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Salesforce updates Field Service Lightning for on-site customer service

The updated service tool should help companies keep up with consumer demands for fast, digitally-accessible services.
Written by Stephanie Condon, Senior Writer
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Salesforce on Tuesday is announcing updates to Field Service Lightning, a tool within its Service Cloud that helps workers to respond to customer service requests and engage with customers on site.

Since launching the tool about two years ago, Salesforce has continued to invest in it to meet the changing demands of customers and increasingly mobile workforces, Salesforce's Dana Chery explained to ZDNet.

"Mobile field service employees," she said, "are the face of your company... delivering on the expectations of your company." More than ever, she said, they "need to be digitally empowered."

Field Service Lightning effectively links customers, agents out in the field and dispatchers on a centralized platform.

The updates Salesforce is announcing Tuesday include:

  • Snap-ins Appointment Management: This feature lets a business embed a scheduling interface on their website with just one line of code. The business can customize a flow to get all the necessary information from customers about their request. The end user, meanwhile, can use the tool to create new appointments and manage existing ones.
  • Return Orders: On-site field agents can now digitally create return orders. This feature also lets customers initiate a return on a company's website.
  • Crew Scheduling: With this feature, a dispatcher can assign multiple crew members to a job, making assignments based on a crew member's skill level and expertise.
  • Guided Set-Up: This Salesforce Trailblazers feature offers a visual wizard that walks admins through a simplified set-up process for Field Service Lightning.

Chery said a range of industries are using Field Service Lightning, including retail and health care. Within the health care industry, Salesforce customers are using it to dispatch health care providers like nurses to their patients, Chery explained.

Within retail, customers like REI and the Container Store are using it. Specifically, the Container Store has been using it to dispatch technicians to install closets.

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