Greater Visibility Needed for Field Workers

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Paul White looks at how you can achieve real-time communication between field workers and the contact centre.

Many organisations still believe that the field service teams and contact centre teams operate as separate functions.

However, as 76% of customers have to use the contact centre to find out the status of their service request, it is quite clear that there is a need for these two parts of the organisation to have not only real-time communication, but also a level of visibility between them.

It is rare that field-based teams are provided with the tools they really need

Despite having a smartphone or other mobile device, it is rare that field-based teams are provided with the tools that enable them to access important back-office systems such as CRM, ERP or accounts, in order for them to successfully carry out their job.

This often means they have to rely on manual, sometimes paper-based, processes, and have to update the central system when they are back in the office, causing a major delay in communication with the contact centre and other departments. Alongside this, the contact centre has no visibility of the field-based teams, meaning they are often unable to provide customers with the answers they need.

An integrated mobile app enables communication with the contact centre

The key tool in connecting the mobile workforce with the contact centre is providing the field-based workforce with an integrated mobile app that allows them to communicate with the contact centre in real time and provides the contact centre with full visibility on location.

Whether they be sales, engineers or healthcare professionals, they can have access to the information they need when they need it – and be able to push and pull data directly from back-office systems.

When adding or updating customer information, the field worker can do this directly in to the CRM or other databases, eliminating paper-based processes and allowing the contact centre team to have a real-time view of data.

Field workers can be immediately notified of any cancellations

When a customer calls in the contact centre to arrange, rearrange or cancel appointments or meetings, the contact centre struggle to process these requests efficiently due to lack of visibility and real-time communication with the field workers.

By integrating the mobile apps with the contact centre, agents can view a live map of where they are and what job they are on, and can communicate with the centre in real time. For example, if a job is cancelled via the contact centre, a notification is automatically sent to the field worker’s mobile device, rather than having to be passed between several different departments before letting the engineer know.

Paul White

The live map view and integration with mobile technology allows agents to schedule and book appointments more intelligently. For example, if a customer calls in to request an urgent repair or visit, the contact centre agent is able to schedule the call to the worker who is nearest via the live map, with the right equipment or has the specialist skills needed.

This helps improve first time fix rate or first call resolution, contact centre and field worker productivity, and also improves the customer experience.

With thanks to Paul White at mplsystems

Author: Megan Jones

Published On: 25th Feb 2015 - Last modified: 18th Dec 2018
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