Are you still using traditional job management systems to manage your mobile workforce of field service technicians, couriers or home care providers?

You might want to consider an upgrade.

Adequate as these traditional systems may seem at times, they are also prone to errors and delays due to limited information access, manual processes, miscommunications, and errors, all of which lead to higher operational costs and lower customer satisfaction levels.

Fortunately, digital field service management solutions solve this problem. With over 70% of mobile workers using mobile communication devices, digital solutions such as Salesforce Field Service Lightning are more useful than ever before in solving this problem.

But what exactly is Field Service Lightning? More importantly, how can it add value to your company?

Salesforce Field Service Lightning Guide: Features, Advantages, and More

Here’s a Salesforce field service guide exploring all the features of the system, how it can improve your service delivery, and the various packages available.

What is Field Service Lightning?

Field Service Lightning is a service management system that connects your customer service staff with your mobile workforce, allowing service requests and information to flow between them in real-time. The solution is built to extend the Salesforce Service Cloud solution.

The system comes with a set of customizable features that allow companies to set up mobile-friendly field service hubs. With such hubs, you can:

• Draft service crews and resources representing your entire field service workforce, their service territories, skills, and availability schedules.
• Create multi-level service regions that show your staff’s operational territories.
• Track the status and location of your warehouses, customer sites, inventory, and service vehicles in real-time.
• Schedule recurring or one-time client work orders or visits. You can also add information about client preferences, as well as the parts/supplies and skills required to complete customer orders.
• Create maintenance plans/templates to help you standardize field service assignments.
• Generate detailed service reports to inform clients on service progress

What Are the Features of the Field Service Lightning System?

Once you enable Field Service on your Salesforce instance, you can access a full suite of standard objects. These objects and their associated packages make up the core features of Field Service Lightning.

These features are delivered in two separate packages – the managed package and the mobile app package – both of which work together and help you efficiently manage your field service delivery.

Managed Package

The managed package is appropriate for organizations looking for advanced scheduling capabilities. It features:

• Scheduling Optimizer: This feature efficiently allocates resources to each appointment.  Allocation can be done based on multiple factors such as travel time, the skill level of each technician, location, and any other relevant factors.
• Dynamic Scheduling Console: The scheduling console gives your supervisors and dispatchers a view of all the appointments on schedule at a glance.
• Unique Scheduling Triggers and Policies: These help you manage preferences and customize your task and appointment planning model.

Mobile App Package

This package is customizable and compatible with both Android and iOS mobile platforms. It also supports offline usage. With this package, your field technicians can easily view their appointments, track parts, connect with dispatchers and supervisors, update work orders, handle barcode labels and collect client signatures on the go.

How can Salesforce Field Service Lightning Add Value to Your Business?

Here’s why the Field Service Lightning system is a worthwhile investment:

Mobile Job Management

With Field Service Lightning, you can dispatch and manage field requests without having to call, email and text your field workforce!

The mobile app package offers premium features like real-time data exchange, stock visibility, supporting knowledge content, and more. The best part is, your field staff can work without interruptions even when they are not connected to the internet!

Smarter Service Planning

The system automates your decision-making process to improve service delivery.

It has the ability to locate and match a given customer to the nearest field technician. Even better, it can match customers with the right technician who possesses the skill sets required to complete a particular task. You can also maximize scheduling automation through systems integration.

We can also help integrate and link Field Service Lightning to your back office inventory and enterprise systems. This will ensure that your field technicians always have the resources and equipment needed to get the job done in a single visit.

In addition to improving customer satisfaction, this will also improve the effectiveness of your field staff, their job satisfaction and productivity!

Salesforce Field Service Lightning Keeps You Ahead of the Competition

Hopefully, this Salesforce Field Service Lightning guide has helped you understand what the system is about, and why you need to be using it.

Our team of certified Field Service Lightning experts here at SPAR Solutions have many years of experience with the Salesforce.com platform and implementing both Service Cloud and Field Service Lightning. We can help your organization move to a modern, automated, real-time field service solution, lower costs while improving service delivery, and surge ahead of the competition! Contact us to discuss your Field Service needs.