Looking for service tech's and need opinion of all

[stuart]

So for both consumers and industry pros I need some opinions.

Be honest...this is important!

1. How well do you like your technician?

2. Does the tech's hair length or physical appearance play a part in your opinion of them when they get to your house? This may sound crude but do crooked teeth, scars or other appearance items make you feel differently about how good they would be at fixing the spa?

3. Does age play a part in your opinion? Do you feel a young tech in his early 20's would not be experienced as an older one or would you prefer a young energetic tech to someone in their 50's or 60's because you feel they are sharper?

4. How much per year would you think a spa technician should make? For those of you that are tech's in other fields feel free to PM me with what you make along with industry people PM me with what you pay/make. For consumers remember that most warranty reimbursement is between $40 and $70 for the entire call, that means from the support staff in the store taking the call, the parts storage mileage time and everything.

5. Do you feel you need to be at home when the tech arrives or, for industry people, do you require someone there before your tech comes out?

6. As a consumer what time frame do you think is reasonable for a tech to be at your house from the point of calling it in? What about a weekend call, if you call on a Saturday do you expect a tech on Monday considering most service departments won't get the call until Monday morning?

7. If you have a friendly dog do you feel the tech should be as comfortable with your dog as you are? Do you always put your dog in during service?

8. Last, if you are looking for a job as a tech and want to live in Colorado feel free to PM or Email me.

I will have more questions as this goes along but I really want to get a public opinion and out look on service techs.

Thanks in advance for your input....

[drewstar]

So for both consumers and industry pros I need some opinions.

Be honest...this is important!

1. How well do you like your technician?

Never had a call.

2. Does the tech's hair length or physical appearance play a part in your opinion of them when they get to your house? This may sound crude but do crooked teeth, scars or other appearance items make you feel differently about how good they would be at fixing the spa?

Neatness counts. Apparence counts.  Face tattoos are bad.  A scar? Unless it was some horribly disfiguring scar, I wouldn't mind to much. Neat, Clean. Proffesional. First impression count. Don't scare the customers.  But tattoos and such are fine if the person carry's himself proffesonally. .
 

3. Does age play a part in your opinion? Do you feel a young tech in his early 20's would not be experienced as an older one or would you prefer a young energetic tech to someone in their 50's or 60's because you feel they are sharper?  

yes, a 17 year old kid doesn't instill confidence in me. I want to have a sense of security that a proffesionaly trained, experinced tech is handleing my problem and I'm not paying $70 an hour for a flunky.

4. How much per year would you think a spa technician should make? For those of you that are tech's in other fields feel free to PM me with what you make along with industry people PM me with what you pay/make. For consumers remember that most warranty reimbursement is between $40 and $70 for the entire call, that means from the support staff in the store taking the call, the parts storage mileage time and everything.

I would think that a qualified service tech working full time could make at the top of his scale, in MA, with 10-20 years of expereince $55K.

5. Do you feel you need to be at home when the tech arrives or, for industry people, do you require someone there before your tech comes out?

Depends on the repairs and my familiarity with the company.

6. As a consumer what time frame do you think is reasonable for a tech to be at your house from the point of calling it in? What about a weekend call, if you call on a Saturday do you expect a tech on Monday considering most service departments won't get the call until Monday morning?

I expect a return phone call within 12 hours of the first business day.  The return phone call acklowedges the problem, and sets expectations on when the repair or service can be done.  I HATE it when I call for service and I don't get a return phone call for 3 days, then they tell me it will be another week.  Arrrrrrgh.

7. If you have a friendly dog do you feel the tech should be as comfortable with your dog as you are? Do you always put your dog in during service?
  
Owners should put the dog away.  That's not unreasonable.

8. Last, if you are looking for a job as a tech and want to live in Colorado feel free to PM or Email me.

I will have more questions as this goes along but I really want to get a public opinion and out look on service techs.

Thanks in advance for your input....

[Pathfinder]

Stuart,   IMO appearance is huge these days not like in the 80's  where service people dressed w/e way they wanted. That tech is a reflection of you and your company. I sent out a survey to my whole client list b4 I opened my store and ask them to state what was important to them in a service company.  #1 was communication                        #2 was appearance  #3 hourly rate.



All new customers we require someone to be home  or when there is a weird problem that only they notice.

I cover all weekend emergency calls.

I think all pets should either be inside or chained up away from the work site.


You may want to try this for competency   When I was down to 3 final choices a mocked up a situation at 2 friends houses with mechanical packs on their tubs.  What I did was I either put in a faulty pressure switch/ hi limit / or a faulty heater to see how long it took each guy to diagnose the right problem  an explain to my friends what the cost was going to be to replace the part.
Needless to say I was surprised  one guy told them they had to replace the whole pack!!


Good luck in your search  

[Brewman]

1. How well do you like your technician?

     I've had service twice, two different techs.  Both were competent.
    If they come when they say they will, or communicate if they're running late,
    and do their job, then I'll like them fine.  Don't show up or call if late, we'll
     have serious words.  

2. Does the tech's hair length or physical appearance play a part in your opinion of them when they get to your house? This may sound crude but do crooked teeth, scars or other appearance items make you feel differently about how good they would be at fixing the spa?

     I expect the technician to be professional.  That includes being neatly groomed, literate, and appropriately dressed.  I don't care what length the
hair is as long as it looks taken care of.  Scars and crooked teeth, I don't worry
about.  It's the stuff that they can do something about- like shaving, bathing, etc.   The tech. is representing a business and I'd hope that business would expect professionalism.  


3. Does age play a part in your opinion? Do you feel a young tech in his early 20's would not be experienced as an older one or would you prefer a young energetic tech to someone in their 50's or 60's because you feel they are sharper?

  Doesn't matter as long as they can do the job and act professionally.  
  


4. How much per year would you think a spa technician should make? For those of you that are tech's in other fields feel free to PM me with what you make along with industry people PM me with what you pay/make. For consumers remember that most warranty reimbursement is between $40 and $70 for the entire call, that means from the support staff in the store taking the call, the parts storage mileage time and everything.

 I have no idea.  I know about what labor and trip charges amount to, but I have no idea what kind of compensation plan they get, nor do I really care.
That's between the tech and his/her employer.  Pay enough to get skilled help, whatever that takes.  Could and probably does vary by locale.  

5. Do you feel you need to be at home when the tech arrives or, for industry people, do you require someone there before your tech comes out?

 I prefer to be at home.  Not because I don't trust the tech, more out of experience.  Seems like whenever I'm not home, something goes a little awry and nobody is there to make a decision.  So I'll most always take off work and be there just in case.  My breaker is inside the house, and I won't let anyone in the house unless someone is home.
Plus they usually want to get paid when the job is done.  



6. As a consumer what time frame do you think is reasonable for a tech to be at your house from the point of calling it in? What about a weekend call, if you call on a Saturday do you expect a tech on Monday considering most service departments won't get the call until Monday morning?
 
 If I call in during business hours, I expect to reach someone when I call, or I expect a call back withing a reasonable time period (an hour or two).   I don't think it's unreasonable to expect next business day service, but I won't push the issue if the problem wasn't a big deal.  If my spa stopped heating in the middle of January, I'd expect the service out there asap.  But for something where the spa isn't in danger of freezing, I'd be more reasonable and hope they could get there within a day or two.  If I leave a message on a weekend, I expect a call first thing Monday morning.  Not necessarily a service call that day, but at least a call to set up an appointment.


7. If you have a friendly dog do you feel the tech should be as comfortable with your dog as you are? Do you always put your dog in during service?

Homeowners shouldn't expect invited strangers to know their dogs, and should make it as easy as possible for a tech to do their job by keeping their dogs inside.  I think it's entirely reasonable for anyone to go away without putting themselves at risk for a dog attack.  No way for the tech to know if a dog is friendly or not.  

[Vinny]

So for both consumers and industry pros I need some opinions.

Be honest...this is important!

1. How well do you like your technician?

2. Does the tech's hair length or physical appearance play a part in your opinion of them when they get to your house? This may sound crude but do crooked teeth, scars or other appearance items make you feel differently about how good they would be at fixing the spa?

3. Does age play a part in your opinion? Do you feel a young tech in his early 20's would not be experienced as an older one or would you prefer a young energetic tech to someone in their 50's or 60's because you feel they are sharper?

4. How much per year would you think a spa technician should make? For those of you that are tech's in other fields feel free to PM me with what you make along with industry people PM me with what you pay/make. For consumers remember that most warranty reimbursement is between $40 and $70 for the entire call, that means from the support staff in the store taking the call, the parts storage mileage time and everything.

5. Do you feel you need to be at home when the tech arrives or, for industry people, do you require someone there before your tech comes out?

6. As a consumer what time frame do you think is reasonable for a tech to be at your house from the point of calling it in? What about a weekend call, if you call on a Saturday do you expect a tech on Monday considering most service departments won't get the call until Monday morning?

7. If you have a friendly dog do you feel the tech should be as comfortable with your dog as you are? Do you always put your dog in during service?

8. Last, if you are looking for a job as a tech and want to live in Colorado feel free to PM or Email me.

I will have more questions as this goes along but I really want to get a public opinion and out look on service techs.

Thanks in advance for your input....

Stuart,

As you may or may not know I'm a tech in the medical equipment field; actually I'm now 3/4 manager and 1/4 tech. I have not had my tub serviced since I've owned it.

1) As both a professional and consumer I think a tech has to be customer friendly. You can have the brightest tech in the world without customer skills and he'll flop! I come across techs in my industry that really need a personality and I don't understand it.

2) Physical appearance does have something to do with things.  I'm old school myself and have taught my kids to be old school as well. I think if someone looks grungy and dirty that will not fly too well. What grungy and dirty is is a person's opinion ... can be smelling, dirty, long hair, missing teeth or tatoos. But I have been fooled by appearance as well - when I had my pool installed a threesome of "kids" came to install it. They had long hair, tatoos and body piercings and I thought WTF. They were the most professional and courteous people I ever saw. Unfortunately most people go by first impressions.

3) I say it depends on how the tech carried themself. IMO an older person may give a customer the feeling of more experience. But if an older person shows up and is totally baffeled it could be a big negative, I don't believe this is true of younger people.

4) Hey, I made you an offer about 2 years ago and you turned me down!!   Honestly, I can't say.

5) I always want to be home when a tech comes. I think it's important to see and hear what's going on ... it may be because of my profession I feel this way.

6) I think it depends on the situation. I would like to think that I'm the center of a business' universe but the truth is I'm not. If it's something minor ... a few days but if the tub is dead, I would like to see someone out next day if possible. I also think that a call to the next customer is a good thing as well. If a call comes in on Sat and it can wait until tuesday - that should be OK.

Just remember that as an owner - customer satisfaction is one key to a successful business. A fustrated customer that has had the tub "down" for 3 days (Sat to Mon) is not a happy customer. Something I don't understand is why not have a tech on for the weekend for big emergency calls (tub blows the breaker), I realize that parts are unavailable (they aren't in my field as well) but a tech at the door on Sunday may be a good business endevor.

7) Always put my dog in. She's so friendly though that people usually end up playing with her.

I would LOVE to live in Colorado, but my wife would not.

The most important aspect of being a tech IMO is fixing the customer. I am so customer oriented that I'm usually at odds with managers. I believe if you blow away the competition - there is none! But a customer can be fickle and I realize that. Having a person who can come in and save the day is a great asset even when other techs have failed.

I worked with a younger tech than myself who was probably better than I am but I was the one who people wanted to talk to. I knew how to fix the customer. As a now  somewhat manager, I sometimes cringe when I see how techs answer customers ... everyone does have a different personality.

I ran out of room  ... see page 2 - LOL!!

[Vinny]

continued ...

One thing I have seen in my field and disagree with is paying a tech a bonus for parts they charge for. A $1.00 fuse will bring in a lot less than a $400 board. A tech can't worry about what bonus is going into their pocket. I think this can make a tech dishonest.

[stuart]

This is awsome input guys! It's just what I was looking for...

This will be printed out and circulated through the service dept.

Another question;
Do you prefer a follow up call, a note or an email after the call to find out the outcome?

How long of a window should you as a customer be given for when the tech should be there...1 hour, 2 or even 3? We currently schedule either morning or afternoon.

[Bonibelle]

Stuart, I mean this very sincerely
Call Don at Clearwater Spas in wilmington (I know you know him) and have him tell you about Scott.
Scott is what I would call the perfect technician; I wish there were more like him for other home repairs.
He is honest, polite, accomodating and very knowledgable. He always appears professional.
It seems to me that he is always a step ahead of any problem or concern, so I assume he stays in close touch with Marquis. He was here when my tub was installed to assure that everything worked great from the start. That was also an opportunity for him to see my set up so if I called with a question, he could visualize what I was talking about.
The problems that I have had with my tub have been few (a light bulb, my spa monitor and air injector valves).
The response time was very fast and I have no concerns that in the event that I would have a critical problem, he would be here to handle it before it became a real issue.
Your service tech is a direct reflection on you and your business.  Scott is one of the reasons that I can recommend my dealer without hesitation.
 I think that technicians of his caliber should be compensated well. I am sure his experience is a cost savings to the owner in the long run.
AND don't get any ideas...you can't have Scott!!

[stuart]

Stuart, I mean this very sincerely
Call Don at Clearwater Spas in wilmington (I know you know him) and have him tell you about Scott.
Scott is what I would call the perfect technician; I wish there were more like him for other home repairs.
He is honest, polite, accomodating and very knowledgable. He always appears professional.
It seems to me that he is always a step ahead of any problem or concern, so I assume he stays in close touch with Marquis. He was here when my tub was installed to assure that everything worked great from the start. That was also an opportunity for him to see my set up so if I called with a question, he could visualize what I was talking about.
The problems that I have had with my tub have been few (a light bulb, my spa monitor and air injector valves).
The response time was very fast and I have no concerns that in the event that I would have a critical problem, he would be here to handle it before it became a real issue.
Your service tech is a direct reflection on you and your business.  Scott is one of the reasons that I can recommend my dealer without hesitation.
 I think that technicians of his caliber should be compensated well. I am sure his experience is a cost savings to the owner in the long run.
AND don't get any ideas...you can't have Scott!!

Well just so you know I'm compiling some of this info to bring up a program at the dealer advisory board meeting in June and will be there with Don.

If I work it right I can get my manager to call Scott while I'm keeping Don pre-occupied in Oregon!

[Vinny]

I think a call to find out if everything went according to the customer's perspective.

This is a killer for me. I HATE when I get a window of 4 hours (utility company) or longer. I think that depending on how calls are dispatched a window of time should be given accordingly. Lets say the first call is a circ pump doesn't work. Assuming it is just a bad pump and a tech can replace it in an hour ... next call about 2 hours after the first is scheduled. But if it's a leak then maybe 4 hours.

Maybe have techs that do 2 different types of calls - easy and hard. This way all easy calls can be quickly taken care of and the harder calls can take some more time to repair. If the easy calls are taken care of then that person can help with the harder calls. Maybe swich every techs other week or so.

So I guess since your showing this to the techs, you don't want me to mention about the $100,000 a year I get to fix stuff ... OOPS!

[drewstar]

This is awsome input guys! It's just what I was looking for...

This will be printed out and circulated through the service dept.

Another question;
Do you prefer a follow up call, a note or an email after the call to find out the outcome?

How long of a window should you as a customer be given for when the tech should be there...1 hour, 2 or even 3? We currently schedule either morning or afternoon.

That's tough.  However the key is not to set false expectations.   I'd like a guesstimate (We'll scheudle you for the morning) and then the day of the service get a call (Mr drew?  We're finishing up our current call and will be at your house in about 30minutes). Sometimes that's the best you can do.

If your techs have a lot of free time,  working with the customer for a specific time, is great. However, don't give a specific time, if you really can't make it.  Once again, it's about settting expectations.   Every other company may say "Between 8 and 1:00" I may be unhappy.  But if yuou tell me  8:30, and it turns out to be 11:30, I'm gonna be ripped.

Don't overpromise and underdeliver, that's the WORST thing you can do. Even if what you do deliver is just as good as or better than the competition, if you set false expectations, then you will fail in the eyes of the customer.

[Brewman]

 Personally I'd rather have a specific time set- Like 2:00 or whatever, but I understand why this is tough to do.  So I'm okay with a longer window of time, but I really appreciate getting a heads up from the tech when he has a better idea of when she will be there.  That way I don't have to sit around all morning or afternoon.  
 
As for a follow up call, anything is nice.  A phone call is nice, that way if I have any questions or concerns I can speak to them.  

[loosenupspas]

bonuses for parts isnt a good plan.....numbers of jobs and no go backs makes much more sense.......a good tech is good to find.  here in central florida it is a full time job......say worth 75k per year.....more is you are very good

[Vinny]

bonuses for parts isnt a good plan.....numbers of jobs and no go backs makes much more sense.......a good tech is good to find.  here in central florida it is a full time job......say worth 75k per year.....more is you are very good

What other perks does a tech make? Do they get 401ks, medical or anything else beside the salary?

[East_TX_Spa]

Our service guys make between $35K and 70K, have medical and dental paid, 401K plan, 3 weeks vacation and get sent to the factory for training once/year.

The 3 main service guys get this, I should say.  We hire day laborers to help move spas.  One of the day laborers showed up with a marijuana cap on the other day.  I asked him if he liked weed, he says "no sir, I like hats" so I gave him a Gregg County Fair Hat.  Every time I see him he's wearing it.

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