Two Significant Features of Field Service Lightning – Dispatch Console & Mobile App

Two Significant Features of Field Service Lightning – Dispatch Console & Mobile App

Salesforce is the most powerful and versatile technology used by businesses today. With over 100,000 customers, it’s one integrated customer relationship management platform that gives all your internal departments a single view of the customer. And that’s possible with its several cloud products - Commerce Cloud, Sales Cloud, Service Cloud, Data Cloud, Marketing Cloud, Community Cloud, Analytics Cloud, App Cloud, and IoT.

For field service management, Salesforce has extended its services through Salesforce Field Service Lightning (FSL). Though there are other field service solutions on AppExchange to address field service management needs, Salesforce’s robust product FSL has everything your team needs to manage complex logistics and onsite operations effectively.

Field service management, at its core, is a system that keeps track of all components in a company’s field operations like inventory management, customer portals, vehicle tracking, customer information, scheduling and more. Its role is very significant in many businesses, especially those

that are dependent on mobile workers or contractors working outside the office. Some of the prominent businesses include HVAC, construction, solar panel installation, property management, electrical works and more. FSL effectively brings all the fragmented and unorganized parts together.

FSL is a single platform where we can connect all our workforce, products and customers to deliver a better onsite service. Coordinating field operations—including scheduling service appointments, dispatching mobile workers and equipment and tracking vehicle locations, product stock and appointment status is nearly impossible without an automated system. Thank goodness, we have FSL! FSL works with Service Cloud, adding functionality for dispatching, monitoring and reporting field service representatives' activities. FSL supports different areas like case management, territory management, version control, dispatching and mobile application.

The two major features that make field service easy and flexible are Dispatch Console and FSL Mobile Application.

Dispatch Console -- the workplace of dispatchers The dispatcher is the most important component of field service management – the one who controls and monitors all appointments and assigns them to the mobile workforce based on different parameters like skills, travel time and more. To do that, he uses the Dispatch Console to ensure the right job is assigned to the right-field technician at the right time.

It features a dynamic map and a highly customizable Gantt chart showing upcoming service appointments, different territories with active team members and a lot more.

Once service appointments are created by the agent, the ball falls under the dispatcher’s court. He will be considering different parameters like skills, operating hours, location, travel time, availability etc., and will be assigning the appointment to the technician.

The Dispatcher Console included in the FSL package helps dispatchers schedule, optimize and dispatch service appointments – all from one screen.

Features supported by Dispatch Console • • • •

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The user interface is crisp and clean, which allows customization based on the dispatcher’s requirements or terms he works on.

It has easy filters on appointment lists like Schedule, Unscheduled, In Jeopardy etc. He can custom create filters if that’s what suits his business.

Gantt view – is a place where a dispatcher can see all territories and technicians. He can see the available time, absence and scheduled time of any technician.

The dispatcher can set the frequency to view the Gantt chart as daily, two days, weekly, monthly, etc., depending on the need. He can also have different filters to see technician’s absence, overtime and more.

He can schedule, reschedule or cancel appointments easily with the click of a button He can easily communicate with his technicians using Chatter and also view any technician’s route details.

The console gives the dispatcher a choice between manual and automatic scheduling. To manually schedule, he can directly drag and drop the appointment. For the automatic assignment of appointments, the dispatcher can use different options like Schedule, Optimization, and Candidates button provided in the FSL package.

The Gantt provides a bird’s-eye view of your team’s utilization percentages – A service resource’s utilization is calculated by comparing their total operating hours to the number of hours they’re scheduled to work. Utilization is calculated only for non-capacity-based service resources.

Dispatchers can use keyboard shortcuts to work faster on Dispatch Console.

For easy identification and grouping of appointments, a dispatcher can add different color codes based on the status.

A dispatcher can view the KPIs of technicians clearly – Total schedule time, Average travel time, No. of completed appointments, No. of appointments with rule violations, No. of appointments in jeopardy.

A dispatcher can locate rule violations easily – he can keep track of violations like overlapping, travel time, availability and so on, by hovering over the appointment in the Gantt view..

All-In-one friendly mobile app

Another important component of Salesforce FSL is the all-in-one tool -- a mobile app, for field servicemen to deliver great onsite service. This mobile app experience leverages Salesforce in a lightweight design optimized for a modern mobile workforce. This app is highly customizable, which means you can design it in a way that fits your business needs. We have Salesforce FSL for Android and iOS platforms.

Major features available in FSL mobile app •

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One of its prominent features is that it can be used offline; a technician can even work when he doesn’t have internet connectivity and can sync all the changes once he is back online.

Push notification is another helpful feature that ensures the technician will never miss any event and stay up to date.

The technician can use Chatter for communication with contractors, partners, dispatchers and even customers. Whenever the technician is onsite and faces some issues solving a customer problem, Chatter helps him communicate with his manager or other technicians and complete his work.

The mobile app can be branded according to a company’s own branding lines by customizing the color of the pages, success pages, list views, etc.

Configurable layouts and actions will enable easy and smooth field service for technicians. You can also use field sets for page layouts so that it would be easy for further modifications.

There is a possibility of geolocation tracking. The technician’s current location will be synced to the system of the configured interval.

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Create previews of service reports summarize field service visits. You can also capture multiple customer signatures and generate a service report.

Work order overview screen helps a field service resource to find all required information about the issue, customer, asset history and more.

Help your team find other work orders in the same location so they can take care of nearby jobs.

We also have the Inventory tab where your team can track the available products in his trunk. He can also request parts and/or products wherever required.

A technician also has the capability to notify his absence based on his availability from the mobile app.

App requirements Before installing FSL mobile app for field technicians, you need to make sure that below listed requirements are fulfilled.

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FSL mobile users need the Field Service Mobile user license to access the app All major Android devices (with version 5.0 and later) are supported. This app is optimized for Samsung, Nexus and Pixel devices.

For iOS iPhone 5s or later models are supported. iPad 4 and later models are supported.

For optimal performance, keep your mobile devices’ operating systems updated and upgrade to the latest model of devices as allowed by your mobile plan.

Conclusion FSL is the best solution available in the market for field servicemen and dispatchers. A dispatcher can use Dispatch Console to assign the right work to the right men at the right time. Similarly, field resources can also work easily and deliver the work smartly using mobile apps.

About Solunus: Solunus is a dedicated Salesforce partner organization, headquartered in Dallas, Texas. Our unrelenting focus on comprehending the unique needs of our clients coupled with our unrivaled expertise of the Salesforce platform enable us to deliver the perfect solutions that create the best value. Our unflinching commitment to quality and affordability has earned us a 100% Customer Satisfaction (CSAT) score from all our customers.