AI for Field Tech Management

March 16, 2018
5 ways Artificial Intelligence can improve performance and ensure an optimized customer experience

Technology-driven automation has changed the way in which homes and businesses use security products and services. Everything from voice-automated assistants, to automated locks, to facial recognition in security cameras, have gained in popularity. It is no surprise then, that the ways in which we deliver these security services and manage the field tech teams that install and maintain them, are also evolving.

Artificial intelligence (AI) will play a crucial role in delivering service that creates a differentiated experience for security dealer and integrator customers. In order to meet the increasing demands for real-time and differentiated services, facing a dwindling pool of qualified field service engineers and ever more complex products, security firms are turning to technology to deliver a digital, technologically advanced customer experience and enable their technicians to boost productivity.

When coupled with the right integrated customer engagement and mobile tools, AI is a game-changer to help field teams meet these challenges. 

5 Ways AI Can Augment Field Techs

AI offers the building blocks for security service providers to improve field technicians’ productivity, while also improving the customer experience at the same time. Here are five tangible results:

1. Simplify complex projects. Field tech teams are often faced with complex and unpredictable jobs without accurate or complete advance diagnostics. Keeping track of resources like fleets, product parts, warranties, service schedules and project statuses can get complicated quickly – too complicated for individuals to keep track on their own. This often results in duplicated work or repeated trips to a site.

Combined with big data and the Internet of Things (IoT), AI can analyze trends and in real time and make the most optimal decision to formulate the best possible project or service plan. For example, to manage a video surveillance system repair, AI-backed software can recognize previous service events and suggest an appropriate plan, while locating the best resources for the job. Then, it can send a message to the appropriate engineer to coordinate the job’s next steps. These instant insights help ensure project success in an automated and digitized way.

2. Optimize the customer experience. Mobile tech teams rely on scheduling software to coordinate day-to-day projects and keep their customers happy; however, without AI, scheduling software functions more like a moped than a Ferrari. Companies can deliver significantly better customer service by offering AI-enabled scheduling. Quantum computing and the latest in annealing algorithms are a huge leap forward.

These innovations can vastly improve customer experience and retention by driving greater prioritization of customer wants and needs, as well as a standardized customer experience that fits with a company’s brand objectives. Quantum annealing considers, at minimum, service level agreements (SLAs), the equipment needed and its availability to deal with customer inquiries faster than ever before.

Because it can be delivered across the cloud, quantum annealing can empower both local or regional businesses as well as the largest, global enterprises in a fast, smart and integrated way.

3. Proactive communications with customers. Companies that offer a satisfying customer experience have the readily accessible potential to boost revenue by up to 15 percent, while lowering cost of serving customers by as much as 20 percent (McKinsey & Company).

To ensure a positive customer experience, security organizations can take a three-step approach – provide customers with a digital consumer portal for scheduling and two-way communications, deliver 24/7 support and proactively notify customers of potential issues, such as a faulty controller within an alarm system.

To provide customers with their desired anytime/anywhere access to support, more companies are providing web-based customer engagement portals. Integrated engagement portals enable customers to communicate with security firms when and where it is most convenient. They can self-schedule service and maintenance events with skilled, credentialed technicians, and even manage third-party service providers – all while gaining insight into the job status and the technician’s actual location. The newest portal technology relies on AI to analyze assets and service history, creating personalized product and service offerings for each customer.

The IoT provides the means to provide proactive support for failing equipment. Sensors in security assets can detect failing parts and send a report back to a workforce management platform which can, using AI, asses the importance of the failure against the customer’s service level agreement. Using these factors, it can then deploy the best team to fix the issue before it becomes a problem for the customer.

4. Account for unforeseen variables. Field management software has historically been very linear. This is a problem for security service companies because it is such a dynamic sector. A number of variables, like client availability, assets, parts, technician availability, skills and even weather, can impact a service call. If you change one element, the entire picture shifts.

For rules-based software, new situations that arise can be difficult to manage; however, AI can learn and adapt on the fly because it is adapting to the pressing demand and supply conditions, as well as customer expectations in real time.

Automated field service management platforms can use AI to suggest strategies by analyzing the past successes and failures held within big data. It has the ability to recognize potential problems and even make suggestions for remedies for entirely novel situations, which boosts efficiency of both the call center and the mobile workers in the field.

5. Reduction in paperwork and administrative tasks. According to a 2016 survey by The Service Council, 46 percent of field service technicians reported that paperwork and administrative tasks were the worst aspects of their day-to-day responsibilities.

There are more productive options for qualified staff than having to perform administrative tasks which prevent them from addressing the job at hand. Software using AI has the ability to manage increasingly complex administrative tasks much faster than human counterparts, all in real time.

For example, it can use a wealth of data points to complete an operational picture of “a week in the life” of a security technician. This could include matching GPS coordinates on a technician’s mobile device to the location of customers, or even individual assets. This information could then be used to pre-populate a report with information such as which client a technician visited, to fix which asset and how long they were on site. The technician would then confirm or change details (working on the exception rather than the whole report).

With so many clients and so much travelling to different sites, this relieves technicians from the administrative burden. It also provides the company with an audit trail of activities.

Marne Martin is CEO of ServicePower, which provides field service organizations with innovative, effective mobile workforce management solutions. Learn more at www.servicepower.com.