Annah Van Gheem (
00:00):
I heard a story once. It was at a technology conference. The keynote speaker was talking about his dad, the maintenance worker, every day would come home and he'd have to fill out paperwork on paperwork, on paperwork. And the keynote speaker was a kid at the time and just wanted to play soccer with his dad. That's the power of the technology is like, can we get that information, that paperwork quicker, more efficiently, better so that there's more time to play soccer, there's more time to take care of the big problems at your facility, whatever it might be.
Mike Smith (
00:31):
Clocking In, the podcast for people who keep products moving in and out of industrial facilities every day. I'm your host, Mike Smith, director of product at Robert Dietrick Company. All right, well, welcome to the Clocking In Podcast. Today we have with us Annah Van Gheem, our digital product manager here at RDC. Welcome to the show.
Annah Van Gheem (
00:53):
Thank you. So excited to be here.
Mike Smith (
00:54):
It's good to be with you.
Annah Van Gheem (
00:55):
Always good to be with you, Mike.
Mike Smith (
00:57):
So today we're going to be talking about customer portals, a product or a tool that RDC is very proud of. You and your team are the architect of that product, so can't think of a better person to have us on here discussing this with. Tell me a little bit about your role. Give me the 30-second flyover of what RDC Digital is.
Annah Van Gheem (
01:19):
Well, first I already love the correction or distinction you made between product and tool because I really see it as a tool for our customers. And so what we want it to be is just something that helps extend what your experience with RDC is. So we're committed as a business to providing an exceptional customer experience, and we think that RDC Digital is the tool that digitally can help you get there.
Mike Smith (
01:42):
When people hear the word customer portal or some of the other technologies that are put in place to have to interface with in a customer relationship, what's the stigma that people automatically have?
Annah Van Gheem (
01:57):
I have it myself, but it's like, gosh, this tool is not actually helping anything.This is something that is trying to eliminate my human interaction. It's trying to make it easier or make it more difficult for the things that should be easy. And I think we all feel that as consumers or employees or anything is that sometimes this technology does not actually solve any purpose, but it just creates these added friction points that can be really, really frustrating at times.
Mike Smith (
02:24):
So besides portals, what are some of the other tools?
Annah Van Gheem (
02:27):
Yeah, like chat bots. Sometimes I had a really bad experience where I had to create a case for something and the case just went nowhere and I really felt like I should have a refund and I called multiple times and eventually got to the point where, yeah, you should have a refund, but it just didn’t happen because it was living in this system where no one was managing it.
Mike Smith (
02:48):
So what overall would you say that people's sussy, trepidatious, unsure attitude about portals and all these technologies are justified?
Annah Van Gheem (
02:59):
I think there's some justification, especially when we're looking at just the way the world is moving. I think people just have tricky feelings on all of this stuff. I do. I think we're really honest as a business. I think we have some great news articles out there and what our stances on different technologies as a business are. The world moves at a fast pace and it's up to all of us to use the tools responsibly to still take care of each other.
Mike Smith (
03:25):
We both heard in a lecture probably about a year ago that after COVID there was a declaration of this epidemic of loneliness. Do you think COVID created a swing actually back towards desiring the human one-on-one phone call, let me sit down in front of someone interaction when you talk about customer relationship or?
Annah Van Gheem (
03:48):
For sure. I think even talking to some of the people that work for RDC, some of the generational components I don't think are what you would expect. Sometimes it's our youngest employees that come in and are the ones that are most likely to pick up the phone and want to talk through a problem with whether it be you or an experienced technician or an experienced dispatcher, whatever it might be. I think the stereotype out there is that maybe these younger generations don't want to do that, but I think it actually has very much circled around to where people want to feel a little bit more like they're being heard.
Mike Smith (
04:18):
Have you ever had a positive experience with a customer portal?
Annah Van Gheem (
04:24):
Yeah, I think all the time. I think there are things where it's very helpful to be able to go access something by yourself or make an appointment or anything like that. I think the one I go to so often that's helpful is nail appointments. I've had a pedicure.
Annah Van Gheem (
04:40):
That's great. Loved it. I love that for you. Loved it. Just like I'm thinking about it at
6:00 AM, I'm starting my day and it's like, oh gosh, I need to schedule this appointment. Being able to do it that quick when I have that thought in the account, whatever it might be, that's an awesome use of it. There's not an extended conversation needed. I just need to book the time slot and go. So I think there's a lot of use cases out there that can be really, really helpful.
Mike Smith (
05:04):
Everyone on YouTube right now is looking at your nails.
Annah Van Gheem (
05:07):
Okay.
Mike Smith (
05:07):
Well, they look okay.
Mike Smith (
05:09):
I've had a positive experience with a portal. I'm 43 years old, getting older, going to the doctor more. I bet you people know where I'm going with this because my stigma was like, oh, okay, I went to the doctor, started having to get checkups and doing all the things middle-aged people do. I was like, I hate this. I hate all of this. And then they started pushing me into the portal, MyChart, and health providers use different ones, but MyChart, and I was like, I don't want to use this thing. I don't want to have to remember another lobby and another password. And I'm telling you, the second I started using it, it enhanced everything. I no longer had to call the doctor, asked to make appointments, know when my visits were coming up. I can schedule, I can drop something onto my calendar straight from the app.
(
05:53):
I can message them, ask them any stupid question. I get immediate responses from my doctor or the nurse practitioner. It is a flipping game changer.
Annah Van Gheem (
06:03):
Or looking back at past charts, you can see what that history is now. And so you know, are my certain levels going up or down? Is my health improving or declining or things like that and being able to do some of that analysis yourself rather than put it off into the hands of someone else to be doing that analysis for you.
Mike Smith (
06:21):
I'm not even being dramatic. I like getting in it. I enjoyed getting in it. It's crazy. I can't say that about all portals, but that one did make a difference for me. We've already kind of touched on some of the things. What makes a customer portal genuinely useful just in general?
Annah Van Gheem (
06:37):
Some of it is obviously the information, the ease of access, the simplicity, trying not to overload it with everything and anything, but does it solve something for the user at that moment? Is it solving the questions that they need an answer to or is it just solving questions that no one is asking? And then I think the second thing is knowing that there's a really responsible team handling it. When you give the example about the health portals, it's knowing that the doctor or the nurse is the one that's on the back end of it and that they're able to see it and you feel really confident as the user, as the patient, that it's going somewhere and that you're going to get really, really good information or feedback on the back end of that.
Mike Smith (
07:21):
With RDC Digital, we're not trying to put a moat around RDC that separates us from the customer. What problem or big issue is RDC Digital trying to solve for?
Annah Van Gheem (
07:34):
I think the goal is that it's trying to solve these small little friction points that customers might have where it's outside of business hours or someone's out of the office that day on the RDC side. Someone put it that we're trying to move the starting line and get there a little bit faster. As a customer, you can go pull up the history of what's happened on an asset or what's happened on a door. That way when your rep comes in, you guys are already starting at the same point, right? Use the customer, our representative, you know what's gone into this piece of equipment, what's been serviced, how much we've had to repair it, whatever it might be. And then that way when that meeting happens, you've got that rep that's physically there at your site, they're looking at it, but you're problem solving. You're not just trying to catch back up on the last five years.
Mike Smith (
08:18):
You're starting off on a better foot already. And a lot of times you only have 15 or 20 minutes on an appointment if you can move that starting line. I think that's what we're trying to do is how can we maximize the time that the rep or our technician or our service manager, whoever it might be that's coming to site with you can really understand what the pain point is at your facility.
Mike Smith (
08:36):
We're going to keep unpacking what all RDC Digital is, but let me ask you some questions about what our customer portal is aimed at doing, who it's for, so on and so forth. So who is RDC Digital designed for? Who is meant to be a user?
Annah Van Gheem (
08:50):
A lot of times for us, it's the facility manager and that can look different business to business, how different roles are defined. We've definitely got some safety components, some information and some data points for people that are purchasers at the facility. So it can be different for the way that your business is structured, but we really see it as a tool to take care of these facility managers that sometimes are forgotten in these facilities. They're running in a million directions and have a million things on their plates, and so we just want to take care of the people as best we can.
Mike Smith (
09:20):
Okay, this is a hard question. I hope I articulate this well. Within RDC Digital, there is asset management, communication tools, tools that help you with financial planning, cost analysis. I could go on and on and on and on. If you had to pick one word to describe RDC Digital, what would it be? It can be a two word. It can be a two-word.
Annah Van Gheem (
09:42):
I want it to be the same experience that if you call RDC, it feels the same. That's not a good word, but that's what it's after. I don't want it to feel like a different experience than when you're working with us at RDC. I want it to feel like the same experience that you know that it's the same people and the same level of expertise and that you're looking at the same data that we're looking at, all of that.
Mike Smith (
10:08):
I love that, and that's a perfect segue into the next point. One of the things that gets me the most excited about RDC Digital, and not all customer portals are like this, is this Robinhood mentality. Whose data are we actually using in the portal to give people this tool? Whose is it really?
Annah Van Gheem (
10:28):
It's all the customer's data. We're trying our best and doing a good job at capturing it for you. The phrase we use internally is democratize the data, right? We've spent a lot of time capturing this for the customers and we're really excited that we now have a way that the customer can see all of it. It's theirs, it's all their assets, it's all of their equipment, their dates, their info, all of that stuff. And so we want to make sure that we have that info. We know it's our responsibility to make sure you have that information as well.
Mike Smith (
10:57):
A lot of companies just sit around and like, "How can we use this to strategize and market and all the things?" RDC has tried to figure out a way to give it back to people. What kind of data points are we talking about? For the last three years you've been a customer, we've been accumulating data for you, we are seeking to give it back. What kind of data points are we gathering?
Annah Van Gheem (
11:19):
A lot of it is on work order history and then part is what we would call it, but just any work that we've done at your facility. We're asset centric, meaning that we look at the door as the asset and everything we do on that door gets logged against it. So where you've got data around the cost, the amount of work, what parts we've used to repair, all of that goes into it. So the leveler, the restraint, whatever it might be, those are all separate assets and we log everything specifically against that. So you're really able to get the breakdown of how often and what type of service something is needing to, again, hopefully allow you to make the best decision for your facilities.
Mike Smith (
12:00):
Not only that, model numbers, serial numbers, door sizes, in some cases even voltages and things. Yeah, all of the asset specific data too.
Annah Van Gheem (
12:09):
So we've got all of the repair and maintenance and capital improvements, all of that stuff, but as much as the asset itself.
Mike Smith (
12:15):
Now, historically, what would people have to do to house and organize and track all that in generations before, I guess, what would you do?
Annah Van Gheem (
12:24):
We've still got, I think, some file folders somewhere upstairs in a couple of our offices. Someone would maybe call in with that type of question and go upstairs and pull the file folder. But I think historically, nothing was asset-centric either. It was all this job specific. And so for someone to go do the work of having to pull it specifically by that piece of equipment would've been a very, very difficult task. I have no doubt that we have people that do that for our customers and whatever's needed, we're going to take care of our customers, but I think we've got a better system right now.
Mike Smith (
13:00):
I get enamored with people's organizational techniques. If you ever stand over someone's shoulder in an office or -
Annah Van Gheem (
13:07):
You're looking at their folders.
Mike Smith (
13:09):
Some people will blow your mind. Their organization's just over the top. They've got this Excel sheet, this folder structure. Some people use actual files and folders and drawers and all the things. And one thing we've talked about on the podcast before is the term the silver tsunami. What happens when Liza, who has been with the company for 30 years, is just this boss of organizing data and having all the information. She knows the system she's used for years at work. She can get answers quickly, but she's ready to retire and sail away and go do her thing for the next, who knows how long? And she walks out the door. Oftentimes, that stuff doesn't get passed on, and that's a problem.
Annah Van Gheem (
13:52):
Yeah. That's something that we've gotten feedback from a lot of our customers that are using this tool. For people that are coming into these facilities that are newer in their career or are coming from a different facility, being able to have access to stuff that predates them, that's our goal. It goes back to we want to help these people look like heroes in their facility. I want to arm them with the data to where they can take it to their supervisor and be able to show them, here's what we're spending, here's where we can make improvements, here's what we can do to make this business run more efficiently, or whatever it might be. We always say, we help people keep their business moving. And I love that you said we help people look like heroes. That's the Robinhood mentality. When Liza retires, when this person gets a promotion and moves on, when good things happen within companies, no one's sitting on all that tribal knowledge. We've made it available for everyone. I want to take you through some actual scenarios that happen to every listener listening right now. I want to make this really practical. So scenario one, it's
5:15 in the morning, you just woke up. Let's pretend that you're not a morning person. I know you are. You go on a mile run every morning.
Annah Van Gheem (
15:04):
Up at
4:30 this morning.
Mike Smith (
15:07):
It's
5:15 in the morning, your crew's already started, you're still at home and you get a call that something broke. A leveler's down. You've got a FedEx drop trailer sitting there in that dock. We've got to get it loaded. Your crew's calling you. We need someone out here right now. Haven't even had coffee yet. How can you leverage RDC Digital to take care of that problem right now?
Annah Van Gheem (
15:27):
Yeah. Go in, create a service request super quick. If you've got pictures, you can upload those right to the portal. You can get this service request created in under three minutes and it'll go out to our people, but it'll go out to all of our people. And so we can get you service on that super quickly. We've got data to point out that it's quicker than if you call or email us. It's going to the same people. We're also able to pull in all of the history of where your facility is and who the best technicians are to go to your site. And all of that info is then able to live there too. And so it really helps us serve you better, more efficiently, take better care of you, all of that.
Mike Smith (
16:08):
I remember you and I were in a meeting here in Indy once. We were going over some safety consulting findings with a customer, and right in the middle of the meeting, we were looking at a safety issue and the customer was like, "We need to get this taken care of right now. Can we, after this meeting, create a service request to get this taken care of?" And we were like, "Let's just stop right now and do it." We already had RDC Digital open, and right in the middle of the meeting, we created a service request. The customer got a response back from our dispatch team saying someone was on the way. And as we're walking out, that technician was arriving on site at the end of the meeting.
Annah Van Gheem (
16:43):
I would almost argue we didn't even have to stop the meeting. No. It was so quick and we got the right technician out there and probably were able to first time fix it really, really efficiently.
Mike Smith (
16:54):
All right. So scenario two, I've got a door down. I'm frustrated. I think we just worked on this door.
Annah Van Gheem (
17:01):
Yeah.
Mike Smith (
17:02):
What do we do? What can I do?
Annah Van Gheem (
17:03):
You can go in, we've got all of your assets already in there. We've got it by model number, serial number, where it is in your facilities. If you have a data point, we can find it. You'll search for that in the system, be able to pull it up, and then you'll be able to see every time that we've been out there, pull any service report, look at how much you've spent on it for the year to date or the previous years. All of that info will live right at the asset. And then if you need to create a service request, you can create it right from that asset page that you're already on. We'll know exactly what asset you're talking about and we'll be able to send our technician directly there.
Mike Smith (
17:36):
All right. So scenario three. I know I've got an upcoming PM visit. My operations director needs to know when that visit is. I'm sifting through my emails. I can't remember when RDC's dispatch team set this up and we agreed to, how can I use RDC Digital there?
Annah Van Gheem (
17:53):
Yeah, so we've got all of your preventative maintenance plans in the portal. You can go ahead, get access to all of those. It'll show you when the next month of the expected visit is. You'll be able to pull up all the past PM reports right from there. So if you want to see how it performed in the past or maybe what the repairs were needed, anything like that, you'll have access to get directly in touch with our PM coordinator. So if you have questions on any of it, that's right within there too, in case you lost track of that contact or maybe you're new at the facility, whatever it might be, that's all directly in there. It's going to go to our people, but it's going to give you direct line of communication to those people.
Mike Smith (
18:27):
We could keep doing this all day. Last scenario, I just met with my rep. They're going on family vacation next week. It's next week now, and I got to talk to somebody right now, but I'm not sure who to contact.
Annah Van Gheem (
18:39):
You can take it in a couple different directions. One, we've just got a contact us page that has all of your direct contacts. Perfect. So you can get directly in contact with the support staff or with a bunch of different people. And these are people's names. We're not sending you to somewhere that's not. We're going to connect you with your person. You can go in and submit a quote request. So if it's important, it's going to go somewhere immediately to more of a bigger net than just your rep. But again, it's going directly to people that work at RDC. It's the same people that you interact with every day. We're just trying to channel that a little bit more directly and efficiently to the people it needs to go to so that we can get you back up and running.
Mike Smith (
19:18):
So far, I haven't thrown a problem at you that digital can't solve. How does RDC Digital start to become something that helps customers be more proactive and less reactive? Because a lot of the ability to do that is built into the portal.
Annah Van Gheem (
19:35):
We've got a lot of what we would call maintenance cost in there. And so we want you to be able to plan whether it's at year end or even just as you're starting to budget for the future years, we want you to know how much you've spent on certain equipment year over year. And so you can go see what equipment is failing, how much you're spending to repair it, all of that kind of info that again is asset centric. So rather than looking at a big scale, you can kind of plan for, "Hey, this asset is costing me X over five years. If I just replaced it, I would save this much within that five years," or whatever the math comes out to be.
Mike Smith (
20:09):
And this is probably the most appropriate time in the year to be even talking about this conversation because everybody's trying to get their budget together for the next year. They're putting CapEx submittals together, and this is where RDC Digital helps and is actually a tool. You don't have to sift through all kinds of reports and put a spreadsheet together and figure out where you're spending the most money and what needs to be replaced and how do I be proactive on these things to keep them from failing? It's all there within RDC Digital. There's even a cost of ownership tool that you can use. I know what you're going to say, but agree or disagree, RDC Digital is a tool that can help you go from thinking about what broke to what's going to break next and how do I prevent it? I
Annah Van Gheem (
20:53):
Think that's a great way to phrase it for sure.
Mike Smith (
20:56):
One other feature that I really love about RDC Digital is customer feedback. A lot of companies out there, they'll exhaust you with surveys. How are we doing feedback? Give me this, give me that. I know that we can't fully lift the curtain and reassure people that we truly do act on feedback, but we do. RDC does. We really take it to heart. And we've built the ability within RDC Digital for you to give feedback, not just in a general sense, but at the actual work
Annah Van Gheem (
21:27):
Order level. Work order level. Yeah. So you'll get notifications within the platform. We're really pretty conscious of what we're notifying you with and what we're going outside the platform with. So everything from a completed standpoint is within the platform, but if you go in, you'll be able to review what's been recently completed. So hopefully a good check for you is the customer to go in and see all of that. But then on those completed work orders, you'll have the option to leave feedback. And this is feedback specifically about what your service experience was with our technicians, with our staff on that specific job so that if there is something that is going really well or going really poorly, we want to hear that and it's getting into things that we truly value. Again, it's not going to take you more than 30 seconds to fill out, but if there's something that went really poorly, we want to hear that and we want to be able to take ownership of that and work with the right people and lead our people better to make the necessary improvements.
(
22:20):
We don't want it to just go into the big pot of feedback where like, oh, we loosely know we could get better here. We want to get really specific, targeted, and train our people to be the best that they can be.
Mike Smith (
22:30):
I want to come back to where we started. We started off the episode talking about different technologies that sometimes are designed to get in the way, put that moat around you or your business. RDC Digital is not seeking to do that. Would you agree or disagree the best technology out there doesn't replace relationships? It enhances it. And do you feel that RDC Digital is doing that?
Annah Van Gheem (
22:56):
Yeah. I'm so passionate about this. I know my title is digital product manager, but I'm maybe as far on the opposite side of technology as I can be.
Mike Smith (
23:06):
I agree.
Annah Van Gheem (
23:07):
I'm such a people person and I am so fortunate to work with so many amazing people that I want to highlight the people that we have and I want to make our lives easier so that we can make your life easier as a customer. That's what gets me out of bed every morning. How can I help in small ways the people live fuller, whatever it might be? And so I think this is something that can do that because if it's just about the technology for the technology's sake, I'm out. I don't have any personal investment in that. But when it comes to how can I help people, that gets me going. I heard a story once. It was at a technology conference. The keynote speaker was talking about his dad was a maintenance worker or a field worker, and every day would come home and he'd have to fill out paperwork on paperwork on paperwork.
(
23:53):
And the keynote speaker was a kid at the time and just wanted to play soccer with his dad. That's the power of the technology is like, can we get that information, that paperwork, whatever it might be, quicker, more efficiently, better so that there's more time to play soccer, there's more time to take care of the big problems at your facility, whatever it might be. That's the important piece of it.
Mike Smith (
24:14):
Have you had a customer reach out and say, "Thank you. This thing has been a game changer." I don't know if you want to name them or even just briefly describe what was that interaction like?
Annah Van Gheem (
24:24):
We get a lot of feedback that it's helpful that they're able to save time, that it helps them take care of their facility better.
Mike Smith (
24:30):
I won't say where she works, but Cynthia, you know Cynthia, she's someone who's just a huge advocate. She's in planning and procurement. She wears several different hats, and she is someone who just champions RDC Digital. She's really learned to use it to her advantage. And I think it's done just what we're talking about here. It's put more time back in her day to focus on the more relationship driven things and the customer relationship and less on the basics and the fundamentals. She gets all that in there and therefore gets more out of her relationship with her rep. Yeah.
Annah Van Gheem (
25:04):
I also want to call out too, I think this is a good time, that it's not a finished product. We take our customer feedback so seriously just within the platform, within the tool that you're using. That's a great example of someone that's given us so much invaluable feedback and we welcome that I think in all areas of the business we were getting at, but even within this, you can contact me. I'm sure my LinkedIn will be in the description, whatever it might, but we want that feedback from customers.
Mike Smith (
25:31):
An example of this is you show up on a call, the customer needs you to come out, has some questions for you. Traditionally, the question you could start that appointment off with is, "Hey, I need service history for the last six months to a year on this area of my building, these few docs." If you're using RDC Digital, just like you said about moving the starting line up, but you can start off that appointment differently by saying, "Hey, I've pulled the history. I've got the data right here, looking at the cost of ownership analysis." And it moves the conversation from, "Hey, get me all those reports," to, "What do you think we should do about it?" That's relationship. That's what we're seeking to do, right?
Annah Van Gheem (
26:13):
Yeah, a thousand percent.
Mike Smith (
26:15):
Time for the cards.
Annah Van Gheem (
26:16):
My favorite.
Mike Smith (
26:17):
So if you're listening to the podcast today, shame on you. No, I'm joking. No shame. You're probably driving and it's safer to listen. For those of us on YouTube, we're going to do something fun. So I'm just going to do rapid fire, and I want to ask you to hold up either red or green. There may be some roles. I don't know. And that goes back to the feedback, right? If there's data points, we want to know what could make your life easier.
(
26:41):
I'll do my best to repeat whether you're holding up red or green, but I just want to quick fire, "Hey, does RDC Digital do this or this or this or this?" And you show me red or green. Okay. All right. So does RDC Digital document the equipment that I have in my facility?
Annah Van Gheem (
26:57):
Yeah, green.
Mike Smith (
26:58):
Green. Does it show me equipment specifications or details?
Annah Van Gheem (
27:02):
Green.
Mike Smith (
27:03):
Green. Does it show me service history?
Annah Van Gheem (
27:06):
Green.
Mike Smith (
27:07):
Does it show me PM history?
Annah Van Gheem (
27:09):
Green.
Mike Smith (
27:09):
Does it show me all the parts that I'm using at my facility on my different equipment?
Annah Van Gheem (
27:13):
Yeah, green.
Mike Smith (
27:15):
Does it let me create a service request?
Annah Van Gheem (
27:17):
Yeah. This one we talked about, Mike.
Mike Smith (
27:19):
Green. Does it let me communicate with anyone at RDC?
Annah Van Gheem (
27:22):
Probably not anyone.
Mike Smith (
27:24):
But the most important people.
Annah Van Gheem (
27:25):
The most important people, yeah.
Mike Smith (
27:27):
All right. Does it show me when my upcoming visits are or do I have to sift through my email?
Annah Van Gheem (
27:31):
Green.
Annah Van Gheem (
27:33):
To an extent, once we've got the appointment confirmed, so if you've got loose dates.
Mike Smith (
27:37):
Cool.
Annah Van Gheem (
27:37):
Things change within our business, and so we don't want to make more confusion for you.
Mike Smith (
27:42):
Does it show me my PM plan and frequency?
Annah Van Gheem (
27:46):
Yes. It'll also show you your PM agreement. So when it comes time to renew your PM agreement or when you want to look that, I think that's a file that could so easily get lost, right? It's coming out annually. I think that can be so helpful to go look at the agreements from the last couple years.
Mike Smith (
28:01):
Does it let me audit completed work?
Annah Van Gheem (
28:04):
Yeah, we can go back to 2021.
Mike Smith (
28:06):
Does it let me provide feedback? Just talked about that.
Annah Van Gheem (
28:10):
Yes. Yes, we did just talk about that one.
Mike Smith (
28:13):
Does it help me assess the overall health of my equipment in my facility?
Annah Van Gheem (
28:18):
I think so. I think that's an area though too where if there's stuff that you're not seeing that could be really helpful, let's get into it. What can help you more? So we've got a lot around the health and where your equipment is, but if something's missing, let me know.
Mike Smith (
28:32):
And lastly, does it help me make long-term decisions, proactive decisions?
Annah Van Gheem (
28:37):
Yeah, I think so. For sure.
Mike Smith (
28:38):
All right. All right. So one last question I have for you. Where is RDC Digital going? Can you share anything that's on the horizon? Let's say a customer is listening and is thinking to themselves, "Man, I have an idea. I'd love to share with RDC. How do I do that?" Can you speak to any of either of those two things?
Annah Van Gheem (
28:55):
Yeah, I guess I'll take the second part first. If you've got an idea, share it with anyone at RDC. Definitely reach out to me, reach out to Mike, whoever it is, but also your rep will get the feedback to my team. The dispatcher you work with, they'll get it to my. Whoever it is, we're going to take that feedback and we're going to use it. You can trust that. Sometimes it takes time. You might not see it the next day. These things are on a roadmap and they take time, but it will be taken very seriously. So share it with someone and we're going to use it. And then to go back to your first question, I think it goes back to some level of responsibility with the data and the information, and we also want to make sure that what's in there is important and valuable, and we're not just cluttering your space. Something that hopefully people are excited is that we're going to build out a hopefully valuable resource library so that you can have even more access to look at the equipment and really get into the manuals or the safety specs or whatever it might be. That's going to all be within there. So it's easy to find, you know that it's kind of within the tool you already use.
Mike Smith (
29:58):
We are in a constant state. Improvement, listening to feedback, not cluttering it up, but trying to bring things that truly make an impact on people's day and people's week and people's month even. That was a great conversation. Time for us to start thinking about clocking out. Listeners got to clock in. If this conversation was intriguing to anyone listening or watching, what can they do Monday morning when they get to work?
Annah Van Gheem (
30:24):
Reach out to your rep. That's a great place to start. They'll connect you with someone on my team or even myself. Reach out to anyone at RDC. I think we all really have the background in this tool or reach out to me directly and I'm happy to be at your facility, walk you through it. On our website, we've got the product demo, so we've got a tab for RDC Digital on the website. You can definitely go there. That's a good place to go look at what it actually looks like and what your experience would actually be. But again, I'm a people person. Talk to the people that you trust at RDC and we'll get you started and set up.
Mike Smith (
31:01):
Cool. We will post some of those links and resources in the show notes. We're also going to take you up on that and give your contact information in the show notes if that's cool. People can reach out directly. Sure. Hopefully people have at least gotten a little bit of a deeper glimpse into RDC Digital, how it can help them. And hopefully people are leaving, understanding that this is designed to be a tool and a relationship enhancer, not another login and password you got to remember.
Annah Van Gheem (
31:30):
Just to close, if you've got big problems, pick up the phone, call your rep, call someone at RDC you trust. We're still going to be there. We're still going to take care of you. This is going to solve some of the small friction points and we really believe that, but we believe in the relationship so much and we believe in our people so much. So don't lose sight of that.
Mike Smith (
31:51):
Well said.
Annah Van Gheem (
31:51):
Thank you.
Mike Smith (
31:52):
Well, thanks for being with us today. It was good to be with you.
Annah Van Gheem (
31:54):
Thanks for having me. This has been a blast.
Mike Smith (
31:59):
Thank you for listening to Clocking In, brought to you by Robert Dietrick Company. If this was helpful to you, share this episode with someone else who could benefit from it. Don't forget to follow the show. And if you want more insights like this via email, go to rd-co.com.
