Salesforce's Field Service Lightning (FSL), has a new name now, Salesforce Field Service (SFS), but the purpose and value remain the same. This provides you with the perfect field service platform for onsite job management, with real-time collaboration capabilities.
Even though there are other field service solutions in the market, Salesforce's Field Service beats them with its powerful and versatile field service management solution capable of managing complex logistics and onsite operations seamlessly and effectively.
Field Service is a single platform or automated solution which connects all your workforce, products, and customers to coordinate field operations, like scheduling service appointments, dispatching equipment and mobile workers, tracking vehicle locations, and keeping track of product stocks and appointment status and so much more. It is crucial for businesses dependent on mobile workers or contractors working outside offices, like, construction, utilities, cleaning services, road maintenance, solar panel installation, property management, electrical works, etc. It helps to effectively pull all the unorganized, fragmented parts together, keeping your field personnel connected and coordinated in real-time, to improve productivity and customer satisfaction.
It works along with Salesforce Service Cloud, adding functionality for dispatching, monitoring, and reporting activities of field servicemen and dispatchers. Dispatchers can use the Dispatch Console to assign the proper work to the right staff at the right time. While field resources can work accordingly to deliver their tasks. Everything is accessible on a handy mobile app!
There are majorly two features that make Salesforce Field Service a game-changer - The Dispatch Console and FSL Mobile Application.
Also Read: Perfecting Inventory Management with Salesforce FSL
This is the workplace of dispatchers and is the most important element of field service management. A dispatcher is responsible for controlling, monitoring, and assigning jobs to the mobile workforce based on parameters like skills, operating hours, location, travel time, availability, etc. The Dispatch Console helps them ensure that the right job is assigned to the right person at the right time – all from a single screen.
1. Its user interface is clean and crisp, to facilitate customization as per the dispatcher’s terms or requirements.
2. There are easy filters available on appointment lists, such as 'Unscheduled', 'Schedule', 'In Jeopardy', and so on. Even custom filters can be created to better suit businesses.
3. It contains a dynamic map and a highly customizable 'Gantt chart' to show all the upcoming service appointments, active team members, etc.
4. The dispatch console offers a Gantt view, which is a place where a dispatcher can view all the territories and technicians on a single screen and can adjust the frequency of viewing the Gantt chart as 'every day, 'every two days', 'weekly', 'monthly', etc., as per their needs. Even the available time, scheduled time, absence, or overtime of any technician can be easily tracked.
5. Scheduling, rescheduling, or canceling appointments is easy with just a click of a button.
6. The console allows the dispatcher to choose between manual and automatic scheduling, by directly dragging and dropping appointments, or using different options in the FSL package, like 'Schedule', 'Optimization', and 'Candidates'.
7. The Gantt provides you with a calculation of a service resource’s utilization, by comparing their total working hours to the number of hours they’re scheduled to work.
8. Various color codes can be added for easy identification and grouping of appointments, based on the status.
9. Keyboard shortcuts can be used to work faster on the Console.
10. Rule violations like overlapping, travel time, availability, etc. can be tracked by hovering over appointments in the Gantt view.
11. A dispatcher may communicate with his technicians anytime using 'Salesforce Chatter'.
The second feature that makes Salesforce Field Service an incredible solution, is the all-in-one mobile app, available on both Android and iOS platforms. This component helps field servicemen to deliver great onsite service, by leveraging Salesforce in a lightweight design, fully optimized for the mobile workforce. This highly customizable app also allows you to design it in any way it best fits your business requirements.
1. One of its most prominent features is that it can be used offline since a technician might very well work in an area of low or no internet connectivity. Plus, they can sync all the changes whenever the network is restored.
2. Push notifications to ensure that technicians don't miss events and stay updated.
3. The mobile app can be customized in accordance with the company’s branding.
4. Salesforce Chatter can be used by technicians to communicate with dispatchers, contractors, partners, and even customers. This is very helpful in case the technician is onsite facing issues solving a customer's problem, with Chatter they can seek guidance from their manager or other technicians and fulfill the work efficiently.
5. Easy and smooth field service for technicians is facilitated by configurable layouts and actions. Fieldsets can also be used for page layouts, so further modifications get easier.
6. Geolocation tracking can be used to track the technician’s current location and it can be synced to the system at configured intervals.
7. Your team can find other work orders in the same or nearby location, so they can take care of them too.
8. Field service resources can find all required information about an issue, asset, customer, history, etc., courtesy of the work order overview screen.
9. The Inventory tablets your team track available products in their trunk, so they can request products or parts as and when required.
Salesforce Field Service is jam-packed with several tools and features designed to streamline your organization’s processes. But in order to fully leverage them for maximum ROI, you need an experienced consultant familiar with the nitty-gritty of the world's most versatile CRM. And we are happy to help.
We are AppShark- a Gold Certified Salesforce Partner, specializing in the implementation, customization, and integration of Salesforce solutions. With more than a decade experience of working on Salesforce Implementation & Customization projects for various domains, we can give you the unique advantage of choosing from our pool of Salesforce experts.
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