In any organization, an efficient workflow is the most shared outcome that everyone strives to get right.
Charting out a guided workflow for employees is very essential as the thought process has to match every employee in an organization or a brand to work towards a common goal.
So what exactly are a workflow and a guided workflow by definition?
A sequence of repetitive tasks or processes that are completed to achieve the needed outcome is called a workflow.
Whereas, a guided workflow refers to a list of directives to be followed for the repeated tasks or processes to reach the goal in a workflow.
Let’s consider a guided workflow example for field service agents, a detailed procedure list with brand particulars to be followed will be given to them. This includes instructions for installation, diagnosing problems, troubleshooting, repairs, data capture, and administrative tasks.
A guided workflow also allows a brand to maintain the quality of the field service even if there are new workforces in the team.
In the article below, we tell you the benefits of guided workflows and how you can automate these workflows too based on pointers from Prontoforms and Oracle’s blog.
Here is what we have to talk about.
- Benefits of Guided Workflows
- How to start with guided workflows
- Here’s how you can automate the field service workflows
Benefits of Guided Workflows
1. Safety and Compatibility
Maintenance of safety protocols and ensuring the checklist is followed every time the service field technician attends to customers is a good practice.
Having a guided workflow in place and making sure that the safety protocols are met with documentation proof is a part of this workflow routine that will have to be checked.
Following the guided workflow practice reflects professional brand ethics and increases the overall rating of a brand.
2. Lesser training necessities
Effective workflows that pre-exist in organizations are easier to impart to newer trainees cutting down on the need for longer sessions.
All routine tasks can be assigned to the newer people without any issues as there is enough material for them to be directed across tasks.
A guided workflow ensures that the work can be learned on the job for the new joiners without any need for specific training and they can directly jump in to prove their worth at work.
3. Consistent Service
A guided workflow ensures that even if a new trainee or a sub-contractor employer is new to the workforce, quality is maintained in a customer service visit.
Then again, a guided workflow eases processes for new joiners to learn to keep up with the quality as others and strive to do so from day one.
A quote by Byron Pulsifer sits perfectly here, “Consistency is one of the biggest factors in leading to accomplishment and success”.
So, a guided workflow ensures that all of what the brand stands for is delivered with minimal effort of training.
4. Better Employee Experience
Eliminating paperwork and anything that is time-consuming is the new norm. Asking for feedback in scales, deployment of chatbots, and pre-populating text messages for replies drastically cuts down on time.
A pre-set workflow with a guide will make things easier for the employees to set up processes and also feed only relevant queries on the chatbots.
With that, all the processes – creating tasks, paperwork, and collection of specific user data are clearly mentioned with the help of a guided workflow.
5. Increase in Sales
Upselling or cross-selling products might be one of the best sales techniques, but not all are born with talking skills and can make up sales pitches on the move.
Here, a well-documented workflow that specifies the best sales pitches, tips to identify sales opportunities, and ways to tackle sales downturns will be effective.
On the other hand, an undocumented sales workflow will be difficult to restructure and have to be started from scratch with absolutely no idea about what are the hits and misses.
A guided workflow in sales is very important as it can lead to the creation of streamlined sales processes, increase confidence levels, and eventually help in revenue growth.
6. Track your service progress
A real-time tracking status without the need to request an update from the service field agents is one of the key benefits of having a guided workflow.
All they have to do is to get on a field service management application to track all the activities of the field service agents leaving you with all the information needed.
That’s not all, a guided workflow with software like Kapture lets you do a lot more like agent deployment by the service team based on incidents, customer location, and agent availability.
7. Improved customer experience
“The combination of mobility and artificial intelligence (AI) improve field service agent productivity by 30% to 40%”. (Source: ReachOut)
Presently, in the days where time is the only thing that is limited, efficient customer service is all that a person needs.
To lower the customer service time and prioritize first visit complaint resolutions as much as possible, a guided workflow can be a great help to set the right expectations and offer correct solutions.
Smart field service applications for service teams have lowered the burden of the agents offering the instant stock updates available in the inventory. This allows the agents to resolve the service issues quicker, attracting a good review or a five-star rating on the application.
8. Need for Workflow Automation
A guided workflow can help with identifying difficult tasks and offering employees the software or assistance they need to complete work orders quickly.
Also, deploying remote assistance tools to provide field service agents access to only needed resources to help in real-time will be helpful for managers.
9. Identifying Fields for Automation
One of the key benefits of guided workflows would be to identify key areas in the field services that need technical assistance.
For instance: The field automation platform offers features like field service check in- and check out times and assigning work hours for the field service agents to work is one of the best features.
So, focusing on processes within your business and customer journeys that would perform better automated will enrich the overall customer experience.
10. People Benefits
A guided workflow can make processes easier for many people in an organization.
- Support Agents
- Dispatchers
- Field service on-site workers
- Contact Centre managers
- Contractors
- Customers
How to start with guided workflows
- Scan your service activities and list out all the monotonous tasks that can be organized.
- List out all the common mistakes and mishappenings by analyzing service histories.
- Jot down the best practices that can be added to digital workflows with improving service deliveries.
- Choose tasks that are easy to track and can be improved at first with eventually moving to complicated ones.
- Use advanced applications to automate the tasks that make the processes easier and assist in improving the field service experience.
Here’s how you can automate the field service workflows
- Eliminating IT Barriers
- Seamless Data Collection
- Quicker Data Processing
- Automate Data Distribution
“61% of fleet managers think that the most important feature of FSM software is its ability to capture customer information and job details and automatically update records”. (Source: Verizon Connect)
1. Eliminating IT Barriers
Designing a workflow software as per the preferences of daily field service activities of a brand will be beneficial for the service agents.
This is normally a difficult process as the software is completely controlled by the IT department and making changes accordingly will be a tough task.
For an efficient and specific workflow tool, giving it to a designer with extensive knowledge about the industry will give you the best results.
Using technologies such as low-code application platforms to encourage developers with no coding or IT experience to map their processes for desired results will help in offering the perfect solutions.
2. Seamless data collection
Field agents using a field force automation service software can increase customer satisfaction rates and fasten processes.
The field service agents can collect, share, and update information on the go with assigning tasks to the concerned technicians in that area.
For instance, field technicians can view work order items with details like product quotes, parts demand, and many more on the field service automation software.
Adding more, the software can also display information and directives for completing work orders at a site, with the parameters like issues identified, time spent, and parts used to be filled as well.
3. Quicker Data Processing
All the data that is entered, sent, and received are all stored online with the provision of accessing it from anywhere sooner.
For instance, if a field service agent snaps a picture of the part that needs to be replaced, the picture is automatically circulated through multiple departments and bounced back with a status.
All the processing is done in seconds and reported in real-time for an effective follow-up routine. Setting up a field service automation tool that can send reports, display stats, and segment customers and data according to categories will be valuable.
Without an automated workflow, data processing and updating become a cumbersome task, and carrying around a bunch of paper for the manual update will only lead to frustration and delay in the process.
4. Automate Data Distribution
Automated workflows can be used to send reports, collected information, and customer success forms to the intended department or assigned people.
For instance, a report of the progress every single day needs to be sent out to your manager with the particulars that are assigned to you to monitor or fulfill can be automated as well.
Updating the table of daily reports will save you oodles of time to prepare the report simultaneously.
Also, using a digital workflow will make sure the documents are not lost and stored online with the dates and iteration versions.
An advanced field service automation platform for all business requirements
We’ve seen the benefits and how to automate field service till now. But, here is a field service automation tool with all the advanced features that can ease the processes in a jiffy.
Kapture has all that you are looking for in one platform with the options to customize field service options as well. Features such as agent time tracking, field force representative match, and complete inventory view on mobile are some of its highlights.
Give us a try here.
About the Author | |
 | Sunith Ramachandra |
| Sunith Ramachandra says, “Content writing is all about using the right words for the right audience”. At kapture he does exactly the same writing content to create conversations and conversions online. | |
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