In a time of consistent uncertainty and economic and global disruptions, it’s no wonder some companies are feeling a strain and are considering layoffs, cutting budgets, and ultimately seeing sales slow down. As a result, budgets that would have normally allowed for investment in tech are now being postponed or canceled in their entirety. Companies are being tasked with continuing to grow and evolve with less.
Some companies are finding themselves needing to solve these types of questions:
- How can we do more with less?
- How can we survive a layoff but do the same amount of work we did before?
- After a layoff, how can I do what I need to do without burning out my staff?
- If I invest in tech, how quickly will it actually pay off?
- How can I spend on tech and still grow my business?
- How can I make it easier for my clients to work with me and find new selling opportunities?
Answer >> Invest in Tech.
Salesforce Field Service
Let’s explore why you should still spend on tech and how it can grow your business and uplift new selling opportunities with a faster sales cycle and reduced time to cash. In this example, we will explore investing in Salesforce Field Service.
Typically, your field service team requires a customer service person to take a call and to receive and monitor emails and web chats. Then they create the case or the work order and then dispatch it. Finally, a technician goes on-site and the field service tech would report back on what work was done, and if there was anything else needed after the job.
Imagine we could eliminate the entire first step of monitoring communication channels and scheduling appointments with the ability for customers to self-schedule their appointments. So, when your client’s air conditioning breaks down in the middle of a heatwave at 11 PM, they can go right to your website and schedule an appointment for the next day. Eliminating the risk of losing them to a competitor, they can immediately book their appointment and have peace of mind that you’re going to be there the next day to get their AC fixed. We didn’t need a customer support representative to take the request to make it happen. Now we can do more with less, and we’re getting more business sent our way without incurring additional headcount.
Salesforce Field Service Appointment Assistant Self-Service Scheduling
With Field Service Appointment Assistant, you can let your customers book, confirm, reschedule or cancel their upcoming appointments. This feature enhances customer engagement and transparency by allowing customers to schedule appointments, letting customers know when help is on the way, and giving them real-time updates on their channel of choices such as SMS or the portal.
Collecting Payment in the Field with Square and Salesforce Field Service
Let’s take this one step further, and give your field service technicians the ability to add on additional services and products. Let’s say that AC needed additional products. Your technician can immediately source the products on their device, show the client the cost, and your Field Service Technicians can process payments right now in the field. We built this for a customer, by creating a Square and Salesforce Field Service integration, that enabled technical teams to be salespeople in the field. This reduced the time to cash to take payment in the field rather than waiting for it to go back into the office to send an invoice, get authorization, and finally receive payment. If there aren’t additional products, you can have your Field Service reps offer services like a maintenance contract. Now your Field Service Technicians are selling, and you’re reducing your time to collect cash and the need for a team to send and collect payment. It all happens right in the field, in real-time.
Improve Customer Lifetime Value with Personalized Recommendations
That sounds great, doesn’t it? Let’s do one more thing. With Lightning Web Components we can build a robust, feature-rich, and intuitive experience that allows technicians in the field to easily perform a number of tasks that would otherwise be cumbersome, unintuitive, or simply not possible before. Field service technicians could quickly recommend products or services to the customer in real time based on what the customer is purchasing or the service they received in the field. These recommendations can be powered for products, services, marketing offers, and any other content. With the right tools in place, your field service technicians are enabled to become salespeople. With the right recommendations at their fingertips, your clients will get what they need. These tools enable your technicians to provide the right products and services to your clients, while also providing a better client experience, therefore increasing the overall lifetime value of your customers and allowing your bottom line to grow.
Jennifer Contino
Director of Marketing
Jen, our director of marketing comes to us with over a decade of marketing experience and nearly a decade within the Salesforce ecosystem. She’s known for her work with Pardot, creativity within the digital marketing space, and passion for marketing and the power of Pardot and Salesforce together.
About Roycon
We’re an Austin-based Salesforce Consulting Partner, with a passion and belief that the Salesforce platform’s capabilities can help businesses run more efficiently and effectively. Whether you are just getting started with Salesforce or looking to realize its full potential, Roycon specializes in Salesforce Implementations, Salesforce Ongoing Support, and Salesforce Integrations, and Development. We’re the certified partner to guide the way to increase Salesforce Adoption, make strategic decisions, and build your Salesforce Roadmap for success.