This article originally published in Self-Service World magazine, Sep 2007.

Rick Richards wears a blue shirt to work -- but maybe he should wear blue scrubs. And a white lab coat, with a stethoscope hanging around his neck.

As the field-product specialist, a.k.a. "Printer Guy," for Pitney Bowes' multivendor services, Richards is the "doctor" to all the printer-less customers in a panic because they've come down with paper jams, power outages or other failures to print. He diagnoses their self-service kiosks and POS devices. He treats their software tribulations and offers prescriptions to re-digitize their digital signage.

In the electronics repair business for more than 20 years, Richards cures kiosks, salves self-service devices and operates on the inoperable. He doctors not only to solve printing problems or to heal machinery, but to help people. He recites the Hippocratic Oath of the self-service doctor:

"I try to make sure the customers are happy," he said.

Like an E.R. doc, Richards is on call 24/7 to respond to customers and to service ailing kiosk equipment. He meets people at their worst -- desperate customers who see him coming and clamor like socialites whose Botox is wearing off.

"I'm instantly recognized when I walk in the door," Richards said. "They say, 'The PB guy is here.'"

Richards is able to cure coffee-soaked printers infected by sloppy bank tellers. He is able to soothe disgruntled postal workers with a simple prescription to plug in the seemingly defunct self-service stamp-and-package-mailing kiosk. These are Richard's patients, his cases from day to day. And his satisfaction comes from satisfying others:

"I get them up and running and I feel good about myself," he said. "I'm just glad to be able to do my job in a timely manner."

No diseases named after him, no recognition in the journals; for Richards, doctoring self-service devices is enough. He finds satisfaction in a job well printed -- especially for critical government documents or payroll. "That's a critical need there to be timely," Richards said. On one service call, he not only fixed the printer, but stayed to help print the job so the customer could meet a deadline.

Like other surgeons, Richards said, "I have spent some late nights. I've been with customers at midnight or later. You're kind of bleary-eyed, but you wake up the next day, get some caffeine and go at it again."

Why? To cure the common cold of kiosks. To prevent printeritis. To keep machines healthy and customers up and running. "That's a good feeling," Richards said.

As the world of self-service continues to expand, Richards said the need for physicians will continue. "There will be more of a need for folks like myself to keep those things up and running. They're only as good as the service."

With Richards, that service comes anytime, day or night. Whether the laser printer goes down or the check encoders show symptoms of fatigue, whenever a self-service kiosk is under the weather ... the doctor is in.