Mike Boyle:
Another use case for automation within Field Service would be speeding up the time at a job site. What would we see there?

George Higgins:
There’s several different ways we can do this, and we do know that drive time, that per appointment travel time, is such a critical KPI for pretty much every Field Service organization, and we have a few different ways that we can help impact this KPI. There’s aerial routing, which is going to compute the shortest distance between two locations based on a straight line, so kind of as the crow flies. We also do street level routing, which is going to compute the distance along roads or transportation routes. It’s based on actual road speed measurements and the expected travel speed based on the type of road.

We also have predictive travel, so that builds on top of that street level routing and it incorporates time of day data into the calculation. Is it rush hour or is this generally a busy time on this road? We’ll factor that into what that drive time’s actually going to be. Lastly, we also have point to point predictive routing. That’s going to estimate travel time using the exact service appointment location, and it also considers that time of day. That’s the routing that is used across all scheduling and optimization operations within Field Service.

Mike Boyle:
The third use case for automation within Field Service I wanted to chat about was actually, a word everybody loves, and that’s workflows. How do workflows get simplified to improve those first time fix rates, if you will?

George Higgins:
With the Salesforce Field Service mobile app, which is available offline, your field techs, those teams that are actually performing the services for your customers on site, they’ve got the power of Salesforce right in their pocket. Historically, where maybe they’re taking an order sheet and going out into the field and reading whatever the agent or dispatcher has told them about, that static information there, the Field Service app really offers a lot more. They’ve got those work types that guide them through that step-by-step process of exactly how to complete whatever type of work they’re doing. They have access to Salesforce knowledge articles, maybe it’s a one off scenario that they haven’t dealt with before. You could have knowledge articles surfaced right there on the mobile app to guide that tech how to fix that problem ensuring they’re not going to have to come back again.

Another thing I’m seeing a lot in the space right now is companies looking at a solution called Visual Remote Assistant. Now, this is Visual Remote Assistant, or VRA, is kind of like a screen sharing solution that we offer. ADT is probably our most famous user of this and they use it when your home security system breaks and you call into customer service. They’re able to actually, within Salesforce, initiate a screen sharing session. They can see exactly what the customer sees and troubleshoot them how to fix whatever may be going wrong with their system. They’ve had a ton of success with that. They’ve seen a reduction in actually having to dispatch techs to go repair those issues by 80%.

That’s the more straightforward use case, but something I’m seeing a lot of interest in is using the same tool to support techs in the field. A lot of the companies with this great recession are dealing with a lot of new techs that are getting into the field for the first time and they want to make sure they’ve got all the tools and all the ability to actually fix the issue that first time out, and they’re using VRA to call back to head office and visualize with that experienced dispatcher with a more experienced tech to walk them through how to fix something that they maybe haven’t dealt with before. Do it all on site without having to send another truck and another resource to get that done.

Mike Boyle:
One thing I’m curious about, George, is decision making. How would automation within Field Service improve that? I would assume data in real time would play a big part of that, correct?

George Higgins:
Oh, yes. Realtime data and making adjustments on the fly, that’s an area where Field Service really does shine and getting that real time data definitely has major impact there. I talked previously about the power of the optimization engine and its ability to analyze all those complex parameters, tech skills, location, drive time, and so on. Let’s take a look at some things that happen in the real world. Let’s say a dispatcher has used the optimization engine and we’ve laid out the perfectly optimized schedule for a day, but something comes up. Maybe a text child gets sick or an appointment takes longer than expected. That disrupts this perfectly laid out plan that we’ve set out for the day.

Historically, that situation is going to send dispatchers scrambling for coverage and trying to figure out the best way to service those remaining appointments and minimize the impact of that unexpected event. You don’t want that affecting your other customers if you can. With Field Service, that optimization that was used to generate that schedule in the first place can be used in those urgent situations as well. It can quickly take into consideration all those factors, figure out how can we take this event that could possibly have a huge impact for the day, a huge negative impact on the day, and minimize that effect? All with that automation and optimization assisting and ensuring we’re going to meet as many of our SLAs and as many of our customer expectations as possible.

Mike Boyle:
Now, I would also assume that Field Service automation helps improve customer retention. Can you talk a little bit about that?

George Higgins:
It absolutely does, and it does that in a lot of different ways. There’s the unseen ways to the customer that happen behind the scenes that ensure the right tech is coming, they’re arriving when we’re expecting them to arrive, they do have the ability to fix my problem, and they’re able to do it on that first time. Additionally, customers can now get that DoorDash or Uber-like real time location experience that’s starting to become expected, and not just a nice to have, like I mentioned. With appointment assistants, something a lot of our Field Service customers are adding on, you’re able to see on your phone, you can get text notifications, “Here’s the driver who’s on your way. It’s Alan. He’s 20-minutes away and here’s where he is on a map,” getting that real time location. That experience is something customers are expecting and we’re able to offer with Field Service and definitely helps with customer retention.

Mike Boyle:
What about new revenue opportunities? How does automation within Field Service contribute to that?

George Higgins:
Something I’ve been seeing a lot lately with companies using field services, the desire to turn it into a revenue center. Traditionally, servicing your customers is that cost center, but how does Field Service really do that? As I mentioned before, it’s totally built on the same platform as your sales or service cloud instance. It’s really easy for field techs to create an opportunity, launch a flow to notify a sales rep of something that maybe worth pursuing. Additionally, some customers are taking even a step further. Let’s think about an example of an elevator inspector. Legally, buildings are required to have their elevators inspected at certain periods of time. When that elevator tech goes out and makes the inspection, they may notice some other things we can do for the customer. Maybe this door is not out of compliance, but it could use some repair. Maybe they’re a good candidate for a preventative maintenance program. With Field Service, you can actually empower your techs to quote in the field and get that existing business while they’re actually there to repair something.

Mike Boyle:
Obviously, and you spoke about this a moment ago a little bit… The mobile component plays a huge role in Field Service automation. Can you talk about some of the standout functionalities of the mobile experience?

George Higgins:
The one huge one, I think I mentioned earlier, offline capabilities. That is huge for a lot of our customers. A lot of times these field teams are working in remote areas with no WiFi, no cell phone service, and giving them the ability to still access and update all that Salesforce data, despite not having that connectivity is a major win. That’s really going to help that first time fixed rate and just ensure field techs have everything they need to do the work in the field. It’s going to help your data hygiene and really assist that process there. In addition to just the offline capabilities, too, that power of Salesforce in your pocket is huge.

You have that same Customer 360 as your service agents or your sales teams that really empower them to give that seamless experience your customers are looking for, and then the automation is right at their fingertips. If a certain event happens during the appointment, like the new opportunity being identified or perhaps another appointment needing to be scheduled, a field tech can quickly initiate those, launching a Salesforce flow to really automate and connect that experience and help the customer even faster.

Mike Boyle:
George, the last point I just wanted to get to the bottom of here was, we’ve talked a lot about how Field Service automation helps companies and in particular, the employee experiences. What about the customer experience? Can you talk a little bit about how they benefit from this?

George Higgins:
At Salesforce, we are a customer-centric company and everything we do and everything that we build has the customer as the top of mind. We really strive to help our customers also become customer-centric. We built this from the ground up with delighting customers as the primary goal. Customers get those benefits at several levels. Solutions built on-platform as I mentioned, so that means connecting all your customer data to that Field Service process, doesn’t require any integration. Customers benefit because the techs, the dispatchers, the service agents, anyone at your company can get that same 360-degree view of your customer, ensuring the entire company knows exactly what the customer needs and exactly how to help them. At a more micro level, too, you can look at the dispatcher experience and with those optimization, visualization, and automation at their fingertips, they’re able to quickly ensure the right techs are there, showing up at the right appointments, resulting in that improved customer experience.

Then you take a look at the field tech experience with that mobile app. They’ve got all that data, all that history, all the power of Salesforce right there at their fingertips. They have all the information on how to complete the work right at their fingertips, ensuring they’re doing that in one visit, helping that customer experience. Let’s take a look specifically at what the customer may see. With Appointment Assistant, there’s that ability for customers to schedule their own appointment. Regardless of what time of day or what time of night it is, customers can quickly go on a website and find the appointment time that works best for them, that also works best for your company. With that DoorDash, real time location type of experience, we can also figure out where is my tech right now? When will they be here? What’s their name? What can I expect when they arrive? You can really keep your customer in the light and provide all that information and all that data that’s really giving them that great experience.

Mike Boyle:
George, I got to tell you a funny story as we wrap this up. A little while ago, you brought up an elevator tech. Well, as life would have it, my best friend in the entire world has been an elevator tech for nearly 30 years now, and his company, which is a company here in the northeast where I’m located, been around forever, just within the last year and a half, have started using service cloud and Field Service automation, and he was telling me the other day, he was like, “Oh, this has just been such a great experience and now I’m getting to retire. We didn’t have it for all of these years and now I’m retiring,” but he’s enjoyed using it in the last year and a half or so. When you brought up the elevator tech thing, I just had to throw that in there for you.

George Higgins:
Oh, that’s great. I wish he had it earlier and glad it’s making his life a lot easier.

Mike Boyle:
It is. It is for the remaining time that he has. George, thank you so much for joining us today to talk about Salesforce Field Service automation. I’d love to have you back. I know because Salesforce is always making upgrades to their platform, so please come back when we can talk a little bit about some cool things that Salesforce has added to Field Service and Field Service automation.

George Higgins:
I’d love to do it, Mike, and thanks for having me today.

Mike Boyle:
Hey, if this is the first time you are listening to our “Salesforce Simplified” podcast, I would be extremely grateful if you’d give this a five star review, and I know George would as well, on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. You can also subscribe to the podcast wherever you listen to podcasts. We’re on all of the channels. I’m Mike Boyle from AdVic®. Thank you for listening to the “Salesforce Simplified” podcast. As always, our next episode is just around the corner.

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