When people once thought of the future, they pondered flying cars and Marty McFly. But those were the 80’s, when big hair and even bigger shoulder pads ran rampant. Nowadays, when people picture the future, they may be visualizing artificial intelligence, some sort of robot apocalypse or civilian space travel. If we take a good look at the developed world of today and appreciate the strides we’ve taken to incorporate future thinking into every portion of our lives, I believe the future is right now.
When I order dog treats from Amazon with 1 click of a button, they arrive at my door in a few hours. I use AI every time I upload a new pic to Facebook, because Facebook facial recognition tells me whom to tag, saving me time because I don’t have to scroll through my friends to click on their names. These technologies are created and implemented from a time saving perspective. And luckily, they do save us time.
And it’s this time that we try so hard to use as intelligently as possible. Anything that takes time away from us that’s not on our terms is viewed as a waste. As consumers, we don’t want to waste our time on things we don’t want to do. It’s that simple.
For example, I didn’t want to be on the phone with my Village office, trying to find a time that works for their Field Agent to see if my sump pump is compliant with village standards, but it’s what I did for 30 minutes last week. I wasted my time. Or rather, they wasted my time.
A Mother’s Quiet Disturbed
Why couldn’t I just quickly sign up for a time slot online? When the field rep arrived, why didn’t he already know the dialog history that I had with the call center service rep? Better yet, why didn’t she ask me if I had any special requests? Ringing the doorbell during my 1 year-old’s naptime is the worst thing he could have done! But it happened.
I wondered why Susan from the village office couldn't inform her agent of our discussion before he woke up my kid and disgruntled me? Seems simple, right? I’m certain she knows that calling segments of the 50,000 people that live in our Chicago-land village to set up agent visits is a waste of her time too. Imagine the time and the cost with this ill-constructed practice.
It’s these simple ideas in theory that can become complicated to execute. But they don’t have to be. Service agents can be briefed on special requests and given allotted time slots at the convenience of the customer with the right tech in place, like with Oracle Field Service. With Field Service, Susan would be able to:
- Make sure that her field agent with the appropriate equipment and skills is routed to my house.
- Alert said field rep that nap time falls into their window of service, so don’t ring the doorbell and wake a sleeping baby.
- Understand the workload her agents can handle in a given time frame in order to focus resources on the most critical tasks.
- Give me choices and flexibility and alert me when the agent arrives. That way, if he arrives 15 minutes before scheduled, I can let him know if it’s time appropriate.
- See her field rep’s notes on whether or not my sump pump is compliant or if I need it serviced.
- And if I need to get it serviced, the village can supply me with individuals who can help me, or put an appointment on the CAL to do so – Engagement Cloud
Check out this page for several examples of what Susan and her agents could do, if they used Oracle Service Cloud....
As I wrapped up the appointment with the village agent and day-dreamed of not having to participate in these tedious tasks, I took a breath, thanked the agent for his time, and wished him good luck on the rest of his appointments, knowing there were a variety of other ways that his time could be better spent.
Look at how the City of San Jose is achieving their smart city vision.
