Salesforce Scheduler vs. Field Service Lightning: Which One Is Best for Your Company's Field Service Needs?

However similar, the tools have different features and capabilities that make them suited for different use cases.

Here's a closer look at the differences between Salesforce Scheduler and Field Service Lightning.

Salesforce Scheduler is an add-on built into the Salesforce platform. It enables companies to schedule and dispatch appointments for field service technicians, track technician availability, and manage work orders.

Salesforce Scheduler simplifies the process of creating, modifying, and canceling appointments for both your customers and employees. It basically means that you can set specific topics, locations, and appointment durations.

In addition, you can create service resources that correspond to your employees' skills and knowledge, ensuring that your customers are consistently paired with the most suitable team member.

Some of the key features of Salesforce Scheduler include:

• Scheduling and dispatching: Salesforce Scheduler enables companies to schedule and dispatch in-store and virtual appointments taking into account technician availability, skills, and location.

• Customizable workflows: Companies can customize the workflows and processes for scheduling and dispatching appointments to meet their specific needs.

Don't forget to check out: All you Need to Know About Salesforce Apex Scheduler | The Ultimate Guide

Field Service Lightning enables companies to manage all aspects of their field service operations, including scheduling, dispatching, work order management, inventory management, and asset management.

Field Service Lightning is designed for companies that have a large number of field service technicians or that have complex scheduling and dispatching processes.

With Field Service Lightning, service reps and managers can:

• Manage work orders from creation to completion, track progress, update status, and capture customer feedback.

• Manage inventory levels, track stock movements, and optimize inventory replenishment.

• Manage customer assets, track asset history, and schedule preventive maintenance.

• Access their schedules, update work orders, and access customer information from their mobile devices using the Field Service Lightning mobile app.

• Benefit from automatically scheduled appointments based on predefined rules and criteria, such as technician availability, travel time, and customer preferences.

The key difference lies in the scope of each tool: Salesforce Scheduler is primarily focused on scheduling appointments, while Field Service Lightning covers more functions, such as scheduling, dispatching, work order management, inventory management, and asset management.

Some other differences include:

• Scalability: Salesforce Scheduler is designed for companies with a small number of field service technicians or that have a simple scheduling process, while Field Service Lightning is designed for companies with a large number of field service technicians or that have complex scheduling and dispatching processes.

• Automation: While both tools support automated scheduling, Field Service Lightning provides more advanced automation features, such as automated scheduling based on customer preferences and predictive maintenance scheduling.

• Integration: Field Service Lightning provides deeper integration with other Salesforce tools, such as Sales Cloud and Service Cloud, enabling companies to manage their entire customer lifecycle from a single platform.

• Mobile app: Field Service Lightning includes a mobile app that enables field service technicians to access their schedules, update work orders, and access customer information from their mobile devices, while Salesforce Scheduler does not include a mobile app.

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In summary, Salesforce Scheduler and Field Service Lightning are powerful tools working on the same data model but solving different problems. Salesforce Scheduler suits the purposes of appointment automation, both for virtual and in-house operations. FSL, in turn, is used to help with more complex service operations.