Significance of Field Service Management

By now we all know that customer delight, customer experience, customer satisfaction, winning a customer’s heart -- really, whatever we name it -- is essential to business health and growth prospects. Satisfied customers mean more referrals and more sales and this is certainly the most powerful marketing driver. Hence, adding a service value component is gaining prominence nowadays.

In today’s digital world of high connectivity and mobility, consumers expect to be engaged by companies in innovative and interesting yet convenient ways. Providing the most comprehensive customer service is an integral aspect and this includes the best field service capabilities. Field service management is a specific but significantly crucial area of customer service that provides companies with the ability to deliver end-to-end field service. As field service is one of important face-to-face interactions that a company has with its customers, Field Service Management (FSM) proves to be a very imperative channel for business growth with manifold benefits including

• Overall customer experience
• Referrals
• Potential of customer retention
• Sales and marketing touch points for a company

Many companies still rely on traditional manual ways to manage field services. However, it is very time-consuming to organize resources and optimize customer service.  Gradually this conventional way is changing and field service management (FSM) is evolving into using SaaS products. These cloud-based or hosted solutions feature product suites are created considering the needs of specific aspects from dispatch to quality control monitoring to billing. FSM software is proving to be a boon for many companies and their customers. According to report by The International Bodyshop Industry Symposium (IBIS Worldwide), the field service management software industry has increased 12.6 percent every year from 2011 to 2016.

Let’s have an overlook of what’s happening in the industry, and why field service management software solutions are gaining prominence.

• FSM solutions make it possible for the workforce at all levels of a company to engage with their customers in innovative ways. It helps avoid delays and setbacks, as status updates can be instantly transmitted to the customer.
• Scheduling and dispatching efficiently, and managing the flow of communication usually require a major amount of time and efforts. FSM assists in improving reaction time.
• Incorporating algorithmically enhanced scheduling and providing access to real-time data from any device means augmented productivity. FSM solutions help in streamlining the service chain. This technology has opened new avenues to maximize the benefit of resources and control costs.
• As systems can reliably and rapidly communicate with each other, a company can operate more competently. Managing multiple sets of data across a wide array of distinct business sectors is becoming easier with cloud-based FSM solutions.
• Integrated systems are imperative for businesses as gaps in the knowledge chain within a company decelerate response time, which further affects productivity, and customer satisfaction.
• FSM software impacts the customer in a variety of different ways. Finding ways to drive value up while driving costs down is the prime focus of almost every business. Better customer experience increases retention rates while reducing acquisition costs.

Technology is continually evolving and reshaping the way field service companies connect with customers. It is time for every service organization to make a major transition by adopting the best field service management solutions.