Howard Johnstone Email & Phone Number

Charleston, South Carolina Area

Charleston, South Carolina

• Led a team of 5-6 Technical Support Specialists providing training and technical product support to customers, field service personnel and the sales team.
• Launched a successful preventative maintenance training program for contract vendors and new hire technicians. This included qualification standards, online training modules, and new maintenance procedures/checklists.
• Worked with HR to develop and implement pre-employment testing for field service and installation technicians resulting in a more streamlined hiring process.
• Coordinated with the QA manager, regional service managers and the dispatch team to improve procedures and documentation thus ensuring accurate reporting and billing.
• Along with improvements to the after-hours service scripts and processes, these measures revitalized stagnant customer satisfaction numbers.

Charleston, South Carolina

• Managed all Service Department technical operations including technical support and training for customers and the field service team. Provided serviceability and training input for sustaining engineering and new.
• Restructured the new hire field service training program to allow techs to get out of the classroom and into the field sooner.
• Developed a new process for handling surgical table service resulting in most common repairs taking only one service call thus reducing service overhead and improving customer satisfaction.
• Managed a project to create qualification standards for field service technicians. This program delivered clear, trackable requirements for the field teams and SMART career development goals.
• After Stryker's acquisition of Berchtold, developed and implemented successful product cross-training programs for the combined Field Service and Technical Support teams.
• Managed projects to rewrite all Berchtold product service manuals to Stryker's standards.

Summerville, SC

• Revised over 400 product manuals to match formatting and include precision electronic controls.
• Scripted and produced training videos for refrigeration and cryogenic control systems.
• Contracted 3rd party companies to perform equipment services nationwide.

Wayne, NJ

• Set up a new Technical Support Program for the combined Surgical and Critical Care business. Provided exceptional technical support to customers and field based associates.
• Managed the hiring and training of a completely new Technical Support team.
• Developed and implemented processes and procedures for call handling, dispatch, product support, and complaint processing using available company resources.
• Served as the surgical product SME to all operational departments during the transitionProduct Support Specialist
• Provided technical product support to internal and external customers.
• Developed and delivered training for the field to support moving the surgical product line from Getinge to Maquet.

Held numerous positions on nuclear submarines and shore-based training facilities:- Training Coordinator at two Nuclear Power Training Units responsible for managing plant operations training of a watch section staff and students. - Navy Training Manager at one Nuclear Power Training Command - Worked with civilian contractors to coordinate training.