How to Deliver Impressive Field Service to Smart Homes & Offices

1. Leverage Alexa, Google Assistant, and Other Smart Device Integrations

IoT home devices like Apple's HomePod, Google Home, and Amazon's Echo are vehicles for digital transformation in IoT-enabled Smart Homes and smart offices and at the forefront of Field Service’s rapid evolution.

Devices within an IoT Smart Home or office are no longer reactive machines that require buttons to be pushed. IoT has empowered them to break out of their formerly static, siloed states to initiate intelligent conversations with other devices in their ecosystem.

Field service organizations can integrate smart devices’ apps, Alexa and Google Assistant, to give customers what they need without even picking up the phone. When you integrate a Field Service Management app to customer devices, customers in a smart home or office can trigger field service requests through Alexa and Google Assistant commands.

When your field service team becomes as convenient as saying “Alexa, schedule a service call for the washing machine on Tuesday,” customers will be raving about your responsiveness. The best part is when you show up with exactly what they need to fix their smart appliances.

2. Provide Predictive Maintenance

Machine-to-Machine (M2M) communication allows IoT home devices to talk to each other, without the need for human interaction. In the office and at home, employees and residents have come to depend on self-learning devices such as:

• Smart thermostats
• Smart appliances
• Smart security cameras
• Smart TVs
• Smart speakers
• Smart locks
• Smart blinds
• Smart lighting
• Smart irrigation

The most salient benefit of machine-to-machine communication for field service organizations is the ability to anticipate IoT appliance and smart device issues before customers even know there is a problem through AI-empowered field service management.

Smart homes and IoT devices come with a price. IoT home device owners know that with the higher price tag comes the benefit of smart service.

Whether you’re an OEM deploying niche field techs or a field service company specializing in multiple IoT-enabled electronics and appliances, customers expect that you’ll be able to respond to service calls faster than ever – even before a call is made.

If you’re an OEM and don’t have a platform that integrates smart home data, you could miss out on the benefits of one of fastest growing sectors of field service.

Using a field service platform connected to IoT Home Devices empowers you to:

• Identify pre-failure conditions and perform predictive maintenance
• Boost your first-time-fix rate
• Use synchronized scheduling and dispatch to send field techs on the fly

Send your field techs out feeling like heroes by fixing lights, thermostats, and kitchen appliances before home and office customers experience the problem.

3. Synchronize Dispatch Software and Appointment Scheduling Software

Contractors and employees are not always responsive to phone calls, while they are finishing up another job or on the road, leaving subsequent customers in the lurch and dispatchers frustrated.

IoT smart home customers are on the go, and they won’t wait for three hours only to have a technician show up at the end of the service window.

Digital transformation in the home and office translates into an assumption of superior service, including response times and availability that match the pace of life for the owners of IoT home devices.

Instead of manual scheduling and dispatch calls, use a field service work order app to create a paired scheduling and dispatch solution that works for field techs and customers. AI-enhanced, automated scheduling lets you:

• Set custom triggers for optimized field resource selection and scheduling that leads to cost reduction
• Send the most qualified field tech for the job
• Optimize routes with integrated real-time maps
• Improve operations over time with cost-cutting digitization of manual processes
• Remove the need for managerial oversight, allowing for more efficient man-hours
• Forecast needs, such as contractors and parts, for improved budgeting

Hybrid workforces also rely in part on contractors who are attracted to the autonomy and flexibility that innovative field service management organizations provide. Attract and nurture the best field service team by providing a mobile workforce solution . Give field techs the ability to determine their own hours and engage directly with customers through a two-way communication platform.

When you put the power back in customers’ and field techs’ hands, you’ll see an increase in both customer and field tech satisfaction. This results in better reviews, lower turnover, and a higher ROI for your field service organization.

4. Streamline Inventory Management

Don’t let techs show up to a home or office empty-handed. Ensure that your techs have all the parts they need by integrating inventory management for goods in stock with predictive maintenance data from connected homes and businesses.

Integrating IoT home device data into your digital asset management process through a smart app helps you to:

• Increase your first-time-fix rate
• Lower shipping costs by eliminating rush orders
• Save field techs time with immediate inventory stock insight on the go
• Boost customer ratings through fast, efficient, thorough service calls
• OEMs can use smart appliance data to trigger service calls automatically and update inventory accordingly
• Reduce Truck Rolls

IoT home devices like smart kitchen appliances and smart washing machines send data to your Field Service Management app and alert you when items are in need of repair. When you use a single platform to integrate your field service organization’s operations, IoT smart home data is transformed into actionable inventory management information.

Most field service organizations’ inventory management is a game of playing catch up to past jobs and using past needs to forecast future parts orders. All you need for smart inventory management is a single platform that integrates customer data with your raw inventory stats.

Start Using a Connected Home Field Service Solution

Satisfy Connected Customers’ Needs by Digitizing the Repair Service Experience

• Improve first-time-fix rates and respond quickly to IoT-triggered service events
• Use a contracted workforce to increase quality, reduce cost of service, and achieve faster response times - based on complexity, reliability and availability
• Completely automate warranty claim processing so it can be done from a mobile device
• Perform intelligent audits based on your business logic to reduce claim costs
• Deliver personalized service through instant access to comprehensive job information, equipment, warranties, service contracts, parts inventory, equipment history, technical documentation, processes/forms and more
• Offer hard-working technicians fingertip access to mobile software that processes payments, enables promotions, and more

Manage a Hybrid Mobile Workforce

Take advantage of forward-thinking mobile workforce management software that connects employees and contractors with the information they need, exactly when they need it - whether they’re actively servicing a customer or between appointments.

Optimize routes so the closest qualified and available technician can be dispatched as soon as an alert is received

Leverage in-app customer ratings to get real-time feedback about what the customer needs and how the customer feels about the overall service experience.

Get Started: Deploy the Platform

When it comes to actually implementing and deploying ServicePower’s powerful platform, we’ll assist customers with the implementation of the field service software, ensuring it’s customized to meet your unique business needs.

Implementation and deployment takes around two to four weeks, from start to finish. And as the field service software evolves and improves over time, ServicePower will demonstrate new product capabilities and facilitate your company's adoption across multiple departments.

We understand the importance of effective change-management execution, so we’re committed to an “adopt and adapt” philosophy. We ensure our platform preserves effective business processes you already have in place, while offering strategic improvements using IoT technology.

Access on-demand integration support throughout this whole process so you feel supported, empowered, and focused during setup and launch. Talk to our sales team to get started today.

Track Results: KPIs for Field Service Organizations

Use your AI-enhanced field service management platform to track key performance indicators such as

• Continuous improvement KPIs: Make strategic adjustments to process based on results vs. business case analysis
• Simulation Assessment: See the results of business decisions prior to implementation
• Service-Channel Strategic Analysis: Determine the best configuration of your workforce based on contractor vs. employee ROI, specialization, work order frequency by area, and other customizable planning metrics
• Workforce Fraud Analysis: Ensure that every job is completed through customer data syncing, mileage tracking tools, and fraud indicators that you set to ensure every dollar is going toward higher customer service ratings
• Performance Management: Envision, educate, and empower a best-in-class team of field service technicians with a strategic workforce management platform