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A significant part of providing field service efficiently is dependent on ensuring you have the right information such as the customer’s contact details and address. Having incorrect contact details may hamper field technicians from responding immediately to customer issues. Having the wrong service location may increase travel times as field technicians shuttle between places before responding to the customer.
Sometimes, the address the customer provides may be correct, and the service location may be registered correctly in Freshdesk as part of the service task details. But, when a field technician uses a navigation app like Apple or Google Maps to travel to the customer service location, they are directed to a different address altogether causing confusion, increase in travel time and serious impact to service efficiency as the field technician tries to find out what went wrong and navigate to the right location.
This happens due to a lat-long plotting error in navigation apps like Apple and Google Maps.
What is a Lat-Long plotting error?
Every service location entered in your service task has two attributes:
Address: As helpdesk agents and field technicians, this is what we see when we view the service location field - a normal address that is typically made up of a door number, street name, and zip code. For Example 1250 Bayhill Drive, San Bruno.
Latitude-Longitude coordinates (or Lat-Long): These are not visible to users. Every address has a corresponding lat-long coordinate used by navigation apps like Google Maps or Apple Maps to direct users to specific locations.
Sometimes, even though the registered address is correct, the corresponding lat-long coordinates tend to be registered incorrectly in the navigation app’s database. This results in your field technicians being misdirected. To rectify this, you can make use of the Geotagging feature in Freshdesk.
Prevent misdirections with Geotagging
The first time your field technician is directed to the incorrect address by their navigation app, they can immediately contact the customer and get proper directions to the actual service location.
Once they are at the correct service location, field technicians can update the correct lat-long from the Freshdesk mobile app to prevent field technicians from getting incorrect directions in the future. Here are the steps to update the correct service location by dropping a pin on the map:
Open up the relevant service task in the Freshdesk mobile app
Click on the context menu button on the top right (three dots) and select “Update location coordinates”
Freshdesk will ask for permission to access the location. Click on “Allow”
A map view will open up within Freshdesk with a blue dot signifying the field technician’s current location.
Since the current location is the right customer location, tap on the blue dot to drop a pin on the map.
Alternatively, field technicians can also move the map around, zoom in or out of locations and drop the pin at the spot that is more accurate for the service location address.
Click on “Update location coordinates” and the new lat-long will be saved for the customer’s address on Freshdesk.
For future service tasks from the customer, if field technicians navigate to this address, they will be directed to this new location as registered.
Note: This will not change the customer’s address saved in Freshdesk. It only updates the lat-long coordinate corresponding to that saved address so your navigation app does not misdirect you or your field team to incorrect locations.FAQ
Can field technicians update location coordinates multiple times?
Yes. Location coordinates can be edited or updated whenever field technicians feel it is necessary.Can field technicians update location coordinates without providing location access to Freshdesk?
Yes. Field technicians can still drop a pin on the map and update location coordinates. However, we strongly recommend using Freshdesk’s location feature when geotagging to ensure accuracy and for ease of plotting the service location.If I update location coordinates or lat-long, will my updates or data be submitted to Google or Apple or other navigation providers?
Any updates to lat-long or location coordinates will be stored only on Freshdesk. This will be transmitted to map providers like Google or Apple only for the purpose of navigation when field technicians click on “Navigate”. Updating the lat-long using Freshdesk’s geo-tagging feature will not change the publicly available Google or Apple Maps data in any way.If a service task has a support agent as Contact, what will happen if the service location is updated and saved to contact?
Any updates to the service location will be saved to the contact only if the contact is a Customer in your Freshdesk account. If the point of contact for a service task is a support agent, changes to the address will be reflected in the service task but will not be saved against the agent’s name in Freshdesk.If the service task address entered is different from the contact's saved address in Freshdesk, will the updated lat-long reflect in the customer details too?
No. The lat-long will be copied to the contact's saved address only if it is the same as the service task address. While creating a service task, support agent can change the service task address by selecting the checkbox to copy the new details to the contact if required.
