Better Field Service Tools Reduce Frustration

For Safe Home, this system automation has shaved minutes off each call. It has improved call center productivity since more calls can be handled in the same amount of time. Most importantly, it has improved customer satisfaction. “We reduced the time that customers had to wait,” Prignano says.

Safe Home also made additional improvements to its sales and field service processes.

“Because more automation is built into our field service order dispatch system, we can now send email or text messages in advance to customers letting them know when we are going to arrive and sending them the name, telephone number, and photo of the technician who will be doing the servicing,” Prignano says. “In this way, customers know in advance when we will be there and who is coming. They really like this.”

Field automation also benefits sales, according to Prignano, who notes that salespeople visiting prospects in their homes previously couldn’t close sales because they weren’t able to access field service systems to schedule installation appointments right on the spot. “Sometimes this delay between meeting with a prospect and then getting back to the prospect later with a time for the installation would cost us a sale,” Prignano laments.

“Now the salesperson can be onsite with the customer and immediately schedule the installation into the field service system that field service and sales share. Everything gets done on the spot, and the new customer is on board.”

“Companies see the return on investment in field services technology in the increased productivity of their field services forces,” Bloom agrees. “With systems delivering intelligent scheduling and resourcing over mobile devices, more work gets done with less effort. You can track these activities in real time and more readily align your daily operations with strategy. You also have the ability to move quickly into new lines of business and new customer segments that your company wants to pursue.”

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Mary Shacklett is a freelance writer and president of Transworld Data, a technology analytics, market research, and consulting firm. She can be reached at mshacklett@twdtransworld.com.

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Best Practices for Field Service Technology

Experts recommend that companies looking to upgrade their field service operations keep the following basic principles in mind:

1. Allow time for change.

When one utility company deployed mobile devices and tracking, it got a considerable amount of pushback from its field service employees. The issue, it seemed, was that techs didn’t want “big brother” technology constantly tracking their every move. They also feared losing some of the autonomy they had enjoyed in the field and resented having to fill out reports on a laptop in the cabs of their trucks after every visit.

“There typically is a training and adjustment phase,” suggests Eddie Prignano, vice president of corporate counsel at Safe Home. “This is a natural result of adopting any new technology that service technicians aren’t accustomed to.”

2. Roll out any new technology gradually.

“Introduce new technology incrementally,” says Max Paltsev, CEO of Service Fusion, a field service software provider. “If you attempt an all-at-once approach, you risk the employees resisting or not adapting, and this could cause a slowdown in technology adoption.”

3. Get help with your technology implementation.

“Hire an implementation partner that has experience with the technology you want to implement,” Prignano says.

His company decided to take up the implementation on its own, but only after its vendor “committed that we would have the help we needed for every step of the process.” —M.S.

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