Remote Services Technician Kelly Hunley has this little mantra in the back of his head on every service call: Adapt. Innovate. Overcome.

His desktop looks more like an air traffic control station than a technician’s. Sitting there are two cell phones, a business phone, and three monitors, all at various times buzzing and swiftly moving between web browsers. For as technical as Kelly is (he’s dabbled in everything from web design to IT support and most things in between), he’s equally philosophical in his customer service approach. It goes like this.

• Resolve the problem.
• Help the customer understand what caused that problem.
• And then hear them in a more positive tone before hanging up.

It’s a welcome approach when it comes to a huge account like UT Health East Texas. In servicing the massive health system (1,400+ devices), our technicians there MUST be able to speak the same language as their clients – not just the technology systems they depend on every day, but how they do their jobs, what they’re trying to accomplish, and where their challenges lie. A vertical approach seems appropriate in service after all.

“All people want to do is be taken care of,” Kelly said. “The first thing I like to do is get on the same page with the customer. When a customer reaches out, all they know is that it’s not doing what it is supposed to do. The terminology? That’s for US to figure out.”

3 Service-Vertical Approaches to the UT Health System.

1. Make it a point to listen.

Just recently, Kelly received a service call from a hospital employee with a quandary: they use two computers to scan to a device. One PC worked, and the other didn’t. They used a specific software application to do so, but Kelly didn’t jump into that application. He did something else first.

“I asked her to walk me through what she was trying to do. Let’s go through it together. I had to look and listen and not talk… I can’t stress it enough. You listen… and then you listen… and then you listen some more to get to the root of the problem.”

2. Know their technology.

UT Health specifically uses a system called Epic to hold and manage medical records. Of course, in managing their print devices, our East Texas team took it upon themselves to learn the software extensively to better care for clients. What the support team has found is that a lot of times their trouble-shooting has less to do with the copier or printer themselves.

“In a lot of ways now at the hospital, we can help find their problem, understand their problem, and tell them how to direct them properly to their internal IT staff. We’re essentially telling him how to relay the issue or, if we’re able, just fix it ourselves,” Director of Operations Justin Harper said.

This is where Service Manager Michael Johnson brings up the word “Partnership.”

“When it comes down to it, there’s going to be a line somewhere where it stops being a printer issue and becomes an issue with the client’s systems… If it’s not a printer issue, a vendor will stop there. A partner will continue on to help make it work,” Michael said. “Crossing that line helps you gain that perspective and then it’s a lot easier to speak their language.”

3. Feel their pain.

Sometimes speaking the same language means feeling the client’s pain.

“To me, at the end of the day being on the same page means understanding how important it is to your customer, and how important it is to get an issue resolved. It’s ‘hey, we understand how important it is for you to get these paychecks printed out today,’” Justin said. “You’ve got to feel their pain to be on the same page…to really speak their language.”