Work Management: A Complete Guide for 2025

Ineffective and inefficient processes can quickly put a stop to your productivity, with service decision-makers ranking it among their top challenges. Work management, a system for organizing work and getting it done, can provide the structure a customer service team needs to align on goals and get work done.

This guide will help you understand why work management is important for both daily tasks and ongoing projects — and how the right strategies and tools can optimize contact center and Field Service operations.

This guide will help you understand why work management is important for both daily tasks and ongoing projects — and how the right strategies and tools can optimize contact center and Field Service operations.

Work management is a framework for coordinating projects, tasks, and processes. It's the continual, end-to-end process of how work gets done from initial intake through execution. The approach helps businesses and teams stay organized, save time, and reach their goals.

Project management is one component of work management. Project management focuses on specific, time-boxed activities with start and end dates. Work management is broader. It includes projects plus the ongoing tasks, processes, and planning required to run daily operations. For example, project management handles launching a new customer self-service portal, while work management covers both that launch and the daily ticket routing, agent scheduling, and performance tracking that keeps your contact center running.

• Work management is a framework for coordinating projects, tasks, and processes that helps businesses increase efficiency, meet deadlines, boost productivity, and achieve goals.
• Work management provides the structure for collaboration, accountability, and communication so teams can provide positive customer interactions and resolutions.
• AI and technology are the driving forces behind trends in work management, with multimodal AI, agentic AI, and the internet of things (IoT) providing support and troubleshooting.

Work management helps ensure a team can achieve its goals of positive customer interactions and resolutions. According to the Salesforce State of Service Report, 69% of service reps say balancing customer service speed and quality is difficult. Having essential workflows is critical as customers' expectations rise.

Service leaders must plan, coordinate, and optimize how work is done across teams in call and contact centers and in the field. Work management prevents chaos by creating a centralized system where priorities and goals align. With such a framework in place, you don't have to guess what service task comes next. You can anticipate and prepare for it.

Work management is the backbone of smooth team operations. It benefits a business by providing structure for collaboration, accountability, and communication. For example, work management allows service organizations to track the tasks associated with customer satisfaction. And after assessing metrics like customer satisfaction (CSAT) scores and customer effort scores, you can take steps to adjust work management practices for better productivity or planning.

Work management can help you:

• Save on operational costs: Work management can increase the efficiency of Field Service operations by saving on unnecessary labor, optimizing resource allocation, improving technician scheduling, and reducing errors with customer service management.
• Enhance worker safety: In our research, 78% of mobile workers say dedicated Field Service technologies help them feel safer and more effective at their jobs. Established work management protocols help reduce the risk to workers and businesses.
• Improve employee satisfaction: Workers feel empowered and supported when a business has effective processes in place for them to perform their job. They spend less time on mundane tasks and inefficient workflows that cause frustration.

A successful work management framework has processes in place that allow an organization to deliver value to its customers and adapt to their changing needs. Key aspects include clear communication, logical workflows, and well-defined priorities.

When setting up your work management, first assess your organization's current approach to projects, tasks, and processes. Identify the areas where you're strong and the ones that could use improvement. Implement a work management framework that enhances weaker areas and aligns with your goals, roles, and responsibilities.

Here are some elements to consider in developing a work management strategy:

• Minimized idle time: When you build schedules for Field Service, try to minimize time wasted on traveling. This can reduce costs and improve performance. Have your dispatch management maximize working time by assigning the person with the right skills, tools, and parts to get the job done.
• Defined ESG initiatives: Environmental, social, and governance (ESG) is used to evaluate a company's sustainability efforts. It's a consideration for work management because route optimization for Field Service vehicles can help save on fuel costs, limit a carbon footprint, and lessen the impact on roads.
• Equipped mobile workers: Tools like a mobile app or AI for customer service can make a Field Service technician's job easier and more effective. For example, relieve the burden of a post-work summary by having mobile workers use AI on an app to intelligently generate the report.
• Clear communication: Providing Field Service teams with a work operating system like Slack keeps mobile workers connected and responsive. For example, a Field Service technician can reach out to a colleague for a quick answer to a technical question.
• Total visibility of information: Field service management should have insights into what technicians are facing on-site so they can prioritize worker safety and scheduling. For example, if a utility company's techs are working in an area where there's a high heat index, outdoor service calls may need to be rescheduled.
• Tracked performance data: Factors like travel time and resource utilization can be tracked for trends, KPIs, and historical information that inform your work management strategy. Use the data, like call center analytics, to make adjustments where needed.

Work management focuses on efficiency and productivity — and AI is becoming central to many of its strategies. Ninety-five percent of service professionals say AI saves them time on the job and helps their service organization reduce costs, according to the Salesforce State of Service Report.

Here are examples of how AI and other tools and technologies are impacting work management strategies:

Good knowledge management saves teams time by cataloging and sharing information. By building a searchable knowledge base, you can equip your mobile workers and your contact center representatives with accessible and up-to-date information, such as product details, technical manuals, and frequently asked customer questions. Especially if you have a knowledge management system that uses AI, your company's wealth of information can be easily retrieved using natural language queries.

For example, an international airport using Salesforce software created a knowledge base with live APIs, maps, and flight statuses, and used agentic AI to act as a digital travel companion to provide personalized service for passengers. The customer service team can access the knowledge base with agentic AI to answer customer questions.

With self-service, customers can find answers to their questions on their own through your help center, customer portal, or customer community. Customers get quick solutions and support while support teams are freed up to focus on higher-priority cases. Personalize the portal for each customer by syncing their profile with Agentforce, which uses customer service AI agents that adapt based on real-time conversations, customer data, and behavior.

For example, when a premium appliance manufacturer's self-service doesn't resolve a customer's problem, it uses Service Cloud with agentic AI to route the inquiry to the right service rep based on skills, location, and time zone. If a customer complains on the self-service portal that their dishwasher isn't draining, the system will serve up troubleshooting ideas and then direct the inquiry to a rep with appliance repair expertise if needed. By implementing this work management practice, the manufacturer reduced call times by 50% and enabled faster troubleshooting.

According to the Salesforce State of Service report, intelligent scheduling is the number one field service technology capability for mobile workers. More than three-quarters (76%) say it makes them feel safe and more effective at their jobs.

Automated scheduling ensures that the contact center team can achieve customer satisfaction during Field Service appointments. A contact center AI built into dispatcher workflows uses natural conversation to flag appointments needing attention — like absences or vehicle breakdowns—and display them in Gantt chart format. Dispatch can then take actions to fix the conflicts so the business can meet customer expectations.

AI and technology are the current driving forces behind trends in work management.

Text-based generative AI has evolved into multimodal AI that lets Field Service technicians use images, audio, and video for on-site support and troubleshooting. For example, a telecom technician can photograph a router and receive AI-powered diagnostic guidance instantly. Multimodal AI is helpful for Field Service technicians with limited experience or skills to give them the support needed to effectively complete work tasks.

The internet of things (IoT) is another trend in work management. It refers to a network of physical devices, vehicles, appliances, or other objects that are embedded with sensors, software, and network connectivity. IoT devices like smart home thermostats and smartwatches can collect and share data. So can a refrigerator or washing machine, which may need off-site installation, maintenance, or repairs. Service businesses must have contact centers for technical customer support or Field Service technicians to ensure items are operating correctly.

As you choose tools to support your work management system, start by assessing the needs and objectives of your contact center and Field Service operations. Consider your team's size and goals as well as projects, tasks, and processes. Evaluate work management tools, then demo and trial them before purchasing.

Focus on tools with AI technologies and autonomous AI agents to future-proof your usage. With AI for customer service, you can automate operations and provide real-time guidance to optimize tasks for Field Service operations and contact centers. Look for a tool with AI functionalities such as conversational messaging to chat with customers using natural language or an answer search for service reps to generate responses from a knowledge base.

Here are some tips for selecting work management tools:

• Usability: The tool, such as new contact center software, should be intuitive for your team to learn and adopt.
• Integrations: Check for integration capabilities so the tool fits with your current tech stack and your organization's IT Service Management (ITSM) approach.
• Mobile app: The tool should include a mobile app that can be customized to your Field Service technicians' needs and will work offline to save changes without Wi-Fi.

A good place to begin when choosing work management tools is the Serviceblazer Community on Slack , where you can connect with fellow service professionals. You'll find resources, tips, and answers to questions about work management and the right tools for your organization.

Salesforce's field service management software organizes and optimizes the activities and tasks of your mobile workers. Service Cloud software ensures alignment with your work management approach — and that the coordination and execution of Field Service operations are efficient.

Here is how Salesforce helps with work management:

• Agentforce: Bring AI agents to Field Service operations, and help your mobile workers get work done faster, augment skills, automate low-value work, and optimize tasks Agentforce supports Field Service technicians by providing a pre-work brief and post-work summary with insights and updates. Multimodal support with image recognition, text analysis, voice transcription, and other features help techs resolve issues fast and accurately.
• Field Service Mobile app: Available on Android and iOS, the user-friendly app is built for your mobile workforce with features that keep the team connected and responsive. Technicians can view real-time updates on job details and save service appointment information without Wi-Fi. Trailhead, Salesforce’s free online learning platform, features a module about Field Service Mobile to help you set up the app and customize user settings.
• Asset service lifecycle management: Salesforce asset service management features minimize the downtime and costs of your physical assets like equipment, machinery, vehicles, and tools and help you stay on top of maintenance, repairs, and inspections. Work order management for maintenance and service requests is simplified, and the need for manual paperwork is eliminated by digitizing the entire work order lifecycle.
• Data, insights, and analytics: Service leaders and service managers can monitor and track performance and analyze trends with Field Service Intelligence's pre-built dashboards. Data is sourced in Data Cloud with analytics and insights powered by Tableau. Using AI, predictive analytics can review past Field Service operations data and provide actionable insights to solve current or future work management and customer service problems.

Work management is essential for service organizations because it keeps workflows, projects, and tasks progressing smoothly. You'll improve employee satisfaction by giving them customer service software, tools, and technologies that optimize time and deliver faster service. When done right, work management can help your contact center and Field Service operations be more productive and efficient, and lead to better service for your customers.