How many Brands per tech do you carry?

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  • DallasTech
    Trusted Tech
    • Feb 2007
    • 119
    #1

    How many Brands per tech do you carry?

    I am from a small dealership, where we sale/service multiple brands with only 5 techs. It seems as if our owner's would carry more brands if it were possible, but I am thinking we are already spread out enough. I'm looking for a simple answer just for comparison sake. I personally think they expect us to know too much and we suffer on the service side because we can't keep up with all the brands.

    We carry 6 brands, and have 5 techs, two techs, including myself have different job titles that take up some of our time.

    So, 6 brands and 4 full time techs.
    Tags: address, answer, bulletins, canon, comparison, dealership, firmware, full, including, job, level, main, manual, models, multiple, part, ricoh, sale, secondary, service, servicing, side, tech, techs, territory, time, updates
    • blackcat4866
      Master Of The Obvious
      Site Contributor
      10,000+ Posts
      • Jul 2007
      • 22594
      #2
      I think that you're beginning to understand.

      If you're servicing one manufacturer, let's say Canon for argument's sake. You will be expected to address six or seven different platforms, divided into three or four models of various speeds and feature configurations. I'll be conservative and call that seven. Now you've got three previous generations of models that are not current, yet they haven't gone away yet. Multiply that seven times four, and you've got 28.

      If you've got a single tech that is working on 28 platforms, or 112 individual models, he's got to know a hell of a lot. And he's got no one to help him, since all the other guys are just as swamped as he is, and specialized in something else.

      For argument's sake, let's say our sample tech does 30 calls a week. (30*51/112) Means that he might see any one individual model 14 times a year. He might be able to maintain a level of competency based on that.

      So that's one tech with one manufacturer. It seems to me that you would be expecting a lot to add more to that. Plus keeping up with the 28 levels of firmware, 28 types of bulletins, 28 types of manual updates, and 6 calls a day. I hope this sample tech is getting paid really well. He's earning it.

      Now if this sample tech had a partner on the same manufacturer who he could swap stories & field experience with, he'd have a better chance. But he already sounds pretty busy to me. If you want to maintain this particular level of chaos, I would pair up two techs (that will play nice, and not sabotage each other), and make tech A the Canon primary tech and Ricoh secondary tech, and tech B the Ricoh primary tech, and Canon secondary tech. They can help each other as necessary, and should be sharing information regularly. And if tech A takes a sick day, tech B can fill in or vice versa. =^..^=
      Last edited by blackcat4866; 06-16-2010, 07:36 PM. Reason: reorganising my disconnected thoughts
      If you'd like a serious answer to your request:
      1) demonstrate that you've read the manual
      2) demonstrate that you made some attempt to fix it.
      3) if you're going to ask about jams include the jam code.
      4) if you're going to ask about an error code include the error code.
      5) You are the person onsite. Only you can make observations.

      blackcat: Master Of The Obvious =^..^=

        Comment

        • djdan73
          Technician
          50+ Posts
          • Oct 2008
          • 64
          #3
          well at this time we are working on the ricoh series machines (ricoh,savin,gestetner) also we work on xerox, as well as a mulititude of shedders, booklet makers, printers, typewriters, as well as having to do alot of computer networking along with these. i average about 7 calls a day with about a 200 mile drive per day. in my territory im responsable for around 500 machines. i hope that helps

            Comment

            • Wishbone
              Trusted Tech
              100+ Posts
              • Feb 2008
              • 100
              #4
              Working on too many brands really hurts you. Not only do you not have room in your vehicle to carry all the parts but you never really get to specialize and be really good at a few.

                Comment

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