Crowd Service takes field service to a new level
Change affects people, industries, but also customer experiences (CX). That is why future-oriented field service organizations have to keep up with the transformation of service. Leading service organizations already know that the implementation of a field service management software is not enough: They need other innovative solutions with the potential to revolutionize the entire service industry and customer experience. The digital age brought and brings even new possibilities to deliver fast and efficient service. That is where crowd service comes into play: By establishing a crowd service concept within their field service management, companies can add as many external technicians to their talent pool as they need to in addition to their internal technicians – sourced from partners, subsidiaries and freelancers.
Advantages of crowd service and how it works
Customers’ expectations have increased and are still growing: Clients wish for their problems to be solved immediately. In order to meet the requirements of their customers, field service organizations need to find deployment planning solutions such as a real-time service platform crowd service. Every technician in the organization’s talent pool is taken into consideration and the best matching technician will get notified via mobile device using a field service management app already installed. But how can the best matching technician be found? Upon the arrival of a service request, the system looks up the most suitable and qualified technician from the organization’s ecosystem: they are selected based on their location, availability and work schedules, required skills and additional criteria that companies can determine individually.
For customers, crowd service offers many advantages as well: it provides reduced waiting times and increased first-time fix rates. Furthermore, the solution has a positive impact on the profit margin as there is a higher number of appointments that make up for the increase in labor costs which normally, without using the platform, would occur.
Improved sustainability
Companies increasingly try to act sustainably on three levels: economic, ecological and socially responsible. By implementing crowd service, all three levels are impacted in a positive way. They can, for example, improve customer loyalty alongside the quality of service and meet clients’ requests in real-time. Moreover, with the support of crowd-service companies can set themselves off against the competition. From an ecological point of view, this solution, amongst others, allows for an optimized deployment and route planning reducing unnecessary detours, which are costly and fuel consuming. In terms of social responsibility, crowd service leads to a better work-life balance of technicians as an increased amount of resources is available (in the form of working power). That means they do not have to work extra hours when a colleague calls in sick or is on holiday.
Customer focus and knowledge transfer
As the world’s first service provider, BenLink uses SAP crowd service as the starting point for its business strategy. In cooperation with Bühler, a technological company, they are able to offer customer service in real-time. Before using crowd service, Bühler had to plan service orders manually and perform service in advance – now, they are flexible regarding their customer requests and by sending the most suitable technician to the client. Additionally, in only a few clicks they can use the BenLink-platform and, therefore, it is an ideal support to run customer requests and create qualitative service moments.
Customers and technicians profit from this solution: If necessary, they receive detailed instructions with the help of video training and an app showing how maintenance work and repairs have to be handled. Another benefit: Online-trainings and tests support the tuition of technicians from different fields so that a broad knowledge base can be established.
Transform customers to fans
Having mentioned all these advantages for customers and companies, you may ask now “Which is the biggest benefit of crowd service?” The answer is the improved customer experience it offers to clients. By benefitting from a larger pool of technicians, sending the most suitable one, delivering a high-quality service, boosting the first-time fix rate and, in that way, minimizing the downtimes of mission-critical machines and equipment, a decisive moment in customer service can be created: companies can support their customers to achieve their business goals even when machine or equipment fails. In return, customers will reward companies with their loyalty.