Organizations today are trying to find new ways to engage with their customers by exploring different touchpoints across a range of consumer journeys. The idea is to create a highly engaging customer experience by using next-gen technologies like Analytics, Internet of Things (IoT) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) to transform field service operations.
The strategy is trending now. Companies need to use this strategy to sustain themselves in a highly volatile market, which is anticipated to be ruled by disruptors. According to a report by Gartner, Artificial Intelligence (AI) powered services will govern 85 percent of customer relationships by 2020.
Apart from already existing physical stores, Service Providers are investing in various touchpoints to increase the customer experience. Field services is a vital touchpoint that is being digitalized today.
Field Service Providers are investing in robust and scalable data management platforms, leveraging mobile apps to simplify and streamline data collection and technical support, and applying AI and analytics to gain a 360 degree holistic view of their customers.
Major areas of development in the Field Services Provider space include:
Workforce Allocation: Poor Workforce allocation is the primary cause of unoptimized field service operations, and can be solved by identifying anomalies and improvement scopes in the current scenarios. Cloud storage allows companies to save information related to past scenarios while simultaneously staying abreast of the latest developments. The comparison between current and historical data can provide ample insights to help improve resource allocation. Artificial Intelligence can also be used to create an integrated resource allocation multi-channel approach leading to verifiable results without increasing your costs.
Performance Management: The benefits of real-time technologies are extensive. Some of these benefits include increased billing and invoicing accuracy, delivery of vital business insights to managers and business owners. Time-tracked data can provide key insights about the performance and productivity of employees and can help agencies improve their work plan efficiency. AI and machine learning can be game changer for Performance management. They can help companies look beyond historical data and develop predictive models to aid futuristic decisions. They can also automate certain decision-making processes based on market intelligence.
Customer Services: With the prevalence of machine learning (ML) increasing, companies are heavily investing in technology to create whip-smart automated customer service through chatbots. The fact that 44% of US consumers favor chatbots to humans for handling customer queries justifies its popularity. AI-based call routing can ensure that your customers always have someone to answer their questions. They never have to wait and can get the information quickly with the real-time processing capabilities of chatbots.
Digital Field Service Assistance:Certain Technologies like Augmented Reality (AR), Virtual Reality (VR), and IoT can drive innovation in the field services and help technicians work faster and more proficiently. IoT can help to discover faults in machines without disassembling them. With AR, technicians can pull up service manuals, view product lifecycle information, and check parts for their remaining lifespan. Some AI and AR innovations can even allow the technicians to guide consumers to do last-mile configuration or give maintenance walkthrough remotely. Additionally, VR is being used to develop training programs for new technicians to help them gain right knowledge and enhance their competency.
Reporting: Business users no longer need to flip through multiple KPI dashboards or use multiple resources manually for running analytics on massive amounts of data. They can now rely on AI based analytics to identify correlations, find anomalies, and deliver other critical insights automatically. The reports get more thorough when AI and ML technologies are used owing to their advanced visualizations and intelligent analytics.
By leveraging cutting edge technologies like AI/ML, IoT, analytics and AR/VR, organizations can truly re-imagine their field service operations and accelerate their journey towards better customer experience, reduced costs to serve and improved market share.
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