Businesses cannot afford long-term equipment outages, but many operate in a reactive state, only recognizing and fixing issues when they arise and cause havoc. This presents major problems, as part shortages or limited access for service technicians due to the spread of COVID and other global challenges can lead to longer resolution times. Sam Waicberg, co-founder and president, CareAR, shares how AR can enable the adoption of a proactive service model for businesses.
According to 2021 Information Technology Industry Council (ITIC) Hourly Cost of Downtime Survey, hourly downtime costs have increased 32% over the past seven years. For 91% of companies, hourly downtime costs upwards of $300,000 annually, with a whopping 44% hit with bills in excess of $1 million. Downtime can significantly affect a business’s reputation with its customers; if customer expectations are not met, companies risk losing them. In a 2021 learning from Qualtrics and ServiceNow80% of customers said they switched brands because of a bad customer experience, and 43% of respondents said they were likely to switch brands after just one negative customer service interaction.
Enter augmented reality (AR). AR is a key enabling technology that gives businesses the power to shift their maintenance models from a traditional reactive approach to a modern proactive one that better supports service technicians and provides a superior experience to customer. This technology can combine “see-what-I-see” video overlaid with contextual visual guidance using smart devices to enable remote support of equipment issues and faster resolution times.
Many decision makers are looking to adopt a more proactive approach because it is both cost-effective and time-efficient for the organization. This “shift left” approach lowers costs because issues found early in the process are cheaper to fix. It also promotes better communication between internal teams and technical support representatives, creating a more efficient organization.
Let’s see how businesses are using AR to “shift left” and adopt a more proactive and responsive service model:
See More: How AR/VR is Driving Automation and Robotics for Manufacturers
Enable Proactive Troubleshooting and Predictive Maintenance
With live visual instructions powered by AR, employees are able to troubleshoot potential issues and implement proactive maintenance before things reach a tipping point and become major problems that can result in catastrophic equipment failure. The “see-what-I-see” visual display offers a low barrier to entry that provides critical assistance to all customers, regardless of their technical expertise, familiarity, or comfort level handling important equipment issues. The data gathered during these AR interactions can be used to identify trends over time and alert maintenance or a remote technician of any impending problems.
Early diagnosis of Sustainability Issues and Improvements
Service truck rolls cannot always be avoided, even in an active organization. However, excessive service transmissions can and should be reduced to the greatest extent; one in three service calls results in a site visit and unnecessary additional costs. With AR, field service experts can adopt and maintain a proactive mindset by using technology to pre-diagnose potential issues and ensure the right parts and resources are brought to the site first.
But the financial impact is only part of the story. Excessive service transmissions have other effects, such as negative effects on climate and air quality. According to EPA, transportation accounted for 27% of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in 2020, the most important contributor of any sector. Trucks (light, medium, and heavy-duty) are responsible for 83% of emissions coming from transportation. As an added benefit, a proactive service approach means that businesses can ensure that all equipment is running smoothly and efficiently, resulting in a smaller carbon footprint. This helps organizations meet and exceed their ESG goals and, with increased public focus on the climate crisis, is likely to improve customer loyalty and growth.
Facilitating Knowledge Transfer and Workforce Retention
The Great Resignation continues to affect the entire workforce: at the end of July, there were 11.2 million job vacancies, with 4.2 million people quitting during the month. In the same line, McKinsey research shows that 40% of workers are considering leaving their current job. With massive workforce turnover, companies find themselves in a period of constant restructuring to handle the loss of knowledge and skills. What’s more, as the workforce ages, it also shrinks: more than half of US adults age 55 and older became retirees in Q3 2021.
In addition to upskilling the existing workforce, the cost of hiring and training new employees can be costly and expensive. Businesses are now being proactive, using AR to gather content that captures the valuable knowledge of those leaving the workforce, providing a seamless knowledge transfer process. Technicians using AR wearables can capture every step of the diagnosis and repair process and save that information to a database, where full-length videos or short clips can be made available for compile useful training modules. AR can be a great tool to train and motivate employees regardless of their technical background.
Setting Up For Success
Businesses can no longer operate according to traditional rules. In today’s highly competitive business environment, organizations are looking for every possible opportunity to gain even the slightest competitive edge. AR has so many uses and capabilities, making it the perfect implementation for any organization looking to zoom ahead in their industry. Our current global landscape also requires agility, scalability, and flexibility, as demonstrated by the dramatic changes in overall business strategy caused by the pandemic. If an organization is not flexible and open-minded in adopting new technologies, it will be left behind as more innovative competitors take the lead.
Don’t wait until it’s too late: “shifting left” from a reactive approach to a proactive model now will set the organization up for a quick response and long-term success when equipment challenges or workforce issues arise .
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