Ford will soon be launching of VIIZR, a field service tool built on Salesforce. This new tool is aimed at meeting the needs of small business owners, like plumbers, electricians, or heating and ventilation technicians. VIIZR will simplify key commercial activities including invoicing, scheduling and managing requests, offering small business owners greater capability and flexibility when it comes to serving their customers.
Salesforce Field Service, the platform that VIIZR is built on, offers a complete solution for managing mobile workforces and providing onsite support. This partnership has allowed Ford to develop VIIZR especially for trade businesses and cater to the section of their customer base that includes small business owners.
Part of the trouble with running a small business is that most productivity software and tools are not designed with businesses of that size in mind. A recent study found that just one in five owners of small businesses are satisfied with the way their businesses handle customer and employee relations. Over 90% believe that most business solutions are designed for mainly larger businesses. With the help of Salesforce, Ford was able to design VIIZR to fill this gap. Created for businesses with less than 20 employees, VIIZR has the potential to reduce back-office work by more than 40% or about 25 hours a week.
VIIZR subscriptions start at $39 a month per user, and include capabilities such as digitization for quotes and work orders, invoicing, a customer profile system to streamline communications and improve customer experiences, and scheduling and dispatching programs to make it easier to coordinate employees and their field time. Overall VIIZR aims to increase productivity and profit for small businesses.
“Small business owners are the foundation of our communities, and every day across America plumbers, electricians and landscapers step into their Ford vehicles to build our economy,” said Marc Benioff, chair and co-CEO of Salesforce. “We're thrilled that our incredible new partnership with Ford will help energize millions of entrepreneurs in the trades with the power of Salesforce so they can deliver for their customers and take their businesses to the next level.”
Ford Pro has made a commitment to evolve along with the needs of their customers, and VIIZR is the latest expression of this drive. The platform will be launching in the first half of 2022, and Ford will soon be looking for trade businesses to take part in a complimentary pilot program of VIIZR.