Field Service Trends: it's all about growth

Where 2021 was a year of transformation, 2022 will signify growth. Even more in field service, which has been hit hard during the worldwide COVID crisis with far too many restrictions. Hence, the transformation and innovation, as a new forced way of working caused many companies to think out of the ordinary. We have gathered our top 8 trends in the field service industry.  
 

1 | Shift in customer expectations

The era of on-demand services has been around for years, and it’s here to stay. Staying competitive is becoming harder unless you’re the fastest to respond to consumer demands. Offering a personalised and unique experience is necessary to be the apple in a basket of pears. That’s when field service chips in to play a crucial role.

The industry will have to come up with customer-centric measures and tools to maximise the user experience and meet the challenging and rapidly evolving demand. For example, companies need to implement tools such as feedback software to gain customer insights with automated surveys and relevant questions or chat software for fast and easy customer support so you can Engage in customer conversations - anytime, anywhere. 

2 | Service wizards

Nobody can predict the future without a little magic. Magic, sorcery, or just great planning of activities where companies can put the right resources in the right place at the right time. Therefore, predictive maintenance and planning tools will become even more trending in 2022. Let’s add some more spice to this magic potion with the IoT, video inspections or AI that works to actively prevent issues or production malfunctions before they even happen. This way, you can optimise your production chain and prevent unexpected machine downtime. Pretty magical, isn’t it?

3 | Better, faster, stronger with cloud technologies

Many companies already work with integrated could technologies, but in 2022 field service will be completely submerged by it. Field service management in the cloud will completely outplay on-premises solutions and nearly the entire industry will jump on the SaaS train. Why? This is simply driven by the need for a better and faster response to demand, and stronger data collection.

4 | Home sweet home-office

Once a forced restriction, now the new normal. Working according to a hybrid regime is nothing new in 2022 and is now even a choice for many companies. In the field service industry, this wasn’t by far the norm, before the pandemic came around and made the industry innovate and come up with smart solutions to make remote work possible. Video assistance tools is just one of the examples in which companies can maintain the same service level while being in different locations from their customer.

5 | Automation, of course 

In 2022 we try to say goodbye to as many manual processes as possible, from your finance department to production and logistics. 2022 is all about implementing new automated tools that minimize the workload on personnel, so they can focus on core tasks. It’s safe to say, this will continue to optimise operations and the service level. 2022 is the year to upgrade your back-end and front-end processes, preferably simultaneously for the best result.  

6 | Internet of what?

The Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) to be exact, will lead this year’s field operations. It puts sensors and intelligent devices to use directly on the manufacturing floor, collecting data to drive artificial intelligence and predictive analytics. The biggest advantage? You can improve your operating efficiency to a maximum. For example, if a machine breaks down, it’s connected to sensors and can pinpoint where the issue is occurring and trigger a service request. This isn’t only the case when it’s already too late and failing machines disrupt your production. The sensors also help you predict when a machine will likely breakdown or enter a dangerous condition.

Mastering this trend will help your company to improve your operations, from gathering real-time data insights and communication across departments to reporting all of the above. We can confidently say that integrated tools that exchange data across devices are the future.

7 | Self-service

Self-service portals have been around for a while and will continue to grasp the field service industry. Their growing popularity can be explained by the need for 24/7 support. Service portals offer an answer to that need and ensure customers can resolve issues without having to contact the company or service team. This will reduce service costs, but more importantly, increase customer satisfaction.  

8 | Hybrid reality

As we are getting used to our home office, the use of mixed reality is undergoing a growth spurt. Where this was once just an idea from a random science fiction movie, it’s becoming quite literally (mixed) reality. Its implementation can also be seen company-wide, from onboarding new employees through a virtual reality application to setting up engaging service calls with customers.

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Remote Assist will become increasingly popular in 2022 to collaborate with technicians and allow remote services to many departments, whereas Microsoft Dynamics 365 Field Service is leading the industry with AI and IoT.

 

Trend alert conclusion
 

The future of field service is continuously shape-shifting to meet changing customer demands and even more a rapidly evolving world. In 2021 the industry got to reflect on many changes and come up with smart ways to innovate and optimise the service level… In 2022 there’s no time to look back. It’s full-throttle into the future, one dominated by a new way of living, working and being.

 

Still not fully armoured for the future. Contact our experienced NORRIQ consultants and discover what we can do for you. 

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