-Paul Baptist, Senior Director, Solution Engineering, APAC, Salesforce

We’re seeing manufacturers increasingly invest in their customer service and field service teams as customers demand the types of experiences companies like Airbnb provide. Anytime, anywhere, frictionless and personalised experiences are what customers demand.

The lines between B2C and B2B customers have also blurred, meaning your experience must match the very best that’s out there, no matter your end buyer.

The stakes have never been higher. The Salesforce 2018 State of the Connected Customer report, revealed 66 per cent of buyers say they are likely to switch brands if they are treated like a number instead of an individual. Every touch point a manufacturer has with a customer has to deliver the best possible, personalised experience.

In-between buying cycles, field service is often your most important and regular touch point with customers. That’s why we’ve seen our manufacturing customers like KONE, Schneider Electric and Fisher & Paykel invest in their customer service experience.

 What’s the impact of field service workers in manufacturing?

A good example of investing in your field service team is KONE. It is working towards a future where the operating condition of more than 1.1 million of its escalators and elevators is linked with real-time customer information and maintenance schedules. This will be provided to its team of 20,000 field service technicians around the world.

By owning the quality of service and empowering its field service technicians, KONE is turning a service request or product break down into an opportunity to provide an outstanding customer experience.

What is the ‘customer experience crisis’?

Customers judge your business based on their most recent and best interaction. Think of the companies that deliver outstanding service and repair experiences, like KONE or Fisher & Paykel for example. All manufacturers are judged by this standard today.

Buyers expect every representative of a company to have information about who they are and their history with the business. Being asked to reshare the same information with different service staff is seen as a failure to provide good service.

I’ll expand on the Fisher & Paykel example. It simplified the process for customers to access service by automating confirmation reminders and providing tracking of their technician’s arrival time. This simple change not only removed friction from the service experience, but has reduced training time around the world from an average of nine months to just three weeks per operator, saving $40,000 in training costs per operator.

How can manufacturers empower field service workers in the digital age?

Manufacturers need to put relevant information in the hands of their technicians to deliver an experience that ‘wows”. This includes consolidated communications with the customer, the latest information on job scheduling, traffic routes to the site, suggested fixes, next best actions, and the ability to contact the customer easily.

Insights from data analysis can also be used to automate administrative tasks and give field workers access to real time customer information anytime, anywhere. This frees workers to focus on the job at hand: identifying issues and fixing them.

What does this have to do with Salesforce though?

Salesforce works with a range of manufacturers around the globe. Some of our customers include Schneider Electric, KONE and component maker Lippert.

Lippert implemented Salesforce’s Service Cloud and Field Service Lightning for increased efficiency, scheduling, and improved productivity. Lippert is now paperless and has full visibility into the interactions across it organisation.

For the first time, the team can engage in real-time interactions with trackable, recordable results. With the help of Field Service Lighting, Lippert is servicing products like its recreational vehicles two days faster, increasing productivity for both technicians and support staff.