In 2019, as Customer Experience (CX) becomes the key success factor for many Field Service Organizations (FSOs), tackling the talent challenge and deriving utmost value from technology investments becomes critical.
Prediction One: FSOs Will Get Creative To Fill The Talent Gap
Labor shortages mean FSOs will need to overhaul many of their recruitment and hiring practices in the year ahead.As they compete to attract a younger demographic into the industry, they will need to get creative in regard to job descriptions, hiring criteria, and incentives. Skills over experience will come into play as well as technology that maximizes labor utilization and optimizes efficiency. Augmented Reality and Artificial Intelligence will be powerful enablers for new technicians with AR addressing the labor shortages and AI optimizing knowledge management.
Prediction Two: Customer Experience Will Become Increasingly Tactical
The growing commitment to CX over the last two to three years has been one of the most significant shifts in the industry. There’s a lot of work left to do among FSOs to translate the realization CX is critical into the results of a true CX strategy. That progression will continue in 2019 as more FSOs will begin to “walk the CX talk” formulating more sophisticated CX strategies, developing or further utilizing CX metrics and KPIs, appointing CX leadership and even creating CX units and departments.
Per IDC’s report, 95 percent of organizations will have incorporated new digital KPI sets by 2023, focused on product and service innovation rates, data capitalization, and employee experience
Prediction Three: How FSOs Measure Success Will Change
There are a couple of major trends in service that are necessitating a change in metrics used to measure success. First one is the increasing prioritization of CX. The second is digital transformation. Per IDC’s report, 95 percent of organizations will have incorporated new digital KPI sets by 2023, focused on product and service innovation rates, data capitalization, and employee experience. For field service, implementing metrics focused specifically on employee experience and engagement will be vital as more and more technology is layered in.
Prediction Four: Data Will Become The Vital Differentiator
2019 will see exponential growth in use of the data capabilities that IoT provides, which will serve as a true service differentiator. IoT will also continue to deliver on its promise for organizations as an opportunity to increase service revenue, either through the organizations providing a higher level of service using IoT that customers are willing to pay a premium for—or by providing IoT data streams to a customer that provide valuable (lucrative) insights. The use of Digital Twins will remove the exploratory phase from service and therefore will come into the arena of FSOs
Sarah Nicastro, IFS Director of Service Management Business Development
Sarah brings to IFS over a decade of experience covering the trends, technologies and business drivers that most impact end users of field service solutions from her tenure as Editor-in-Chief at Field Technologies Online. During her time at FTO, Sarah’s mission has been to help field service customers tell their stories. In her new role, Sarah will apply her expertise to translate how IFS solutions can address the challenges and pain points of savvy field service companies
