Improving Customer & Technician Experience by Leveraging Robust Work Order Functionality in Dynamics 365 Field Service

Service professionals appreciate having a truly robust work order to work from. Learn more about Dynamics 365 Field Service.

Table of Content

    Any service professional who has ever delivered services in the field appreciates the value of having a truly robust work order to work from.

    The most important tool for any service professional is information, about their customer, about the unit or units under repair, about the initial problem report, about the service history of the involved units and the customer, about the service entitlement and service agreement levels, and more. Lacking any of these details can easily result in delays and reduced customer satisfaction levels.

    The Central Role of the Dynamics 365 Field Service Work Order

    The work order defines and facilitates the entire relationship between the customer, field service dispatch, the field service representative (FSR), the parts department, billing, and collections. Since Dynamics 365 Field Service takes full advantage of the robust platform integration with the entire Microsoft stack, work orders in this environment also facilitate communication with sales, operations, and other functional departments within the servicing organization.

    The Most Valuable Resource – Time

    Work orders in Dynamics 365 Field Service reduce the time it takes to execute the entire lifecycle of each field service activity in just about every way possible:

    • Quick and easy work order entry
    • Easily relate new work orders to previous work orders
    • Easily identify work orders as part of a larger work effort
    • FastTabs to make entering or consulting various details quick and easy
    • Forecasting the anticipated duration for each service activity
    • Timestamping to automatically denote begin and end times for each activity without operator intervention based on arrival at customer locations
    • Rapid access to maintenance checklists and other data for involved units
    • Easily consult unit and customer history and copy information for use as needed
    • Provide thorough data for possible future activities
    • Easily record all products and services used for rapid, accurate billing

    Technicians in the field appreciate the architecture of the Dynamics 365 Field Service work order as it allows them to perform all information recording and retrieval activities without ever leaving the work order interface. This permits them to focus on the work to be performed and not waste any time navigating complex applications.

    Logistically, work orders are assigned and sequenced based on most efficient routing between calls to eliminate unnecessary drive time. Parts and tools are specified in advance, so the FSR always heads out to each activity fully equipped to perform the required work.

    In Dynamics 365 Field Services, work orders can be created individually, as part of larger projects, automatically based on service programs, or as part of supply chain activities. When part of a larger project, important details such as acceptable anticipated downtime are provided to fully inform the FSR in advance with everything they need to successfully complete their work at optimal service levels.

    The Work Order as Part of the Bigger Service Picture

    Dynamics 365 Field Service work orders are stored in the system to create and maintain a growing history for each unit serviced. From the data collected in the work order, service management enjoys extensive analytics including average duration for each service activity, comparative performance analysis for same activity between different FSRs, revenue for billable service activities and costs incurred against contracted services, frequency of failure for products and components, and more. Additional, more customized analytics may be created at any time using tools in the Power Platform through connections created in the Dataverse.

    Moving from Reactive, to Proactive, to Predictive

    Service organizations no longer wait for customers to report problems. Beyond the proactive posture developed with preventative maintenance programs, data collected in work orders in Dynamics 365 Field Service now enable servicers to become truly predictive, anticipating anomalies and other service requirements before they occur.

    With Dynamics 365 Field Service, work orders are no longer a place for customers to sign off that the FSR has visited them. Now, they’re a vehicle for assuring the highest possible level of customer satisfaction and relationship renewal and extension ever achieved.

     

    To learn how to utilize your work order resources to increase first time fix rates, watch this video:

     

    If you’re interested in learning how a modern field service solution could help your business increase sales and connect the back office to the field, reach out to the experts at Velosio.