Field technicians are the face of your company. Their interactions with customers determine customer satisfaction directly. If you hire expert technicians, who’ll fix any issue in the first go, you’re golden.
But, we all know that isn’t the truth.
First, expert technicians are hard to retain when 40 percent of employees say they’re likely to leave their current jobs within the next three to six months.
Second, for some industries, the documentation is intense. The actual information field technicians need to solve the problem is hidden in a mountain of documents. So, it’s either looking through manuals or getting on call with someone in the team who’ll look up information for them.
Third, the majority of expert technicians are aging. 46% of North American field technicians are 50+ and 50% of field technicians in EMEA are 50+, which means the expertise is training out of the companies.
Fourth, industrial products are complex and often risky if left not attended properly with the possibility of harming your customer or your technicians.
Conversational AI can assist your frontline technicians, making their jobs easier and more efficient. These smart systems save time and enhance your team's expertise, leading to a more satisfying experience by helping them find the correct information when they need it in seconds. Let’s see how using AI can help field technicians save time, improve efficiency while boosting customer satisfaction.
The AI enhanced Field Technician Experience
From initial training to on-field assistance, AI has revolutionized every stage of the field technician's workflow. With AI-enhanced tools, field technicians can now access real-time guidance, personalized training, and interactive troubleshooting, enabling them to resolve complex issues efficiently and effectively.
We’ll take a look at how conversational AI platform can help field technician in
- Field technician training
- On-Field Assistance some text
- Issue Summarization
- Customer Information
- Troubleshooting
New Field Technician Training
As a field technician, diagnosing and resolving complex issues can be a daunting task, especially for those new to the role.
With the ever-increasing complexity of modern equipment and technology, it's no wonder that many new technicians feel overwhelmed and underprepared.
75% of field technicians report that products have become more complex and more knowledge, specifically more technical knowledge, is needed to perform their jobs now vs. when they started in field service (The Service Council, 2021)
However, with the advent of conversational AI, there is now a solution to help bridge the knowledge gap and empower new field technicians to succeed.
The Challenges Faced by New Field Technicians
New field technicians often face a steep learning curve, with a lack of experience and knowledge making it difficult to diagnose and resolve complex issues on their own.
Information overload can also be a significant challenge, with vast amounts of technical information to process and absorb.
This can lead to time-consuming troubleshooting, inconsistent quality of work, and difficulty operating complex equipment.
How Conversational AI Can Help
Conversational AI can speed up new field technician onboarding by helping them find information instantly. Instead of spending time memorizing multiple documents, conversational AI platforms like Alltius, help new technicians find answers instantly.
Alltius converts all your technician documents like regulatory standards, video tutorials, worksheets, checklists, diagrams, repair manuals, repair standards and more into a searchable database. Your field technicians can access any documents by just typing in a query in a chatbot type UI.
With access to correct methods, the possibility of mistakes reduces drastically, which also helps improving safety for both customers and the field technicians.
With conversational AI, new field technicians can:
- Access expert knowledge and guidance instantly
- Receive personalized training programs tailored to their needs
- Follow step-by-step troubleshooting processes
- Ensure consistent service quality
- Operate complex equipment with confidence
Conversational AI reduces information silos and helps all repair assets to be utilized efficiently.
On Field - Issue Summarization
When your team gets the call, it's usually because something's gone wrong - the air conditioning is on the fritz, the internet is down, or a critical piece of equipment has failed.
And that's when the clock starts ticking.
Your technicians need to jump into action, often without a clear idea of what they're up against. They might have to roll out to the job site, diagnose the problem, and then embark on a wild goose chase to track down the right parts and tools. It's a frustrating and inefficient process that can leave your team feeling like they're scrambling in the dark.
The Struggle is Real: Challenges in Issue Identification
Technicians face numerous challenges when it comes to issue summarization. From accurately assessing the problem to communicating complex technical terms in a clear and concise manner, the process can be daunting. Add to this the pressure of providing a quick and efficient solution, and it's easy to see why issue summarization can be a significant hurdle.
How Conversational AI Can Help
When technicians know the issue, they can start searching for solutions easily.
Conversational AI can help technicians in understanding issues at play. Alltius connects field technicians to CRM, FAQ databases and customer support platforms all at once. With the combined information, it provides field technicians with a complete overview of the issue.
It summarizes all the conversations before the field technician’s visit into a concise manner. This helps field technicians speed up to the information and understand the situation at hand. Apart from this, Alltius can also identify similar tickets raised by other customers along with their resolution. This can help field technicians understand how the issue was resolved in other cases.
On Field - Customer Information
Having a complete understanding of customers is crucial for delivering exceptional service.
However, field technicians often face challenges in accessing and utilizing customer information, leading to ineffective solutions and decreased customer satisfaction
Field technicians face significant challenges in getting a complete overview of their customers. Limited access to customer information, including history and previous issues, affects their ability to provide effective solutions.
Moreover, incomplete customer profiles due to missing or outdated information further complicate the issue. As a result, technicians struggle to identify recurring issues, leading to prolonged resolution times and decreased customer satisfaction.
How can conversational AI help?
Conversational AI can help field technicians get an overview of customer profile with history of conversations & issues with a single click.
Alltius provides automated customer profiling and auto-populates profiles with relevant information, including history and previous issues, ensuring accuracy and up-to-date information.
On Field - Troubleshooting
Even with the right knowledge and resources, troubleshooting can be a daunting task for field technicians. Complex issues often require guidance from multiple experts, leading to delays and decreased productivity. However, with conversational AI, technicians can now access the support they need to troubleshoot efficiently and effectively.
Challenges in Troubleshooting
Field technicians face significant challenges when troubleshooting complex issues.
Limited access to expert guidance can lead to prolonged resolution times, and time-consuming troubleshooting processes can decrease productivity.
Moreover, inconsistent solution quality and difficulty in identifying root causes can result in repeated visits and decreased customer satisfaction. Delays in resolving issues can further exacerbate the problem, leading to increased costs and decreased customer loyalty.
How Conversational AI Can Help
With Alltius, field technicians can access a vast knowledge base, leveraging company expertise across various sources, including spec sheets, web pages, Confluence spaces, past emails, and video libraries.
All field technicians need to do is type in the query. With native enterprise search technology, Alltius first understands the issue and then references multiple sources to provide your field technicians complete and reliable answers within 10 seconds. Tacit + Alltius like systems can also capture tribal knowledge of field workers, which can stay posterity even when the aging workers leave the workforce.
This enables them to troubleshoot complex issues efficiently, reducing delays and improving overall customer experience.
Empowering Your Field Team for Exceptional Service
As we've seen, conversational AI has the potential to transform the field service experience, from improving technician productivity to enhancing customer satisfaction.
With Alltius, your team can access critical information and expert guidance in real-time, enabling them to tackle complex issues with confidence and efficiency. Whether you're in HVAC, telecom, or delivery services, AI can help your team shine by streamlining workflows, reducing downtime, and delivering exceptional customer experiences.
Embrace the future of field service management and unlock the full potential of your team with conversational AI.
Try it yourself with a free trial or get a demo today.
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