It’s been estimated that the average field service company spends anywhere from $200 to $2,000 on a single truck roll. With that in mind, it’s no surprise that eliminating avoidable truck rolls are at the top of the service industry’s “to do” list.
While it’s certainly worthwhile to reduce the second or even third truck roll, it’s the first one that tends to be the tough one — especially for cable and TELCO service teams who make house calls. Until they arrive on-site, they don’t know exactly what they’ll be dealing with or how long it will take to diagnose and troubleshoot the issue.
Often, these first-time visits end up being classified as “cockpit error” — a simple solution that could have been fixed with proper troubleshooting by customer care agents if they had a clear view of the problem. For instance, they might see that someone unplugged a cable and plugged it into the wrong connection. However, with today’s complex systems, having customers try to describe the problem over a phone call becomes increasingly more complicated. Thus, the support phone call turns into scheduling an on-site visit.
Thanks to advancements in mobile technology, there are now solutions on the horizon to enable field service companies to avoid unnecessary first truck rolls — saving significant time and money.
To see what we mean, let’s turn our attention to mobile apps.
Cable companies and other service organizations are beginning to leverage mobile apps to improve processes and deliver better experiences for their customers. BUT, there’s still one missing feature — an option that allows the customer to connect instantly with to a virtual customer care agent who can see exactly what the customer is dealing with.
By leveraging advances in real-time video streaming, like Vidcie Live Video Assist, customers could turn their smartphones into a live-streaming smart camera that allows agents to immediately see whether this is a simple “cockpit error” that can be quickly fixed by the customer, or if it warrants a service tech being dispatched to the problem.
At Vidcie, we see the potential in teaming up with field services to incorporate real-time video streaming technology into their customer service processes and existing apps to make it easier than ever to resolve problems — and ultimately eliminate costly truck rolls.
It’s a truly simple solution to a problem that’s been difficult to resolve.