Generative AI is set to change many industries whose operations haven’t been completely digitized. It has seeped into managing people, communicating, creating content, making better decisions, and much more – thus, its impact will be across all organizational workflows.
The field services industry is no different – and AI is expected to further automate its remote operations. If you’re a field service business owner exploring how to make the most of this AI gold rush – read more.
Understanding how AI upgrades field service operational workflows
Even before AI, the field service management industry was digitized where you could use software to automate repetitive tasks like capturing job details, sending information to technicians, or creating invoices. It removed any need for paperwork or numerous phone calls to customers. This saved time for the office teams and managers, while also saving additional work for field service technicians to perform administrative tasks.
AI has impacted operations by further removing the cognitive load from managers by helping them make informed decisions.
For example, field service management software can not only capture job data but also look into your field service technician talent pool to match the job with relevant workers. It will do so based on their customer ratings, skill sets, availability, location proximity from the job site, and many more custom variables. Now, your manager need not manually ask for worker availability or make decisions on dispatching workers.
AI features to look for in your field service management software
Field service management software helps businesses streamline, automate, and manage various operations that help them deliver field services to customers.
For example, an FSM app helps field service workers access user manuals, quickly connect with supervisors to showcase completed work, perform administrative tasks around timesheet management, and more. A simple FSM app removes many admin tasks to save time and maintain focus on service delivery.
While choosing a field service management software vendor, check for below mentioned AI features to stay updated with industry trends:
Predictive maintenance for inventory
Managing and tracking maintenance schedules for your equipment, tools, and materials is not easy as your business scales. A combination of AI and IoT can help you improve the lifespan of equipment by understanding its usage by workers in real-time. It will automatically schedule maintenance requests with vendors too.
AI-enabled FSM software also helps in resource allocation such that no tool or equipment remains benched for too long.
Generative AI for customer service
Zuper provides an Intelligent Virtual Assistant known as ‘Ziva’ – a Generative AI-enabled chatbot that can help your team by being its 24/7 personal assistant. The chatbot can help search for critical information required quickly without contacting the back office team for any help. It can also speak to your customers just like a human support representative would and engage them for DIY help till your team can attend them.
Customer insights for marketing
AI can analyze your customer data on a real-time basis to suggest new markets you could target, locations to focus on, changes in copy for better conversions, and much more. It can also analyze customer feedback to give a better analysis of the sentiment of the same. With this, it can suggest how you can better deliver services, which services to focus on, and create reports on field service technicians’ work.
Optimized routing for workers
AI and GPS combination will truly help your workers save time in commuting to the assigned job sites. With real-time location tracking, it can optimize routes based on data for traffic, speed, weather, job priority, customer requirements, and more. AI can also help assign jobs in nearby proximity to the same field service technician to get it done. This saves time and fuel costs and your field service technicians’ productivity is improved.
Analyze operational data and KPIs
AI helps analyze operational data like time taken to deliver service, first-time fix rates given by your field service technicians, scheduling efficiency, and other Key Performance Indicators defined. Using this, your team can set up protocols, design manuals for services offered, and train employees and technicians for better performance. AI can help discover trends in how you service your customers so that you can double down on what is working. It can also assist in prioritizing tasks and support tickets.
Upgrade your field service operations with AI automation
Zuper has been quick to adopt Generative AI for its field service management software. From chatbots, data analysis tools, and automated scheduling – book a demo on how our FSM app can upgrade your business operations.
