Effective Field Service Scheduling and Management

How we optimized Field Service Scheduling to redefine customer experiences

Project Intel

Scope:	Improve Field Service Productivity
Focus:	Field Service Scheduling Optimization
End Customer:	Commercial
Industry:	Automotive
Solution:	Salesforce Field Service Implementation

Company Overview

The client is a large vehicle importer. As well as importing and distributing a wide variety of vehicles – including family cars, executive cars, luxury lines, minivans, off-road vehicles, and trucks – the group provides vehicle support services, including leasing, trade-ins, financing solutions, and insurance. It has around 1,500 employees working across its various activities.

Reasons for Approaching Asperii

The client was looking for a customized scheduling solution, based on Salesforce SFS, that would allow customers to request an appointment by leaving their details on the company website. The customer would then receive a callback to schedule a suitable time for the test drive, based on geographic location, availability of staff, availability of the vehicle, among other factors.

The Need

Enable call center representatives to book sales and test drive appointments for customers, including offering alternative suggestions for the customer to choose.
Allocate the right resources – staff and cars – to each potential customer, based on showroom specifications, date, and time, including where multiple back-to-back meetings are required with different people.
Book and schedule appointments for additional sales stakeholders within the organization such as leasing agents, second-hand agents, and commercial agents.
Allocate leads and appointments as fairly as possible between stakeholders in the various verticals, even if this means some idle time between appointments.
Manage walk-in customers who arrive at a showroom without booking an appointment in advance.

The Solution - What We Did

Our Solution Components Include:

Scheduling
Complex Logic
Real-time Tracking
Resource Optimization

Asperii developed an easy-to-use function that enables call center representatives to see, within the system, which is the most suitable showroom for a potential customer’s needs in terms of their geographical location and the availability of the type of car they want to test. Suppose the type of car or the location is not available. In that case, the system dynamically proposes a similar car to test drive – one available locally – or proposes another date/ time or another showroom for the call center rep can suggest to them.
Where multiple staff are involved in an appointment, the system uses complex logic developed by Asperii to check the availability of all relevant staff to identify a time that suits everyone required. For example, the initial appointment may be with a salesperson at 3 pm, followed by a test drive with another employee at 3:15 and a follow-up sales meeting with a manager at 3:45. The call center representative proposes this time, and if the customer cannot make the suggested time or location, the process is repeated to offer an alternative time or showroom location.

Asperii also customized FSL to override its built-in methodology of maximizing utilization of each staff member by allocating tasks according to factors such as travel time between appointments and geographic proximity of customers. This customization was implemented to manage the booking and scheduling of the sales stakeholders with commercial clients. Asperii’s solution automatically ensures a fair spread of leads across the staff in a given showroom.
As well as being accessible by call-center representatives, the staff allocation system can be used in the company’s showrooms to serve the needs of potential customers who simply walk in without an appointment.
The initial rollout of the solution covers around 220 cars, 380 salespersons, test drivers and managers, and 35 call center representatives.

Customization Spotlight

Asperii designed an easy-to-use, best-in-class Field Service solution to close the gap between the customer and company with a connected experience and the same as that on the field. We optimized Field Service Lightning’s scheduling capabilities for effective resource allocations and time management to create seamless and effortless customer journeys. We assist in providing real-time and predictive analytics that makes monitoring the status of jobs simpler and faster.

Results: How the Client Works After Asperii

Accurate time recommendations for customers based upon the available schedule.
Deliver faster, smarter, personalized customer service than ever before.
Automated task allocation to the right resources based on skills, locations, and availability.
Smart Scheduling improves operational efficiencies.