Bel met een expert
saving per week
paper savings
to inform customers
- Asset management
- Multinational
- Service Contracts
- Ticketing
- Manufacturing
- Custom
Challenges
- Registration in both an Access database and on paper
- High error margin
- Multiple private limited companies (BVs) and multiple countries
- Working with dealers as well as directly with customers
Solutions
- FieldBuddy Dispatch Panel with digital map
- All countries and BV's in one environment through the extensive rights model and data separation
- Custom integration with the DRU dealer portal
Benefits
- Customers are helped more quickly
- Create your own dashboards and reports
- Service employees are enthusiastic
Background
“DRU is an internationally operating manufacturer of fireplaces and stoves. It has been successful since 1754. The DRU brand is well-known throughout Europe and forms the basis for many thousands of gas appliances that are used today.”
The DRU motto is ‘designed to be different’, which reflects the distinctive designs of its modern gas fires and the innovative technology behind all of its products. Read more about DRU at www.drufire.com.
Previous Challenge
After working with paper work orders for years, the need arose to look at the different options for digitizing this process . Previously, complaints and visits were registered in the access database. Paul explains: “The technician went out with a stack of paper receipts from that database in his pocket, and then brought them back with him completed at the end of the working day. You can imagine that this does not work well, partly because of the high margin of error.
The planning from the office was also inefficient: ”There was a large map on the wall in the office, where we used magnets to indicate the exact locations of the outstanding work orders. All agreements were noted down on paper. These, together with the planning, were also recorded in the database,” says Paul.
Solution
Dru chooses FieldBuddy
”We chose FieldBuddy because they listen to our wishes, but also because of the flexibility they offer. For example, I can set up the entire Dashboard of the FieldBuddy Dispatch Panel (an application to assign employees to work orders) as desired,” says Paul. To give another example of this flexibility, Paul mentions the jointly developed dynamic map: “Instead of the aforementioned physical map with magnets that hung in the office, FieldBuddy developed a dynamic digital map in collaboration with us.”
Our technicians save at least 5 hours every week in preparing and handling visits.
Customer Service Manager
The implementation
The implementation was ultimately carried out for several countries , because DRU is an internationally operating company. As a result, the rights model has also been set up for three BVs. FieldBuddy consultant Raymond and project leader Camille explain the most important points of the implementation:
Internationally operating company
DRU is an internationally operating company consisting of several BVs. The rights model is designed in such a way that multiple countries can operate independently in one environment. In addition, customers and dealers are contacted in their language and they see the correct regional information.
Integration DRU Dealer portal
DRU has its own developed portal where their dealers log in. FieldBuddy has developed a custom link with this system to receive incoming service and warranty requests and provide feedback on the status. The integration is smart enough to create customers, installations and locations yourself based on parameters entered by the dealer. View here which systems FieldBuddy can integrate with.
Dealers
DRU works together with dealers and visits consumers (both B2B and B2C) on behalf of these dealers. In FieldBuddy, DRU can immediately see which purchased product was purchased by which customer and from which dealer. A complete history is kept and can be reported on.
Service contract and warranty module: DRU Care
In addition to service requests, DRU also receives warranty requests on their website. We store these within FieldBuddy as service contracts. From there, employees can process the warranty request. Once everything has been checked, a certificate/warranty confirmation document is automatically sent to the customer.
Review incoming Service requests
The work orders and service requests can be created for end users, but also for dealers. This is useful if the dealer has certain show models that are also inspected. DRU assesses the service requests that arrive in FieldBuddy. When a service request comes in, they determine whether it should (automatically) be created into a work order or not. What is special here is that if they reject the service request, the dealer automatically receives an email with the reason for the rejection.
FieldBuddy Dispatch Panel expanded with maps
View all unplanned and planned assignments on a map in FieldBuddy’s planning tool, the FieldBuddy Dispatch Panel. As a planner, quickly see whether there are other appointments in the region.
Customers can be helped even faster than before with the help of FieldBuddy
Customer Service Manager DRU
The collaboration seen from DRU
We asked Paul for his opinion about the implementation process: “First of all, we are very satisfied with how the process went,” Paul begins. “ Camille is a good project leader and Raymond and Volodymyr have also helped us very well.” Raymond gave Paul a tip to get started with Salesforce Trailhead himself: a program that provides explanations about the Salesforce environment (the platform on which FieldBuddy runs).
Raymond is also satisfied with the implementation process: ”I really enjoyed the collaboration. It was clear from the start where they wanted to go with FieldBuddy. The project was well prepared together with DRU, so we could get started straight away.”
The result
For now, DRU is very satisfied with what they can do with FieldBuddy. The service employees are also becoming increasingly enthusiastic and see many advantages in using FieldBuddy. DRU has noticed significant paper savings (by abolishing paper work orders) and they notice that they can inform customers even faster. They can quickly spot exceptions using the data that is clearly visible on the FieldBuddy dashboard. Read more benefits of field service automation with FieldBuddy here.
Our service employees have been very enthusiastic about FieldBuddy from the start and see many benefits
Customer Service Manager DRU
A look to the future
The branch in Belgium has been live with FieldBuddy since July 1. In the future they also want to go live with the branch in England. In addition, DRU wants to improve customer service even more. Paul adds: ”We want to do this, for example, by passing on an accurate arrival time of the technician to the customer, instead of giving a time frame of 4 hours in which the technician will visit. This way the customer knows exactly when the technician will arrive.
