Salesforce brings digital transformation to field workers with AI, analytics tools

Often, it is always about empowering the employees to produce the next technological revolution. When armed with state-of-the-art technologies, the workers may well be inspired to create something beyond the usual. Salesforce has realized that before anyone else, and they have demonstrated that by launching a remarkable tech upgrade for mobile workers. Its Einstein AI and Analytics is going to be used for improving the response method to calls related to customer service. Previously, it was used for Field Service Lightning.

The new tool will revolutionize the way these servicemen work by providing them tools for image recognition, access insights that can be converted into actions so as to enhance productivity, automate the processes and schedule them accordingly and overall, increase the efficiency manifolds to ensure that more revenue is generated. It also gives wonderful opportunity for the field service market to expand itself into various potentially growing markets such as healthcare, finance, manufacturing etc.

Since these services are highly dependent on excellent onsite service, the demand for such service means that you will have to take both unknown problems as well as complicated machinery. If that is so, then the only resolution is to empower the workforce with technology that can ease this process.

Einstein AI with Inventory management to the rescue

The tech update has been about providing helping hands to a wide range of workers such as dispatchers, managers as well as mobile workers so that productivity reaches an optimal high and there is high degree of coordination to ensure that fixes are achieved first time at a higher rate of success. Einstein AI thus brings image recognition to the service to simplify the huge number of situations where image recognition is necessary.

For example, something as simple as dishwasher repairs can become a headache because the parts look confusingly similar and there is a hotchpotch of serial numbers. But now, even small parts like valve can be bought for a particular company just by flashing the picture of the valve.

Similarly, inventory management is revolutionized when every single unit of workforce is directed to the right direction, every equipment and vehicle is where they should be. Technicians can now be closer to the customers than ever and even small devices can be optimally organized so that everything is within the reach of a fingertip for every worker and vice versa.

Analytics to improve the potential

Providing such immaculate service, or at least dreaming of it sounds superb, but it seems impossible without the analytical insights that not only helps you rectify your flaws and optimize your service efficiency. More importantly, in this case, the analytics division allows you to derive insights not based on some abstract ideas but on concrete actions that can have direct impacts on productivity of the workforce as a whole. There is scope for integrating the complete datasets coming from various domains so that a single application can process the analytics and then the insights are readily available from the dashboard.

So, if a service manager needs to know whether all the workers under him are well trained or well equipped to install particular parts or machines, then he does not need to wait for customer feedbacks anymore. Only this year Salesforce has launched the analytics wing. AI and analytics together work in the smoothest possible way, that too when a CRM platform is available. Customers have also been overjoyed by this fantastic boost to the service and now, unsurprisingly, they are expecting more and more. However, there is a small problem in making it a global, widespread effort.

Integration of technicians and technology- a challenge

Often, people forget that even if there is a path breaking technology, there may not be many who would understand, process and implement in daily lives. Such is the case with Salesforce’s innovation because such a supremely modern experience can only be delivered when there is a huge pool of remarkably efficient technicians all around. Such is hardly the case since advanced technologies like automated tracking, image recognition and data analytics integrated in the process, digital transformation has arrived but not everyone is ready to assimilate it. Purchasing the equipment as well as technology is not a problem either, since these are properly licensed for individuals and organizations, depending on organization size.

However, the demand for efficient labour is still the same, but the customer expectation is soaring and they are not happy when they encounter a service field where the method is following the old norms. Hence, the change has to be pervasive to make the customers satisfied. Whether they will be able to provide that or not remains the burning question, but surely, the next few years are going to radically alter what you understand as customer service, and AI and analytics will be at the heart of it.