When was the last time you called a cab company to book a ride to the airport? Feels like ages ago, doesn’t it? With the increased convenience brought about by Uber®, calling a cab is rapidly becoming a thing of the past. This is the age of ‘Uberization’. If this demand for instant service can be satisfied in the consumer market, we can bring it to Field Service too.

‍Why Uberization, and why now?

‍From seamless on-demand booking to the efficient delivery of services, Uber® has done an amazing job satisfying consumer demand. Enter Uberization. Simply put, 'Uberization' is the process through which companies instantly connect products and services to customers. As of 2017, only 7% of the potential on-demand market is being served[1], thus there is a lot of scope for businesses to grow in this market.

Today, this process is greatly optimized by the widespread use of Advanced Artificial Intelligence and IoT; which explains the three-fold increase in the number of companies entering the on-demand economy within just two years.[2]

Within the Field Service industry, a key factor of success is the ability to consistently deliver high-quality service to customers. With greater transparency of information - technician contact details, location updates, efficient job scheduling - higher customer satisfaction is guaranteed.

The company's productivity also increases with Uberization. Since technicians with the required knowledge, skills and equipment can reach the customer location in the shortest possible time, jobs are completed at a faster pace.

Happier customers and increased productivity enable businesses to grow rapidly and increase profits.

Increased visibility. Operational efficiency. Streamlined Processes. This is Zinier’s core value proposition. From enabling our clients’ customers to make appointments, task assignments, all the way to task completion - our platform empowers you and your customers to get full visibility into their service delivery process.

‍How can Zinier help to increase your customers’ satisfaction?

‍Customers look for fast, high-quality services. Uberization plays a big role in helping Field Service providers live up to these expectations. According to CSG International, 89% of customers today want an "Uber-like" technician tracking service [3].

Customer experience starts at the very first interaction - during the appointment booking request. Based on task priority, taking technicians’ skills, experience, inventory and availability into account, our intelligent scheduling engines ensure that the best suited technician is assigned to the task. Ensuring the quickest, highest quality service delivery is the first step towards ensuring customer satisfaction.

As technicians complete tasks and track it through their mobile applications, end customers also receive email alerts with updates on work status. By being able to better manage expectations with end customers, long are the days where customers are cluelessly waiting for technicians to knock on their door.  

Given field technicians are often the face of your organization, this reflects positively on your brand, ultimately improving customer retention.

‍How can you increase your productivity?

‍The Field Service industry is a volatile one because breakdowns occur at unexpected times. It is also time-sensitive as Service Level Agreements (SLAs) need to be adhered to. To mediate these two constraints, a corresponding number of technicians with appropriate skill sets are needed, and needed fast.

The Technician receives the task and is able to plan ahead for the day. The Zinier mobile app can be used to navigate and reach the customer site while providing real-time status updates to the back office.

While the Technician is working on the task, the back office is constantly updated with pictures, comments and incident reports to track the Tasks’ Progress. As the technicians working at the customer site possess the skills and inventory needed for completing the tasks, this already prevents the need for any back and forth in appointment scheduling and increases the frequency of First-Time-Fix rates.

The advent of advanced Artificial Intelligence, as well as system algorithms to collect and analyze data, empowers Field Service providers to effortlessly match jobs to the correct technicians, based on their availability, skill sets, job complexity, location as well as the company's SLA requirements. From there, Zinier’s intelligent schedulers ensure that tasks are completed within SLA deadlines. All of the other factors are taken into consideration while auto-scheduling at the mere click of a button, literally at your fingertips.

‍What are the other benefits to your organization?

‍As our platform captures data throughout the service delivery process, tracking is made simple. Gone are the days when field service engineers had to carry around documents, permits and record information in them. Technicians’ mobile devices, with the Zinier mobile app, hosts are necessary documents.Assessing company performance and tracking efficiency becomes just that much easier with the availability of historical data and records.

Zinier provides a triple-win solution, for our clients’ businesses, their back office operators and technicians as well as their end customers. Overall, there is no doubt that Uberization has become an important component of an effective, future-proofed Field Service strategy. Zinier’s AI-driven field service automation platform empowers your organization to take steps in the right direction.