Remote visual assistance in field service management (FSM)

With RVA, organizations can support customers and technicians in the field through video feeds delivered from mobile devices and smart glasses.

At the enterprise level, RVA is a key component of field service management (FSM), which involves coordinating employees who operate off company property. It is used widely across many industries, including manufacturing, utilities and healthcare to deliver faster issue resolution, improve first-time fix rates (FTFR) and enhance overall customer experience.

In addition to live video, RVA also uses remote support platforms that are equipped with augmented reality (AR) tools that make it easier for employees and customers to collaborate. Leveraging remote support platforms and live video feeds, remote experts can observe a real-world environment in another location and provide visual support.

According to a recent report, the AR RVA market size was large and growing steadily. It was valued at USD 1.6 billion in 2023 and is projected to reach USD 14 billion by 2030, a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 35%.¹

RVA tools are transforming traditional remote support practices from voice-based troubleshooting into sophisticated visual experiences. Technicians and customers who are onsite simply open a video support session with a representative through a text message link and share their live video stream. An expert can then assist them using overlays that are straightforward and easy to follow.

RVA is useful in industries where teams must maintain equipment and infrastructure in multiple locations. Customer support teams and field technicians leveraging remote support platforms can provide technical support in real time without traveling onsite, reducing downtime, avoiding truck rolls and helping streamline maintenance workflows.

Technological breakthroughs in AR, video streaming and computer vision—combined with the widespread adoption of mobile devices—are driving RVA forward. Together, these developments allow customers and field technicians to share their physical environment with remote experts in real time and receive detailed guidance.

RVA typically follows a five-step process.

A customer or technician can initiate a visual assistance session whenever they need help problem-solving or troubleshooting a particular issue. Typically, they launch a video call through a mobile app that can be shared with a secure text link. 

When performing complex tasks, some technicians often put on wearable headset like smart glasses so they can keep their hands free.

After establishing the connection, the technician or customer who needs help sends their live video stream to a remote expert. Using their real-time video feed, the expert guides them through the steps needed to resolve the issue they’re facing.

Unlike traditional support interactions, RVA-enhanced interactions allow experts to directly observe an issue, often accelerating issue resolution.

Visual collaboration involves a remote expert directly interacting with the customer or technician and providing visual support.

Experts often rely on digital tools to enhance their ability to collaborate, including the following features:

• AR annotations or labels to help identify specific components and other real-world objects
• Overlay elements that can appear directly in a live video feed
• Visual instructions, such as step-by-step repair guidance, for completing a specific task

Advanced RVA platforms sometimes connect directly to enterprise workflows and field service management (FSM) systems, allowing support sessions to be initiated directly from contact centers or maintenance systems.

This feature allows organizations to document work, track service events and automate follow-up procedures.

Every visual assistance session is a chance for enterprises to gain insights into their processes. Organizations can add recorded remote video, annotated screenshots and documented step-by-step procedures to their knowledge base.

Over time, this library of material can support onboarding, training and a wide range of self-service resources for both customers and workers.

While organizations’ needs differ widely based on their industry and size, here are some core functionalities that strong RVA solutions should offer:

• Real-time video streaming: Reliable real-time video streaming is the foundation of any RVA platform. Without it, remote experts can’t connect with customers or technicians in the field and the most advanced collaboration features won’t work.

• Augmented reality (AR) annotations: AR features allow experts to put AR annotations and visual markers into a live video feed and anchor them to physical objects, even when the camera moves. This capability is critical to providing visual instructions during complex repairs or installations.

• Cross-device compatibility: Strong RVA solutions should support a wide range of components, such as smartphones and tablets, wearable devices and smart glasses for hands-free field service work.

• Security and compliance: Remote video sessions often involve sensitive data, so RVA platforms must include secure encryption and authentication capabilities. Some industries like healthcare and finance require strict regulatory compliance for processes where visual data is shared from an onsite environment.

• Intelligent automation and support: With all the recent technological advances in AI automation, modern RVA solutions must be able to seamlessly integrate AI and computer vision capabilities into workflows. These tools significantly speed the identification of components through live video and can automate service documentation and other aspects of RVA work.

Modern remote visual assistance (RVA) solutions provide organizations with many advantages. From improving maintenance workflows to enhancing record keeping and customer engagement, here are the top benefits of deploying RVA at the enterprise level:

• Less downtime: Effective RVA tools help reduce equipment failures and service disruptions that can lead to costly downtime. By connecting technicians with remote experts faster, organizations shorten the amount of time it takes to troubleshoot a task and get equipment performing again. Without RVA tools, experts must travel onsite to repair machinery, increasing the cost of repair and lengthening the amount of time it takes to restore business operations.

• Better first-time fix rates: RVA improves first-time fix rates (FTFR)—the percentage of jobs completed on the first visit without follow-up visits or extra parts. When a technician can easily access expert guidance through a visual assistance session, they are more likely to resolve the issue the first time. Higher FTFR reduces the need for repeat service calls and increases technician productivity.

• Reduced truck rolls: In FSM, the term truck roll refers to a repair where a specialist needs to be sent into the field to perform a complex repair onsite, often requiring expensive travel and scheduling. RVA reduces truck rolls by enabling specialists and technicians to diagnose and resolve problems remotely, helping organizations lower operational costs and improve responsiveness.

• Faster issue resolution: Technicians relying on RVA can immediately show remote experts their problem and receive step-by-step guidance on how to resolve it. This real-time collaboration leads to faster issue resolution and enables maintenance departments to lower their mean time to repair (MTTR), a measurement of the average time it takes them to resolve issues.

• Enhanced customer experience: When customers resolve technical issues quickly and effectively, their satisfaction increases and customer support departments thrive. Video support allows customers to show technicians their problems directly rather than attempting to describe them over the phone and helps support agents resolve issues faster.

To implement strong remote visual assistance (RVA), enterprises typically use a structured five-step approach:

1. Identify operational priorities: First, organizations need to identify where RVA can create the greatest impact in their business operations. Common areas to implement RVA include field service repair, technical support teams and customer support.
2. Select a platform: With all the recent advances in AI automation, RVA support solutions are available for almost every industry. As an absolute minimum, organizations should look for key features that support RVA’s core capabilities, such as video streaming, AR tools and compatibility with mobile devices.
3. Integrate with FSM: Organizations that have an existing field service management (FSM) software solution should find an RVA solution that integrates easily with it. Integrated RVA and FSM allow service technicians to easily initiate a live video call and automate documentation for each session without switching between platforms.
4. Train support teams: Successful RVA adoption depends on how well support teams and field technicians are trained on the platform. Training programs should cover all the important aspects of RVA, including how to initiate a remote video session, how to use annotations and how to follow digital instructions.
5. Monitor performance metrics: After deploying a new RVA platform and integrating it into their existing workflows, organizations should monitor key metrics like FTFR, MTTR, truck rolls and reductions in downtime. Identifying and monitoring these metrics can help stakeholders see the value of RVA across the entire enterprise.

Remote visual assistance (RVA) is similar to other digital support technologies but unique in how it connects customers and field technicians remotely with experts who can help them resolve a problem:

• Traditional remote support versus remote visual assistance: Traditional remote support allows technicians to access computers remotely, while RVA focuses on sharing the physical environment and a view of the device that’s being repaired through live video feed.

• Augmented reality (AR) training versus remote visual assistance: AR training uses digital overlays to train workers on complex equipment and is often a pre-programmed experience. RVA enables remote experts to provide guidance through AR annotations and overlay graphics live.

• Video conferencing versus remote visual assistance: Video call platforms enable teams and co-workers to collaborate over a live video feed but lack the specialized functionalities like annotations and overlay elements that make RVA solutions so unique.

Many kinds of organizations and industries rely on remote visual assistance (RVA) to enhance operational efficiency, reduce downtime, lower the cost of maintenance and provide better support to their customers and technicians. Here are some examples of how RVA is used in different disciplines.