Using Artificial Intelligence to assist field agents on site.
For any business with field service agents, sending specialists out to clients is a substantial expense. Yet, for physical tasks such as machine maintenance, call-outs and engineering, AI may seem like a redundant tool. Learn how our team leveraged a Native Video solution to drastically reduce admin burdens and site visits for one of our clients.
Built on the Salesforce platform, Native Video offers an abundance of solutions for efficient data capture and productive field service. We employed these to tackle three key challenges for a world-leading engineering firm.
Challenge 1: Reduce the admin burden for field engineers
When one of our clients tasked us with the challenge of simplifying and standardising their technician reporting, we employed Alfred, Native Video’s new transcription assistant, to transform their process.
Alfred’s speciality is turning field agents’ spoken report into text, which can then be automatically transferred to a record in Salesforce. This means that, in lieu of manually making notes on the job and then having to summarise and amend, the tool captures the detail effortlessly in the moment, and then instantly creates an executive summary with an AI component which formats it all then and there. As field service exists in countless specialist industries, field-specific vocabulary can even be taught to Alfred for optimal accuracy and machine learning. Our team integrated Alfred with our client’s existing Sales Cloud instance, creating a visit report template to effortlessly capture vital details from each call-out or check-up.
“Imagine, you’re walking around, doing your job, taking notes, you get back, you could be missing detail. It might even take you an hour to edit and document your activity once the visit is over. Whereas [with Alfred] this is done in seconds.” – Tim Lock, Salesforce Consultant at Performa IT
If the average typing speed is 40 words per minute, and a person may be able to speak at a rate of around 150 words per minute, then this is already around a 25% increase in efficiency, without even taking additional editing time into account!
Challenge 2: Eliminate the need for unnecessary call-outs
Native Video allows customers to send in videos of the fault/problem for remote diagnosis and assistance. By opting for an app integration with declarative set up and some modified flows, you could be saving your company thousands on an annual basis.
“Costs for sending out field agents can quickly soar into the hundreds, especially for international businesses. Seeing a problem with a video and sound, think of the saving made as opposed to sending someone out to location.” – Tim Lock, Salesforce Consultant at Performa IT
Challenge 3: Upgrade the recruitment process to qualify candidates effortlessly
With the use of Native Video’s TalentVideo, growing firms can streamline their recruitment process by generating links for video interviews where candidates are provided with pre-written questions to submit straight into Salesforce. We used this tool to enhance the existing hiring process, allowing collaborative reviews on applications and enhancing the applicant experience. These examples are simply the tip of the iceberg for leveraging AI functionality to support your field service agents. If your company is looking to reduce costs associated with field service, or perhaps scale your recruitment efforts, give us a call on 01453 703230 or email us at hello@performa-it.co.uk.
Computer infrastructure and networking specialists
Privately owned
Cyber security accredited procurement experts
Serve SMEs and public sector organisations
Based in Gloucester, UK
Value added by Performa IT
Engaged in 2022
Customise Salesforce instance for smoother operation
Development and support relationship
Infrastar’s Background with Salesforce
As a rapidly growing organisation specialising in IT procurement and solutions consultancy, Infrastar appreciated the value of the Salesforce platform to support and scale their business. They invested primarily in Salescloud licences and began to capture customer details and sales information.
However, they were working so hard in their business they didn’t have the capacity to work on their Salescloud configuration to best assist their way of working.
They needed help fast. One Salesforce consultant they approached was not agile enough to get them up and running in the timeframe they required.
Then they found Performa IT.
Infrastar’s requirement
“We were using Salescloud to store emails and register new business,” says IT lead at Infrastar Josh Stinchcombe, “but we were continuing to operate the business outside the platform.
“For example all our quotes, Purchase Orders and Invoices were still done in Excel and just attached to the customer details in Salescloud. There was no easy way to track the sale or the profit.
“We wanted better integration of our sales and finance information, with more functionality, greater transparency and a better return on investment from our licence fee!”
Why Performa IT?
“Our CEOs met at a local business networking event and found they shared a passion for cars!” says Josh.
“When the Performa team came in to talk to us about what they could do for us they had some great ideas.
“They found flexible ways of developing links between sales and finance that wouldn’t incur ongoing cost. And they were keen to deliver functionality straight away rather than do lengthy discovery sessions about our operation.”
Salescloud customisations
Develop Opportunities
“Performa began with putting all our Excel-based invoices and quotes into Salescloud, and then developed a single interface where we could generate all our quotes, invoices and Purchase Orders per customer,” Josh explains.
Separate Sales and Support
“As we need to research the market and find the best prices for equipment to resell to our customer base, we wanted an easy way to link customer requests to supplier offers.
“In the Case area Performa enabled us to match requests to offers and keep track of all email correspondence with suppliers. By viewing all the options in one place, linked back to the request Case, we can determine the best deals for our customers,” Josh says.
Automated exchange rates
“We used to check the exchange rate daily and manually key it into a spreadsheet for our quotes,” says Josh.
“But Performa automated this so that Salescloud applies the most up-to-date exchange rate in our quotes and Purchase Orders.”
Integrated telephone calls
“Although all our customers’ emails were held in Salesforce, quite a lot of information and negotiation happens by phone,” Josh comments.
“Performa adapted the platform so that all our calls could be received through Salescloud too – making sure that all correspondence could be captured by customer opportunity or supplier case.”
Benefits of Performa IT’s customisations
Describing how Performa’s work has helped Infrastar Josh says: “All information and activity around Opportunities and Cases can now be tracked and easily traced back to the correct customer.
“So much time is being saved in collating information and checking it’s for the right opportunity!
“There is far more structure and logic in our operation now, and each Salesforce user has their own chain of activity, which helps the team take ownership and work more efficiently and accurately.
“Performa are helping us eliminate the risk of manual mistakes by automating margin and discount calculations based on buy and sell prices and exchange rates. We can rely on the platform to update margins and keep sales prices the same.
“This is making our financial profit information more transparent and easy to monitor.”
New Possibilities
“We are moving towards holding a more complete list of products that we can click to select. This will make our sales process even smoother,” says Josh.
“As we come to trust and rely more and more on the platform we will no doubt be inspired to ask Performa to add more customisations and enhancements to support our growth.”
Recommendation
“Performa IT are very helpful and are always willing to adjust and find alternative ways to deliver what we’re asking for to save us money in the long run,” says Josh.
“The team is always available to answer questions and will definitely go the extra mile to add value. I would definitely recommend them to other SMEs wanting to get up and running with Salesforce.”
Performa IT says
We are excited to be supporting a great local business in our area! Infrastar are neighbours of Performa and it’s great to work with an organisation that’s close by.
Not only that but Infrastar is a great business with really good potential for growth, especially now that they are getting better performance from their Salesforce investment!
Infrastar is the kind of business Performa IT cut its Salesforce teeth in – it’s very rewarding to see them drive more ROI from their platform.
British manufacturer of Rigid Inflatable Boats and high-spec Super-yacht Tenders
Based in Dartmouth, UK
Serving the UK leisure market and international high net worth clients
Value added by Performa IT
Engaged in 2017
Basic Salesforce implementation
On-going Salesforce app development, integration, maintenance and support
Implementation of Salesforce Service Cloud
Agile development approach
Ribeye’s Background with Salesforce
In 2017 Ribeye chose Salesforce to help them make the leap into the world of automated CRM to manage their sales processes.
At the time Salesforce itself recommended Performa IT as an implementation partner, to help Ribeye get up and running with the platform.
With a shared passion for all things RIB, Performa IT clearly demonstrated a keen understanding and enthusiasm for Ribeye’s business and have been ‘on-board’ ever since as the manufacturer’s trusted Salesforce partner and adviser.
Here Ribeye’s After Sales and Customer Experience Manager Martyn Ruskin describes how Performa IT have helped the company expand their application of Salesforce in the organisation.
Ribeye’s Challenge: meeting the expectations of high-end customers
Having achieved a smoother sales process with the CRM implementation, Ribeye had begun to present an increasingly transparent and professional approach with their customer base.
Martyn highlights: “Salesforce helped drive more informed and personal conversations with individual customers which definitely increased our professionalism.”
Explaining Ribeye’s latest challenge Martyn says: “The business has grown from a small team of boat builders to a small manufacturer aiming at a top end market.
“Managing 9 or 10 people, making small leisure boats for a small audience, is one thing – but when we started to reach out to the super-yacht market and attend events like the Monaco Boat Show, we knew our existing manufacturing process and management was going to trip us up.
“We were moving into a manufacturing world where high-end customers look at the business from every angle – and want to know if we’re as high-end as they are.
“Our ‘cottage industry’ approach to design and manufacture was unsustainable at this level.”
Ribeye’s requirement:
Ribeye’s overarching business objective is to be the Number One Super-Yacht and leisure Tender manufacturer in the world. This includes the best British-built boats, the best quality and the best customer experience.
“For customers to feel like they’ve spent their money in the right place we needed to establish the right systems that would help us portray the precision, quality and reliability we wish to be recognised for,” Martyn says.
“We wanted to build on our Salesforce CRM success and were looking to use the platform to encompass more of the design, manufacturing and scheduling process, as well as ramp up quality control and improve the customer experience.”
Why Performa IT?
Reflecting on why Performa IT continue to be Ribeye’s trusted technical partner well after the basic Salesforce implementation, Martyn says: “We have a really good relationship with Performa IT. They are a similar size to our organisation, and they understand small business issues and the big picture that we want to get to.
“Unlike other service providers Performa IT are very open and transparent in the way they quote for work and are flexible with commercial options to make it as cost-effective as possible for us.
“It’s refreshing to work with a long-term solution-focussed partner with the capability to bring the business’s vision to life.”
Performa IT implementation approach
“Performa IT’s approach tends to follow the same template regardless of the project,” comments Martyn.
“We’ll meet for a day to go through business requirements and how we want Salesforce to work for us in whatever aspect.
“Performa IT are always happy to take on ideas and never poo-poo anything. Although if we asked for a system that makes the moon spin anti-clockwise they would have something to say about it! But that level of challenge and push-back is important too.
“After the requirements meeting Performa IT will then produce a flow diagram and a project plan and we’ll review it and revise it together. There can be a lot of iterations but nothing is too much trouble.
“From inception to making it live and applying whatever necessary tweaks can be a period of weeks or months. We have a direct line into the development team so communication throughout is excellent.
“In the case of our After Sales solution we were playing with it in the sandbox after a fortnight, and then were up and running with it in production after a month! This is pretty quick considering the processes didn’t exist at Ribeye beforehand.”
Solutions
TaskRay
TaskRay is a project management module that integrates with the Salesforce platform. Describing its introduction to the business Martyn says: “Performa IT were brilliant in supporting the selection process for our project management capability.
“They attended the sales presentations and were able to ask the technical questions necessary. We shortlisted two Salesforce extension modules before finally choosing TaskRay.
“Performa IT then helped us to integrate it, and it’s turned out to be a real asset in the manufacturing process.
“With all the different elements from inception through to custom parts, fit-out and pre-delivery inspections managed from this hub TaskRay helps us improve how we work on every build.”
Salesforce Service Cloud
Salesforce Service Cloud is the core platform supporting the After Sales system.
Describing this solution Martyn says: “After Sales helps us manage customer warranties and manufacturing quality cases.
“Performa IT built a platform where we can log any incidents and manage the case through from first report to resolution, using status flags, media and written commentary from the build-team.
“During the build phase the system gathers all quality issues which can then be rectified.
“Our South Africa-based build partner has a licence to view a subset of our system so they can also take action as soon as required.
“If there’s a warranty problem, such as a customer informing us of a faulty product, this is logged in the system also and appears on the dashboard ready to be acted upon.”
Quality Control app integration
To capture extra detail in the quality control process Performa IT developed an app that the build team can use to log information.
“This is automatically uploaded into the After Sales platform so it can be tracked and resolved,” says Martyn.
“Having access to detailed information means that we can generate the kind of reports that add massive value to our decision-making, and often challenge our preconceptions and assumptions about our product performance.”
Benefits of Performa IT’s implementations
Mindset shift around quality
“The emphasis on quality control and the visibility of quality check data means that we cannot hide from problems,” comments Martyn.
“The whole team is involved and has accountability for addressing quality issues. This shift in mindset results in quicker fixes and better quality going out of the door.”
The true cost of warranties
“Often, a part under warranty costs a few pence, but the actual replacement of it can run to many pounds once a service visit and associated expenses are factored in,” Martyn explains.
“It is vital that we can properly cost out warranties to monitor our prices and After Sales expenditure. The information we capture in the After Sales system gives us the cold hard facts.”
Increased visibility
“The reports we have specified in Salesforce enable us to truly gauge what our biggest production problems are,” says Martyn.
“For example we may have assumed that a certain boat model is our most reliable, but then we discover through the system that it actually has 77 production issues as opposed to just 32 in a different model.
“The reports enable us to drill down by areas of the boat and by equipment, man-power, routine and system to pin-point the problem and take steps to sort it out.
“Our senior team can see what’s in front of them and have the right conversations with the necessary people.”
New Possibilities arising for Ribeye from Performa IT’s Salesforce expertise
Fulfilling customer requests and non-standard specifications
“Now that we’ve got the Sales and the After Sales pieces implemented, we can sort out the bit in the middle!” says Martyn.
“To avoid customer specifications and requests getting lost in the build process Performa IT’s next project is to automatically populate customer requests into the necessary places for the design and build stages. This ensures the requests go along the production line properly and get in front of the right technicians.”
Driving production
Explaining how Ribeye are going to push their production line harder Martyn says: “Performa IT are building a means to upload timesheets into Salesforce that will reflect the true cost of builds in hours.
“Salesforce is definitely becoming a more all-encompassing platform in our business – all focussed on customer satisfaction, build quality and the ability to improve our processes.”
Recommendation
“Performa IT are always available to pick up the phone and talk! It’s never too much trouble to help us and they never leave us waiting for too long,” Martyn says.
“I would definitely recommend Performa IT to get up and running with Salesforce – in fact, I recommended them to my father setting up his new business!”
Performa IT says
“It is a real privilege to be supporting a true, luxury British manufacturing brand that have a really good product and a really good business.
“Ribeye have made an excellent start with Salesforce in their CRM and Sales activities. The fact that they can use the same platform for their After Sales processes to drive up quality and customer satisfaction is extremely exciting.
“They are a few short steps away from total digital transformation Salesforce style!”
