Companies with field service teams are ubiquitous. They’re found in energy, manufacturing, technology, telecommunications, and other industries. Many companies view field services as key to customer satisfaction (46.2%) and business retention (39%).
That’s why investment in field service management (FSM) platforms is nearly doubling, from $4B in 2023 to $7.3B by 2028. Workers gain mobile tools that offer streamlined access to customer data and intelligent services, enabling them to speed issue resolution and maximize first-time fix rates. Organizations benefit by increasing operational efficiencies, asset utilization, predictive maintenance, and resource optimization, among other gains.
However, many people in charge of buying and using FSM software have concerns. A recent study of field service leaders from Zuper and WBR Insights finds that about a third are not very satisfied (23%) or not satisfied at all (13%) with their current FSM solutions. Meanwhile, another 40% are only somewhat satisfied. The reasons these leaders cited for their disappointment include a non-intuitive user experience, insufficient customer support, technical glitches, and poor value for their investment. So, it’s not surprising that 73% of respondents plan to switch or upgrade solutions within the next 12 months. The study offers insights into what leaders really want and need from their field service technology.
5 Ways to Improve the FSM Experience
The study identified five areas that field service leaders would like addressed:
Optimizing operations: A majority of field service leaders say their FSM platform must optimize critical operations such as work order management (83%), compliance and safety (83%), spare parts/inventory management (72%), technician productivity (65%), and integration with financial systems and business processes (53%).
These findings indicate that companies with field service organizations seek comprehensive solutions that optimize multiple processes and accelerate workflows. And they are willing to double down on investments to achieve this goal. Nearly half (40%) plan on investing 31% to 40% of their technology budgets on new or upgraded FSM solutions. Another 4% will allocate 41% to 50% within 12 months.
As they seek to purchase or upgrade a solution, field service leaders are also prioritizing artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities. Most (75%) of their customers plan to spend somewhat more on AI technologies over the next two years, while 10% say this spending will increase substantially. This AI investment will enable leaders to gain predictive capabilities to improve decision-making as well as natural language interfaces that guide workflows and make it easier for teams to get work done.
Enabling seamless integrations: FSM platforms should integrate with various solutions, including customer relationship management, ticketing, payments, tax management, and more, to provide users and the businesses and individuals they service with a seamless experience. However, only 53% of respondents believe their FSM performs well in this area.
Field service leaders will want to review the list of APIs and connectors their platform providers offer before making a purchase decision. With RESTful APIs and connectors, they can integrate their FSM platform into both modern systems and legacy tools alike, optimizing financial and operational processes end-to-end and improving their ability to benchmark results and assess progress.
Boosting technician productivity: Improving technician productivity remains a significant challenge, with only 65% of respondents indicating their FSM solution helps optimize this aspect. Offering features such as automated scheduling, route optimization, and work order management is a given. Beyond that, buyers also want to use AI to gain predictive maintenance and resource optimization capabilities, so that they can accurately forecast equipment issues and customer needs and align workforces and resources accordingly. This capability helps leaders avoid emergency spending on parts and equipment, hire and develop the right talent, and avoid spending on overtime.
Transitioning to a platform: Transitioning to a new FSM platform is challenging. Leaders prefer to transition over a one- to three-month timeframe (29%) or over three to six months (50%), highlighting the need for a smooth and efficient migration process. Buyers will want to review vendors’ onboarding experience: learning how technology providers will support them by deploying and integrating the platform, training teams, providing troubleshooting resources, and ensuring adequate call center staff to triage issues and answer questions. In the survey, buyers mentioned customer service as a pain point, so reviewing technical support coverage, including escalation policies, is essential.
Driving ROI for implementations: Field service leaders look at total cost of ownership to evaluate solutions. These costs include licensing fees, implementation, maintenance, and the cost of reallocating their employees from their duties to assist with the implementation. They’ll also consider financial gains they achieve from the solution, such as the ability to drive field force throughput and retain more customers.
Buyers want to implement a solution that’s modular and scalable. They’d like to implement the features and integrations that provide the greatest impact first, adding optional features after teams have gained experience with new ways of working and their companies have achieved partial payback on their investment. In addition, solutions should scale easily with growth, whether that means adding new users and customers, integrating new business functions, or entering new regions.
Acting on Insights
Operating field service functions is a demanding job, but one that adds significant value to organizations. Teams meet face-to-face with customers, learning about their experiences with solutions, including what’s working well and what they need to fix.
Similarly, this study provides deep insights into what field service leaders need from technology, so that they and their teams can be successful. And they’ve spoken. Leaders want full-featured solutions, AI capabilities, implementation and customer support, and the ability to achieve early and ongoing ROI to advance their business and operational goals.
With better capabilities and service, field services organizations can accomplish what they need to do: working efficiently to solve customer complaints, restoring equipment and solution operations, and protecting and growing these valuable relationships.
Anand Subbaraj is the CEO of Zuper, provider of a leading intelligent workforce management platform for service businesses such as residential & commercial cleaning, HVAC, electrical, Internet Service Providers, plumbing, and landscaping. Anand is a seasoned product leader with over 17 years of experience in technology and 13 years at Microsoft, specializing in the areas of Big Data, BI & Analytics, Cloud Computing, Digital Transformation, and SaaS.