In April 2023, Salesforce published some exciting news about new Field Service features powered by Data Cloud and Einstein GPT. These advancements, currently in beta, are expected to reduce costs and impact operations positively.
In enhancing the mobile workforce with AI, imagine the efficiencies to be gained with features such as automated appointment scheduling, appointment tracking, pre-arrival planning, work summarization, and payment processing. With Data Cloud, companies can enjoy proactive maintenance and make predictions by utilizing historical asset data.
Empowering Field Service operators with AI and Data Cloud capabilities will ultimately translate into improved metrics such as time-to-service, first-time fix rates, time-to-cash, and more…
While these exciting enhancements are in the works, what better time to get started with the existing Field Service platform, which is an extension of the Service Cloud application? For Salesforce professionals with both Admin and Service Cloud certifications, a niche like this can provide a great opportunity to build a more complete view of workforce management.
In this guide, we’ll review what this certification entails, who could be a good candidate for this path, and the key topics you’ll need to master to succeed.
About the Salesforce Certified Field Service Consultant Exam
Here’s what you need to know ahead of the exam:
- The exam consists of 60 multiple-choice/multiple-select questions.
- You’ll have 105 minutes to complete the exam.
- The passing score is 63%.
- The exam costs $200 to take, and retakes cost $100.
- The exam can be taken online or at a testing center.
- Prerequisites: Salesforce Administrator credential and Salesforce Service Cloud Consultant credential.
Who’s the Ideal Candidate?
The Salesforce Certified Field Service Consultant certification is designed for consultants who have some experience with Service Cloud and Field Service implementations, including mobile applications.
The exam covers a wide range of Field Service topics, and this certification is sure to not only improve your skills as a consultant but also potentially open up more career opportunities for you. Mastering the concepts of Field Service operations, along with your current experience, will enhance your growth both from a process and technical standpoint.
These are the foundational requirements for the Field Service Consultant certification:
- 1-2 years as a Business Analyst
- 1+ years in the Field Services industry
- 2+ years of Service and Support experience
The Field Service Consultant candidate should have the skills and experience required to perform the following:
- Explain the general purpose of the core Salesforce products.
- Have an understanding of the Field Service lifecycle.
- Configure scalable Field Service solutions in each of the areas mentioned in the Key Topics section below.
Not to worry, candidates for this exam are not expected to know or perform complex development customizations like third-party integrations, Apex, or Lightning Web Components.
Now that we know what the Salesforce Certified Field Service Consultant certification entails, let’s review some key attributes of individuals who should consider pursuing this certification.
Niche Seekers
Have you ever applied for a job and immediately felt outnumbered? Needless to say, it doesn’t feel great. In recent years, the influx of new applicants constantly flooding the job market has made it even more challenging. There are several factors involved in the hiring process in these uncertain times, and although most are out of our control, thankfully, not all are.
Taking steps towards building skills in a specific area is a factor that is actually within our control and has the potential to impact our job search experiences. Also, with the ever-growing demand for Salesforce products, these niche areas present great opportunities for career advancement.
Service Professionals
Across all industries, customers expect great service. Always! Great Companies watch their service metrics closely as, most of the time, they have a direct correlation with customer retention and loyalty. Therefore, focusing on improving metrics such as average time-to-service and other KPIs is very beneficial.
Time savings derived by connecting teams on a unified platform and building efficient processes will improve workload management, scheduling and dispatch, asset management, customer satisfaction, and more.
With this in mind, as a service professional, you can help clients build scalable Field Service solutions to achieve their operational goals efficiently.
Field Operations Leaders
As a Field Operations Leader who has been involved in defining processes and configurations, you’d be a great candidate for this path based on your familiarity with operational bottlenecks experienced in the field. Your knowledge of field operations and the field agent experience will provide valuable insights into solution ideas, risk mitigation, and what success should look like.
Others Roles
Salesforce Professionals in the following roles are also great candidates for this certification:
- Mobile Solution Designer
- System Analyst
- Technical Architect
- Service Desk Manager
Key Topics
The Salesforce Field Service Consultant exam covers a range of topics on Workforce Management to prepare you for your role as a Field Service Consultant. Here are the key topics covered:
- Managing Resources: 16%
- Managing Work Orders: 23%
- Managing Scheduling and Optimization: 28%
- Configuring Mobility: 10%
- Managing Inventory: 8%
- Managing Assets: 5%
- Configuring Maintenance Plans: 5%
- Permissions and Sharing: 5%
Managing Resources: 16%
- Enable the Field Service feature and perform basic setup tasks.
- Create service resources, skills, and other resource-related components.
This section covers the initial steps required to activate the feature, install the managed package, and other basic setup components. On the resource side, setup continues with creating service resources, resource types, time sheets and entries, crew management for complex work, skills, territories, and operating hours – these are requirements for resource planning and scheduling.
You’ll be expected to understand setup, resource configurations, and Field Service basics which serve as an important foundation for subsequent sections.
Managing Work Orders: 23%
- Customize the Field Service center to support business processes.
- Identify the optimal configurations for efficient work order management.
You’ll be tested on your knowledge of work order processes, work types, and the related objects that are utilized to fulfill a work request. The customer, the service resource, and the company all have set goals and different measures of success. Therefore the work order management process must be optimized to ensure that the goals for these audiences are achieved.
The key areas are: Field Service center customization, milestones, work order management, work order line items, service appointments, and life cycles. Also included in this section are service resource preferences, required inventory, and creating work order line items from the mobile app.
To maximize efficiency, you’ll need to address various scenarios by applying best practice methods. You’ll also need to understand the relationship between service appointments, work orders, work order line items and other objects.
Managing Scheduling and Optimization: 28%
- Set up the dispatch console to support mobile workers and customers.
- Optimize scheduling, dispatch management and work tracking.
The operations of the dispatch scheduling console are based on defined rules, objectives and priorities. The dispatch center manages utilization, workload and preferences and responds to operational challenges in real time.
The components of this section include service appointment management, life cycles, complex work, scheduling, dependencies, policies, multi-day scenarios, optimization, routing and dispatching.
The console customization helps dispatchers take action in a timely manner. Your familiarity with the console and your ability to customize it to meet specific goals will be assessed in several scenarios.
Configuring Mobility: 10%
- Set up Field Service mobility and signature capture.
- Understand the capabilities of the Field Service mobile and Salesforce mobile apps.
Your ability to configure the mobile app functionality is critical for both the field agent and the customer. This includes having service reports created and signed in the field as well as enabling push notifications for real time updates.
Expect to be tested on your ability to troubleshoot field challenges in real time and to distinguish between Field Service mobile and Salesforce mobile app capabilities.
Managing Inventory: 8%
- Apply inventory management best practices to field operations.
- Describe the use of price books and various product components.
Products that are required to perform Field Service work need to be accessible on the app and tracked as an inventory item. You’ll be expected to understand how to create a product catalog, and track product usage and requests to ensure that items are available when needed. Other product-related items include price books, product requests, returns, product items and products required.
Your understanding of the relationships between these objects is important in Field Service operations. Your ability to determine the appropriate inventory and price book models for different scenarios will be assessed.
Managing Assets: 5%
- Describe customer asset management and tracking.
- Explain asset types and asset relationships.
Product usage tracking is an ongoing process for maintenance reasons. Assets may be included in entitlement processes; therefore, understanding the concepts of both assets and entitlements is important.
There are also different asset types and hierarchies, and these relationships will be covered in this section. Scenarios will be presented to test your knowledge of assets, asset relationships and tracking.
Configuring Maintenance Plans: 5%
- Identify the components of a maintenance plan.
- Describe how to configure maintenance plans and how related objects are utilized.
In this section, you’ll learn how to set up periodic maintenance plans and maintenance schedules for assets. The various generation methods, generation time frame, and frequency will be covered.
Expect a few questions on how to create and manage maintenance plans and the relationship between these plans and other components, such as work types, work orders, and service appointments.
Permissions and Sharing: 5%
- Identify permission set licenses for Field Service operations.
- Describe service appointment sharing, user territories and service territories.
In this section, your knowledge of profiles, permission sets and licenses will come into play, as well as requirements for specific job functions.
Your understanding of permissions for different roles will be tested. Also, the concept of user territories, service territories, and service appointment sharing will be covered.
Study Strategy
It’s recommended to refer to the official Salesforce Trailhead exam guide, which provides relevant links and more information about the exam outline, section summaries, recommended training resources, and more.
Following the order of the modules and projects in the trailmix referenced in the exam guide is also recommended, as the topics build on fundamental concepts as you advance.
Question Format
The Salesforce Field Service Consultant certification consists of 60 multiple-choice/multiple-select questions and up to five unscored questions, each with three possible answers. The time allotted to complete the exam is 105 minutes (time allows for unscored questions).
Exam Strategy
When exam day finally hits, there are a bunch of tips we gathered over the years to give you the best chance of passing with flying colors.
Firstly, if there are any concepts you are struggling to get to grips with, print off a cheat sheet and try to memorize any of these before you take the exam so they are fresh in your memory.
When taking the exam, pay particular attention to the question and read it through a few times. For the scenario-based questions, there will be huge clues as to what the correct answer actually is. If you need to (and are taking the exam in a test center), use the pen and paper provided to draw out a data schema, role hierarchy, or any other diagram that will help you visualize the answer.
When deciding on the answer, be sure to use the process of elimination to get rid of the answers that are definitely incorrect. Salesforce likes to throw in answers that are made up of features or just plain incorrect. They also like to throw in curveballs, with features that appear to be correct but aren’t best practice. You can often worm out these by focusing on standard Salesforce features that accomplish a task.
You also have a great tool at your disposal, the “Mark for review” feature. For each question, you’ll have a checkbox that you can mark. This is great if you cannot think of an answer right at that moment or if you are doubtful about your answer. At the end of the exam, you’ll have a chance to review these questions. Depending on the amount selected, this will give you a pretty good idea of how likely you are to have passed the test.
However, regardless of the questions marked for review, I would always recommend going through every question if time permits. I do this on every exam, and often spot mistakes I made in the answers and change a few.
Summary
The Salesforce Certified Field Service Consultant certification is a valuable credential for service and Field Service operators with some experience in both areas. This certification has the potential to lead to more opportunities by backing up your experience with an official certification. With new advancements in Field Service innovations, this is a great time to get started on the existing Field Service platform.
So, if you’re ready to create a niche for yourself, let’s build on your experience by becoming a Salesforce Certified Field Service Consultant!
Resources
- Salesforce Certified Field Service Consultant Exam Guide
- Prepare for Your Salesforce Field Service Consultant Credential
- New Salesforce Field Service Innovations Bring the Power of AI to the Mobile Workforce