Field services ensure customer success in today’s industries, where operational efficiency is paramount. Whether it's installation, maintenance, or repair of hardware on-site, these support functions are indispensable in ensuring your products perform optimally where they matter most: at your customer’s location. From enterprise IT to healthcare technology and industrial equipment, field services are pivotal in keeping your business running smoothly and your customers satisfied. 

In this quick guide, we’ll delve into the core components of field services, which include installation, maintenance, and repair. We'll also explore the challenges these teams face and provide actionable insights to help you optimize your field service operations for success.

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What Are Field Services?

Field services refers to any work conducted at a customer site where your products are installed. In enterprise IT, industrial equipment, healthcare technology, and other  industries, field services are instrumental in managing the installation, maintenance, or repair of hardware, or equipment installed, “in the field.” If you have products installed at a customer location, field service organizations can play pivotal roles in your company's success.

At TSIA, we use “field services” to refer to any services related to installing, managing, or optimizing supplier equipment on customer premises, i.e., in the field. This typically refers to companies managing systems or equipment installation, service, and repair.

Our Field Services research and advisory practice is geared towards helping traditional product suppliers better manage their people, processes, and technology, reduce costs, and improve profitability in an increasingly digital world. We do this by collecting and analyzing industry data to establish performance standards, and, more importantly, how to improve performance.

Different Types of Field Service Activities

Here are the main categories of field services that can be delivered:

Installation

Once a customer purchases equipment, they will need it expertly installed within their operating environment. A technician will ensure that the equipment is correctly installed and fully operational from the start, setting a baseline and the standard for all future operations.

Maintenance

The traditional role of field service organizations is to fix equipment in case of a breakdown. However, a proactive approach is becoming more crucial with the increasing cost and customer dissatisfaction associated with downtime. Field services can prevent costly breakdowns and ensure customer satisfaction by conducting pre-planned activities to maintain the equipment before it breaks, such as inspecting and replacing worn parts.

Field services maintenance activities can be divided into three categories:

• Corrective: If a product breaks, a field service technician or engineer is dispatched to the customer's location to repair it. Additionally, if a machine is not working as intended, it may require calibration. Both repair and calibration fall under “corrective” maintenance.
• Preventive: By scheduling routine equipment inspections, costly breakdowns and customer downtime can be avoided. Using smart, connected products, you can capture and analyze data from your equipment and remotely monitor performance to conduct maintenance exactly when required. This allows technicians to understand the problem better and identify the spare parts needed before going on-site.
• Proactive maintenance: This is a game-changer in field services. By predicting faults and disruptions, by comparing them with normal operations and noting any anomalies, technicians can service and repair the equipment before it fails. This proactive approach empowers technicians and minimizes equipment downtime, increasing customer satisfaction.

Adoption Services

In addition to in-person repair and maintenance visits, field technicians can advise customers on maximizing the benefits of equipment based on their desired outcomes.

Field service technicians are uniquely positioned to become a customer’s trusted advisor. They take on a proactive and consultative role in helping customers get the most out of their purchases, whether it’s through optimizing operations, or even adding additional products and services to their contracts. As a manager, you can be confident in your team's ability to provide valuable advice and support to your customers, knowing they are fixing problems and enhancing the customer experience.

Challenges in Field Services

TSIA tracks the industry's top Field Services business challenges to provide the data, research, and business frameworks needed to overcome them.

Creating Differentiated Support and Maintenance Offers That Increase Customer Value

Customer expectations are evolving, and they now expect their suppliers to help them achieve specific business outcomes. This shift is forcing traditional “make, sell, ship” hardware and equipment business models, which previously relied on big, one-time purchases that required little customer interaction post-sale, to transition towards having an ongoing customer-supplier relationship.

Since manufacturers have traditionally “stood behind” their products with a warranty, additional value-added services get bundled in for free. Product-attached services, such as support and maintenance offers, are available to customers—but initial attach-rates are low. So, as customers want closer alignment to achieving their business outcomes, manufacturers need to move from “free to fee” service offers and create new ones, to pave the way for the recurring revenue required to sustain these new business models.

Related: Using the LAER Framework for Field Services Workforce Management

Leveraging Technology to Improve Service Execution

Digital transformation is, “a novel use of digital technology to solve traditional problems.” For original equipment manufacturers (OEM) and service providers, the business model changes they’re encountering are the direct result of digital transformation, in which the data collected from their products will be more valuable than the product itself. This reshaping of field service operations is crucial for managers to understand and adapt, keeping them informed and up-to-date in their industry. As a manager, you are at the forefront of this transformation, guiding your team through these changes.

When tackling digital transformation, the operative word is not so much “digital” as it is “transformation.” Organizations need to transform their business practices to keep up with changing customer demands and the evolution of the marketplace.

TSIA is intensely focused on researching the broad and narrow implications of digital transformation, and navigating the use of AI in Field Services. This has allowed us to create proven action plans to help service providers navigate these murky waters, and emerge prepared for future profitability and success in a changing world.

Related: Software Solutions for Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs)

Optimizing Customer Processes With Equipment Connectivity

A key enabler of digital transformation is the Internet of Things, which provides industrial manufacturers with countless, new opportunities to improve customer outcomes with their products. The data collected through embedded sensors in smart, connected products can track equipment performance in a customer’s operating environment, providing real-world insight into optimization opportunities to drive customer outcomes.

Unfortunately, many equipment manufacturers still need to accomplish a lot of foundational work before realizing the full benefits of an IoT strategy. This is why TSIA helps enterprise IT, healthcare, and industrial equipment organizations identify their current state on their IoT journey, and move toward their full potential.

Related: Proactive Services and Predictive Analytics: The Future of Field Services

Reduce Service Execution Costs

Reducing total service delivery costs will always be a top objective of every field service organization. From reducing on-site labor, spare parts, and logistics costs to leveraging the right people for the job, there are several dials you can turn to streamline your operation and work smarter with the resources you already have. This leads to increased customer satisfaction, retention, and profits.

Related: The Road to Digital Transformation

What Is Field Service Management?

Field services are fundamentally a people-oriented business consisting of field technicians, also known as field service engineers or field forces, who perform services for your customers at their location. Field service management coordinates all operations conducted by a field service organization, such as scheduling service, dispatching technicians, tracking job status, invoicing, and billing.

The Importance and Benefits of Field Service Management

A sound field services management system ensures equipment is repaired, serviced, and operating as expected. Your customers depend on equipment uptime to keep their operations running as planned, and customer satisfaction is the key to renewed contracts and increased customer spending. With the right field services management tool, these activities can be executed and closely monitored.

Every year, TSIA tracks the adoption, satisfaction, and planned spending for technology specific to field services organizations that they use to streamline their operations.

Here are just some of the capabilities we recommend for a comprehensive field services management platform:

• Customer-facing: Consumption monitoring, service analytics, contract management, and self-service customer portals.
• Productivity: Spare parts logistics, mobility, video functionality, time management, escalation, and knowledge management.
• Infrastructure: CRM/incident management, installed base/asset/device management, and IoT capabilities.

Related: New Insights in Workforce Management for Field Service

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Your Key Takeaways

• Field services play a critical role in maintaining business operations by ensuring that equipment at customer sites is properly installed, maintained, and repaired. This is especially vital in IT, healthcare, and industrial equipment, where operational efficiency directly impacts customer outcomes.
• Proactive and preventive maintenance are essential to minimizing downtime and reducing costly service calls. By leveraging intelligent, connected equipment and data insights, companies can predict and prevent equipment failures, improving customer satisfaction and reducing operational costs.‍
• Digital transformation and IoT are reshaping field service operations. Companies embracing these innovations can optimize service delivery, streamline processes, and offer enhanced, outcome-based services that align with customer goals—driving long-term value and growth.