New Opportunity for Service Experience Management (SXM)
Overview
Service Experience Management (SXM) is an innovative support solution that utilizes augmented reality and digital twin visualization for remote solve, self-solve, and business-critical day-to-day tasks. With SXM, service providers can offer more efficient and cost-effective solutions to their customers. By leveraging these advanced technologies, organizations can create new opportunities for brand differentiation and enhance their overall service experience.
With the various engagement possibilities, technical service support for on-site contractors, contact centers, and the customer experience can be enhanced significantly. The use of augmented reality remote annotation over live video personalizes the support experience and fundamentally changes the way tasks are accomplished. This approach is far more effective than trying to match paper-based directions.
InfoBrief, created by IDC Research, analyzed key factors that drive organizations to consider SXM such as remote visual resolution, advanced analytics, enhanced customer experiences, and cost-effective support value.
Multiple Factors Challenge Organizations
Workers are dealing with an increasing list of difficulties. As the Technology Services Association noted, “How can you invest in customer success to improve adoption, expansion, retention, and customer satisfaction while boosting revenue?” 1. The increase in experienced technicians who are retiring, more use of frequently untrained contractors, and reliance on paper-based guidance tools are simply frustrating despite increasing efforts to support revenue and customer experience.
IDC identified some of the most frequent support challenges across organizations:
“60% of remote workers feel disconnected from their co-workers.”
Field service worker engagement
“Sixty percent of remote workers feel disconnected from their co-workers. Your workers depend on you to create experiences that help them feel connected to their colleagues and the company.” 2
Retiring workforce
Outdated work instructions
Customer engagement
Increased customer expectation
Technology Accelerating SXM
New visual technologies are becoming easier to adopt for support organizations. Augmented reality and digital twin technologies are now usable with standard iPhones, Android, tablets, and even drones. Now customer support reps can leverage these technologies instead of searching through PDF documents to try and fix a problem. A new seamless digital workflow experience enables links between field service execution/resolution and the customer experience.
The visual service experience includes:
CareAR® Assist
This augmented reality-based tool empowers contact centers and remote experts to see technical challenges on any field technician, contractor, or customer’s device. Organizations can resolve an issue remotely instead of sending a technician out the door.
CareAR® Instruct
Field workers can solve issues on their own and validate tasks are performed correctlyswith step-by-step directions and visual verification on their smart device. 3D digital twins allow users to explore the object they are troubleshooting, zoom in and out, and rotate the object delivering an immersive experience with contextual content in the moment.
Support personas that can leverage this new set of tools for Service Experience Management (SXM) include:
Field Service Technicians
Teams are looking to take advantage of new visual support technologies, especially to support field technicians and contractors. CareAR Assist and Instruct add speed and value to train new workers. For example, McKinsey noted that “New hires require significant staff training, with 41% of surveyed leaders reporting that it takes between three and six months to train a new employee for optimal performance and a further 20% saying it takes more than six months.” 7
Remote Expert and Customer Support
Engineering Teams
Integrating visual engagement is key for engineers who require visual insight and action on existing support platforms. As ServiceNow noted: “The ability to remotely solve or enable customers or users to self-solve problems creates greater efficiency and productivity of people across the value chain.” 9
Support teams for automotive, manufacturing, and high-tech industries have an opportunity to leverage remote expert support, instead of waiting for a technician to eventually show up onsite. An existing Xerox dealer has noted that CareAR’s remote visual engagement increases speed to resolution versus waiting for the truck roll to show up.
Customer Experience
Improving customer experience has become extremely important for many organizations. An IDC survey identified that 46% of organizations focus on customer satisfaction as a KPI or metrics to change and keep track of how service performance is improving.
Prioritize Excellence Through Service Experiences
“From step-by-step instructions for complex tasks to virtual walk-throughs of machinery and equipment, AR empowers employees to learn faster and more effectively, reducing training time and improving knowledge retention.”
Factors for positively evaluating service experiences are important for support performance. In June 2022, IDC asked support teams, “In the next 12–24 months, what will your organization be prioritizing?”
“The ability to equip the front line with the dynamic insights needed to solve customer issues at the point of service is a differentiator and a game-changer.” IDC has recently noted some significant examples of the positive effects CareAR Assist and Instruct have had on the service experience:
%
Improving sales and revenue generation
Increasing revenue and revenue generation is a key interest for many organizations. “The Customer Support Department Becomes the Revenue Generation Department. In the past, customer support has been seen as a cost. Smart leaders are now realizing that customer service and a focus on CX pays.” 10 Augmented reality and digital twins integrated into the customer support experience are appearing as a brand advantage that will help with revenue improvements!
%
Improving service quality and speed for customers
Quality and speed for support were revealed as a priority for 35% of IDC survey participants. Tracking time for service is a support challenge. It becomes difficult to clearly understand problems when only brief written notes are usually limited or not shareable.
“From step-by-step instructions for complex tasks to virtual walk-throughs of machinery and equipment, AR empowers employees to learn faster and more effectively, reducing training time and improving knowledge retention.” 12
%
Tightening relationships with key customers through product innovation and service delivery
Innovation sought for service support is a big player for service teams. Field technicians and contractors are less effective using simple paper-based content. Companies can use AR to provide interactive guides or tutorials that help customers understand how to use or troubleshoot a product.11
%
Expanding to new markets
Winning new markets is another highlight identified by IDC rising out of support providers. Language support, device support requirements, and support personalization all factor into adding a presence in a new area. Augmented reality remote assist and visual self-solve offer a good method with new support innovation technology.
Service experience obstacles hinder success. Augmented reality innovation offers new solutions.
Improved Service Experience
IDC received feedback on two specific service survey results regarding support providers. The first is how to optimize results, particularly in dealing with a retiring workforce. The second is how to deliver quality and speed for results. Hiring support personnel to replace experienced local or field technical experts can be a challenging task. Training new employees takes longer than ever before and dealing with support contractors can be even more time-consuming.
With the emergence of digital twins and augmented reality, step-by-step guidance has become more accessible. This allows employees and contractors to have a visual engagement that is easy to use and follow on their own, rather than waiting for a remote expert to get on a call.
Recent customers and employees who responded to the IDC survey question, “What KPI or metrics does your organization prioritize to determine success in service?” The 3 highest survey responses were:
Customer Experience
Support leadership is acutely aware that each customer interaction is an opportunity to both “close a work order and wow the customer.” But in reality, field technician teams are inevitably dealing with performance support issues first, THEN hit with CX impact. For customer experience, Service Council recently identified, “focus in next 5 years would be for service leaders, with the top four being performance management (46%), service innovation (40%), expansion of service portfolio (36%), and THEN CX initiatives (32%). 13
How CareAR SXM Can Help
Visual real-time remote assist and self-solve now offer new ways to support employees in expanding valuable brand engagement. Field technicians and contact center agents using augmented reality encourage empathy and ownership for improving customer success results.
Customer Retention
The increased expectation of support excellence for consumer brands has put more pressure on support providers. Customers now demand faster and easier support, while field technicians and contact centers may prioritize other tasks over support requests. This is especially notable that consumer support has less patience today than it did before the pandemic.
How CareAR SXM Can Help
Providing additional support benefits to existing customers can greatly improve the effectiveness of their self-support. A good example of this is Xerox’s customer support Instruct solution which utilizes visual digital twins to help customers successfully maintain their printers. This solution is easily accessible through standard iPhones and Androids, allowing users to manipulate the angle of the 3D model in any way they need. By enabling customers to self-learn and solve printer issues autonomously, Xerox is helping to ensure their satisfaction and retention.
Employee Experience
Boosting benefits for employees that impact support success is an ongoing challenge. The ability to retain employees and continually benefit CX is a common effort. Retiring field technicians and contact center agents make it hard to reskill less experienced replacements while still working to enhance customer support. Service managers are aware that employee technical training is becoming more important, even as employee service performance is always tracked.
How CareAR SXM Can Help
Visual knowledge of an exact support challenge allows users to take action with new self-guidance using CareAR Remote Assist and CareAR Instruct.
Focus in next 5 years for service leaders. . .13
- Performance Management 46%
- Service Innovation 40%
- Service Portfolio 36%
- CX Initiatives 32%
What Makes Service Experience Management (SXM) the NOW for Support
Support leaders, team members, and customer and employee engagement specialists are struggling to find ways to improve performance while cutting costs. They often overlook innovative solutions that can help them achieve their goals. One such solution is a support method that utilizes advanced technology to provide on-call or on-site guidance to support employees. Unlike traditional paper-based manuals that can be difficult to learn from and may contain outdated information, this method offers real-time dynamic guidance. This makes support employees more effective and helps to increase customer engagement with the brand. Some examples include:
Transformation with dynamic visual content
Empowering service organizations with visual insight and real-time graphical guidance means speed AND agility. For support teams, this means remotely seeing the situation in real-time, diagnosing the problem, and customizing step-by-step guidance to resolve the issue.
Enable mobile and on-demand insights at the point of service
Immediately provide support for employees and customers on their mobile devices using iPhones, Androids, and tablets. With real-time visual solutions, performance can improve dynamically.
Emphasize collaboration that is immersive, contextual, dynamic, and at the point of need
SXM extends support to all teams including technicians in the field, contractors, and customers making visual support more immersive on every call. Visual tools such as augmented reality and digital twin provide more effective at the point of need.
How CareAR Introduced Service Experience Management (SXM)
Service Experience Management (SXM) refers to the process of enhancing customer and employee experiences during digital interactions to create greater value for the entire enterprise. SXM is heavily influenced by the latest advancements in visual augmented reality and digital twin engagement as well as visual guidance. SXM aims to create easy, effective, and emotionally engaging experiences between customers and employees using visual guidance to provide real-time solutions and self-service learning.
The deep level of collaboration and affinity created through SXM will help redefine brand support, resulting in improved customer experience, employee experience, and better business results. Some of the primary areas where SXM can drive transformative change include:
The use of augmented reality technology through CareAR visual awareness has resulted in a new level of engagement and improved performance for support staff. With an ever-increasing demand for quick identification and resolution of problems, employees across the board need efficient support. CareAR technologies provide real-time awareness and personalized guidance that cater to every support engagement. This leads to an improved employee experience, making it more effective, enjoyable, and recognized for performance when CareAR support succeeds.
When customers seek support it can be challenging to provide effective assistance. However, CareAR technologies help create empathy and ownership from support resulting in a better way to engage and resolve issues, thereby improving the customer experience. Customers who receive support from CareAR technologies are more likely to share their positive experiences, which can promote a wide range of benefits.
CareAR support has positive financial impacts on businesses that can be quantified and achieved. Faster resolution and reduced truck rolls are common return on investment (ROI) results that can also impact employee benefits and retention. Moreover, CareAR’s brand benefits set it apart from the competition and provide additional business value. Sustainability is also a key factor, as the real knowledge offered by CareAR promotes measurable benefits that help businesses stand out and possibly improve revenue gain.
CareAR Technology that Makes Service Experience Management (SXM)
CareAR, A Xerox company, provides a unique technology that can help organizations worldwide elevate their customer support. This technology enables remote experts, field technicians, contractors, and customers to have real-time visual awareness and take action using new augmented and digital twin technology.
CareAR Assist
Provides visual guidance in real-time, allowing remote support experts to see visual devices from field technicians and customers. It is compatible with standard iPhones, Android, tablets, and drones, making it more effective in solving problems.
CareAR Instruct
Offers augmented reality or digital twin step-by-step guidance to help field technicians, contractors, and customers solve complex problems. It is compatible with standard iPhones, Android, and tablets and empowers users to select personalized graphical self-solve guidance.
CareAR Experience Builder
Allows you to build your own instructions using 2D, 3D, and video content within rich cards. This enables Instruct users to curate available content optimizing engagement and comprehension. You can update guidance anytime and publish with QR codes instantly to engage Instruct users.
IDC The Future of Service Experience Management (SXM)
Resolution and engagement through
on-demand insights and enhanced experiences
About CareAR
CareAR, A Xerox Company, is the Service Experience Management (SXM) leader. We make expertise accessible instantly for users through remote, live visual augmented reality and AI-driven interactions, instructions, and insights as part of a seamless digital workflow experience. CareAR sets the benchmark for the SXM category by bridging skills gaps, accelerating knowledge transfers, providing greater operational efficiencies, and enhancing customer outcomes and safety. Learn more at CareAR.com
About IDC: Aly Pinder, Jr.
As Research Vice President, Worldwide Aftermarket Strategies, Aly Pinder Jr leads IDC research and analysis of the service and customer support market across industries, which includes topics such as field service, warranty operations, service parts management, and how these service areas impact the overall aftermarket service experience. Mr. Pinder establishes a roadmap for organizations to better understand how technology can transform service and support functions to drive exceptional customer experiences and customer value, profitable revenue growth, and improved efficiency in the field.More about Aly Pinder, Jr.
Sources:
- TSIA – Unlocking the Path to Monetizing Customer Success | TSIA
- ServiceNow – 4 Steps to an Engaging Employee Experience – ServiceNow Blog
- IDC – IDC Releases Whitepaper on “Embracing AR Technologies” – AREA (thearea.org)
- Service Council – Service Council Research Report: Building Momentum with an AR-enabled Digital Transformation (carear.com)
- Deloitte, Embrace Meaningful Personalization to Maximize Engagement, Growth – WSJ
- Salesforce – 10 key customer service trends for 2022 and beyond | ZDNET
- McKinsey – Customer care in 2022 and beyond | McKinsey
- Optimizely – Optimizely Survey Finds Seamless Marketer Experiences Are Critical to Driving Creativity in New Era of Remote & Hybrid Work | Business Wire
- ServiceNow – CareAR announces integration partnership – ServiceNow Blog
- Shep Hyken – Top 10 Customer Service & CX Predictions for 2023 (hyken.com)
- Augmented Reality: Transforming the Customer Service World (cmswire.com)
- The Rise Of Augmented Reality In The Modern Workplace (forbes.com)
- Service Council – Service Council Research Report: Building Momentum with an AR-enabled Digital Transformation (carear.com)
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