The past two years have seen people become more informed about products and services while expecting a degree of self-service to manage their immediate needs and wanting more personalised solutions.

Many organisations have turned to automation to improve internal processes and better analyse the data they have at their disposal. This has resulted in a shift in how field service management is done.

The global field service management market is expected to reach $8 billion by 2028, signifying a compound annual growth of almost 13% during the 2022 to 2028 period. The moment of service that sees businesses engage customers and employees while optimising assets will be the defining battleground to create value.

This is where cloud-based solutions such as IFS Cloud become vital. Organisations need a single platform that connects all its products while managing the field service aspects to enhance the customer experience.

Going interactive 

The value of a field service technician to deliver the moment of service that creates differentiation cannot be overstated.

They work in challenging conditions and are reliant on technology to interact with customers, gain assistance while in the field, and improve first-time fixes to deliver the service differentiation essential in a competitive environment.

Additionally, going the cloud route provides field service technicians with an added level of flexibility. They not only have up-to-date information about the customer, past repairs, the outcome of previous calls, and other activities, but they can also access knowledge bases for guides and manuals.

If necessary, technicians can even raise a new ticket while in the field. For example, a technician discovers an additional repair unrelated to the original order. If they have the time, the necessary parts, and approval to proceed, the technician can not only create a new ticket but assign it to themselves to be actioned immediately.

Many companies have turned to remote collaboration and assistance technology as a core part of operations. Augmented reality, enterprise management platforms, and routing and scheduling software can provide organisations with the tools essential to improve field service.

And by using mobile apps and online dashboards, customers can manage field service requests from their side. This empowers them with the knowledge they need to be appraised of the entire field service value chain – from when a technician is dispatched to what the problem is and the length of time it will take to remedy.

Rethinking utilities

Utilities are one of the sectors where improved field service is most needed. The continued load shedding combined with the ongoing threat of water shortages makes this a powder keg just waiting to be set off by a complete collapse in infrastructure.

Even though this might sound like fear, uncertainty, and doubt, the reality is that ageing equipment, a limited operating budget, and the majority of time and money spent on maintenance combine to turn the focus away from the moment of service.

Simply put, a utility cannot always prioritise the customer experience. But as more corporate and consumer users turn to a sustainable energy model, utilities need to rethink their approach, business model, and what they will do to create a more positive customer experience.

Field service done differently 

Just as with technology implementation, there are many ways to approach the moment of service experience. After all, in service, there is no rule book for success.

Certainly, best practices and lessons learned must apply. But organisations have a clean slate to work from when it comes to the practical steps necessary to transform service.

Companies can inject advanced field service management capabilities into their existing environments using a solution like IFS Cloud. The overriding theme when it comes to these modern solutions is being able to quickly scope and schedule service requests.

Technicians in the field will be able to better manage their work at that moment, throughout the day, and as part of a greater team of technicians. As part of this, integrating data from various input channels has become vital for companies. Ultimately, the field service technicians must easily access detailed information that guides callouts, problem fixes, and customer requirements.

Delivering service to this new breed of customer will become a priority. More competition will enter the South African market. These providers will cover all aspects of the utility value chain. Service differentiation will therefore become one of the business enablers of the future.

Making things easy 

In today’s world, companies must transition to convenient, simple to use, enjoyable, intuitive, digital-first experiences driven by an improved understanding of the customer. Only through this can the business find a way to deliver the moment of service expected from customers who are becoming more expectant of their service providers.

Technology that can assist through every step of the customer journey is critical. This enables the company to ask the right questions to the right audience at the right time. This will provide them with the data and insights essential to drive change and improve efficiencies to deliver a moment of service suited to today’s connected world.

Today, the focus is on leveraging an integrated strategy that breaks down business siloes to deliver support offerings in increasingly agile ways.

However, scheduling and delivering services and allocating parts have grown in complexity thanks to more powerful computing capabilities and faster connectivity. This puts renewed pressure on organisations to build better field service management solutions that reflect modern demands.

The growth of artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, robotic process automation, and the Internet of Things mean companies can more accurately predict job duration, the potential for asset failure, and even scheduling conditions. Data-driven insights bring a shift from the traditional repair models to more outcomes-based projects that guarantee uptime and meet the high operational output demanded by clients.

The glue that binds all this is service management software. Using advanced solutions to optimise, track, and automate services in increasingly strategic ways deliver a competitive advantage. Additionally, it provides the means to proactively address potential service delivery problems before clients are even aware of them.

Beyond ticking boxes

As with any technology, there is always a temptation to focus on the system’s capabilities and how it can overcome problems. This is not wrong, but it must be enhanced by the depth of execution of the features provided. Simply ticking a box to say that a service management solution can fulfil a specific function can only bring an organisation so far.

Instead, it is balancing the depth of execution and the capabilities available. For this to be done, organisations need to consider service delivery, operations, and customer experience. By doing so, they can better identify the killer features that are essential for success. This can also be significantly different from business to business.

When it comes to service delivery capabilities, a solution must be able to deliver the basics required. Everything from contract and appointment management to service level agreements must be available.

Typically, these are the digital equivalents to the paper-based processes they have been designed to replace. These can be enhanced through knowledge management, training development, and even augmented reality that can upskill technicians.

On an operational level, the focus turns to how the solution can improve the movement of people, tools, and parts through the field service management environment. The secret that helps create product differentiation is how best the system can optimise this traffic. So, allowing appointments to be scheduled through multiple channels or leveraging AI to manage job delivery automatically and scheduling to meet demand become significant enablers.

The third component is customer experience capabilities. And here, there is a distinction between the relationship between the customer and management and how effectively technicians work on projects using zero-touch service, chatbots, and actual delivery.

Thinking differently about implementation

Every service implementation is unique. This becomes even more apparent when a business looks to upgrade its service platform or deploy a service for the first time.

When it comes to first-time implementations, companies need to understand every element of what technicians, back-office staff, and factory employees are doing before turning to a solution. This assessment helps ensure that the selected software is fit-for-purpose and addresses the most pressing organisational concerns.

And when it comes to implementing a full-featured service tool, attention must be paid to how well it can integrate into existing systems or whether it simply makes them redundant.

This will require a careful review of whether the business wants to use both solutions or if it will migrate the data and processes in the legacy environment into the new one to help drive efficiencies.

Tailored for your needs

If there is no employee buy-in to the field service management solution, then the company cannot hope for any implementation to succeed. Getting internal champions to drive awareness of not only the need for change but also how best to use the new environment can become a key component for the company to evolve its service provisioning.

Furthermore, the organisation must also consider how customers will respond to the new way of doing things. In my experience, the customer only cares when service delivery fails. However, a company can significantly enhance customer engagement if the new platform gives them access to outcomes-based service.

By repositioning it as the means to deliver uptime and output, as opposed to the old school problem-fixing, customers will more readily embrace the new way of doing things.

And given the level of competition in today’s market, any way an organisation can create differentiation through its service delivery is crucial.