What is field service management?
Let’s say you are an internet service provider offering broadband, wifi, and satellite connectivity services with customers spread out across a large geographical area. Some customer problems such as spotty connectivity, and modem issues can be solved only in person. You’ll need an easy way to schedule visits with customers so your field technicians can go out and solve problems. You’ll need to manage their schedule so they don’t have too many or overlapping appointments. You’ll also need to ensure that your field teams have easy access to all relevant customer information.
That’s where a field service software can help you.
A helpdesk software helps you communicate with customers, get information about their problems and manage multiple channels easily.
A field management software helps you communicate with your field teams, distribute customer information as necessary and manage visits and appointments easily.
So let’s say some customers email you saying their internet is down. Some others call your helpline to report broken modems. As a service provider, you can use a helpdesk to ticket all of these problems and find out which ones need a field technician visit and which ones can be solved remotely. With a field service management software, you can create service tasks for problems which need a visit, and assign it to a field technician from your team. Good field service management software also allows you to schedule appointments at a time that is convenient for both the customer and the field technician. After one problem is solved, a good FSM software can route your field technician to the next customer’s location automatically.
By combining a helpdesk software and a field service management software into a single unit, you can simplify your workflows between helpdesk and field teams to deliver a better, more seamless field service experience to your customers.