Visual Remote Assistance in Field Service: Transforming How Home Services Deliver Support

Have you ever had something at home suddenly stop working? Maybe the washing machine starts making strange noises, or the Wi-Fi drops out right in the middle of a call. You call support, wait on hold, repeat your details, and after all that, you are told a technician has to come out. Days later, they arrive, take one look, and fix it in minutes. All that time and hassle, for a quick fix.

At ProQuest, we see this play out every day with the field service teams who ask for our help. Skilled technicians spend hours travelling back and forth for small jobs, while bigger, more complex issues are left waiting. Companies burn resources on unnecessary visits, and customers are left frustrated by delays. It is clear the old way of doing things is holding everyone back. There has to be a smarter approach.

The Rise of Remote-First Field Teams

Customer expectations have changed. People want faster resolutions, minimal disruption, and less waiting around for service appointments. At the same time, organisations are under pressure to do more with fewer resources. Traditionally, customer support and field operations have often been seen as cost centres. Leaders focus on how much these functions consume rather than the value they could create. But this view is short-sighted. A remote-first model, when paired with the right tools, unlocks major savings from fewer truck rolls, more efficient scheduling, to less downtime for customers.

What Is VRA - Visual Remote Assistance?

Think about the kinds of calls service teams deal with every day. A homeowner with a broken appliance. A customer reports a faulty internet connection. A retailer with equipment that suddenly stops working. Even utility companies deal with meter or wiring checks.

For many of these situations, the issue can be resolved straight away, saving everyone the time, cost, and frustration of a site visit. Salesforce Visual Remote Assistance (VRA) is a native tool built on Service Cloud and Field Service that lets support teams see what the customer sees through their mobile phone’s live video connection. Instead of describing an issue over the phone, the customer shows it directly on screen, and the support expert can guide them step by step in real time. In many cases, the issue is resolved instantly, without anyone needing to travel.

💡 Licensing Tip:
To use Salesforce Visual Remote Assistance (VRA), your organisation must have either Service Cloud or Salesforce Field Service licences, along with Visual Remote Assistant licences for your users. This ensures agents can access VRA features directly within their existing Salesforce service environment.

Here is what it looks like in action:

Customer View

Contact Centre View

Here’s how it typically works:

1. The customer contacts the customer support to raise an issue.
2. The support agent confirms whether the customer is comfortable using their mobile device’s live camera for a Visual Remote Assistance session.
3. Once the customer agrees, the agent sends a secure link that allows them to connect safely to a live video session.
4. The agent can now see what the customer sees, access their case details, and use on-screen annotations to point, highlight, or mark exactly where to look.
5. Together, they walk through the troubleshooting process, with the customer following simple steps while the agent ensures safety and accuracy.
6. When the issue is resolved, the session is closed and automatically logged in Salesforce for future reference.

From Fixing Problems to Future-Proofing Service

Adopting Visual Remote Assistance is not just about trimming costs. It is about building a service model that scales as customer expectations grow. With VRA, companies can support more customers without adding more technicians, give people faster resolutions that strengthen loyalty, and prepare their operations for a future where digital-first support is the norm.

And it is not only customers who benefit. Dispatchers gain more control over workloads. Field technicians spend less time on routine trips and more time solving complex challenges. Business leaders see lower costs, greater efficiency, and a stronger reputation for service excellence.

Putting It Into Practice

One of our customers, a leading manufacturer of premium kitchen equipment that has been serving restaurants and commercial kitchens across Australia for more than 90 years, wanted to modernise their service operations. They were looking for a single, scalable platform to streamline processes, improve after-sales service, unify data, and create a foundation for future growth.

With Visual Remote Assistance now part of their service model, their teams can resolve certain issues remotely, avoiding unnecessary site visits and reducing downtime for their customers. The new platform is actively used across service operations, supported by targeted training sessions that accelerate adoption. Close collaboration between our teams ensured everything was delivered within scope, on time, and within budget.

Ready to Explore Visual Remote Assistance?

If you want to cut unnecessary site visits, empower your teams, and deliver faster service to your customers, now is the time to explore Visual Remote Assistance.

👉 Get in touch with us today to learn how we can help you bring smarter, more efficient service to life.