Track Your Technician Like You Track Your Pizza

We’ve all been there. You take the day off work, cancel plans, and sit by the window waiting for a service technician who said they’d arrive “sometime between 9 and 5.” Hours go by, and you’re still waiting. No updates, no estimated time of arrival, no real visibility.

That kind of experience doesn’t just frustrate customers; it damages trust. And for service organizations, that gap between scheduling and arrival is often where customer satisfaction starts to drop.

The good news? With the right technology, that doesn’t have to happen anymore.

The Gap Between Dispatch and Arrival

One of the biggest challenges in field service has always been the gap between a technician being dispatched and their arrival to the customer site. The moment a job leaves the scheduling board, customers and even internal teams lose sight of it.

Technicians get dispatched, but customers don’t know when to expect them. Dispatchers are juggling multiple jobs, routes, and emergencies. Meanwhile, leadership has no easy way to see what’s actually happening in the field until it’s already gone wrong.

This disconnect is exactly what platforms like ServiceNow FSM (Field Service Management) and CRM are designed to solve.

Visibility Changes Everything

What I love about ServiceNow is that it gives everyone visibility from dispatchers to technicians to customers.

With ServiceNow CRM, a single customer record holds every interaction and service history. No more flipping between systems or chasing email chains. Dispatchers can see the customer’s issue, warranty coverage, and past work orders in one view before scheduling the right tech.

Then ServiceNow FSM takes over. Once a technician is assigned, both the dispatcher and the customer can see where that job stands including what’s scheduled, who’s en route, and when they’re expected to arrive. That real-time communication makes a world of difference.

And for technicians, FSM on mobile is a game changer. They can view their schedule, see asset details, upload photos, and close out jobs without having to call back to the office. The system does the heavy lifting behind the scenes syncing everything to CRM, updating the customer record, and notifying the next team automatically.

AI That Keeps Every Service Team in Sync

The latest evolution of the ServiceNow platform brings something I’m really excited about: AI Agents.

We’ve all seen how AI can summarize emails or write reports, but what makes Now Assist powerful is its ability to guide the service process itself.

Let’s say a technician finishes a job and needs to document it. AI Agents can pre-populate key fields based on what is observed in the case notes or prior work orders. If there’s an anomaly (maybe the same asset has had multiple repairs in the last month) it can flag that automatically for escalation or warranty review.

For customers, that means fewer surprises. For technicians, it means less paperwork. And for service teams overall, it means faster turnaround times and happier customers.

From “We’ll Be There Sometime Today” to “We’re on the Way”

When I think about how far we’ve come in field service, it’s honestly night and day.

Years ago, I worked with teams that still relied on printed work orders and phone updates. If a technician got stuck in traffic, everyone downstream was left guessing. Today, with ServiceNow, that same technician can update their job status from their phone, automatically triggering a text to the customer with an updated ETA.

That’s not just better service, that’s respecting people’s time.

What Makes It Work

After 13 years working in this space, here’s what I’ve learned: technology alone doesn’t solve the “waiting game.” It’s the combination of the right tools, good process design, and user adoption that makes it work.

When I help clients roll out ServiceNow FSM, I focus on four pillars every time:

1. Communication: Real-time visibility for customers and staff.
2. Training: So users know how (and why) to use the tools.
3. Testing: Simulate real-life scenarios before go-live.
4. Support: Keep the feedback loop open after launch.

That last one is key. The more you listen to your field techs the better your adoption and your customer experience will be. (Check out this article where I talk about these pillars in detail.)  

The Future of Field Service Is Transparent

The days of “waiting around all day” are fading fast. Customers expect the same transparency from service providers that they get from rideshare apps and pizza delivery apps: a map, an ETA, and the ability to communicate instantly.

With ServiceNow’s CRM, FSM, and Now Assist working together, that’s not a dream, it’s the new standard.

And that’s what makes me excited about the work we do at Bolt Data. Because when the technology works right, customers don’t just wait less. They trust more.