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Sharing information with customers

TVA

Senior Member
Joined
May 14, 2018
Messages
2,245
Location
USA
Don't know if any of you guys know of AvE, he has his own Youtube channel.

This guy is brilliant.

A few years ago he did a vid on his 3 simple rules of troubleshooting.
I printed them off and had them pinned up in the office, in the shop, in the warehouse, because it makes so much sense.

So laminate this one and keep it with the other one and when someone questions your motives, just show it to them

Here they are

1. Do the easiest thing first
2. Don't rely on the people that tried and failed prior
3. 90% of problems are between the driver's seat and the steering wheel
Bonus: If it can go wrong, it WILL go wrong. (Murphy's Law)

Link to his vid

I was already pretty much using this philosophy during my working career, but good to have it written down.

As far as customer watching. I always told them that having someone watching over my shoulder made me slow down, or I would put the tools down and ask them if they wanted to have a conversation, I was still on the clock on the tools or not. I found most people would go off after a bit.

As for sharing what you did, I have never had and issue. Sure they might grumble but I got it running when it was broken before.

Had one fellow call me up. I wasn't working for myself, but he was in a bit of a bind.

I know a bit about logging machines, and he had a model that there are not very many of. The machine was down. They had a company come out and try but not
in their field of expertise. I'm not knocking the kid that tried but he just didn't know the system.

So I got out there on my day off. Thought to myself, what the heck is going on, it was doing some really funky stuff. After about 4 hours, I found THE WIRE that was in the wrong place.

Flashed up the machine, hit the button and everything worked as it should.

The owner was like, you got it, YOU GOT IT!!!

By the time the smoke cleared, I was about 8 hours into it.
My wife and I got taken out for lunch the next day and there was an envelope of cash in my hand when we parted.
He told us at lunch that the machine had been down for 4 days while they tried to figure out what was wrong. How much money had he lost in downtime?

So if you have the skill to get it running when the others can't, don't be afraid to charge. Set a minimum call out rate, I would go with 4 hours. Make sure that the customer knows that even if you find the loose wire in the first 10 minutes, they will still have to pay the call out. Charge for mileage, it costs a lot of money to buy that truck, outfit it and keep it running.

I find most people are okay with it as long as they see results.
Always wanted to find out where AvE is from! By his driving videos it looks like somewhere Meritt/Hope area.
 

wornout wrench

Senior Member
Joined
Feb 17, 2012
Messages
740
Location
canada
Always wanted to find out where AvE is from! By his driving videos it looks like somewhere Meritt/Hope area.

Kinda what I was thinking but I'm leaning more to Kamloops.

Love that guy, cuts through the crap pretty quick. And lots of fun

TIME!!!!
 

TVA

Senior Member
Joined
May 14, 2018
Messages
2,245
Location
USA
Kinda what I was thinking but I'm leaning more to Kamloops.

Love that guy, cuts through the crap pretty quick. And lots of fun
Yeah, I had lots of laughs, only think my wife don’t like him because he cusses too much!
TIME!!!!
 

TVA

Senior Member
Joined
May 14, 2018
Messages
2,245
Location
USA
Definitely not Hope, because he have to cross the coquihalla!

I had lots of laughter watching him! My wife doesn’t like him because he cusses a lot!
 

Birken Vogt

Charter Member
Joined
Nov 30, 2003
Messages
5,305
Location
Grass Valley, Ca
Yeah, I can't handle the guy.

There are plenty on Youtube who behave themselves like civilized men.

My dad taught me that anger and profanity has no place in tractor work or repair. Just makes everything worse. It is just a machine made of parts, it can't hear or feel you.
 

TVA

Senior Member
Joined
May 14, 2018
Messages
2,245
Location
USA
I’m actually in bed all day!!! Picked up some nasty flue from my kids, who got it in school!
That’s why I’m “talking” too much today!
 

wornout wrench

Senior Member
Joined
Feb 17, 2012
Messages
740
Location
canada
Take a few days to kick the bug off.

I remember those days, the kids would bring something home and leave it with mom or dad.
Don't miss that stuff at all.
The younger guys at work (when I still did that) used to bring it into the shop.
The one guy called his young son a petri dish, kid was always bringing something home LOL

Grandson is too far away to visit on a regular basis, don't have to go to work anymore, I have had a good winter sickness wise.

Laptop and bed, good combo for getting better.
 

TVA

Senior Member
Joined
May 14, 2018
Messages
2,245
Location
USA
Take a few days to kick the bug off.

I remember those days, the kids would bring something home and leave it with mom or dad.
Don't miss that stuff at all.
The younger guys at work (when I still did that) used to bring it into the shop.
The one guy called his young son a petri dish, kid was always bringing something home LOL

Grandson is too far away to visit on a regular basis, don't have to go to work anymore, I have had a good winter sickness wise.

Laptop and bed, good combo for getting better.
I actually worked in bed this morning! Tried to correspond with OEM which is in Austria by three different avenues, about new to me piece of equipment, then being reading the operators manual for the same thing which got me nowhere on the things I needed to know!
 

TVA

Senior Member
Joined
May 14, 2018
Messages
2,245
Location
USA
Take a few days to kick the bug off.

I remember those days, the kids would bring something home and leave it with mom or dad.
Don't miss that stuff at all.
The younger guys at work (when I still did that) used to bring it into the shop.
The one guy called his young son a petri dish, kid was always bringing something home LOL

Grandson is too far away to visit on a regular basis, don't have to go to work anymore, I have had a good winter sickness wise.

Laptop and bed, good combo for getting better.

I got to meet the seller tomorrow morning 7:00 about filter cart, about 35 miles away.
 

rondig

Senior Member
Joined
Jul 24, 2013
Messages
517
Location
fort macleod alberta
Occupation
excavation
Before anybody laminates that list.. ADD>>
Credit will be given to anyone 85 years or older, accompanied by BOTH parents..
Mind u it might be different in canada...i have accounts at new holland and kubota...never had a problem with either...all six of their mobile guys are good. Deadbeats dont survive long around here....u do it once and everyone knows in no time. Besides it is better to have a good name around here...your always working for the cousin, sister,brother or someone that knows someone....90% of my excavation business is word of mouth and repeat customers...so u screw one link in the chain....it all falls apart...but on the other hand i rarely get screwed for the same reason
 

typ4

Well-Known Member
Joined
May 23, 2010
Messages
241
Location
oregon
Occupation
Equipment mechanic for a small company.
My best friend was a plumber, He has since passed on, RIP my friend. He was a rough around the edges fix it all kind of guy, I did his maintenance and major work since day1, said it best," well I am hiring you from the neck up" .
I have used this line on customers when doing the easy fixes as I hand them the bill.
Be safe all.
 

Alfredowt

New Member
Joined
Apr 23, 2019
Messages
1
Location
Portugal
Personally what I do is go with a defined price and I say this will cost X because I have met on several occasions people who want changes, to make some displacement and in the price and I include it.
 

Truck Shop

Senior Member
Joined
Dec 7, 2015
Messages
16,538
Location
WWW.
Yeah, I can't handle the guy.

There are plenty on Youtube who behave themselves like civilized men.

My dad taught me that anger and profanity has no place in tractor work or repair. Just makes everything worse. It is just a machine made of parts, it can't hear or feel you.

After growing up around my dad who was a brown boot in the military and told it like it was, it rubbed off on me. I'm known for saying things totally off color to get a reaction.
Reason for it-I want to see which side of the coin there on. When the shop performed out side work I dealt with customers straight up and to the point. If they didn't like it there
was always the door. I tell people quite frequently {Did you see a steeple on top of the shop}. Everybody has their own way. I don't trust a guy who wouln't say sh!t if he had a mouth full.
 

Bls repair

Senior Member
Joined
Jan 21, 2017
Messages
1,612
Location
S E Pa
Occupation
Equipment operator,mechanic
I had a friend that had a problem with his home heater . He called a Plummer ,the guy came out hit it with a hammer ,heater started . Plummer gave him a bill for $100.00. My friend said “all you did is hit it with a hammer” . Requested a itemized bill,Plummer said ok
New bill
(1). Hit heater with hammer.................&1.00
(2) knowing where to hit heater .........$99.00
Total...............$100.00


Moral of the story is you not only pay for service you also for knowledge :)
 

crewchief888

Senior Member
Joined
Feb 1, 2012
Messages
1,781
Location
NWI
about a week ago i was called out for a "no start/no power to dash" on a skid steer. i found the machine in the customers yard, he'd already started to "fix" it himself :confused:
i called him and asked "what happened" didnt get much info over the phone. i went to work checking power/ground from the battery all the way to the dash panels, cust shows up for 5 minutes and leaves again.
2 1/2 hours later, i traced down 2 broken wires at a connector, and repaired them. started the machine and moved it around, connected my laptop to retrieve any stored fault codes.
cust shows up and asks what i found, i explained what i'd found, he then asks "how much is this gonna cost?"
i give him a rough estimate, 1hr travel, 2 1/2hr labor, $49 service call fee.... $400 +/-

you would have thought i killed his dog, and banged his wife,
$400+ for 2 broken wires?
well sir, you could have repaired them yourself, if you knew what 2 wires were broken....
i put my tools away, did my paperwork and left for my next call...

:eek:
 

wornout wrench

Senior Member
Joined
Feb 17, 2012
Messages
740
Location
canada
I worked in a small company town, was support for a 1000 Megawatt power house.
I was privileged to be able to work on one of the take downs of a 125 MW generator, since I was a mechanic keeping the equipment running that kept the plant running it was not normally in my job description. So a real treat for me.

The plant was built in the 50's so they were doing some modernization to the generators when they were rebuilding them.

One of the rotors got damaged on the trip to the plant when it was being built, shaft was bent slightly.

Forgot to mention that it was a hydro electric station. 125 MW generators coupled to 150,000 HP turbines.
The rotors were 400 tons and I think that the turbine with coupling and shaft was another 150 tons. So approx 550 tons spinning.

Generator speed during generation was 327 RPM.

So what would happen is when the generator was taken off line the rotor goes from magnetic center to mechanical center. Not that the bend was much, only several thousands really, but when the generator went into overspeed as the load came off and the exciter field collapsed and the whole 550 tons of rotating mass tried to find its center again, the whole power house would vibrate.

They brought a specialist up to straighten the shaft. Old fellow from Europe somewhere.

He showed up with a small tool box, had a few measuring devices and a large rosebud torch.

He would go to work, measure then apply heat to one spot. That would be it for the day. The next day or the day after depending, he would measure, heat and leave again. I can't remember if he cooled the shaft or not, but all he did was measure, heat and wait. Didn't take him long and he was done.

Shaft was back into line with in mere thousands 3-4?

End of vibration.

No idea what that man would charge for a project like that but the skill and knowledge that he had would be priceless.

The whole crew that showed up for a rebuild were like that, all experts in their fields, came from all over the world.
 

mg2361

Senior Member
Joined
Jul 5, 2016
Messages
5,055
Location
Pennsylvania
Occupation
Equipment Mechanic
well sir, you could have repaired them yourself, if you knew what 2 wires were broken....

Knowledge is King! It is amazing how many customers (or shop managers) think electrical work is a quick easy fix. While the repair is usually quick and easy, it's the troubleshooting of electrical gremlins that takes the most time (compared to mechanical diagnostics). I had a Bomag roller that had an intermittent engine miss with it's Honda engine that the customer first tried fixing himself. Did all the usual stuff simple stuff first. In the end after spending a full day+ on it I finally found this cracked solder joint inside a seat contact timer relay that was causing the misfire. Customer sh&% a brick when he got that bill.BW900-50 MISFIRE CAUSE_SEAT CONTACT TIMING RELAY.png
 

TVA

Senior Member
Joined
May 14, 2018
Messages
2,245
Location
USA
Knowledge is King! It is amazing how many customers (or shop managers) think electrical work is a quick easy fix. While the repair is usually quick and easy, it's the troubleshooting of electrical gremlins that takes the most time (compared to mechanical diagnostics). I had a Bomag roller that had an intermittent engine miss with it's Honda engine that the customer first tried fixing himself. Did all the usual stuff simple stuff first. In the end after spending a full day+ on it I finally found this cracked solder joint inside a seat contact timer relay that was causing the misfire. Customer sh&% a brick when he got that bill.View attachment 196753

That’s another or should I say “arising” problem! It comes to the point that I even almost afraid to accept electrical jobs ( but now days it’s almost impossible to fix equipment without doing electrical work) because customers don’t realize how much billable hours it might take to chase down that gremlin!

It’s funny what it comes down to:
Fix it too quick - customers not happy,
Took too long - not so thrilled either !!!

The one good thing that came out of this is realization what makes a good customer! A good customers is the ones who was not happy with you initially, but then they went out and wasted time and money elsewhere with no good results. And now they became “educated” customers who understand that it “will take as long is it will take” to get it fixed.

Don’t remember who of business coaches talked of importance of educating your customers to run a successful business!
 
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