Workforce Solutions for Field Services with AI - with Rommel Ong of Belimed

Discussion of the primary challenge facing field service organizations: finding qualified candidates willing to work at offered compensation levels. Covers how rapidly evolving technology requires technicians to constantly relearn systems, creating frustration when working with demo or live units under pressure from end users who need operations running immediately.

• •Staffing shortages are the biggest challenge across the field service industry, with difficulty finding qualified candidates at current pay scales
• •Technology changes faster than technician comfort levels - as soon as they master one system, new technology arrives requiring retraining
• •Field technicians need problem-solving skills to handle equipment glitches and bugs while managing frustrated customers in high-pressure situations
• •The ideal candidate is a 'Swiss army knife problem solver' rather than someone trained on specific legacy systems

Explores administrative challenges where technicians who prefer hands-on work struggle with extensive documentation requirements driven by litigation concerns. Service calls come in waves, making it difficult for technicians to keep paperwork current, leading to accuracy issues when they try to remember details later.

• •Litigious environment requires everything to be documented, creating a 'necessary evil' that technicians resist
• •Technicians gravitate toward wrenching and customer interaction, often letting paperwork fall behind
• •Service calls arrive in waves rather than steady flow, making documentation timing challenging
• •AI pre-filling forms based on call history and account data could free technicians to focus on their core work
• •Data must be pre-selected correctly as corrections are difficult to make later

Addresses how healthcare facility clients face similar staffing issues with high turnover among recent graduates who are unfamiliar with equipment operation. This creates friction when inexperienced operators interact with overloaded technicians, requiring calm heads and patience on both sides.

• •Healthcare facilities experience high turnover as new graduates try different roles and sites to find their fit
• •Inexperienced operators unfamiliar with equipment nuances can lead to frustration and 'mini debates' with technicians
• •Overloaded technicians dealing with impatient or undertrained client staff creates potential for conflict
• •Both sides need training and support to manage these interactions professionally

Details the shift to 50% customer service skills and 50% technical skills in hiring criteria. In high-pressure hospital environments where patient care is the ultimate goal, technicians must handle volatile situations professionally, making soft skills equally important as mechanical expertise.

• •Hiring now prioritizes 50% customer service/soft skills and 50% technical skills - a fundamental shift from traditional field service hiring
• •Best mechanic is ineffective if they can't communicate well with customers in healthcare's high-pressure environment
• •Hospital staff face pressure from all sides including patients in pain and concerned family members, which cascades to technicians
• •Attitude and ability to stay calm under pressure now outweigh specific technical credentials or school pedigree
• •Interview process includes proficiency tests for Microsoft Office, mechanical aptitude, and customer service efficiency

Explains how Microsoft Teams chat serves as a searchable knowledge base for error codes and solutions. When technicians encounter problems, they can search chat history to find how colleagues across the country solved similar issues, accelerating troubleshooting and providing psychological support.

• •Teams chat enables searchable history of technical problems and solutions across the organization
• •Technicians can type error codes (e.g., 'error code 123') to find all previous conversations about that issue
• •Knowing someone else experienced and solved the same problem provides tremendous psychological boost to current troubleshooter
• •This system captures and distributes tribal knowledge from veteran technicians without formal documentation
• •Speeds up problem resolution by leveraging collective experience across geographic regions

Describes two-pronged approach to measuring customer satisfaction: traditional manager/director conversations with customers and Net Promoter Score surveys. Technicians are encouraged to proactively mention surveys and ask if anything else can be done before leaving, capturing both positive and negative feedback.

• •Dual approach: direct supervisor/manager communication with customers plus automated NPS surveys
• •Technicians proactively tell customers to expect surveys and ask what else can be done before leaving the site
• •Survey system captures feedback from upset customers who might not otherwise communicate issues to corporate
• •Balanced questioning captures both positive and negative aspects of service delivery
• •Regular customer communication keeps lines open and makes customers comfortable providing honest feedback

Outlines current and near-future capabilities for remote equipment monitoring that enables virtual troubleshooting before dispatching technicians. Systems can identify whether issues are machine-related, facility-related, or operator error, dramatically reducing unnecessary on-site visits over the next few years.

• •Equipment now connected virtually allowing remote visibility into trouble calls and errors before dispatch
• •Remote access enables diagnosis and preparation of technicians for specific issues they'll encounter
• •Within next couple years, systems will categorize problems as technician-needed, machine-related, facility issue, or operator error
• •Dramatic reduction in on-site visits expected, freeing technicians for complex mechanical breakdowns
• •Proactive monitoring allows companies to notify customers of issues before customers even call
• •Both service providers and clients will leverage this data to predict and prevent problems