1. How to Create a Profitable Service Center
Prepared by:
Marty Smith, General Manager
AFAA Annual Meeting - Colorado Springs, CO April 19, 2007

2. How to Create a Profitable Service Center
First Rule (The Golden Rule) (a.k.a: the Service Rule):
Confucius lived in the 500s BC, and his secular philosophy was put in writing by his disciples after he died. These writings include “Try your best to treat others as you would wish to be treated yourself.”
AFAA Annual Meeting - Colorado Springs, CO April 19, 2007

3. How to Create a Profitable Service Center
It doesn’t matter whether it is your employee or your customer – treat them like you want to be treated. You employees will do a better job of taking care of your customers. Your customers will show their appreciation by becoming more loyal customers.
AFAA Annual Meeting - Colorado Springs, CO April 19, 2007

4. How to Create a Profitable Service Center
Focus more on customer service and the bottom line will show that. If you have systems in place, have a competent staff and things well organized, the bottom line does tend to take care of itself, allowing you to focus on meeting your customer’s needs.
AFAA Annual Meeting - Colorado Springs, CO April 19, 2007

5. How to Create a Profitable Service Center
Have qualified staff in place:
competent Service Manager (both field and office experience are almost a necessity)
competent Assistant to the Service Manager
competent trained Technicians (AFAA course attendance and NICET certification are a must!)
AFAA Annual Meeting - Colorado Springs, CO April 19, 2007

6. How to Create a Profitable Service Center
Service Manager:
preferably a former Senior Technician (so that the other technicians can relate to him / her and so that they have the necessary experience to know what it takes to do the job in the field)
it is good to have one main liaison to the factory’s Tech Support & Engineering groups
AFAA Annual Meeting - Colorado Springs, CO April 19, 2007

7. How to Create a Profitable Service Center
Assistant to the Service Manager:
Must be well organized
Let them focus on the more administrative aspects of running the Service Department so that the Service Manager is more efficient and able to stay focused on more technical and customer issues
AFAA Annual Meeting - Colorado Springs, CO April 19, 2007

8. How to Create a Profitable Service Center
Technicians:
Focus on ensuring you have the best trained technicians in the industry! Do not subscribe to the theory of “if I train them, then I am just helping my competitor because they will leave and go to work for them” – the opposite is true – if you don’t train them they will leave and go to work for your competitor (and they will indicate the reason they are coming there is to get training)
AFAA Annual Meeting - Colorado Springs, CO April 19, 2007

9. How to Create a Profitable Service Center
Provide in house and on the job training to supplement factory training and to provide training on older systems where factory training is no longer available.
AFAA Annual Meeting - Colorado Springs, CO April 19, 2007

10. How to Create a Profitable Service Center
Utilize a mentoring philosophy to bring newer technicians up to speed on the way your company does things as well as to gain training and experience from a technical standpoint
AFAA Annual Meeting - Colorado Springs, CO April 19, 2007

11. How to Create a Profitable Service Center
Store programs for fire alarm systems on a dedicated server or a dedicated partition on an existing server so that technicians can dial in to the server and update and download the latest copies of programs (this issue challenges many companies)
AFAA Annual Meeting - Colorado Springs, CO April 19, 2007

12. How to Create a Profitable Service Center
Post schedules for technician on a private section of the Company’s website to make it easy for them to access their schedules.
Equip technicians with digital cameras to take photos of items in the field to be able to to the Service Manager, Engineering Manager, etc.
AFAA Annual Meeting - Colorado Springs, CO April 19, 2007

13. How to Create a Profitable Service Center
Ensure that time sheets are filled out completely and accurately.
Ensure that Daily Work Tickets are filled ot completely and accurately and signed by the customer.
Ensure that time sheets and Daily Work Tickets are cross checked.
AFAA Annual Meeting - Colorado Springs, CO April 19, 2007

14. From the advice of my Service Manager: “bill early and bill often”
Do not let time slip by before tickets are billed (take away reasons for not getting tickets in – give each tech a fax machine when he is hired – let them fax them in daily or scan and them – however they need to get there, let them get there)
AFAA Annual Meeting - Colorado Springs, CO April 19, 2007

15. How to Create a Profitable Service Center
Thank you!
AFAA Annual Meeting - Colorado Springs, CO April 19, 2007