The Future of Field Service: Learning from the Past and Present

It’s difficult to predict the future of field service. There are no crystal balls; there are no sure things. But an easy way to make it look like you can predict the future is to look at the past and the present. And what the present and past have to say about the future of service can be read, like tea leaves at the bottom of a porcelain cup.

What the Past Can Tell Us About the Future

The service industry has grown immensely in the past few decades. Value generated by service has grown to 64% of global GDP. That’s a 10% increase in less than 25 years! Compared to manufacturing (15%) and industry (including construction) (25%), the service industry is the largest by far, and continues to grow.

These figures can also show us the resilience of the field service industry. Of the above three industries listed, only the service industry did not lose share of the global GDP after the recession of 2008. In fact, the service industry grew nearly 2% from 2008 to 2009!

What the Present Can Tell Us About the Future of Field Service

There’s no better way to find out what people are planning to do than asking them. And the Strategies For Growth Remote Expertise Survey did just that, interviewing more than 20,000 global services professionals.

When asked about remote assistance software, 55% of those surveyed were already using software like Help Lightning to help conduct service calls. Furthermore, 21% reported that they were going to be using Remote Expertise within a five-year window. That means that within five years 76-85% of field service organizations will be utilizing remote assistance software to improve their service calls.

The Most Telling Figures

Another question on the Strategies For Growth Survey was about potential obstacles in moving to Remote Expertise. Among every single person surveyed, not one respondent indicated that the lack of a service mentality or the cost of or confusion about servitization would be limiting factors in a Remote Assistance program roll out. In addition, no respondents felt that senior management would be unwilling to change an existing business model which has been relatively successful so far.

This strongly suggests that the market is mostly ready to move. This is a sentiment echoed by Kevin Johnson, Help Lightning’s Director of Marketing. And, according to him, the other fears preventing companies from switching to Remote Expertise are almost entirely pushed aside after seeing the program firsthand. “Once a prospect actually sees Remote Expertise executed in a real-life example, it practically sells itself,” says Johnson. “The visual nature of the tool, coupled with the ease of operating, makes it a natural consideration for just about any services organization.”

As such, the findings from the 2020 Remote Expertise Survey clearly reflect a strong level of receptivity and acceptance of Remote Expertise. Strategies For Growth strongly indicated that the adoption of the Remote Expertise service delivery model  – and the drive to move toward that business model in a well-planned and expedient manner – will continue to accelerate throughout 2020 – and beyond.

How Help Lightning Defines That Future of Field Service

When someone encounters a production maintenance issue, they need an expert to be onsite immediately. In an online help session, two video streams become merged into one. Therefore, users can collaborate and resolve an issue together. The remote expert can actually insert their hand, use tools, and share documents. This simplifies the problem-solving process. Easy, right?

Using mobile devices, experts can now work with a partner as though they were side-by-side. You can annotate, or write across the screen. It’s easy to freeze images and use hand gestures. You can even import documents and add real objects into the merged reality environment. So, using Help Lightning, experts can solve any problem, even from thousands of miles away.

The writing is on the walls: the service industry is adopting Remote Assistance Software, sooner rather than later. You may not think you need it now, but the future of service is remote service first; don’t get left in the past.

To see Help Lightning for yourself, schedule a free demonstration today.