Remote support: Uncomplicated help from afar

Today, every customer expects their acute problem to be solved immediately. What can you do if the expert with the right technical know-how is not available? Remote support offers a remedy here and achieves short response times and significantly reduced travel costs. To optimize the service process with the help of video support, high investments in new hardware, which are often associated with augmented reality initiatives, are not necessary.

What is remote support?

Remote support is the visual remote assistance of field service employees during maintenance or support assignments by experts. A simple smartphone camera is all that is needed. The expert sees exactly what the technician sees on site in real time. This makes it easy to visualize the situation without the expert having to be on site to solve the problem. AR elements are often part of these solutions. Supporters and experts can place markers on real objects for better visualization in order to solve the problem together.

The application scenarios of remote support

A service employee is on site at the customer's premises. He realizes that he does not have the necessary knowledge to solve the customer's problem directly. Instead of aborting the assignment, the technician can use Remote Support to call in a specialist via their smartphone and show them the problem with the camera exactly as they see it. The expert can ask questions, gather information and work out a solution to the problem step by step together with the field service employee.

A customer wants a technician to look at a problem on site. However, the technician is not sure what type of equipment or spare parts he needs for the job. With the help of remote support, the customer can show the technician the problem in advance using a smartphone camera so that the technician can optimally prepare for the assignment before going to the customer. This increases the chance of a first fix.

The solution to demographic change:

Documenting knowledge - continuously, quickly and easily

Although digitalization will eliminate jobs, there will be a shortage of millions of workers in the coming years. Demographic change is to blame for this. The lack of qualified personnel is already the number one business risk for many companies today. And there are hardly any signs of easing in the coming years. According to a study by the economic research institute Prognos, there will be a shortage of 2.9 million skilled workers on the German labor market in 2025. Experts are retiring and taking their knowledge with them. Recruiting specialists is expensive and the competition for the best young talent is in full swing.

Structured knowledge transfer in the context of remote support can help to solve the problem. All actions and information that are developed and exchanged during a session are recorded and stored in a structured way in a knowledge database. This ensures that practical knowledge is documented and expert knowledge is not lost.
In this way, the next time the same or similar problem occurs, the service employee can simply retrieve the necessary information from the knowledge database and understand how the problem was solved last time without having to call in an expert.

Optimize first-time fix rate

Remote support makes it possible to improve the first-time fix rate , as service employees can gather more information and correlations cost-effectively in advance in order to prepare for the assignment at the customer's premises. This enables the supporter to better assess and resolve the problem remotely. And because the technicians on site have access to expert support if required, the problem is more likely to be resolved immediately to the customer's satisfaction.

Reduce costs

Remote support can reduce service costs by eliminating the need for expensive on-site visits by specialists in many cases. If necessary, the service technician simply calls in the expert. However, if the specialist is needed on site, they can be better prepared.

Reduce training costs

With remote support, field service employees receive assistance from experts when needed. This means that even less experienced technicians can be deployed more quickly to complete work properly and to the customer's satisfaction. Whenever they need help, they can get the support they need via Remote Support.

Improve employee retention

Not only can new employees be deployed to customers faster, but they are also more satisfied overall as they can rely on expert support in difficult situations. This increases both productivity and loyalty to the company. An important context in the face of demographic change and the competition for the best service employees.

Improving customer satisfaction

The train leaves on time, the production line is running and the internet is available again: With remote support, downtime can be reduced to a minimum and service level agreements (SLAs) can be met. The customer's expectations regarding the performance of their service organization are met or even exceeded, as the service technicians develop greater confidence in their own abilities and can find all relevant service information in the knowledge database or call in expert support at any time if required. The tasks at hand are completed correctly at the first attempt. Remote support therefore ensures more satisfied customers and employees.