How telecom providers can optimize field service

Customer service has become extremely important for telecom providers. Today, pricing wars continue to dominate the competitive landscape. And end users are more than willing to switch providers to get better deals. As a result, the ability to resolve customers’ internet connection issues quickly and efficiently has become a top priority for telecom providers.

While telecom customer service staff can resolve many issues remotely, tasks such as repairing a line or setting up an internet connection in a new location will always require a field technician. But regardless of whether the task is a repair or a new connection, executing quickly and ensuring customer satisfaction is crucial.

Anything less, and customers won’t hesitate to switch to the competition or use social media to share their negative experience and damage the provider’s brand reputation — actions that can cost telecom providers current and potential customers due to the importance of customer satisfaction.

Increase visibility into field technicians’ schedules

To optimize job assignments and accelerate on-site service, telecom providers’ service managers and dispatchers must be able to see field technicians’ availability. That means they need field service management software that provides centralized access to every technician’s schedule for all field service operations.

Schedule emergency repairs when needed

While service calls for new network connections are usually scheduled in advance based on customer timing preferences, line repairs are almost always last-minute emergencies. Dispatchers must consider both types of service activities and create the appropriate schedule on the fly. That level of coordination can only be achieved by deploying field technician dispatch software, which guarantees that critical service needs are responded to as quickly as possible.

To get it right, they need access to all of the information for field teams:

• Their current location
• Whether they are ahead of or behind schedule
• What type of service call they’re working on
• How long the service call should take
• How close they are to completing the job

With the ability to collect this data in real time and incorporate geolocation information, dispatchers can adjust technicians’ routing and scheduling to deal with emergencies with Praxedo’s telecom workforce management solution.

Give field technicians a mobile app

To ensure smooth operations in the field, technicians need the ability to access key functionality and data from their smartphone or tablet. A field service mobile app for telecom field service management that provides the customer’s contact details — name, address, phone number — maximizes efficiency. And a geolocation tool allows technicians to get to customer sites as quickly as possible. In addition, accessing information about the issue before they get to the site and while at the site helps technicians provide more efficient service using the field technician mobile app.

Finally, when technicians can ask customers to validate their work using the mobile device’s touch screen to provide their electronic signature, it’s much easier to confirm work orders, track service calls, and resolve any potential disputes related to the job. With paperless processes, telecom companies can save time, increase productivity, and avoid the loss of paper documents. They can also reduce errors or the risk of misreading illegible handwritten notes.

Collect and analyze service details

All of the data collected about issues in the field — from the conditions under which issues occurred to the effect of climate and terrain, the load on the network and the date and time — gives telecom operators the information needed to better understand and anticipate network problems. To capture the key details related to the service call, field technicians need a field technician mobile app that provides drop-down menus and supports text and voice notes.

This information can then be processed by business intelligence software, predictive maintenance tools and even artificial intelligence technologies to help telecom field services predict and prevent breakdowns in the future. Speed is crucial. In a competitive market, where every telecom provider is looking to retain existing customers and attract new customers, fixing network problems and restoring network access as quickly as possible is extremely important. For many people, internet access has become almost as essential as electricity and gas.