Salesforce Field Service: Team Integration for Successful Case Resolution

Digital transformation pushes companies to digitize their internal processes and use tools to simplify task control, tracking, and validation. Salesforce quickly provided Field Service management tools to help us adapt to the new digital transformation more easily. 

Salesforce Field Service is a solution that expands the functionality of Salesforce Service Cloud. This tool helps teams stay connected to daily tasks that require immediate action or a technical visit. It provides real-time updates whether they are at the installation location, sales point, or home. 

After explaining Salesforce Field Service, we will explore its key features to show how it benefits companies. 

What is Salesforce Field Service: the 6 key points 

Task Assignment

The best function of Salesforce Field Service management software is probably task assignment. This tool helps you make and keep track of work assignments, maintenance tasks, and appointments in the field. For instance, a technician can use it to fix issues quickly.

In the Salesforce ecosystem, everything is connected, and so is Field Service. It integrates accounts, contacts, active cases, SLAs, and other items. You can quickly see knowledge articles and track service level compliance with important milestones for resolving incidents or visits. 

Service and Resource Assignment

Another Salesforce Field Service feature is the possibility of automatically assigning and programming tasks according to the company’s guidelines. It helps you schedule appointments by analyzing data to choose the most suitable tool for the task. It considers factors like availability, location, and company policies. For clients, it allows them to auto-book an appointment conveniently from their community. 

Inventory in Real Time 

Through the Salesforce Field Service mobile application, you can identify the assets installed at client centers. With this function, you can scan team barcodes and update the inventory in the driver's truck. This allows the technician to keep track of the tools and materials he is transporting to the client. 

The technician's tasks involve managing inventory and having the necessary skills to complete them successfully. You can define different storage locations for tools and equipment, both static (warehouses, office) and mobile (van, backpack). 

Dispatcher Console in Salesforce Field Service 

You can assign tasks to the employee's phone efficiently, considering factors such as the work location, the required skills, the availability of the employee and other relevant details.

The dispatcher’s profile offers a complete view of all scheduled appointments, with personalized visits and alerts for problems that require more attention. Create a map or Gantt diagram to follow the provision of service in real time, locating both the current location of the technician and the client. Thanks to all this, the management and supervision of field technicians is more efficient. 

Field Service App: mobile applications in remote areas

The Field Service application makes it possible for the technician to see the list of pending tasks for each day in real time. The tasks appear in two formats: a list of the order of the day ahead or a map of the planned route for the technician.

In addition, through different actions, they can fill in the necessary information to complete the job. It has validations and controls to help technicians follow the steps to complete appointments more easily. 

Field Service Lightning adds the option of sharing updates in real time with other technicians or with the dispatcher through Chatter. They can get the client’s signature on their phone and create a digital report to confirm that the job was completed.

Another significant advantage of this application is that all the previously mentioned functions are available in offline mode. If the technician has to work in zones without service, like rural areas, basements, or tunnels, they won’t be restrained by the circumstances to work normally. 

Data Analysis 

Salesforce has analytic ability in all its tools. With Field Service, you can perform data analysis on the go from any device, creating a complete vision of the agents, supervisor, technicians, and subcontractors. Integrate all corporate data from multiple systems, making performance, service, and operative data supervision possible. 

4 Advantages of using the Field Service Tool 

How do all these functions translate into your company’s day-to-day? The Field Service advantages in combination with the tools of the Salesforce platform facilitates teamwork to achieve higher efficiency and profitability. 

Shift Management 

Until now, organizations needed to organize their teams in shifts and complex trips. The new Salesforce Field Service management tool has developed a combination of object model + interface that enables a better management process. You can now manage both the shifts and resources that are assigned; an important step to relieve the system administrator of arduous tasks. 

Dependencies

It's important to connect tasks that need each other to succeed, creating scheduling dependencies called "immediate follow-up" dependencies. This helps in situations where a work order has several line items that must be completed in one visit.

Service Groups

This allows for easier planning and execution of Service Crew functionalities; it helps to resolve the lack of fluidity in group maintenance, with a clean interface that allows the user to plan crew membership within the Gantt style. 

Currently, teams work under the premise that all members have similar abilities, which means that a work order can’t compare a combination of skills. For example, if you need an electrician and a carpenter, they must be divided into different service appointments and create the same start dependencies between them. Therefore, it’s additional work for the user in some scenarios like professional services or complex engineering. 

Mobile Application

Some large clients opt for a personalized mobile application instead of a FSL native application, and this is due mainly to personalization. Other solutions have been to extend the FSL mobile application to Salesforce Mobile through an application extension to manage the tasks that can’t be completed. Here’s a video that explains it well: 

Salesforce solutions will continue to evolve to fill holes in the various workflows of each company. Field Service provides a substantial improvement for your company by managing work and routes for professional teams. The goal is to make sure specialists spend their time on productive tasks, not repetitive ones. 

At Leadclic, Salesforce Partners, we offer our consulting, implementation, and adoption services to make the most of the tool and ensure that the technician visits and trips of your company are efficient and a good customer experience. We can do it together.