Expert Anand Subbaraj from Zuper details the technological advancements in workforce management and customer experiences
It’s no surprise that technological advancements have also begun to largely contribute to workforce management. Artificial intelligence and machine learning have created a better atmosphere for both employees and customers in today’s digitized world.
Talking to EnterpriseTalk, Anand Subbaraj, CEO of Zuper, a field workforce management software company, discusses the technological advancements in workforce management and customer experiences. From smart scheduling to predictive maintenance, Subbaraj breaks down the four use cases of AI and ML in his field.
Smart scheduling and dispatching is an area where AI and ML have been beneficial in recent times. Subbaraj noted, “Usually, service organization spend an inordinate amount of time in scheduling and dispatching work orders to the appropriate resources but AI and ML help them in improving efficiency and productivity by leveraging past history, skills, location, priority, and the availably of their resources.” At the very least, it improves overall productivity and also reduces the chances of human errors.
Taking technological additions up a notch, Subbaraj delves into predictive maintenance. According to him, it is one of the biggest use cases for AI and ML in terms of predictive maintenance of machinery. “Many organizations go with the approach of taking an action when an issue occurs but predictive maintenance is changing the game and enabling companies to prevent the problem before it occurs. It requires the combination of IoT and sensors,” he added. Add data analytics to the mix, and organizations are bound to prevent problems from emerging.
The accelerating digital transformation has also increased the benefits of chatbots for self-services. Subbaraj believes that AI-powered chatbots play a critical role in providing a better customer experience. “Customers will greatly benefit because they will have the right information at the right time without requiring any manual intervention,” claims Subbaraj.
Listen to the Podcast Anand Subbaraj, CEO of Zuper, a field workforce management software company
One area that several companies struggle with is demand forecasting for better inventory management. Subbaraj recommends an ML-based solution. “With Machine Learning, organizations can get an accurate forecasting of inventory requirements resulting in better planning and optimized supply.”
After discussing the technological strategies that many organizations have already adopted, Subbaraj shares his thoughts on intelligent service management’s future technological trends for both back-end and customer-facing operations. According to him, the most important use case that could help companies is remote assistance. “Organizations will have to take a critical look into their service calls that requires a physical visit versus handling it remotely.” He believes that many companies have already started investing in the right tools and technology that would help them complement the physical visit with remote assistance wherever possible.
Adding another exciting element, Subbaraj says, “Organizations are going to adopt a policy that will enable them to use AR capabilities to enable remote assistance.”
Talking explicitly about modern customer satisfaction and how technology could help, Subbaraj claims that consumer self-service will be more important than ever. “Modern customers expect a high customer satisfaction and a modern customer experience. Companies are looking into offering these self-serve booking tracking reviews and more capabilities so that the customers can be kept in a tight loop.” Calling it a huge trend, he states that this system will offer a seamless customer experience and improve efficiency by utilizing conversational AI.
Also Read: Accenture Study – CFOs Are the Significant Facilitators of Digital Strategy In 2021
Subbaraj also believes that organizations are looking to create best of breed solutions and as he adds, ”these best of breed solutions require several tools and several applications to work with each other and ensure that these are working in an integrated and unified manner.” He believes that platforms and tools that offer these integrated approaches will be more successful than others.
Assistant Editor
