It wasn’t that long ago when service techs were forced to make the transition from servicing analog equipment to servicing digital equipment along with all the headaches associated with what was then new digital technology, including connectivity. What was once a challenge has become somewhat routine. What’s also become routine is the ever-increasing number of new requirements placed on many service techs, particularly as office imaging dealerships expand into MPS, Managed Network Services, production printing, 3D printing, mobile applications, and the cloud.
There’s plenty of challenges for sure, but I’ve narrowed them down to the top five based on conversations with service techs and dealer principals.
Keeping Up with the New Technology – The more things change, the more there is to learn. Indeed, no matter how much offsite or online training the service tech attends, it’s difficult to remain ahead of the curve. That goes double for service techs responsible for serving multiple makes and models.
More Demanding Customer Expectations – Of course customers have always had certain expectations when it comes to equipment performance and break-fix service, but today customers expect quicker resolutions to their problems.
Communicating with Different Types of Customers – Every organization has a mix of different personality types, but as the decision maker has expanded, technicians are dealing with a wider range of individuals at different levels within that organization. As some techs have discovered, communicating with IT personnel or C-level executives can be more challenging than dealing with the office managers and purchasing managers of old.
Having the Appropriate Inventory – It’s all about first-call effectiveness, which usually means having the right inventory when one goes out on a call. As the number of devices a tech services rises, making sure they’ve got the right mix of parts and the room in their service vehicle is critical. Not having those parts on hand will not help satisfy those more demanding customer expectations.
A Decline in Onsite Manufacturer Support – At one time this was a given, but as one dealer whose dealerships sells products from one of the top three OEMs told me, this is becoming more difficult to get. As he told me, “We have a great group of technicians, but sometimes you need that additional support. Manufacturers don’t have as many folks in the field as they used to or they haven’t kept up with the equipment population. It’s good to have them on site for a lot of reasons—escalation procedures or for unusual problems the manufacturer may not be aware of, or that warmth and fuzziness the customer feels when they realize that the manufacturer has sent someone from parts unknown to take care of them.”
