Salesforce Field Service Lightning: team integration to successfully resolve cases

Digital transformation has pushed companies to digitalize their internal processes and adopt tools to facilitate task control, tracking, and validation. Salesforce was quick to cover this need and offers us Field Service tools, which have made adaptation to the new digital transformation much easier. Salesforce Field Service is a solution that expands the functionality of Salesforce Service Cloud and, thanks to it, different teams can be connected to the daily tasks that require action or a technical visit (at the installation location, sales point, or home) both easily and in real time. 

Once we’ve properly explained what Salesforce Field Service is, we’re going to dive deeper into its main functions to explain why it’s useful for companies. 

Salesforce Field Service: the 6 key points 

Task Assignment

The best function of Salesforce Field Service Lightning is probably task assignment. This tool allows you to create and quickly track work assignments, standard maintenance tasks, and other appointments in the field so that, for example, a service technician can resolve the problem.

In the Salesforce ecosystem, everything is connected, and so is Field Service. It’s integrated with accounts, contacts, active cases, SLAs, and other items. You get instant visualization of knowledge articles and tracking of service level compliance with relevant and mandatory milestones for incident or visit resolution. 

Service and Resource Assignment

Another option within Field Service is the possibility of automatically assigning and programming tasks according to the company’s guidelines. But it’s not just this; it also allows you to book appointments based on objective data and program the correct tool for the task at hand, capacities, locations, and company rules. And for clients, it allows them to auto-book an appointment conveniently from their community. 

Inventory in Real Time 

Through the mobile application, you can identify the assets installed at client centers through the function that allows you to scan team barcodes and update the inventory that the driver has in the truck. This way, the technician can personally manage the tools inventory and materials that he is transporting to the client. 

The tasks to be performed by the technician can be associated with both inventory requirements and the skills needed to complete them successfully; you can define different storage locations for tools and equipment, both static (warehouses, office) and mobile (van, backpack). 

Dispatcher Console in Salesforce Field Service 

You can assign tasks and link it to the correct employee’s phone in a smart way, based on different criteria like the location of the worksite, the knowledge required to complete the task, availability, and much more.

The dispatcher’s profile will have a complete view of all scheduled appointments, with personalized visits and alerts for problems that require more attention. Establish a map or Gantt diagram to follow the provision of service in real time, locating both the current location of the technician and the client. Thanks to all of this, the management and supervision of field technicians will be efficient. 

Field Service App: mobile applications in remote areas

The Field Service application makes it possible for the technician to see the list of pending tasks for each day in real time. Said tasks are shown in two formats: a list that displays the order of the day ahead or a map that shows the planned route for the technician. In addition, through different actions, they can fill in the necessary information to complete the job. Said actions include validations and controls that guide the technician, making their job easier when it comes time to follow the necessary steps to finalize the appointment. 

Field Service Lightning adds the possibility of sharing updates in real time with other technicians or with the dispatcher through Chatter. They can get the client’s signature on their phone and create service reports, obtaining a digital document that confirms that the job was completed as planned.

Another significant advantage of this application is that all the previously mentioned functions are available in offline mode. This means that if the technician has to work in zones without service, like rural areas, basements, or tunnels, they won’t be restrained by the circumstances; they will be able to work normally. 

Data Analysis 

Salesforce has analytic ability in all of its tools and, specifically in Field Service, you can perform data analysis on the go from any device, creating a complete vision of the agents, supervisor, technicians, and subcontractors. Integrate all corporate data from multiple systems, making performance, service, and operative data supervision possible. 

4 Advantages of using the Field Service Tool 

How do all these functions translate into your company’s day-to-day? The Field Service advantages in combination with the tools of the Salesforce ecosystem facilitates teamwork to achieve higher efficiency and profitability. 

Shift Management 

Until now, organizations needed to organize their teams in shifts and complex trips. The new Field Service Lightning has developed a combination of object model + interface that allows for the better management of this process. You can now manage both the shifts and resources that are assigned; this is an important step to relieve the system administrator of some arduous tasks. 

Dependencies

It’s important to be able to generate dependencies between tasks that depend on each other for successful completion, creating "immediate follow-up" scheduling dependencies. This helps in situations where a work order has several line items that must be completed in one visit.

Service Groups

This allows for easier planning and execution of Service Crew functionalities; it helps to resolve the lack of fluidity in group maintenance to offer a clean interface that allows the user to plan crew membership within the Gantt style. 

Currently, teams work under the premise that all members have similar abilities, which means that a work order can’t compare a combination of skills. For example, if you need an electrician and a carpenter, they must be divided into different service appointments and create the same start dependencies between them. Therefore, it’s additional work for the user in some scenarios like professional services or complex engineering. 

Mobile Application

Some large clients opt for a personalized mobile application instead of a FSL native application, and this is due mainly to personalization. Other solutions have been to extend the FSL mobile application to Salesforce Mobile through an application extension to manage the tasks that can’t be completed. Here’s a video that explains it well: 

Salesforce solutions will continue to evolve to fill holes in the various workflows of each company. Field Service offers a substantial improvement for your company, covering work management needs and routes of professional teams, always with the goal of ensuring that specialists invest their time in productive tasks and not in repetitve tasks. 

At Leadclic, we offer our consulting, implementation, and adoption services to make the most of the tool and ensure that the technician visits and trips of your company are efficient and leave your clients satisfied. We can do it together.