AI Makes Field Service Better for Your Customers and Mobile Workers

Field service management is facing its greatest challenges to date, but AI is ready to provide innovative solutions. This will enhance customer satisfaction and mobile worker productivity. Here’s how Australian businesses are using AI to make field service better for everyone.

At its core, field service is about people – serving customers, empowering mobile workers and building connections. The quality of the customer experience is the ultimate barometer of success, but there are a number of challenges that can compromise this. Increased margins from economic volatility, talent shortages, and the need to reduce carbon footprints are not just operational hurdles. They directly impact how customers perceive and engage with field service.

AI is emerging as a solution to these challenges. By prioritising efficiency, personalisation and responsiveness, Salesforce Einstein 1 Field Service is putting the customer experience at the forefront of field service innovation. And we’re seeing impressive results that directly impact a business’s bottom line, including a 32% increase in mobile worker productivity and a 35% boost in customer satisfaction (CSAT).

The four pillars of field service management

Four pillars have always guided Salesforce’s technology solutions for field service management:

1. Customer experience: Centralising customer data for a streamlined service appointment. 
2. Work and asset management: A complete view of all assets in service across the organisation. 
3. Scheduling and dispatching: Optimised schedules so the right mobile worker with the right skills shows up for the right jobs. 
4. Mobile worker productivity: Access to real-time data to get the job done right the first time.

Now, with trusted AI, data and CRM working together across these four pillars, field service is in a position to provide a customer experience unlike any before.

Why field service is ready for AI

From rising costs to increasing customer expectations to sustainability pressures, a lot of things can get in the way of effective workforce management and seamless customer experiences. But Matt Pearce, Partner, Energy, Mining & Property at KPMG, is optimistic that AI can offer new solutions that will be a leap forward for field service management. 

“The core challenge of field service remains the same: the reliable, optimised, safe and transparent delivery of work by workers in the field. What’s changed is how AI is primed to help solve this,” says Matt.

He explains that some of the most promising applications of AI for field service include: 

• Scenario modelling and planning
• More accurate forecasting of demand and supply
• Complex computational problems like scheduling
• Predictive analysis of safety events
• Knowledge management at the fingertips of frontline workers

With the power of CRM + AI + Data + Trust, field service is set for a significant evolution.

First principle of AI for field service: help the people in the field

Australian energy infrastructure business APA Group has deployed Salesforce Field Service to over 200 FTEs to serve 1.7 million consumer sites across the country. APA Group’s field service operations used to be split between digital tools and pen and paper, making it difficult to get information into the field and back again in an accurate and timely manner. Now, with Salesforce Field Service, APA Group has transformed its entire operating model.

Since 2021, it’s been using the Field Service mobile app, which has automated job assignment, scheduling and many of the administrative tasks that were slowing down its technicians. 

Ken Hedley, Head of Networks Strategy and Operational Performance at APA Group, explains, “The principle during the implementation of Field Service was that it had to benefit the mobile worker. Digitised forms, barcode scanning, automated route calculation and work prioritisation all mean less admin and time wasted for them.”

Since introducing Salesforce Field Service, APA Group has experienced a 15% ROI and saved its team 12,000 needless visits because it can respond faster to cancellation requests. It’s a win for the business, the worker and the customer. 

Along with the operational savings APA Group has experienced from its operating model transformation, it’s also benefiting from more structured data. Faster and consistent data collection and greater visibility into utilisation rates will help APA Group continue to use automation and AI to make work more efficient for everyone. 

“We couldn’t have done this without Salesforce Field Service,” says Ken.

The future of field service innovation

As we look to the future, the synergy between CRM + AI + Data + Trust will continue to put the human experience at the heart of field service – for the customers we serve and the workers who make it all possible. Powered by the Einstein 1 Platform, Salesforce Field Service is already overcoming the current challenges of field service and setting new standards of service excellence. 

Further cementing the role of AI in field service, four exciting innovations were announced at Salesforce World Tour Sydney in February 2024: 

• Einstein 1 Field Service Edition, a new, streamlined package for field service organisations that helps deliver increased operational efficiency and technician productivity, with access to real-time data and AI in the field.
• Document Builder for richly formatted and compliant PDFs
• Pre-Work Briefs to generate a summary of the job at hand 
• Proactive Asset Management powered by Data Cloud

These tools will continue to bring the AI for field service story to life, but you don’t have to wait to start using automation and AI in your field service management. Power Your Frontline with Field Service Management is your guide to field service that boosts worker productivity, enhances the customer experience, and drives revenue and cost savings for the business.