Salesforce.com today announced IoT Insights for Field Service Lightning, which allows IoT signals to show up directly within the Service Cloud and Field Service Lightning mobile app alongside CRM data, a feature that can provide companies with the data necessary to deliver predictive customer service for IoT devices.
“We’re bringing together the world of Field Service with the world of IoT connected devices…to transform the Field Service experience from reactive to proactive,” says Paolo Bergamo, senior vice president and general manager of Field Service Lightning at Salesforce.com
With IoT Insights, companies can anticipate and diagnosing issues remotely. Drawing from the IoT signals in the Service Cloud console, customer service agents can determine if a device failure is imminent and identify the source of the problem, often before the customer is aware of it. They can then dispatch the appropriate mobile worker. Additionally, overlaying IoT data with CRM data in the Service Cloud console and Field Service Lightning mobile app allows both the agent and the mobile worker to have an in-depth view of the customer’s service history, enabling more personalized service.
IoT Insights also aims to enable workers to know what requires servicing or fixing before arriving to the site, so that they’ll show up prepared with the appropriate equipment and knowledge. They won’t have to go back and forth for forgotten tools or parts, and the mobile app provides them with necessary information such as device data, customer data, and the right documentation.
The new feature also automates the creation of cases and work orders. With it, companies can utilize orchestration capabilities such as rules, automation, and guided processes in combination with IoT signals to automatically trigger the creation of cases and work orders. For example, a company can set rules to automatically create a case and deploy a worker when a device begins malfunctioning.
“Everyone expects their connected devices to be always on, always working, reachable at any point of time from any location, and the only way you can achieve that is to actually start capturing this data straight from those devices into your headquarters, so to speak, so you can analyze…and start predicting when they’re going to be in need of a replacement or an imminent failure,” Bergamo says. “Once you capture that type of data in your hands, you can really [see that] customer satisfaction will go through the roof when you start predicting faults.”