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I ncreasing numbers of repairs and maintenance service businesses are turning to the potential of enhanced Artificial Intelligence to strengthen their operational performance and raise their levels of customer service and skills retention.

AI continues to be high on the news agenda, earning both positive and negative headlines. Many will recognise how chatbots begun gaining popularity in the mid-2010s. The technology and its applications have significantly improved, making it more accessible and useful. We've moved from simple forms of automation to more complex queries. This has grown opportunities in guiding end customers through 'always-on' self-service and away from call centres. The data gathered by these early decision paths provided organisations ranging from commercial landlords to OEMs, opportunities to identify trends and reducing risks, such as fraud.

Modern generative chatbots are one example of AI working for the repairs and maintainence provider and end customer at the same time. Over and above: Today's AI solutions are addressing a specific re-balancing: From pure-play customer service improvement to the transformation of operational performance.

AI TO PLAN AND MANAGE FIELD SERVICES

For FLS VISITOUR, AI has the power to transform field service management through our proprietary algorithm and machine learning capability. The initial idea behind it: How do operators achieve the optimal field service plan? How do they solve scheduling and in-day control of routing in the most resource-efficient and SLA/KPI-oriented way, and without having to wait for the answer?

This is a highly complex mathematical and logistical problem. If you analyse the optimal sequence of 10 field service appointments for a single operative, there are 3.6 million solutions. Other influencing factors to consider include time constraints, fixed appointments and breaks, order specifications such as skills required, and human factors, such as illness and cancellations.

FLS' solution, the PowerOpt algorithm, was developed and evolved over 25 years of specialist focus, and has matured as the market has transformed. After all, new workflows, such as the Internet of Things, demand new decisions. The algorithm is the core intelligence for optimised scheduling and dynamic route planning, taking into account all factors in seconds, scheduling appointments, employees, and materials. It makes it possible to control logistics and service processes in the field in a cost-optimised, sustainable and customer-oriented way, with complete transparency over the outcomes produced.

Enhanced AI calculates in real-time, including predictive traffic on each road segment for the time of day, through continual optimisation of planning and ongoing coordination, without a necessary intervention.

OPPORTUNITIES WITH AI-SUPPORTED FIELD SCHEDULING

For repairs and maintenance operators, AI-optimised field service management is providing a solution to many longstanding challenges, including the reduction of 'no-access' visits, planned maintenance backlogs, understanding the requirements of follow-on reactive works, and results data supports compliance and sustainability reporting.

FLS' AI enhances scheduling accuracy through sophisticated predictive analysis. This enables intelligent predictions about appointment durations and arrival times. Thanks to this machine learning approach, appointment accuracy is continuously improved, whilst taking the latest call data into account. Advantages include:

• 'What if' simulations for optimum capacity and resource scheduling
• Increased up-to-the-minute appointment accuracy using geo-coding and predictive traffic for specific journey times
• Improved scheduling accuracy for linked appointments and follow-up visits
• Increased customer satisfaction management through features such as allowing field operatives to begin shifts from home locations and built-in depot visits

FLS VISITOUR is Microsoft's scheduling partner for Dynamics 365, seamlessly integrating with Customer Engagement and Field Service. Microsoft recognises FLS VISITOUR as the best-of-breed field scheduling which extends beyond the capabilities provided by its own Resource Scheduling Optimization (RSO), and it's this development of AI and machine learning that gained FLS their ISV and Managed Partner status. FLS solutions are also available as an upgrade with most leading Housing Management systems.