Re: Service Department Suggestions?

["Bill" <bill190nospam@xxxxxxxxx>]

I would use a "main office" / "branch office" model.

Move everything you can to the main office and have only what is needed at
the branch office.

Say you have a sales manager. Sales manager works out of main office, but
travels to branch office as needed. Branch office might have a "lead
salesperson" who is in charge there.

Same thing with installation and service.

All calls routed through main office pretty much, but have the ability for
people to call the branch office directly as needed.

Then so far as communication between the two offices, historically and
formally this has been done with lead people, supervisors, and managers.

So far as technical questions and information goes, every rule in the "chain
of command" book has been broken for this. Direct lines of communication
should be available from any employee to any other employee. Say you have a
guy in one office who has expert knowledge of something specific. Make that
persons knowledge easily accessible to everyone company wide. Tweak this as
needed. If one person is asking the expert stupid questions which someone
else could answer, limit that person's access to the expert.

So far as forms, paperwork, billing, etc. These things are "management
systems". The systems are usually designed as a manual (non computer) system
initially. Then automated and moved to computer when the system is working
well. A system is a system. Can be manual "paperwork" or on computer. Do
what works best and is as simple as possible (less training). Sometimes a
simple 3 x 5 paper card (non computer) system is the easiest and best thing
for record keeping.

For example for a service call. The call goes to main office and is recorded
there. Then main office dispatches tech from main office or branch office as
needed. Technician completes service call and fills out paperwork. Paperwork
is returned to branch or main office. Someone picks up paperwork from branch
office and takes to main office daily or whatever. Retain copy and mail if
out of town branch office.

Then once you get the main/branch office model working, you get economy of
scale and synergy. Instead of having two of everything, you can have just
one of some things in the main office.

Also with all calls being routed to the main office, you can then study the
types of calls you are getting. If you get frequent calls asking the same
questions, you can route these calls to a "free" question answering phone
system or a person who answers frequently asked questions. Also could set up
a web site which answers frequently asked questions. And set up a notebook
with an index which has answers to frequently asked questions.

So far as charging for questions asked on the phone, if they are paying for
monitoring or have a service contract, I would provide a certain number of
answers for free per month. If a local system, then provide answers for free
for a few years after installation. Otherwise might want to charge a small
fee for answering questions if the question is answered on your web site or
phone system, yet they insist on having someone answer their question on the
phone. Answer new questions for free, then add them to the website, phone
system, and notebook. Over time this should reduce your time spent answering
questions.

So far as designing management systems, don't make the mistake of having
only managers design the system! Ask the little guy.Ask the person answering
the phone what will work, what they want, how the system is working. Ask the
installers. Ask the service and salespeople. The "little guy" is the boss!
These people spend 8 hours a day doing their job and they know best what
will work, what is most simple for them, and what is a pain in the a$$. Get
frequent feedback from these people about how everything is working.
(Sometimes managers don't have a clue about what will work best. And the
employee will tell everyone else *but* the manager that something is a silly
stupid system. So need to have an atmosphere where it is OK to tell the boss
what is needed.)

And don't be afraid to change things. If something is not working or is
ticking some people off, find out what would be a better system, then make
changes as needed.




"JW"  wrote in message
> We are in the process of a merger and will retain two offices (about two
> and a half hours away from each other). While we will have service techs,
> installers and sales staff at both sites, some of the management will be
> shared.
> We're looking at ways to share the tech info and streamline communications
> between the two offices. Because of increased clerical support staff in
> one office, I'm thinking of diverting all phone calls to one site with
> calls being dispatched to the other when needed.
>
> If you have any recommendations for technology or remote
> management/consolidation/structure suggestions, please share.  We'll have
> 7 or 8 service techs in two locations providing service (phone and field),
> doing remotes and inspections.  We currently use ALARM software from
> Z-Micro.  Also checking out google calendar (web-based). We're using an
> older dos-based database for our tech detail/documentation and are looking
> for a good program to use as we upgrade things.
>
> One last question: Over the years we've been providing a lot more tech
> service over the phone. Basically we only charge (sometimes) when an
> actual remote programming session is needed. Otherwise all the tech time
> (which is substantial) has been free to customers (and not all even pay
> monitoring fees since we have many local fire alarm systems). Giving good
> service feels good but I'd like to explore ways to be responsive and still
> recover some of the costs.  Do any of you bill for tech assistance over
> the phone? Do you have customers pay some type of retainer for it or do
> you just consider part of the cost of doing business. Many times we're
> walking customers through tasks we used to get paid to go out and do (code
> changes, battery changes, trouble-shooting). If you do charge, what kind
> of reaction did you get from customers?
>
> Thanks for any thoughts/ideas!
>