Field-Service-Consultant Questions and Answers

Inventory is used to track product quantities in different locations such as warehouses or vans. Products Consumed are used to report when parts are used by technicians during service appointments and adjust inventory levels accordingly. Mobile Locations are used to track inventory in technicians’ vans or trucks using geolocation data from their mobile devices. Warehouse Locations are used to track inventory in fixed locations such as warehouses or depots using address data from their records. Products Required are used to request products from inventory for a service appointment, but do not ensure that technicians report when parts are used. References: https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=sf.fs_inventory_overview.htm &type=5 https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=sf.fs_products_consumed.htm &type=5 https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=sf.fs_mobile_locations_overview.htm &type=5

Customer Entitlements are records that specify customers’ support terms based on their contracts or warranties[38]. Customer Entitlements can be used to offer appropriate appointment booking windows for Gold versus Standard Customers by defining different appointment windows for different entitlement levels[39]. Service Due Date is a field on the work order object that indicates when a work order must be completed by[40]. Customer Working Hours are records that define when customers are available for service appointments[41]. Service Urgency is a field on the work order object that indicates how quickly a work order must be completed[42]. References: https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=sf.entitlements_overview.htm &type=5 https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=sf.fs_appointment_windows_entitlements.htm &type=5 https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=sf.fs_work_orders_fields.htm &type=5 https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=sf.fs_customer_working_hours_overview.htm &type=5 https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=sf.fs_work_orders_fields.htm &type=5

This option allows generating a report in the customer’s language by selecting the language from a picklist field on the work order record. References: https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=sf.fs_service_reports_language.htm &type=5

This option allows visualizing the planned travel route for a technician on a map, based on the street-level directions and traffic conditions. References: https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=sf.fs_street_level_routing.htm &type=5

Lightning Components are reusable units of user interface that can be customized and embedded in different pages or apps[180]. Work Order Line Items are records that track specific tasks or products related to a work order[181]. Creating a custom Lightning Component that displays Work Order progress and deploying it to Technicians through the Salesforce Field Service mobile app would allow Universal Containers’ Technicians to view work progress through the Work Order Line Item card in the Salesforce Field Service mobile app by creating a component that shows the status or completion percentage of work order line items and adding it to the work order line item card layout in the mobile app settings[182]. Creating a custom Visualforce page and adding an external link in the Salesforce Field Service mobile app to view the page in the mobile browser would not allow Technicians to view work progress through the Work Order Line Item card in the Salesforce Field Service mobile app. Visualforce pages are web pages that can display custom user interface using HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and Apex[183]. Creating a Report Chart that summarizes Work Order Line Items and adding a link to the Service Appointment layout would not allow Technicians to view work progress through the Work Order Line Item card in the Salesforce Field Service mobile app. Report Charts are visual representations of report data that can be added to different pages or layouts[184]. Adding the Work Order Line Items related list to the Work Order page layout and assigning the layout to the Technician’s profile would not allow Technicians to view work progress through the Work Order Line Item card in the Salesforce Field Service mobile app. Related lists are lists of records that are directly related to another record and can be added to different page layouts[185]. References: https://developer.salesforce.com/docs/component-library/overview/components https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=sf.fs_work_order_line_items.htm &type=5 https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=sf.fs_mobile_custom_cards_overview.htm &type=5 https://developer.salesforce.com/docs/atlas.en-us.pages.meta/pages/pages_intro_what_is_it.htm https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=sf.reports_charts_adding_to_layouts.htm &type=5 https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=sf.customize_related_lists.htm &type=5

This configuration can be used to brand the Salesforce Field Service mobile app by uploading a custom logo image that appears on the app’s login screen and navigation bar. References: https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=sf.fs_mobile_branding.htm &type=5

Work Orders are records that track customer requests for service such as repairs or maintenance[87]. Work Order Line Items are records that track specific tasks or products related to a work order[88]. Service Appointments are records that track the date, time, duration, and assigned resource for a work order or work order line item[89]. Using this data model would allow Universal Containers’ technicians to follow a standard operating procedure while performing maintenance on an individual asset by creating different work order line items for different operations and capturing notes and status updates for each line item. It would also allow scheduling and dispatching one service appointment for one visit. Service appointment to represent preventative maintenance on the asset - work order line item to represent the different operations - work order to represent the visit would not work because service appointments cannot be related directly to assets. Work order line item represent preventative Maintenance on the asset - work order represent the different operations- service appointment to represent visit would not work because work order line items cannot be related directly to assets. References: https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=sf.fs_work_orders.htm &type=5 https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=sf.fs_work_order_line_items.htm &type=5 https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=sf.fs_service_appointments.htm &type=5

User Territories are records that associate users with service territories for sharing purposes[90]. Creating a new user territory associated with the Service Territory and dispatcher would allow giving access to all relevant Midwest records by linking them with their corresponding service territory[91]. Configuring and running the User Territory Sharing Job in Field Service Settings would allow updating sharing rules based on user territories automatically at regular intervals such as daily or weekly[92]. Assigning a new user territory and adding each of the assigned service resources would not give access to all relevant Midwest records

Reshuffle is an action within the Gantt that allows rescheduling multiple service appointments at once based on predefined criteria such as emergency priority, travel time, or skills[209]. Reshuffle would allow Universal Containers to dispatch emergency work identified throughout the day that needs to be completed before lower-priority work by running a reshuffle action that prioritizes emergency work and assigns it to the best available resources[210]. Defining a Global Optimization job to run hourly would not allow Universal Containers to dispatch emergency work identified throughout the day that needs to be completed before lower-priority work. Global Optimization is a feature that allows rescheduling multiple service appointments at once based on predefined criteria such as emergency priority, travel time, or skills[211]. Running a Global Optimization job hourly would not be responsive enough for emergency work identified throughout the day. Creating a custom Gantt action to call an Apex class to reschedule appointments would not be necessary for Universal Containers to dispatch emergency work identified throughout the day that needs to be completed before lower-priority work. Custom Gantt actions are actions within the Gantt that can be customized using Apex code to perform specific tasks such as sending notifications or updating fields[212]. Creating a custom Gantt action would require additional development and maintenance and would not leverage the existing Reshuffle action. Writing a batch Apex class to unschedule low priority work orders would not allow Universal Containers to dispatch emergency work identified throughout the day that needs to be completed before lower-priority work. Batch Apex is a way of processing large volumes of data asynchronously using Apex code[213]. Writing a batch Apex class would require additional development and maintenance and would not leverage the existing Reshuffle action. References: https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=sf.fs_gantt_reshuffle_overview.htm &type=5 https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=sf.fs_gantt_reshuffle_run.htm &type=5 https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=sf.fs_optimization_global_overview.htm &type=5 https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=sf.fs_gantt_custom_actions_overview.htm &type=5 https://developer.salesforce.com/docs/atlas.en-us.apexcode.meta/apexcode/apex_batch_interface.htm

Updating the Resource as not available allows marking a resource as unavailable for a specific time period due to sickness, vacation, or other reasons[27. Selecting the affected Service Appointments and pressing “Schedule” allows rescheduling multiple service appointments at once based on predefined criteria such as travel time or priority[28. Dragging and dropping the Service Appointments to other available Resources and running Optimization would reschedule service appointments manually and then run an optimization process that could override the manual changes[29. Asking the Customer Service Rep to call the customers and manually re-schedule for another day would not use the scheduling features of Field Service and could result in customer dissatisfaction or missed service level agreements. Changing the Scheduling Policy to “High Intensity” and activating the Background Optimization process would change the optimization criteria for all service appointments and run an optimization process in the background that could take a long time to complete[30. References: https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=sf.fs_resource_absences_overview.htm &type=5 https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=sf.fs_schedule_service_appointments.htm &type=5 https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=sf.fs_global_optimization_overview.htm &type=5 https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=sf.fs_background_optimization_overview.htm &type=5

This option allows creating a record to request products from another inventory location and adding product request line items for each product requested. References: https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=sf.fs_product_requests_overview.htm &type=5

This option reflects the sharing rules for Service Appointments, which grant access to the assigned resources, the owner of the record, and the members of the service territory associated with the record. References: https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=sf.fs_sharing_rules.htm &type=5

This scheduling policy prioritizes customer service preferences over other factors, such as travel time or resource availability. References: https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=sf.fs_scheduling_policies.htm &type=5

This option allows capturing the required information on the work order and updating the related case and service appointment records using a flow. References: https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=sf.fs_mobile_quick_actions.htm &type=5

Field Sets allow controlling which fields are displayed on the Work Order and Service Appointment cards in the Salesforce Field Service mobile app. References: https://help.salesforce.com/s/articleView?id=sf.fs_mobile_fields.htm &type=5