How AI Continues To Empower Service Technicians in 2024

ZenTrades

How AI Continues To Empower Service Technicians in 2024

Field Service Management
April 18, 2024
9 Min Read

Electricians, plumbers, HVAC technicians, fire inspectors, and other blue-collar service providers face a variety of challenges this year. Customers are demanding fast and efficient service, and labor shortages require greater efficiency from existing providers.

Staying on top of your agenda, getting the leads you need, and communicating with your current customers aren’t optional. Innovations in AI over the past year have transformed industries around the world, and your trade is no exception.

Your business needs to look for opportunities to be aware of these trends to make decisions that will keep you competitive. Let’s explore the latest AI innovations empowering service technicians in 2024.

Where AI Shines (And Where it Doesn’t) For Service Technicians

Flat rate pricing is where you charge a single price for a product or service, regardless of how much it costs to produce or deliver. This cost remains constant regardless of how much time or work is required to finish. An adequately calculated flat rate will cover direct and indirect costs and a healthy profit. Let’s take a case of flat rate pricing in the HVAC business if you’re an HVAC technician and charge a flat rate of X USD for an AC startup. You will receive $X whether it takes one hour or 2 hours, or even if the client requests several adjustments. Whereas in the case of time and material pricing, pricing would change after every hour and every additional request made. Now that we understand how flat rate pricing works let’s know how we should decide on flat rates for products and services for a healthy profit.

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Task	AI	Human	Details
Predictive Maintenance	✅		AI can analyze large datasets to predict failures before they occur.
Customer Service		✅	Humans provide the personal touch needed for effective customer service.
Complex Problem-Solving		✅	Humans excel at creative solutions and handling unexpected issues.
Data Analysis	✅		AI can quickly process and interpret vast amounts of data.
Physical Repairs		✅	Requires manual dexterity and adaptability best suited for humans.
Safety Inspections	✅	✅	AI can identify hazards, but human judgment is crucial for assessments.
Training and Education	✅	✅	AI provides simulations, while humans offer hands-on experience and mentorship.
Regulatory Compliance	✅	✅	AI can keep up to date with regulations and ensure compliance. However, a human expert should review the results of AI research.
Emergency Response		✅	Humans are necessary for real-time, on-the-ground emergency decision-making.

AI is excellent at parsing through data. It can do all sorts of things at a scale far better and faster than a human can. For example, having an AI optimize the route to all the clients you need to visit tomorrow will be far more efficient than trying to work that out by hand.

However, AI isn’t great at replacing the human side of your business. It can help you automate some of your communications and relations management, but it will never be more effective than talking to your customers face to face.

At the end of the day, your client is still hiring a human to maintain their electrical systems, pipes, air conditioning, fire equipment, and more.

Personal Assistant Technology for Service Technicians

In 2011, Apple launched Siri, a personal assistant for Apple devices. In 2016, Google rose to the challenge with Google Assistant for Android devices. Since then, a race has raged to develop increasingly advanced personal assistants that rival the capabilities of Marvel hero Iron Man’s JARVIS AI. That race has pioneered the development of generative AI solutions that are definitely moving the needle in the right direction. However, personal assistant technology isn’t just a convenience product for consumers: it also stands to benefit trades like yours.

ZenTrades developed an AI personal assistant, LISA, for service technicians. When a worker arrives on site, LISA can help them perform a number of tasks all powered by conversation:

Provide technicians with a daily agenda.
Clock in & out.
Route optimization to customers of the day.
Setting reminders.
Pulling customer data from CRM.
Finding equipment manuals.
Matching technicians with colleagues with more experience in a specific area.
Providing upsell suggestions to increase revenue.
Automatic invoice generation.

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Predictive Maintenance

Artificial intelligence is much more efficient at predictive maintenance than humans are. Using a combination of IoT sensors and past maintenance data, AI can determine when the most optimum time is to schedule maintenance for equipment. This helps to minimize downtime, reduce unnecessary maintenance costs, extend equipment life, and improve workplace safety.

Customer Service

AI isn’t going to replace human-to-human interactions entirely, but it can help technicians provide better service to their clients. For example, ZenTrades’ LISA AI helps technicians get information about past service history and other relevant details from their CRM. It quickly informs technicians about previous work done at the location, who did it, and what the work was. This helps you meet customers where they are rather than going to a job blind.

Remember

AI is a great tool that can make your work more efficient, but it won’t completely replace you. The best customer service is done by demonstrating your humanity to your client and the trade you provide. Leverage tools like LISA AI to empower your technicians to better understand their clients to connect with them and provide the best service possible.

Regulatory Compliance

The rules are always changing, and keeping up to date with the latest regulations can be challenging for everyone. AI is great at paying attention to details. Setting up news alerts and having AI analyze those details is a fantastic way to get around the problem. It’s always important for a human expert to review the AI findings for errors.

AI Helps You Focus on Your Trade

At the end of the day, AI is a tool that helps you focus on what matters most: your work. The work you provide as a professional is the most important part of your business, and that’s why AI is so helpful. Automation tools help you cut down on the time you’re spending creating invoices, sifting through customer records, and doing regulatory research. Instead, you can spend that time providing high-quality service for your customers. See how LISA AI and the ZenTrades software suite can focus on your business by booking a free demo now.