Mobile customer service
The mobile customer service or mobile service is a part of the service management , which in turn is assigned to the supply chain management .
In mobile customer service, all work processes that were previously manually controlled, for example for maintenance or repairs - from recording a fault report in the company headquarters to checking invoices - are completely computer-based using mobile service software. This means that instead of the previous order block, the service technician now has a notebook or smartphone with him, on which all data relating to his order, such as the customer, location and type of order are available at all times. He can thus immediately trigger any spare parts deliveries that may be required or report the completed order online to the head office, which can then immediately initiate the invoicing.
The first ideas for a completely IT-controlled mobile service processing developed in the late 1990s. Two prerequisites had to be met for successful use: high-performance cellular networks and user-friendly, handy and robust end devices for the service technician. Mobile service solutions are seamlessly integrated into the company's existing electronically controlled business processes and enable largely automated processing of customer and service management and its integration into existing enterprise resource planning (ERP) and / or customer relationship management systems (CRM ).
background
Business process optimization via the well-known ERP, i.e. the most efficient use of all operating resources (resources), has long been a matter of course in many company areas such as production, logistics, financial accounting and controlling - company-wide solutions from SAP are known above all . The large area of customer service, which as part of logistics also consists of many labor-intensive processes, is only integrated with these ERP standard software packages through additional and considerable investments. As a result, many service organizations still do not have suitable IT support, but process service orders manually as far as possible. The conventional processing from incoming orders to invoicing takes a long time due to numerous media disruptions, the manual and redundant data entry as well as the lengthy clarification of customer orders are very labor-intensive and often incorrect. The central operations control does not know what is happening outside the company because the service technicians often work nationwide or across borders for customers under different conditions. These, in turn, lack insight into the customer history on site.
aims
In order to process an efficient service assignment, service technicians need comprehensive information about customers and products that is quickly available when the order is received. If they are used extensively, the business processes such as commissioning, ordering spare parts and reporting on the service call must be handled across company boundaries. After the order has been completed, the invoice should be issued immediately, for which a timely control, adjustment or recalculation of the assignments is necessary. The illustration opposite shows the typical order processing of a customer service assignment with its individual steps.
Mobile customer service tasks
With the help of mobile customer service software and easy-to-use end devices, it is now possible to control all customer service processes transparently and efficiently across all company boundaries. Most of the previous work steps are omitted because all data is digitally accessible and, depending on the current processing status of the order, can be processed directly with the corresponding application programs - for example in the spare parts store or in financial accounting. This completely eliminates numerous process steps both in the company headquarters and at the service technician (see Figure 2).
Figure 3 shows the "adjusted" service processing on the basis of mobile service software.
Advantages and benefits
A realistic calculation based on commercial key figures shows which costs arise in companies of different sizes with a corresponding number of service technicians for manually processed assignments compared to electronically based work processes (see Figure 4).
In addition, there are numerous so-called soft benefit factors that are initially difficult to evaluate with key figures. This includes:
- transparency
- Increased influence of management based on reliable information and timely evaluations (e.g. service level tracking or recalculation of a service call)
- Basis for continuous improvement
- Up-to-date and comprehensive information for back office service, technicians and sales
- no waiting times for customers
- faster spare parts procurement
- High service quality through
- flawless business process handling
- Simplification and short response times
- automatic deadline monitoring
- Plausibility checks
- Image improvement through the use of innovative technologies