Augmented Reality in Service Industry
AR allows brands to create interactive and immersive visual digital experiences that envelop the customer in a connected virtual space. This new experience increases client self service efficiency, reducing contact center volume and technician visits.
AR also reduces first-time fix rates and service resolution times, providing a more convenient customer experience.
Training
In a world where traditional training methods fail to deliver, AR provides an engaging alternative that captures the attention of workers with highly immersive visual learning experiences. This makes it an effective tool for onboarding, a crucial aspect of customer service. Research shows that new employees forget 50% of information within one hour, 70% within 24 hours, and 90% within a week.
AR can also help train a new generation of field service technicians. By providing a digital visualization of the asset and steps required to troubleshoot, it can reduce new employee training time by making it easier to follow instructions. It can also make it easier to communicate with remote experts, who can provide instruction and guidance via an AR-enabled smart glass’s live Point of View.
Many field service companies struggle with a shortage of experienced technicians, who are being displaced by younger technicians as they retire or leave the workforce. Using an AR solution, companies can implement mentorship programs to connect older and younger technicians and facilitate knowledge transfer. This enables older technicians to record their expertise and experience for use as training materials without taking away from other work. It can also allow a senior technician to provide real-time support and guidance to a less experienced field service professional on a call, helping to boost first-call resolution rates and reduce the need for dispatch.
Inspection
Augmented reality offers a huge opportunity for companies looking to streamline field service inspections. Using AR, a manager can connect with a technician in the field and guide them through the process remotely. This helps reduce downtime, improve first-time fix rates, and increase overall customer satisfaction.
This is also a great way to onboard new technicians without having to fly someone in for training. An AR solution allows an experienced technician to record their steps as they work and share them as a training tool with novices. This way, companies can still benefit from the expertise of senior technicians and avoid the knowledge loss that comes with retirement or departures.
In addition, AR can help companies plan equipment inspections for future dates. Using AR smart glasses, an engineer can display virtual step-by-step interactive graphics onto any work surface to guide an operator through the process. This is augmented reality in service industry an effective and efficient alternative to written instructions, which can be difficult to read on a mobile screen or in the dark.
Augmented reality is not the end-all to a field technician’s or quality manager’s job, however. Experience, occupational skills, and good old-fashioned people power are still essential to responding to and resolving issues. Using augmented reality as an extension of these skills helps increase productivity and provides a faster, easier, and more accurate method for completing inspections.
Troubleshooting
For businesses with a large requirement of field services, AR solutions can improve employee efficiency by enabling them to diagnose issues remotely. This can help reduce risk for the company and its employees, as well as speed up issue resolution time. It also helps avoid unnecessary travel expenses and minimizes costs. AR is an especially good choice for industries that require a lot of field service, such as utilities.
Using AR to train field technicians can also significantly reduce training time. Using an augmented reality in service industry AR headset, a technician can view and interact with an animated 3D model of a product, reducing the time needed to understand how the equipment works. The technology can also overlay information on the physical layout of pipes or components, allowing a technician to quickly identify issues.
A field service technician’s job requires a combination of experience, occupational expertise, and good old-fashioned people skills to effectively respond to customer questions and resolve problems. AR can complement these abilities by providing them with easy access to the right information and by streamlining the workflow process. It can also help prevent knowledge loss as senior technicians retire and younger field technicians are hired. For example, a senior technician can use AR to record and document proper procedures for a task so they can easily be shared with new team members.
Customer Experience
With its immersive features, AR offers new customer experience opportunities that can add value to a brand. For instance, the technology allows companies to create virtual experiences that help customers assess product quality before making a purchase. This can reduce the need for showrooms and improve product satisfaction.
It also can help employees perform their jobs more efficiently and accurately. For example, a technician assembling a car headliner may need to precisely place padding, glue, wire harnesses, and more. With AR, the technician can receive digital work instructions with precise placement information that eliminates guesswork and improves accuracy.
In manufacturing, AR can display information from automation and control systems and secondary sensors. This helps maintenance technicians quickly identify problems and take action. It can also reduce downtime and increase productivity by enabling proactive maintenance.
Moreover, AR can be used to provide educational content to customers. For instance, Nespresso uses AR to provide step-by-step descaling instructions on its products. It is a simple and straightforward use case, but it helps customers avoid frustration and save time. In addition, it can help increase customer satisfaction and loyalty. It can also reduce contact center volume and technician visits, as well as no-fault-found returns. It is a tool that will change the way brands support their customers.
