Managing field issues is a crucial aspect of after-sales services for OEMs, as it directly impacts customer satisfaction. Dealers face several challenges while resolving field issues that might impact service quality and efficiency, leading to higher turn around time.
This makes it essential for OEMs to strategize a structured approach to handle these issues. If left unaddressed, these issues may emerge as widespread product concerns impacting their quality. It also downgrades brand reputation and negatively impacts OEM’s sales.
To overcome these challenges and manage field issues better, OEMs can implement technical support software. This article will explore the challenges involved in field issues management in detail. We will also discuss how executing the Intelli Desk helps OEMs streamline field issues and maximize operational efficiency.
What is Field Issues Management?
Field issues management is a streamlined approach to address challenges faced by technicians during field issue resolution. It involves the identification, tracking, and resolution of problems concerning OEM products in the field.
Efficient management of field issues enables OEMs to minimize possible risks involved with their products after the customers purchase and use them. It also helps them ensure customer satisfaction and improve brand reputation in the highly competitive market.
Challenges in Field Issues Management
Although managing field issues is extremely necessary for OEMs, they may face several challenges while implementing a management process. Technicians face multiple issues while handling problems in field operations, which, when left unresolved, may exaggerate and turn into a widespread issue on a larger scale. Let’s discuss these critical challenges technicians face during field issue resolution:
Tight Resolution Deadlines
One of the significant challenges while resolving field issues is providing quick solutions within assigned deadlines. Issues with delayed resolution or those left unsolved may intensify the problem and emerge as a more serious issue later. This not only compromises product quality but also negatively impairs the OEM’s brand value in the market.
Manual Data Entry
Manual processing in field operations, such as data entry, consumes a lot of time, causing delays in resolution. Technicians may also get frustrated at times when handling high-field issue volumes.
Poor Communication
Without a proper communication channel, there can be discrepancies and miscommunication among field support teams. These misunderstandings may turn into obstacles while addressing issues. It may hamper technicians’ ability to report updates within time, causing further delays in issue resolution.
Scattered communication also leads to a lack of standardization that emerges as limitations in context. This means that what a particular technician documents may not be completely understood by other team members or other dealerships in the network.
Identify Recurring Issues
Certain issues shall be occurring frequently, but due to a lack of centralization, dealers might not spot them. This results in irregularities within the system, allowing serious issues to persist and emerge as widespread problems.
Knowledge Sharing Restrictions
Most processes lack a centralized knowledge base, restricting technicians from accessing crucial information from anywhere. Due to this unavailability, technicians may not be able to find relevant solutions to the underlying challenges, leaving them frustrated. This hampers their productivity while also extending resolution time.
Transparency in Monitoring Issues
Due to limited reporting tools, technicians may find it difficult to document issues and challenges. This not only limits reporting capabilities but also diminishes transparency within the system. It means that other team members and other dealerships within the network do not have clear visibility into the documentation process and face issues in monitoring them.
To mitigate these challenges and improve operational efficiency, OEMs must implement technical support software. This software streamlines the essential field processes, helping OEMs manage field issues better.
How Does Intelli Desk Help OEMs Manage Field Issues Efficiently?
Intelli Desk is an advanced technical support software that helps OEMs efficiently manage field issue reporting and resolution. Our software provides an end-to-end solution for field issue management, right from dealers to service managers to back-office teams and, finally, suppliers (if involved). With features like dynamic SLA color-coding and a centralized knowledge base, Intelli Desk ensures proactive management of field issues.
Intelli Desk streamlines the entire field issue resolution process from dealer to supplier OEMs collaborate with and everyone in between. To easily comprehend what is the role of the reporting formats offered by Intelli Desk, let’s briefly understand the field issue resolution process.
Step-by-Step Guide on How Field Issues Are Resolved
When a dealer undergoes challenges in resolving a specific field issue, they create a technical assistance report (TAR) and send it to the service manager(s). Using their expertise, the service manager then resolves the issues and gets the job done. If they are not able to provide a suitable solution, a field technical report (FTR) is drafted and sent to the OEM’s back office team. The team works on the issue and suggests an appropriate remedy. If they identify it as a persisting issue that involves shortcomings in the product, the team raises a product concern and escalates it to the R&D department. In case the product or part is sourced from a supplier, the team shall notify the concerned supplier.
Now, let’s dive into the modules provided by Intelli Desk and how they streamline this resolution process.
Technical Assistance Report (TAR)
Technical assistance report acts as an effective communication medium between the dealers and service managers or their designated equivalent.
Here is how TAR works:
- Problem Logging: TAR records entire observations related to the field issue, including crucial details for problem analysis and resolution. Dealers use TAR to register issues encountered by them and ensure efficient reporting.
- Support and Response: Upon successful submission, TAR is directed to the service manager or the designated person responsible for providing the first level of technical support to the dealer. This person responds to TARs using their acquired knowledge and information.
- Root cause Analysis: Dealers can add details like serial or VIN numbers to facilitate OEMs to correlate and identify the root cause of the issue. It also enables them to backtrack the information and ensure accurate analysis, enhancing the efficiency of the resolution process.
- Collaboration and FTR Drafting: If the service manager identifies a pattern in multiple TARs, they may combine a few or all of them to generate a field technical report (FTR). This provides a comprehensive view of the problem to the OEM’s back-office team.
Field Technical Report (FTR)
A field technical report furnishes a broader perspective of the problem. This report facilitates communication among dealers and back-office through inputs from service managers.
Here is how an FTR works:
- Problem Details: By providing accurate and detailed information, an FTR records the exact issues that the dealers face. It compiles information from various dealers, including diverse information like case studies related to multiple serial or VIN numbers.
- Corrective Action: This report provides clarity on steps taken by the dealer to ensure resolution efficiency. It also promotes transparency and accountability among dealers by documenting corrective measures adopted by dealers to address the problem.
- Collaboration and Visibility: The back-office team evaluates the FTRs and insights from service managers and resolves issues promptly using the available information. In cases where the back office team cannot address all the FTRs individually, they draft a product concern and escalate it to the concerned supplier.
Product Concern
Product concern provides a comprehensive view of the challenges in field issue resolution. It incorporates additional elements such as PDF documents, images, and videos to enhance interpretation.
Here is how product concern facilitates field issue resolution:
- Comprehensive Problem View: Going beyond just case studies, a product concern provides an extensive perspective of the problem. It also enables OEMs to attest additional details like images and documents for suppliers’ better understanding.
- Enhanced Analysis and Resolution: Including a diverse range of details enables the back office team to analyze problems extensively.
- Improved Communication: To explain the problem effectively to the supplier, OEMs can incorporate images, videos, and documents. This promotes transparent and evidence-aided communication, enabling OEMs to support their view.
- Documentation and Evidence: Product concern acts as an evidence-based reference for all future audits and analysis. It becomes a centralized depository where all relevant problem-related information is stored by the OEM.
Significant Benefits of Intelli Desk for Field Issues Management
Here is a list of some salient benefits that Intelli Desk offers:
Systematic Problem Resolution
Intelli Desk streamlines the processing, documentation, and reporting of field issue resolution. This structured approach helps OEMs ensure that no aspect of the resolution process is unattended or mistakenly skipped.
Improved Dealer Communication
Intelli Desk provides a dedicated communication channel that enables OEMs to connect and communicate with their dealerships. It enables dealers to report a field issue early once they sense its cruciality, helping to avoid recurring issues and prevent their augmentation further.
Problem Tracking and Prioritization
With a real-time tracking feature, the dealerships can easily monitor the submitted field issues. This enables the dealers to identify which issues are more crucial than others and prioritize their resolution.
Efficient Knowledge Transfer
Intelli Desk provides a centralized knowledge base where stakeholders can add relevant information on recent resolution findings or that might be otherwise missing. It acts as a repository of information that technicians can fetch when facing challenges during field issue resolution.
Improved Productivity
By streamlining crucial operational processes, this system enables technicians to resolve field issues with efficiency, enhancing overall productivity.
Enhanced Product Quality
Intelli Desk provides multiple-level reporting modules such as technical assistance reports (TAR), field technical reports (FTR), and product concerns. This feature ensures that at every level of the hierarchy, the field issues are documented easily. This helps OEMs verify that issues are addressed rightly and prevent them from escalating as product concerns while improving quality.
Conclusion
Resolving field issues promptly and accurately is crucial for OEMs to ensure customer satisfaction and build brand reputation. However, OEMs often face challenges during field issues management that hamper their operational efficiency.
Implementing an advanced technical support software such as Intelli Desk enables OEMs to simplify their field issues resolution and manage them efficiently. With features like transaction color master and multiple reporting capabilities, Intelli Desk provides OEMs with an end-to-end solution for managing field issues.
To know more about how Intelli Desk can streamline your field issues management or request a free demo, connect with our experts today.
