Typical conversation to place a service call.

[pacman]

Re: Typical conversation to place a service call.

This all sounds like what my dad and I used to do. Take off whatever we needed, load them up in a 20 foot Uhaul, take them to the dump and run them off the end. Fun times indeed!

[Zackuth]

Re: Typical conversation to place a service call.

My favorite is the call that states the machine is not working right. I have always wanted to show up with no parts, diagnose the problem and tell them I'd be back with the parts. (No, I did not bring any parts with me. If it's not important enough to give me some information, it can't be important enough for you to get the machine working quickly.) Unfortunately, my conscience gets the better of me and I call to find out what is going on.

[Venom]

Re: Typical conversation to place a service call.

How about the customer that calls "for a good cleaning" every time the add toner light comes on and gets you to do it because adding toner isn't their job.
I had a customer years ago that called that her Mita 111 was tripping the breaker, shutting down power to her area. She had an electric heater plugged in under her desk on same power bar....Duh
or...ever have a customer that you try to ask details from and they tell you to just "fix the damn thing"?
or...try to ask what problems the copier is having and all they say is "needs a good service"
or...customer says "the last tech was able to fix it properly last time, why can't you?", I was the last tech, told you it needed a drum but adjusted cause you didn't want to pay for one.
or the customer that says our old xerox machine never had problems....my buddy that worked for xerox knew that account well...xerox gave refund and took copier away because of so many complaints


:-)

[prntrfxr]

Re: Typical conversation to place a service call.

How about the customer that calls "for a good cleaning" every time the add toner light comes on and gets you to do it because adding toner isn't their job.

Actually, at one company I worked for, my boss got a good account by offering to change the toner for them. 5 floors of employees and ratio was roughly 1 printer for 2 workers. About 1000 people per floor. She offered them something like, 2 hour response times, bring the cartridge, vacuum the printer, install the new cartridge and remove the empty cartridge. Told them their office personal (mostly women) would never get dirty having to replace a cartridge, the machines would never be damaged by someone not installing the cartridges correctly, regular vacuuming would reduce service calls by 75%, and machines would be under maintenance agreement. They loved the idea, she sold it and left it to me to try and make it work.

I hired a very bright delivery guy who was working his way through college. He loved sports and cars. I trained him to vacuum the machines, how to install HP maintenance kits, and how to check for problems. I gave him a radio. We labeled all their machines, assigned them numbers, and recorded serial numbers. I put them in a spreadsheet that correlated each one to end users and the floor location (That place was like a maze. You had to have a map to get around.) We would tell the end-users, if you see you're getting low on toner, call in an order that evening and our guy will be out the next morning with a cartridge and you will never be down. Most of the machines were the same type so he only had to bring about 3 or 4 different types of toner. He would bring the cartridges in the morning. If they weren't out yet, he would leave the cartridge and they could call me and I would direct him where to go to install it. We had a guy in-house rebuilding fusers and cartridges. The ladies loved him (he was cute and polite) and the bigwigs of the company loved him (they would talk sports or cars). He was almost always on site all day and would come back around lunch to get a second load. They dealt with the same guy 99% of the time. If there was a serious repair issue, he would come back to shop, I'd show him how to check the things it could be and how to install the part. He would go back and fix it. There were only 2 times in 3 years when I had to send someone or go myself, he turned out to be a pretty good tech. He ended up in sales when he got out of college. I thought she was crazy to make the deal and thought it would never work. I was wrong, we made a boatload of money on that account and got 5 or 6 other big accounts because those companies heard we had this account.

[blackcat4866]

Re: Typical conversation to place a service call.

It sounds like you manged it perfectly, and had just the right person in the position.
Sounds like a great success. It's too bad you couldn't have interested him in a service career. He sounded like a good candidate. =^..^=

[Lagonda]

Re: Typical conversation to place a service call.

[QUOTE=prntrfxr;241753]Actually, at one company I worked for, my boss got a good account by offering to change the toner for them. 5 floors of employees and ratio was roughly 1 printer for 2 workers. About 1000 people per floor. She offered them something like, 2 hour response times, bring the cartridge, vacuum the printer, install the new cartridge and remove the empty cartridge. Told them their office personal (mostly women) would never get dirty having to replace a cartridge, the machines would never be damaged by someone not installing the cartridges correctly, regular vacuuming would reduce service calls by 75%, and machines would be under maintenance agreement. They loved the idea, she sold it and left it to me to try and make it work.

I hired a very bright delivery guy who was working his way through college.QUOTE]

I think I've just spotted the reason why that sort of deal would never work around here. Our sales team would promise
the customer that level of support but expect service to cope without employing the extra manpower.