How connected devices are revolutionizing mobile field services
While the impressive growth of the Internet of Things (IoT) is often measured in revenue for the devices that enable it, the “soft revenue” potential is even more impressive. Connected devices, supported by analytics and software, are boosting efficiencies in business, shortening sales cycles, improving customer satisfaction, and eliminating the need to pay human workers overtime. Today, companies that employ field service workers walk a fine line between meeting the needs of customers and keeping revenues healthy and expenses down. There are many ways that connected devices networked to follow an IoT business model can help companies simultaneously improve their customer care while adding to their revenue generation.
Today, most customer support is still reactive: a service fails or an error is made and the customer must reach out to a supplier to correct the problem. Making these calls and wandering through an inbound customer service maze does little to improve customers’ attitudes toward a product or service. (“We value your business. Press 8 to have your call disconnected so you have to start all over again. Or, visit our Web site to see that our FAQ list was last updated in 2009.”) See also: How edge computing and IIoT are changing the way we think about data Companies that embrace connected devices are better prepared to reach out to customers proactively before service issues arrive, helping customers before they even know they need help. This fosters an invaluable sense of customer goodwill that extends the customer lifecycle and revenue generating value of the relationship. It also can save companies from making unnecessary field service calls.
Collaboration, or the ability of remote stakeholders (whether human or not) to contribute knowledge to the same problem-solving pool, is revolutionizing the business world–and much of it is due to IoT technology. It’s also helping mobile field service technicians cultivate and save their knowledge to create best practices, consult with one another in real-time on appointments, and gain greater support from managers and supervisors. Nashua, New Hampshire-basedNrbyproduces location-based workforce collaboration solutions that transform mobile field service into a more proactive, profitable operation. Nrby’s one-touch SmartPins feature maps events and conveys context-rich details so technicians can easily identify, instantly share and quickly resolve issues, while operation centers are continually updated and supervisors receive real-time status changes. Kurt Dobbins, President of Nrby, says it’s like Waze-style crowdsourcing for field service. “With crowdsourcing, the human element is equally, if not more, critical than Internet of Things sensors and machine automation,” he said. “Technicians are much happier and better at their jobs, customers get the reliable service they deserve, and businesses profit from highly engaged, extremely efficient and revenue-generating field service organizations.”
In a typical service call, a field service worker is dispatched with a manually prepared and static schedule at the beginning of the day. After the call, he promises to be in touch in the future. He brings his notes back to headquarters, and someone else transforms them into a work order (hopefully without transcription errors), which is then returned to the customer. If the customer signs it, the technician is sent back to perform the work. Once again, he brings his notes back so someone else can create an invoice (also hopefully without errors). See also: With hundreds of choices, how do you pick an IoT platform? Connected devices, backed up by a digital field service management solution, can change the workflow of the process entirely, accelerating it while simultaneously reducing errors. Fremont, California-based Apptivo shows the way forward with its CRM suite that includes anintegrated field service management solution.
