Next-Generation Field Service Management Best Practices

Field service management (FSM) is an ongoing process that requires monitoring and supporting a mobile workforce when they are not in a traditional office setting. These processes rely heavily on various types of technology to make everything possible. However, when discussing field service management best practices, it's critical to use technology at your disposal to execute your plan as efficiently and effectively as possible. Simply put, using the right tools and software is a best practice.

Best Practices for Executing The Perfect Plan

Field service management involves planning and executing plans with the support of technology. Using the right, and easy to use, technology is essential to the process of supervising and supporting mobile workers while they are on-site. For this approach to be successful, it must provide high-level visibility and support real-time communication and information exchange between employers, employees, and customers.

Managers can struggle to perform their duties if they lack visibility when managing a mobile workforce. Employees also require access to the appropriate equipment and resources to perform their duties to the best of their abilities. Customers also expect to be informed about service updates, estimated arrival times, and the quality of work performed. With this information, they may be satisfied with the service they receive.

The field service management industry is undergoing radical changes due to pressures brought on by newer technologies, skilled-labor shortages, and higher costs. Companies that manage field services must constantly adapt to market fluctuations and daily disruptions to stay competitive.

To keep you a step ahead of the current market, we've outlined the top next-generation field service management best practices that can help you streamline and optimize FSM operations below for your consideration.

1. Provide High-Level Visibility to Company Managers and Stakeholders

Field service managers and company stakeholders who lack a clear view of field operations will not be as productive or effective as those who do. Managers who can monitor the location and status of field technicians, job schedules, customer information, and other information will perform significantly better.

Further, company stakeholders who receive regular status updates, key performance indicators, and evaluations and stay connected and engaged will have the necessary information to make more informed decisions.

Using a cloud-based platform, such as Tourmo AI, that integrates with your existing solutions to provide high-level visibility of your mobile operations, assets, and employees can help you overcome the challenges associated with inefficient field service management.

Tourmo AI can help your organization operate more transparently for improved experiences and control. Our AI-powered solutions will equip your employees with the tools they need to act on  exceptions more quickly and effectively, boosting productivity. Further, Tourmo keeps stakeholders updated and connected while providing deep insights they need into FSM operations.

2. Integrate Multiple Point Solutions

Enterprise organizations responsible for managing multiple systems may encounter data silos, solution incompatibility issues, inconsistent processes, increased complexity, and a lack of access to valuable company information to enable real-time decision-making.

By having multiple point solutions integrated and working together, an organization can better optimize various field service management processes, leading to improved efficiency, reduced costs, and better customer satisfaction.

To overcome the challenges posed by disparate systems, an advanced solution, such as Tourmo AI, can help your organization integrate its existing tech stack and ensure data from multiple systems is unified, correlated, and contextualized. Tourmo AI quickly identifies patterns and inefficiencies, provides exceptions and actionable information , and enables operations to take action in real-time using automated workflows.

3. Optimize Communication to Support Field Services

Companies with mobile workforces must communicate with clients in real-time to schedule appointments, answer questions, and share service updates. Interruptions in communication can cause delays, which can be problematic for all parties involved, including the service provider, mobile worker, and customer.

Optimizing communication to enable 24/7 information exchange through multiple channels can greatly enhance customer service. Tourmo AI's mobility workflow automation helps organizations streamline communication and processes from the back office to the field and customers, enhancing experiences and satisfaction for all involved by providing critical information immediately.

4. Implement Mobility Workflow Automation

Automation is a critical component of the best FSM solutions in helping to alleviate some of the repetitive tasks and responsibilities of field service managers. However, Tourmo's AI-powered mobility workflow takes automated features to the next level. Using algorithms that detect trends and patterns, the solution gives managers high visibility while enabling real-time data-driven changes.

Tourmo AI can anticipate potential service issues and take proactive steps to resolve them, reducing downtime and increasing efficiency. This process leads to a more comprehensive understanding of the quality of work being performed using real-time data and the ability to trust the system's ability to identify and resolve service issues remotely.

Tourmo AI’s Workforce Operations Solution

Tourmo's AI-powered Workforce Operations solution can monitor and verify your workforce operations while providing all managers and stakeholders complete visibility. We recognize that many businesses rely on disparate systems and hardware that do not communicate with one another, resulting in siloed data. Tourmo provides customers with a solution ready for integration and a unified view of the company's assets and resources.

Unlike other solutions, Tourmo's patented software solutions enable managers and other company stakeholders to reduce their reliance on manual labor and human data analysis.

Tourmo's AI and machine learning algorithms can transform massive amounts of company data into actionable processes, influencing daily decisions and increasing awareness in critical areas of business operations.

Further, our platform will allow you to automate your entire mobile operations strategy, track worker progress, and make necessary adjustments while continuously updating your mobile workforce and customers to ensure compliance and satisfaction.

Our Workforce Operations solution can monitor task completion, notify clients when something changes, and take appropriate action using automated workflows. Tourmo makes it easy to identify and manage issues such as client site delays, unplanned stops, route deviations, and out-of-sequence deliveries, with features such as:

• Fully integrated business intelligence suite
• Expedite dispatch, inventory, and assignments
• AI-powered workflow automation
• On-Site Process Management
• Worker Readiness Verification
• Service Visit Monitoring & Verification
• Automated Progress Updates
• Activity/Inactivity Monitoring
• Real-Time ETA

Tourmo AI — Improving Standards in Field Service Management

If your company is looking for the best way to implement best practices in field service management, or if it wants to improve its existing process structure, Tourmo can help.

Tourmo’s AI-powered solutions can help you support the most complex and carefully crafted plans while remaining flexible enough to manage changes in demand, higher costs and churn, and the ongoing need to provide the best customer experiences.

The key to overcoming significant FSM challenges is the use of Tourmo's patented artificial intelligence (AI) and automation technology, which enables enterprise organizations to integrate systems and automate their mobile workforce operations to reduce reliance on human oversight while providing the data and tools that mobile workers require when working in the field.

Our solutions can also help you get a better ROI on your existing mobile workforce solutions. Tourmo is more than just a tracking and monitoring solution. Our AI-powered workflows will enable you to scale workforce training and management, benefit from predictive analytics, and maintain a competitive advantage in rapidly changing conditions.