Configuring Skills & Capabilities

Skills tell the AI Dispatcher what your technicians can do. Set them up correctly, and you'll get better job matches, fewer reassignments, and technicians sent to jobs they're actually qualified to handle.

What Are Skills?

Skills are specific capabilities or certifications your technicians have. Think:

Licenses & certifications — EPA 608 Universal, Master Electrician, Journeyman Plumber
Equipment expertise — Boiler Repair, VRF Systems, Tankless Water Heaters
Service types — Commercial HVAC, Residential Electrical, Emergency Plumbing
Languages — Spanish, Mandarin, French

💡 Practical Example

A commercial refrigeration repair needs someone with EPA 608 certification and experience with walk-in coolers. The AI will only assign technicians who have both skills tagged in their profile.

Setting Up Skills

Skills live in FieldCamp and sync automatically to the AI Dispatcher:

Create skills in FieldCamp — Go to Settings → Skills and add the certifications and capabilities your team uses
Assign skills to technicians — Edit each technician's profile and check off their skills
Tag jobs with required skills — When creating jobs, specify which skills are needed
Let the AI match — The dispatcher automatically matches skilled technicians to jobs

⚠️ Keep It Current

Update technician skills immediately when they complete training or earn new certifications. Stale skill data leads to bad assignments.

Assigning Skills to Technicians

Tag technicians with every skill they're qualified to perform. Best practices:

Be specific — "HVAC Install" is better than just "HVAC"
Use levels when needed — Separate "Apprentice Electrician" from "Master Electrician"
Include soft skills — Customer training, VIP service, complex diagnostics
Don't over-tag — Only add skills they can actually perform independently

Example skill set for an experienced HVAC tech:

EPA 608 Universal
Residential HVAC Service
Heat Pump Repair
Ductwork Modification
Spanish Speaking

How the AI Uses Skills

The AI Dispatcher checks skills before assigning any job. Here's what happens:

Skill Matching

Every assignment gets a skillsMatch flag (true/false) showing whether the technician has all required skills. Jobs go to technicians with exact matches first.

When Skills Don't Match

If no technician has the required skills, the job stays unassigned and you'll see:

Reason: "Missing required skills"
Which specific skills are needed
Severity level (CRITICAL for urgent jobs, WARNING for routine)
Recommendations like "Train existing staff on VRF systems"

💡 Real Scenario

You have a boiler replacement scheduled, but none of your plumbers have "Boiler Install" tagged. The AI flags it as unassigned with CRITICAL severity and recommends either training someone or subcontracting the work.

Confidence Scoring

Each assignment gets a confidence score (0-100). Perfect skill matches boost the score. If a technician has the skills but is far from the job site, you might see 75% confidence instead of 95%.

Checking Skill Match Results

After running dispatch, review skill matching in:

Job cards — Green checkmark = skills match, orange warning = mismatch
Unassigned panel — Shows jobs with missing skills and what's needed
AI reasoning — Explains why each assignment was made, including skill analysis
Metrics — skillsMatchRate shows the percentage of jobs with proper skill alignment

Track your skillsMatchRate over time. If it's dropping, you might need more training or new hires.

Best Practices

Standardize naming — Use "EPA 608 Universal" everywhere, not "EPA Cert" in some places and "Refrigerant License" in others
Only require what's necessary — Don't tag a filter change with "Master Electrician"
Audit quarterly — Review technician skills every 3 months to catch expired certifications
Cross-train for critical skills — If only one person can handle emergency electrical, you have a bottleneck
Watch your match rate — Consistently low rates mean training gaps or unrealistic job requirements

✅ The Result

Proper skill configuration means fewer callbacks, higher first-time fix rates, and customers who get the right technician the first time. The AI can only be as smart as the data you give it.