but also to be there to offer support when their customers needed them most.

One of the things that really came through in that conversation was the importance of being close to the customer and certainly Koenig and Bauer were able to ride the storm while simultaneously being a rock for their own customers during the Covid-19 lockdowns. However, even this 200 year old company was challenged by these unprecedented times. As Fahnroth explained; "We have seen a lot of innovations being supercharged at Koenig and Bauer because of the crisis and we've always been an innovative company, but Covid-19 really changed the way everything looks and has reset our goals in many, many instances."

However, despite those pressures the German printing manufacturer remained resolute and this is something that Kuebel strongly aligns with Koenig and Bauer's strong sense of importance in customer service and placing the customer at the heart of what they do. 

"I get enthusiastic when I hear what Lucas is saying and when I see what Koenig and Bauer are doing. I really see the potential when I talk to customers and we have initial discussions where they want to talk about customer centricity. But sometimes I feel that service leaders can feel that customer centricity is just a buzzword - but for me, what Lukas has explained with Koenig and Bauer, you can see what customer centricity actually means. What an organisation looks like, that really puts the customer in the centre. 

 

"This is really impressive and this is, for me, a brilliant example where customer centricity is so much more than a buzzword..."

- Michael Kuebel, Salesforce

 

"I was at an event earlier this year called Koenig and Bauer 4.0 and I initially thought this would be an event all about digitalisation. But it was an event where Koenig and Bauer over the course of a couple of days invited hundreds if not thousands of customers from all over the world, to bring them together and explain to them and discuss with them what Koenig and Bauer is doing on the digitalisation forefront. To explain to their customers how such changes would make their life easier and help them to make their printing production run more efficiently. It was all focused on the 'what's in it for you.'

"It was not a show of 'these are the nice features that we have' or 'aren't we an innovative company', but it was really only focused on what's in it for you. I spoke to some of Koenig and Bauer's customers that day and they were really very, very positive seeing that and seeing how much effort a company like Koenig and Bauer puts into a transformation and how they emphasise that customer success is paramount to everything that they do.

"This is really impressive and this is, for me, a brilliant example where customer centricity is so much more than a buzzword," Kuebel adds. 

Kuebel's enthusiasm will surely only be mirrored by Koenig and Bauer's own customer base, who will have benefited greatly from the print manufacturer's continuing focus on customer satisfaction across all of their thinking. Indeed, as Kuebel outlines there is a world of difference between those companies who treat customer centricity as a buzz-word and those who have it etched within their DNA. It is perhaps at times of crisis that we see this the most.

As Warren Buffet would often quip "it is when the tide goes out that you see who is swimming naked.' With a 200 year pedigree based on innovation and rock solid business ethics, you can put a hefty wager that Koenig and Bauer won't be caught out by the changing tides that Covid-19 has brought us.

---

Further Reading:

• Find the full episode of this interview and the entire back catalogue of The Field Service Podcast @ www.fieldservicenews.com/podcasts
• Read more about Digital Transformation @ www.fieldservicenews.com/blog/tag/digital-transformation
• Read more about the impact of Covid-19 on Field Service @ https://www.fieldservicenews.com/en-gb/covid-19
• Connect with Michael Kuebel on LinkedIn @ www.linkedin.com/in/michael-kuebel-fieldservice/
• Follow Michael Kuebel on Twitter @ twitter.com/michaelkuebel
• Find out more about Salesforce Field Service Solutions @ www.salesforce.com/uk/campaign/sem/service-cloud/
• Follow Salesforce on twitter @ twitter.com/salesforce
• Find out more about Koenig & Bauer @ www.koenig-bauer.com
• Follow Koenig and Bauer @ twitter.com/koenigandbauer