Industry & Business

Salesforce, the Customer Success Platform and world’s #1 CRM company, today delivered Field Service Lightning, a new field service solution built for today’s connected world. Harnessing signals from connected devices and customer data from Salesforce, Field Service Lightning is a modern approach to field service that is built for mobile and the Internet of Things (IoT).

With Field Service Lightning, companies can now unite customers, connected devices, agents, dispatchers, and employees in the field with one powerful service platform to deliver a seamless customer experience from phone to field.

The Future of Field Service: Connected, Mobile & Intelligent 

Today, 6.4 billion connected things are in use and by 2020, that number will reach 20.8 billion, according to Gartner.^[1] The implications for field service are staggering. As connected devices become smarter and more predictive, it will create new opportunities to reinvent the customer service experience. Yet, since its inception, field service has been disconnected from customers and the service organization, creating disjointed customer experiences and limiting field employees’ effectiveness.

This problem will only be exacerbated as more devices come online. In fact, in Salesforce’s 2016 Connected Manufacturing Service Report, an overwhelming 92% of service executives believe they need to adapt their service models in order to keep up with customers’ needs. Additionally, despite the huge service opportunities that IoT presents, only 19% of service executives surveyed have an IoT strategy.

Field Service Lightning: Connecting Phone-to-Field

Built on Service Cloud, the world’s #1 customer service platform, Field Service Lightning enables companies to deliver mobile, intelligent customer service from phone to field. With Field Service Lightning, companies can:

• Connect their entire service workforce: Field Service Lightning connects the entire service organization from call center to the field. Agents, dispatchers and mobile employees in the field are on a single, centralized platform, bringing a new level of transparency and efficiency to customer service. Service agents have a 360-degree view of the customer and can create a work order from any case. Mobile employees in the field now have access to the customer’s full service and purchasing history, empowering them to easily resolve any issue that may arise and possibly upsell the customer on another product. For instance, a homeowner requests a service visit because their Internet connection has gone down. After resolving the issue, the technician sees within the field service app that the homeowner has previously asked about a faster Internet connection. Using this insight, the technician presents new packaging options and the customer upgrades to a faster Internet speed at a discounted rate.

• Intelligently schedule and dispatch work: At the core of field service is scheduling and dispatching. Leveraging features from ClickSoftware like scheduling and optimization, Field Service Lightning takes dispatching one step further by applying a layer of intelligence. Scheduling is automated based on skills, availability, and location to optimize on-site service. Rules can be put into place to automatically assign senior field employees to complex service issues, and junior field employees to the routine service calls. Because scheduling is automated, dispatchers can focus on the real-time view of service operations and adjust resources accordingly. For example, if the first job of the day ends up taking longer than anticipated, a dispatcher can assign a different field employee to the next job so the customer’s appointment does not get delayed. Or if a mobile employee gets delayed by traffic, a dispatcher could route another field technician to the job.

• Track and manage jobs in real-time: Customer service moves fast and forward-thinking companies need real-time access to their service data. Field Service Lightning enables all service employees to update work orders, issue change requests and adjust job status, anytime, anywhere and on any device. A staggering 65% of field service workers still print out their service tickets and bring them in their vehicles, slowing down the service process^[2]. Now, an employee in the field can see their open work orders on their mobile device, update them throughout the day as they complete jobs, and all the information is seamlessly updated in Salesforce.

Comments on the News:

• “We are just beginning to see what customer service can look like in the era of mobile and IoT,” said Mike Milburn, SVP and GM, Service Cloud, Salesforce. “Field Service Lightning gives companies the ability to reinvent their approach to service by connecting the phone to the field on a single platform, resulting in an amazing customer experience.”
• “Field service operations remain a bastion of antiquated systems in many organizations.  With the advent of IoT and more objects becoming connected, field service will only become more complex and critical to the success of service organizations,” said Mary Wardley, vice president, CRM Applications and Customer Experience Software, IDC. “Having a complete end-to-end view of the entire customer service experience – from purchase to installation to maintenance – will allow companies to grow customer loyalty and engagement.”
• “STANLEY provides products and solutions to more than 17,000 healthcare and senior living facilities worldwide. Field service is integral to our service approach – monitoring our systems from the day of install allows us to plan our on-site services, get in touch with customers at the time that is best for them, and ensure we deliver on our promise to enhance security and safety for healthcare residents, patients and clinicians,” said Amihai Zeltzer, associate vice president, Global Technical & Digital Services, STANLEY Healthcare. “Service Cloud has enabled us to connect with our customers in whole new ways – whether through proactive service or by connecting with them on-site.”

^[1] Gartner Press Release, Gartner Says 6.4 Billion Connected “Things” Will Be in Use in 2016, Up 30 Percent From 2015, Nov 10, 2015, http://www.gartner.com/newsroom/id/3165317

^[2] Salesforce Connected Manufacturing Service Report, March 15, 2016, https://www.salesforce.com/assets/pdf/industries/2016-connected-services.pdf