Salesforce has rolled out incredible new features in their latest Spring Release ‘21 for Salesforce Field Service

With Field Service, you get easily accessible tools that you need to manage work orders, scheduling, and your mobile workforce. If you are operating a field service business, it likely means you are typically moving many parts at a rapid pace. Luckily, Salesforce has prescribed an even more efficient solution to your Salesforce Field Service implementation which includes the briefcase builder, appointment assistant, and point to point predictive routing. 

Briefcase Builder
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Mobile technicians, by definition, don’t have a dedicated office environment to work in each day. They could be at a job site in a remote area, working on a building that is still under construction, or in any number of other locales with limited connectivity. While they may be able to connect to customers’ WiFi networks while performing work in more urban areas, this is also not a guarantee, and therefore need to plan for the possibility that they need to perform their work offline.

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With “Briefcase Builder”, Field Service Administrators now have greater control over which records are available to technicians working offline. Previously, this was not configurable, and only a select number of records were accessible to technicians without an active internet connection. Field Service Administrators can now create a “briefcase” of records that are available offline, which can be assigned either by user or by group, so that mobile technicians have everything they need to complete their work.

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Instead of getting blocked by connectivity limitations in the field or having to do manual workarounds, mobile technicians can now remain in the app and follow their typical process as they complete their work, resulting in increased technician productivity, better data quality, and less truck rolls due to uncompleted appointments.

Appointment Assistant

Despite everyone’s best efforts, appointments do sometimes become delayed. With the rise of transportation apps like Uber and Lyft, and delivery apps like Instacart and DoorDash, it is becoming more and more of an expectation that customers have visibility into the status of their appointment and are able to see the real-time location of technicians who will be providing service.

With the Spring ’21 release, Salesforce has brought these capabilities to Salesforce Field Service. Field Service Administrators can now enable this service to allow customers to receive customized SMS or email messages notifying them of their appointment status, with links to a map displaying the real-time locations of their technicians. From the map screen, they are able to see details of the technician and an ETA.

This new feature will be a huge boon to customer experience, and should drive significant increases in NPS and CSAT scores, as well as decreasing customer no-shows.

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Point to Point Predictive Routing

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Salesforce has also made exciting improvements to its route optimization engine, now utilizing point to point predictive routing. Previously, Field Service Administrators had two options to calculate travel times: aerial routing or street-level routing (SLR). 
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Aerial routing is technically point to point routing, though the actual road layout and traffic considerations are not accounted for. It can be thought of as the time to travel the distance from point A to point B, as the crow flies. Street-level routing improved on this by computing the travel time in relation to the physical road layout, as well as time of day traffic considerations if Field Service Administrators opted to pair SLR with the beta “predictive travel” feature. However, even with SLR’s turn by turn computations, actual calculations were still calculated on a grid-based approach, and were only considered during optimization (as opposed to when utilizing Book Appointments or Candidates actions). 

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Now, Field Service Administrators can enable “point to point predictive routing” to perform real point to point routing in any scheduling context, which also automatically considers time of day traffic calculations. This is a similar experience to what you would see when using Google Maps or Waze. Ultimately, this will make scheduling decisions even more accurate and, in doing so, increase technician utilization and efficiency.

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Want to learn more? Contact us today!

Knowing how to properly use these features may seem overwhelming at first, but here at NeuraFlash we have a Salesforce Field Service team of warriors that have unparalleled knowledge from both an industry standpoint and use case perspective. From self scheduling processes, to heavy asset centric businesses, we have helped solve complex business needs for organizations of all sizes. We’re looking forward to working with you on your field service journey! Contact us here!