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BrandsMart Optimizes Field Service Operations With ServiceScheduling

Retailers that sell electronics can boost customer loyalty and satisfaction by offering additional services, such as item installation, maintenance and repairs. Because field technicians that provide these services rarely work in an office and are consistently on the road, their schedules need to align with not only their personal needs, but overall consumer demand.

BrandsMart USA, a consumer electronics and appliances retailer, has implemented the ServiceScheduling routing optimization tool from ServicePower to improve field service team productivity and cycle time, as well as save hardware, software and overhead costs.

BrandsMart USA also has improved billing rates by combining all in-warranty manufacturer claims and streamlining its original equipment manufacturer (OEM) billing, ensuring that all jobs due from an OEM are properly billed.

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Improved efficiencies and billing has helped team members serve customers better and faster. With ServicePower, BrandsMart field technicians run roughly 6,500 service and installation jobs each month. Each field technician runs approximately 10 to 12 jobs per day, completing an average of six to eight projects per day.

“The most significant difference I see with the system is the increase in work completed by adding more stop possibilities and more completes,” said Cosmo Adamo, VP of Service at BrandsMart. “So in essence, more revenue with the same workforce. We also noticed less fuel being used because of the better routing.”

Prior to implementing ServiceScheduling, BrandsMart used a legacy CRM system that didn’t support automated scheduling. Employees used maps and leveraged historical knowledge of the field technicians’ skills to schedule repairs and installations.

“Technicians would take their schedules and run the jobs as they saw fit, meaning we had no visibility on whether or not they were showing up on time,” Adamo said in an interview with Retail TouchPoints. “We also had little control over fuel utilization and miles driven, so we didn’t know where our assets were located during each day or after hours. There was no integration to the CRM, so we could not track a job and provide updates easily if a consumer called for information.”

After implementing ServicePower, BrandsMart was able to replace its existing CRM system with the Solarvista field service solution, which is fully integrated with ServiceScheduling platform. With Solarvista, the retailer can streamline its service and installation operations to better manage customers, service contracts, parts inventory and pricing. BrandsMart also can use the platform to exchange data to financial and POS systems, as well as extend data to call center agents, who can now provide timely job status updates to customers.

Today, technicians are matched to new jobs based on the skills and geography, as well as existing appointments. ServiceScheduling finds the best technician to match with the job, and can reduce the number of miles between jobs.

Fully mobilizing its field technicians enables BrandsMart to implement new, same-day appointments and change appointments throughout the day. Technicians update job status so that jobs and commitments can be constantly monitored.  GPS tracking further enables BrandsMart to monitor not only consumer commitments, but also field equipment assets, which enables fuel cost savings and theft deterrence.

“For individuals using intuitive smartphones and technology in their private lives, the technology was familiar and made their lives much simpler,” Adamo explained. “The removal of paper makes their lives easier, as does up-to-date information delivered to their mobile devices — it also gives them the ability to be superheroes to our customers. The mobile dispatch applications provide each technician with his or her schedule in advance, as well as navigation to each job. Once onsite, the technician can do everything that needs to be done, from securing parts inventory for the job from truck stock, or placing an order for a necessary part from our warehouses or from the parts distributor.”

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