What to look for in a North American robot service partner (a checklist for robot manufacturers)

Short answer: A robot manufacturer choosing a North American field service partner should check twelve things before signing: coverage and response times by zone, SLA wording that defines when the clock starts and stops, how technicians get trained on your robot, parts stocking and consignment, the split between your remote support and their on-site work, ticket data you can export, safety, insurance and workers' compensation documents, data and IP handling, the pricing model, co-branding and customer ownership, conflicts of interest, and exit terms. Score each candidate with the table below, run one paid trial job, and only then sign a wider service agreement.

This checklist is written by KeepRobots, a robot field service company in Vancouver. We are one of the options you might evaluate, so we have tried to make the checklist work for any provider, including ours. Regulatory points are summaries with sources at the end; they are not legal or insurance advice.

Why the choice of robot service partner matters so much

For a robot maker entering North America, the field service partner is the person your customer actually meets when something goes wrong. Their response time becomes your response time, their site report becomes your failure data, and their behaviour on site becomes your brand. Enterprise buyers increasingly ask in RFPs who services the robot locally and how fast. A weak partner can be worse than none: it hides faults, loses parts and voids warranties.

If you are still deciding whether to outsource at all, start with how robot makers can offer on-site service without hiring a team and the cost comparison in robotic field service engineer salary in the US and Canada. This article assumes you have decided to use a third-party robot service partner and need to pick one.

The 12-point checklist

1. Coverage and response times

Where is the provider's base, and which cities are routine (same or next day) versus per-project travel?
Ask for response targets by zone: core metro, rest of province or state, other countries. One national number usually hides a big spread.
Separate reply time (someone acknowledges the ticket), remote triage time and on-site arrival time.
Weekends, holidays and night shifts: are they covered, at what rate?
Cross-border work between Canada and the US: who handles entry requirements, tools and parts at the border, and how much notice they need.

2. SLA wording that actually means something

A response target is only as good as its definitions. Read the draft agreement for:

When the clock starts: when the ticket is logged, or when the provider has enough information (serial number, fault code, site contact)?
What counts as "responded": an automatic email, a phone call from a technician, or a person on site?
When the clock stops: technician arrives, robot restored, or work-around in place?
Exclusions: parts not yet delivered, site access refused, customer not available, robot under your remote investigation.
Reporting: monthly SLA performance per ticket, not a self-declared percentage.
Remedies: service credits are common; check whether they are meaningful and capped.

Rule of thumb: never promise your customer a faster on-site time than your partner has signed up to, minus a buffer for your own triage.

3. Technician training and certification on your platform

Will they say plainly whether they have worked on your model before? A provider that claims to know everything is a warning sign.
What is the training plan: your documentation, remote sessions, a sample unit, a visit to your factory or your local hub?
Do you certify individual technicians (named people, tested), and can the provider keep those people on your account?
Can they read your manuals and fault tables in the original language, and talk to your engineers in your working hours?
Robot-specific safety: for robotic arms and cells, familiarity with ISO 10218 (adopted in Canada as CSA Z434); for industrial mobile robots in the US, the ANSI/A3 R15.08 series. You don't need a provider to be a standards body, but they should know which ones apply to your product.

4. Parts stocking and consignment

Can they hold consignment stock (your parts, on their shelf, invoiced only when used)?
How is every movement logged: receipt, issue to a ticket, return of the failed part, write-off?
How often do they reconcile with you (monthly is reasonable) and who pays for loss or damage in storage?
Storage conditions for lithium batteries, demo units and returned units.
Can they handle RMAs: packing failed modules, serial-number tracking, return shipping paperwork?

The right spares list makes a bigger difference to downtime than almost anything else; see what to stock for a robot fleet and, for legged robots, humanoid robot repair in North America.

5. The remote and on-site split

Write down a tiered support model: who handles first-line remote checks, who escalates, when a technician is sent.
Who owns remote-operations access? Partners should get individual, revocable accounts, not your admin password.
Will the technician call your engineer from site and follow a fault tree, or improvise?
What may they open under warranty, and what must stay sealed and go back to you?

6. Reporting and ticket data

Every on-site visit should produce data you can use: serial number, firmware version, fault codes, symptom description, root-cause guess, parts used (with serials), photos, logs, start and end times. Ask:

Can they work inside your ticketing system, or export to it in a structured format?
Can you see a sample site report before signing?
Who owns the ticket data? (It should be you.)

7. Safety, insurance and workers' compensation

North American sites, especially hospitals, warehouses, airports and large retailers, often ask for paperwork before a technician walks in. Ask every candidate for:

A certificate of insurance (COI) for commercial general liability, with the limits your customers require. In the US this is usually issued on an ACORD 25 form. Check the policy dates and ask whether your company (and sometimes the end customer) can be added as an additional insured.
Workers' compensation status. In British Columbia, you can check a contractor with a WorkSafeBC clearance letter; WorkSafeBC says the letter protects the hiring firm from liability for the contractor's unpaid premiums only if it is addressed to that firm. Other provinces and US states have their own systems.
A safe-work procedure for your robot: how stored energy is controlled before servicing (lockout/tagout is required for servicing work in the US under OSHA 29 CFR 1910.147), how a legged or arm robot is made safe, and battery handling.
Site-specific requirements: badges, orientations, background checks for some facilities.

Verify the documents yourself (call the insurer or broker on the COI, pull the clearance letter online). Don't rely on a PDF alone.

8. Data, privacy and IP

An NDA signed before you send manuals, schematics, firmware tools or source files.
Robots with cameras and microphones collect personal information. In Canada, private-sector privacy law is PIPEDA federally, with substantially similar provincial laws such as BC's PIPA. Agree how site logs, maps and images are handled, stored and deleted.
Firmware tools and service software: licensed per technician, returned on exit, no copying.
No use of your documentation for other clients.

9. Pricing model

Model	How it works	Fits when	Watch out for
Hourly (time and materials)	Diagnostic or call-out fee plus hourly labour, parts and travel extra	Few or scattered robots, early market entry, unpredictable volume	Minimum billing unit, travel rules, overtime rates, what "hour" includes
Per ticket / flat fee	Fixed price per visit type (e.g. standard repair, deployment)	Repeatable jobs with known scope	Scope creep: what happens when a "standard" job takes twice as long
Retainer or per-robot monthly fee	Fixed monthly fee for guaranteed capacity or response, sometimes with included hours	Larger fleets with steady ticket volume and strict SLAs	Paying for capacity you don't use; how unused hours roll over
Hybrid	Small retainer for priority plus hourly for work done	Growing fleets moving from pilot to rollout	Complexity; make sure both parts are reported clearly

Ask for published or written rates, the minimum billing unit, and an example invoice. Our engineer cost analysis shows why hourly outsourcing is usually cheaper than a full-time hire until on-site volume is steady: see field service engineer salary and cost per productive hour.

10. Co-branding and customer ownership

Will the technician show up under your brand (white-label), the provider's brand, or both ("Field service partner: X")?
The customer relationship, warranty decisions and renewal conversations should stay with you. Check that the provider won't sell to your customers directly.
If you want to name the partner on your website ("North American field service by …"), agree the wording and logo use in writing.

11. Conflicts of interest and exclusivity

Does the provider also sell or distribute competing robots? A service partner that is also a competitor's dealer has an incentive problem.
Does the contract ask you for territorial exclusivity? Early on, non-exclusive arrangements keep your options open.

12. Exit terms

How are consignment parts, demo units, documentation, tools and remote-access accounts handed back?
Notice period, and whether open tickets are finished.
Ticket history exported in full.

Red flags

"We've serviced every robot brand." Nobody has. Ask which models, where, and for whom (subject to their NDAs).
No written rates, or rates only after a long onboarding.
One national response time with no zones and no definitions.
No sample site report, or reports that are a single line ("fixed").
Can't produce a COI or workers' compensation proof quickly.
Sells a competing robot in the same segment without disclosing it.
Wants your admin credentials instead of individual accounts.
Opens sealed assemblies or swaps non-identical parts without asking. For US units, identical replacement parts also matter under the FCC Covered List rules for foreign-produced robots; see FCC Covered List and robots.
Long exclusive contract before a single job has been done.

Scoring table for robot service partner candidates

Score each candidate 1–5 on each line, multiply by the weight, and add up (maximum 500). Adjust the weights to your product: a humanoid maker might weight training higher; a cleaning-robot fleet might weight coverage higher.

Criterion	Weight	1 looks like	5 looks like
Coverage where your customers are	15	No presence; everything is travel	Base in your main region; clear zones and travel rules elsewhere
Response targets and SLA wording	12	Verbal promises only	Written targets by zone with defined start/stop and monthly reporting
Training on your platform	12	"We'll figure it out on site"	Training plan, named certified technicians, honest about gaps
Parts and consignment handling	10	No storage; no logs	Consignment with per-movement logs and monthly reconciliation
Reporting and data ownership	10	Free-text emails	Structured reports in or exportable to your system; data is yours
Safety, insurance, workers' comp	10	Can't produce documents	COI and clearance provided and verified; written safe-work procedures
Remote/on-site process fit	8	Improvises	Follows your fault tree and RMA rules; calls your engineers from site
Pricing transparency and fit	8	Opaque, only after onboarding	Written rates, example invoice, model that fits your volume
Data, privacy and IP	5	No NDA, shared credentials	NDA, individual accounts, clear data handling
Co-branding and customer ownership	4	Will sell to your customers	White-label or agreed co-branding; customer stays yours
Conflicts and exclusivity	3	Sells competing robots; demands exclusivity	No competing products; non-exclusive
Language, time zone, exit terms	3	No overlap with your team; no exit plan	Reads your docs, works your hours, written hand-back terms

A score is only a starting point. The best test is one real paid job: a deployment or a repair, with the site report sent to you. You will learn more from that report than from any sales call.

Questions to ask in the first call

Which of our robot types (or similar platforms) have your technicians worked on, and which have they not?
Where are your technicians based, and what is your realistic on-site time in each of our customer cities?
How would you define response time in a written agreement?
How do you train on a new robot, and how long before you can take tickets?
Can you hold consignment stock? How do you log and reconcile it?
Can you show us a sample site report?
Can you work in our ticketing system?
Can you send a COI and proof of workers' compensation coverage before the first job?
Will you sign our NDA before we send documentation?
What are your rates, minimum billing unit, travel rules and overtime rates? Can we see an example invoice?
Do you sell or distribute any robots that compete with ours?
Can your technicians work under our brand? What happens to our parts, data and accounts if we part ways?

For a wider view of the market (nationwide networks, integrators, regional specialists), see our 2026 guide to robot field service in North America, which includes a shorter 10-point checklist and named examples of each provider type.

Where KeepRobots fits

KeepRobots is a regional specialist: a robot field service company based in Greater Vancouver, serving Canada and the United States. We don't make or sell robots and are not anyone's exclusive dealer. Against the checklist above, this is what we can do:

Coverage: Greater Vancouver is our core zone; the rest of BC and Alberta on scheduled trips; the rest of Canada and the US on site per project, with travel quoted in advance.
Training: we will tell you honestly whether we have worked on your model. If not, we train on your manuals, fault tables and a sample unit before taking tickets.
Parts: consignment stock, demo units and returned units stored in Vancouver, with usage reports.
Process and data: we follow your fault tree and RMA rules, leave sealed assemblies closed without your approval, and send a written site report after every visit; we can work in your ticketing system.
Brand: KeepRobots-branded or white-label; the customer stays yours.
Language: English and Mandarin; our engineers read Chinese technical documents and can work with teams in Asia-Pacific time zones.
Pricing: published hourly rates, no retainer or onboarding fee required: diagnostic $200 CAD per visit in Canada or $200 USD in the US (credited against an approved repair), call-out $100 CAD per visit in the Greater Vancouver core area, on-site labour $150 CAD/hour in Canada or $150 USD/hour in the US, taxes extra. Deployments, maintenance programs and travel are quoted per project.

Ask us for the same documents you would ask anyone else for, and score us with the same table. Details are on our page for third-party robot service for robot manufacturers and North America field service for robot makers, or write to partners@keeprobots.com.

FAQ

How do I choose a robot service partner in North America?

Check coverage and zone-based response times, SLA definitions, how technicians will be trained on your robot, parts and consignment handling, ticket data and reporting, insurance and workers' compensation documents, data and IP handling, pricing model, co-branding, conflicts of interest and exit terms. Score candidates on a weighted table, then run one paid trial job before signing a wider agreement.

What should an SLA with a robot field service provider include?

Response targets by zone, with clear definitions of when the clock starts, what counts as a response, when the clock stops and what is excluded (for example parts not yet delivered or no site access), plus monthly reporting per ticket and any service credits. Don't promise your customer faster on-site times than your partner has signed up to.

Should robot field service be paid hourly or on a retainer?

Hourly (time and materials) usually fits early market entry, few robots and unpredictable volume, because you pay only for work done. A retainer or per-robot monthly fee fits larger fleets with steady ticket volume and strict response targets. Many robot makers start hourly and add a small retainer for priority response as the fleet grows.

What insurance should a robot service partner have?

At minimum, ask for a certificate of insurance for commercial general liability with the limits your customers require, and proof of workers' compensation coverage (in British Columbia, a WorkSafeBC clearance letter addressed to your company). Verify both directly rather than relying on a PDF, and check the requirements of each customer site.

Can a third-party robot service partner work under our brand?

Often, yes. Many providers can work white-label, in your uniform, your ticketing system and your report templates, or as a named co-branded partner. Agree in writing who owns the customer relationship, the ticket data and how logos and names may be used.

Sources (checked 2026-10-12)

WorkSafeBC, why you need a clearance letter: worksafebc.com
OSHA 29 CFR 1910.147, the control of hazardous energy (lockout/tagout): osha.gov
ANSI/A3 R15.08 industrial mobile robots safety standard, Parts 1–3: automate.org
CSA Z434:2026, industrial robots, robot applications and robot cells (Canadian adoption of ISO 10218-1/-2:2025): webstore.ansi.org
Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada, PIPEDA: priv.gc.ca; BC Personal Information Protection Act oversight: oipc.bc.ca

Weights, response-time practices and pricing-model descriptions are our own guidance, not industry statistics. Nothing here is legal, insurance or safety-compliance advice.