Cmark how do you use your time do you travel around taking stuff apart order parts go to another place work on something else while your weighting on parts? How long does it take to get parts? I work on mainly trucks right now i have to always be thinking if i tear in to a truck what if another one has a problem witch is needed more. I spend alot of my day on the phone every day how do you charge for this?
Firstly, as most of you know, we work mainly on Cat equipment. Now whatever anyone says about Cat's service or prices, the Cat parts system is second to none. With SIS on the laptops in the service trucks, we can look up part numbers and get P&A in minutes. I've tried dealing with the others, Komatsu, Kobelco, Hyundai etc. and it can take an hour just for someone to phone you back and then they will usually want to email you a picture to confirm they are talking about the right thing before they order it, even if it's available. Typically, if a customer wants us to work on anything other than Cat I will explain the foreseeable issues before we start and if possible, get them to organise their own parts.
The issue of getting parts to the machine is dictated by the needs of the customer. If a machine is down and parts are available at the local depot, and the customer wants it, we will happily drive to collect them. In the area we usually work it should be a round trip of 1 to 4 hours maximum. We charge the travel time at a lesser hourly rate, plus mileage. If parts aren't local, 90% of time they're available next day by 9:00 am and in that case, yes, we will try and look at another job in the meantime.
The key to keeping customers happy is communication. If you can only spend a couple of hours on a job, let them know your circumstances before you start. If you're in the middle of a 3 day rebuild and you get a call for a breakdown, explain exactly the situation to both parties. I don't know what it's like in your area but most business owners I know won't have a problem with you leaving their job for an urgent breakdown for a little while, and explain to customer B before you start that you can't be all day on his breakdown.
Minimising lost-and-downtime in a field service based business is relatively easy, but needs discipline. As much admin work as possible relating to a job should be done on site in chargeable time. You have to be tough on yourself and your employees. A lot of guys will want to get back to the depot ASAP and sit down with a coffee and do the paperwork. Not in my business. Parts ordering, writing service reports, filling out oil-sample forms, any admin for the job needs to be done before leaving site. Even if the site is closing and you get kicked out, park on the street outside and do it. As long as it's related to the job at hand, it's totally justifiable to put it all on the bill in my opinion. On the flip side, if you do have to break off to make phone calls relating to something else, make sure you document it and, most importantly, make a point of telling the customer that you've taken a half-hour or whatever off his bill. Most of the time they won't even be aware of it but they will be impressed by your honesty. Besides, you never know who is watching you through the office windows.