Field services 2.0

There is no denying that connected technology is powering innovation and business transformation, making organisations rethink the way they do business. BI Intelligence^[1] reports that by 2020 we will have over 34 billion connected “things” in the world. That’s almost the number of smartphones, smart TVs, tablets, wearable computers and PCs combined.

But with increased connectivity come all new complexities — especially in the realm of support and customer satisfaction. LogMeIn along with research firm Vanson Bourne recently released its Effective Mobile Engagement Report 2016 that found 91% of Australia and New Zealand (ANZ) consumers have stopped doing business with a company following a bad customer experience. If you think your customers are here to stay, and that support is a burden to be addressed later, think again. It is easier than ever for users to switch products and one of the top drivers for this is poor customer experience.

With the “always on, always connected” nature of technology and business, it should come as no surprise that today’s customers have high expectations around speed and quality of service. They require an immediate response and quick remediation of any customer service issue. More than ever, these customers are making buying decisions based on customer service experiences.

Businesses must now be armed with a clear vision for what their support strategies will look like. What happens when a customer asks questions about product set-up or requests support for when a device breaks or needs to be serviced? People want new devices and products, but don’t always know how to use them, how they interact or how to fix them when they break. This need for connected device support has resulted in the emergence of a second wave of technologies that are driving field services and enabling new support tools.

So what are the technologies that are boosting field services, and how can technology be the enabler to help you improve customer service and problem resolution in the field?

Field Services 2.0

For businesses in field services, a critical yet often overlooked opportunity for business transformation is in the deployment of remote support tools.

Though remote support tools got their start helping IT helpdesks and technical support organisations to cut incident handling and resolution time, other disciplines including field services are beginning to reap the productivity, profitability and customer retention gains offered by remote support platforms.

From a customer perspective we have all experienced the call-out time life cycle. Place a service call, go through the contact call centre, try troubleshooting over the phone, arrange for an on-site support technician and hope for a resolution the first time around. The all-too-common and worst-case scenario is that it takes multiple call-outs to achieve a resolution. Not an ideal customer experience, and not always ideal from a field services perspective either.

So what can remote support solutions offer? For field services personnel, these platforms can allow technicians to access customer equipment to troubleshoot problems before heading on-site. In some cases, remote support enables full issue resolution without having to hit the road. At the very least, technicians are better informed about the problem, allowing them to research the issue and bring along all necessary parts to avoid making several visits to complete a repair.

Other ‘bleeding edge’ technologies have emerged in the last 12 months revolutionising resolution times and overall customer satisfaction. One such technology has been video links that remotely connect a field service agent to their customer. This has provided support technicians with a view of the customer, their environment and their equipment to actually see hardware, error codes and walk a customer through replacing parts or running diagnostics — beyond the screen.

Some providers even offer a mobile application that customers can use from their smartphone or tablet to virtually walk the support technician around an equipment room, making close-up views of serial numbers or error lights possible, and permitting agents to visually inspect all aspects of a piece of equipment.

But, if you are one of many support organisations already running lean and efficient operations, there are still opportunities to offer added value to customers using resources that already exist within your business.

Analytics and dashboards

All these new connections, applications and devices are generating a flood of data. The interest in big data has been growing as organisations look for ways to manage and find insights from the oceans of content being created.

Customer information is often stored in an average of a dozen or more places, but businesses can take advantage of new robust analytic capabilities out of the box and sophisticated dashboards without a data scientist guiding the way. One approach is to use analytics to inform recommended solutions to a customer based on their profile and problems experienced by other customers with similar profiles.

Get proactive

Proactive support isn’t just about remotely monitoring customer equipment to detect errors. Today, proactive support implies anticipating customer needs and expectations and delivering it in an automated way. This can include updates to support processes, self-service websites and tools, online community notifications, among many others.

Reduce customer effort

Companies have to do to more to understand the customer experience and how to improve it, particularly for support interactions. Introducing surveys and focus groups to gather input about the level of effort required to perform basic customer activities is key. But make sure the organisation has an appetite to change before starting a survey project — customers hate to give input on what needs to change only to have these concerns ignored.

FSB magazine is co-hosting a Field Services breakfast panel with LogMeIn in Melbourne on Wednesday, 14 September 2016. For more information, email Martin Sinclair at FSB: msinclair@wfmedia.com.au.

^[1] BI Intelligence — The Internet of Things: Examining How The IoT Will Affect The World

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