Field Service Technician

 

We had a dental supply client come to us wanting to improve their process for service technicians in the field. The technicians were previously given their schedules by a secretary in the office and would have to call in every single morning to get their schedule. Additionally, if there was a schedule change throughout the day, the secretary would have to try to get ahold of the technician to notify them. We wanted to create an experience for both both parties so that work could be completed quickly and efficiently.

 
 
IMG_4386.jpg

Empathize

We shadowed service technicians as they went about their daily tasks. We got to see first hand how they interact with customers, how they were getting their schedules for the day, and the work it took them to fix the equipment. Many times, the technicians would arrive at their customer for one problem to be fixed and then be asked to fix a few other things.

 
IMG_4429.jpg

Define

After spending time with the technicians in the field, we all came together to start the Design Thinking Workshop. This workshop involves many people for the business including:

  • Stakeholders

  • IT

  • End Users

  • UX Designer

  • UX Architect

We all come together to review what we observed in the field and made sure that the end users could express their pain points and needs.

 
IMG_4440.jpg

Ideate & Prototype

Once we go through understanding what the user needs and what their pain points are, we jump into ideation. WE started with everyone sketching individually and then sharing in small groups. This allowed people who would normally be more shy to get comfortable with sharing their ideas. From there, the small groups sketched some more ideas and shared them with everyone. We brought all those ideas together and created sketches on the whiteboard of what the application would turn into. This part gets messy, but in a good way! It allows us to visually explain ideas while allowing for quick failures and changes

 

Test & Implement

Once we went through sketching, I turned the wireframes into a High Resolution prototype. This was uploaded to InVision and then sent to the users so they could go through it and test it out. We had review sessions that allowed them to give feedback so we could make it the best experience for them. After a couple iterations, it was then turned into development where we continued to make changes where necessary. We created both a mobile and tablet version of this app since the technicians are always on the go. Some preferred the bigger screen, while others didn’t want to carry around another device. In the end, the new app proved to be a time and cost savings. User were no longer having to wait for their laptops to boot up and search for wifi and secretaries no longer had to play phone tag to get ahold of the technicians. This app has saved the company and average of $100,000 annually just in decreasing the time the technicians spend entering data.