Newbie asking for advice

[Guest]

Hi everyone,

I am just starting out as an independent service technician (office equipment such as printers, scanners etc) and will concentrate on urgent / short notice requests.

Doing my training right now, but so much to learn and would highly appreciate any pointers of what are the most common faults / jobs / works you should expect at the average office? I expect most of the work will be on larger office business printers (HP and Lexmark).

Thx in advance for helping a newbie :-)

[kingarthur]

Re: Newbie asking for advice

first of all good luck...it might have been better to introduce yourself in the "newbie" section though

think you might find it a bit difficult to concentrate on "urgent/short notice requests"....life isn't that easy...as for what to expect in the average office, mainly operators who haven't got a clue what they are doing, badly loaded paper/consumables & poorly located machines....or machines that are on their last legs, that the customer expects you to perform a miracle by resurrecting them for little or no money....as i said before...good luck

[copiman]

Re: Newbie asking for advice

Are you just going to sale printers as well? Are you doing copiers as well? I'm thinking if we know more about what you will be doing, we may be able to give you an accurate picture. Let us know. Also, have you been in this business prior to now?

[Mobileprinter]

Re: Newbie asking for advice

Hi CopiMan,
Thanks for the feedback. I won't be selling printers. Planning on "just" doing "light" / urgent printer and other office equipment repair. I will advertise a really short response time, so if their usual person can't make it, I can step in. I have had an indication that there is a market for this around me :-)
So looking to see what to concentrate on first in my education (have not been in this business before). Is it cleaning the print head or what are the most common problems in offices with their equipment?
Just a general overview would be highly appreciated.
Thx :-)

Are you just going to sale printers as well? Are you doing copiers as well? I'm thinking if we know more about what you will be doing, we may be able to give you an accurate picture. Let us know. Also, have you been in this business prior to now?

[copiman]

Re: Newbie asking for advice

First of all, if you have not been trained on printers or small copiers (all-in-one), I don't see how you can make it. It will show very quick and then your done. If you get thru the training aspect, which by the way never ends, there is the experience factor. Once you pass that, now comes the reality of what your up against. Bottom line is that in order to get the service business, you will have to either save the customer money or provide them with something they do not presently have. In my 30 yrs in this business, I have seen alot. Mechanical issues, electrical issues, computer issues, network issues, and user issues. Sometimes just a cleaning. Sometimes a part(s) need replaced. Sometimes a mechanical and/or an electrical adjustment. Then there is software and firmware. Some good days and some bad.

Not sure if this was what you were looking for. Keep in mind that this is just my opinion. You need alot of opinions. Also, if your going to be a one man band, I would get with others that do the same thing and work together to help each other. Kinda like what we do on this website. I wish you the best of luck in your quest.

[907tec]

Re: Newbie asking for advice

Now, I wish you all the luck in the world, but....

If I find out that one of my contracted customers hires anybody else to work on my machines...I ain't happy. It sounds as though you are attempting to provide faster response times than a customer's existing service provider, "so if their usual person can't make it, I can step in". If you are specifically targeting machines that do not have contracts: awesome. However, if you are trying to work on contracted-machines, I would be wary. I am not sure how other companies handle this, but it would certainly breach our maintenance contracts. If I am the service provider for a business, I do not want to spend time cleaning up after another technician's mistakes. At the very least this will result in an additional bill-able call, and possibly even result in voiding the maintenance contract.

I always get an odd sensation when I see a stranger tearing apart one of my contracted-machines. It is a peculiar mix of overly-protective anger, and then giddiness as I calculate the inflated invoice that I will type up. Usually, I just sit down next to the "tech" and watch silently...waiting for them to ask me what I'm doing. Sometimes, if I really feel like an ass, I will give them helpful suggestions - "oh! it looks like that cover has another screw holding it on." But always, and I mean always: I bill the customer more money. Much more.

It is not just that I am unaware of the "tech's" training and ability, but that is a large part of it. It's also that I will have no records of what service they performed, what parts were replaced, or which areas I should investigate when undocumented labor is performed on some random part of the machine.

[JR2ALTA]

Re: Newbie asking for advice

I echo the above sentiments.

You are underestimating our industry.

What if (when) your "urgent call" is because the customer needs a board or a fuser, you are not an authorized dealer so you can't get that.

They will never call you again and word will spread.

You're better off specializing in something, like HP printers. Everything's available through PartsNow\

I don't think you're going to find the pointers you're looking for, and probably just more negativity because of your comment about working on our equipment.

[blackcat4866]

Re: Newbie asking for advice

I'm afraid I'll have to rain on your parade also.

Even if you just focus on tabletop MFPs and printers, there are 15+ brands, and to provide any kind of "urgent" service you'll need to stock parts. The big question is how wide are you going to cast your net? One brand $2K to $3K in parts. Ten brands $20K to $30K in parts. And how will you carry it all? That Aveo just won't carry it all. More like a box truck.

From a practical point of view You'll need to narrow your focus, or do a lot of paper clip and rubber band repairs. =^..^=

[Brian8506]

Re: Newbie asking for advice

The rain continues. I've been in this business 33 years. You're always learning. If you think you can start a repair business with no knowledge of the equipment, no sources for parts and supplies and no network of others to help you, you're sadly mistaken. Go try to latch on with a manufacturer or dealer and learn, learn, learn. You may find your take home pay is higher.

[mojorolla]

Re: Newbie asking for advice

Best piece of advice I can give: expect the unexpected!! As stated above, this is not a self taught type of industry. Nothing will help you more than experience.
If you feel HP and Lexmark are "larger" printer....you ain't seen nothing yet. Best of luck to you.

[ZeusGT]

Re: Newbie asking for advice

lol.... that's all I can seem to do right now. I've been in this industry for 20 years and can tell you that..lol. Omgosh, I can't stop laughing at this. I can tell you that you have no business trying this stunt. It will bankrupt you and you will be kicked out before you know it. It's like someone running into a hospital and saying "I'm going to be your on call brain surgeon with no experience and very little training. If your regular surgeon can't be here in an hour, I'll be here in thirty."

Seriously, I get my tail handed to me every now and then and I am a very seasoned tech with factory training on several different manufactures. I own and operate my own business and IT IS A STRUGGLE! I have a lot of experience and an education in business. Juggling all of this every day is very taxing to say the lease, but I wouldn't have it any other way. It has taken me years to build the client relationships that I have and I promise if I had someone else come in behind me saying they could do it better without and experience, I would be livid. Sir, don't quit your day job.

If you really want to take off in this industry, then I would suggest you do what all of us here have done. Go to work for a manufacture or independent and work you tail off in the trenches for a couple of years. Work hard and learn everything you can on their dime while providing a great service and you will crawl up the ranks while earning a steady paycheck. If it's God's will and this is the road God wants you to take, then I by no means should interfere. However, if you haven't clearly thought this through, then I would suggest you work for a manufacture first.

Best of luck to you sir.

[aodtech]

Re: Newbie asking for advice

Thanks for the feedback. I won't be selling printers. Planning on "just" doing "light" / urgent printer and other office equipment repair. I will advertise a really short response time, so if their usual person can't make it, I can step in. I have had an indication that there is a market for this around me :-)
So looking to see what to concentrate on first in my education (have not been in this business before). Is it cleaning the print head or what are the most common problems in offices with their equipment?
Just a general overview would be highly appreciated.
Thx :-)

This is not how the business works at all and there is no market for what you are trying to do. Here's the ideal scenario.

1. Customer has problem with machine
2. Customer places service call with dispatch
3. Dispatch assigns call to tech within territory
4. Tech responds to call within "reasonable time"

But in reality...

4. Tech attempts to respond to call within "reasonable time" (Doesn't always happen)

If a customer has to wait longer than expected, they will call dispatch again and again and again...

If it's bad enough, dispatch will yank a tech from another territory hundreds of miles away to get to that call. If it's even worse, the service manager or even worse, the owner will get involved. The customer has a service contract and they will demand service. They complain about CPC and supply prices enough, they will not call and pay some random schmo just because he advertises "quick and light service". Sometimes the service manager will personally go out and do a service call if nobody else is available. If the industry worked based on your thinking, then the whole copier service industry would cease to exist. And then this message board would not be around. Then I'd have to find something better to do at 1am. Think about it.

[Mobileprinter]

Re: Newbie asking for advice

Hi to everyone and thank you for the advise.

I did not mean to step on anyone's toes. I live in France and the setup seems a bit different here than in the US.

My target is companies of below 100 employees. Here they just seem to buy the printer / office equipment and use independent service technicians to service it - they might think it is cheaper but not really sure why it is like that here. This is the market I am targeting. I am not going after huge corporations that lease the equipment with established service contracts.

I am competing against other one-man-shows, some of which have no training at all (I know, I used to work in an office here - got laid off and thought this might be an opportunity - especially if you are honest with the customer and give good customer service - something that is very rare in this country - as you can hear, I am not French :-)).

So was just looking for pointers of what to focus on.

As to spare parts, there are shops here that stock these and make money of being able to supply them immediately - so luckily do not need a big stock.

ANY advise highly appreciated. Thx again :-)

[minimerlin]

Re: Newbie asking for advice

I have to agree with the posts from the others.....this is not as easy a job that you seem to think it is! I get the impression that you want to just drop into an office that has any old/new printer, with a very easy fault, and with the wave of a wand...its fixed. What happens if you have two machines in different towns to do and get stuck at the first one? There goes the fast response to the other call....do they then call the person who advertises a quicker response than you? I concur with the feeling that you need to get proper training on manufacturers machines with proper backup and find out for yourself if you can do this. I have been doing this type of work for the last 20 years and as stated by others even with that experience still can hit problems.

Good luck!!

[Mobileprinter]

Re: Newbie asking for advice

Thank you for all your advise - clearly I do not have decades of experience, but do really appreciate your feedback. I am by no means underestimating what I am up against. I have started training, which is sponsored by the OEM's here. I am just trying of what the most common problems are.

As to call out times, my rates will reflect my response time. Initially, I do not expect to be that busy that double bookings will be an issue.

My training here is a 3 year course, where you go in for a week every month and do hands on training - very thorough I will say without knowing what is offered in the US. So believe, in time, I will get around the majority of the issues :-)

Just trying to get a grip about what are the most common problems - so would focus on these initially.

Thx again :-)