New study shows the benefits of remote assistance for Field Services
A new Study from Gartner shows how augmented reality software promises to improve field technician preparedness, enablement, guidance and previsit diagnosis quality, but application leaders cannot navigate the hype. Use this research as input to a business case and to guide understanding of key capabilities and adjacencies.
Overview
Key Findings
- Field service providers (FSPs) require better technician guidance, support and enablement capabilities to successfully replace experienced technicians that are leaving the workforce, but application leaders are simultaneously being asked to do more with less.
- Application leaders and field service business leaders face competitive pressure to increase first-visit outcomes by improving previsit diagnosis, identification of skills and parts requirements, and remote technician-to-customer interaction.
- With initial deployments of FSM mobile apps complete, application leaders have a new contingent of technicians with an online presence. Application leaders believe that additional app vendors could drive even greater benefits without further hardware investment, but seek to avoid past failures.
Recommendations
To optimize customer service and support technology, application leaders supporting organizations seeking mobile solutions for field service technicians should:
- Calculate opportunity for improved first-visit fix rates, customer effort scores and profitability. Do this by first seeking input directly from field technicians about the potential impact of implementing previsit briefing, self-service guidance and in-visit collaboration among all stakeholders.
- Identify best-fit vendors by evaluating them against the key capabilities in this research (such as self-served guided repair, remote expert guidance and workflow) and organization-specific needs.
- Ensure foundational enterprise maturity and readiness to take on additional investments in mobile, AR-enabled collaboration and knowledge management, and define staffing plans for new triage and remote expert guidance roles. Then use these to help inform the cost side of ROI modeling.
Strategic Planning Assumptions
By 2025, over 50% of field service management deployments will include knowledge-sharing tools and/or collaboration capability supported with mobile augmented reality, up from less than 20% in 2021.
By 2025, 40% of physical-experience businesses will improve financial results and outperform competitors by extending into paid virtual experiences.
