management/processes/systems

[wirenuter]

Hi All,
I would like to here from folks running service work companies.
My wife and I run a small service work based EC co and are trying to find ways to streamline the protocal/paper work per se, from the time a call comes in to the time it is billed and in between. Some of the jobs are stricktley service calls, and some are small jobs that I go and price and than send the guys to. Would love to hear how you all do it!
G

 

[krisinjersey]

Service calls

Service calls

All our service call work is Time and Material COD. I leave with either a check, cash or a credit card slip. For large customers who bring in above a certain dollar amount we offer them the opportunity to be billed, but it's at the same rate. It just goes through their billing dep. We do not book service calls for new customers with out first securing a credit card number. It costs way too much to chase the money, and I'd rather lose the service call than chase small bills. We also guarantee that any time of day you will recieve a call to schedule work within 15 minutes. This person discusses the nature of the call, the rate for the work to be performed, and the way in which payment will be collected. Then we select the right tech and dispatch.

 

[fireryan]

All our service call work is Time and Material COD. I leave with either a check, cash or a credit card slip. For large customers who bring in above a certain dollar amount we offer them the opportunity to be billed, but it's at the same rate. It just goes through their billing dep. We do not book service calls for new customers with out first securing a credit card number. It costs way too much to chase the money, and I'd rather lose the service call than chase small bills. We also guarantee that any time of day you will recieve a call to schedule work within 15 minutes. This person discusses the nature of the call, the rate for the work to be performed, and the way in which payment will be collected. Then we select the right tech and dispatch.

I think if around here you requested a credit card number before you did the work you would lose every job. I see your point though

 

[krisinjersey]

At first it was.

At first it was.

I think if around here you requested a credit card number before you did the work you would lose every job. I see your point though

At first it was weird. Customers got completely sketched out and we lost a ton of calls. The ownership justified it by saying that if the customer wasn't willing to give the information there was a deeper issue. I didn't buy it, but that was the new rule. Now it's become so common place that I don' even realize the difference. The girl who makes the collection calls has a much shorter list and revenues dipped only a small amount. When you explain it to the customer as a simplified way of billing and that nothing will be charged until the work is completed they back down a bit. It is an effective means of making sure you get paid. In this economy it's too time consuming to chase small bills, so you have to find ways to reduce losses. This works for us. That having been said, you have some very valuable information and you need to take steps to protect it and your customers. Don't just start writing down the information on the customers file folder.

 

[flyboy]

We are flat rate and C.O.D. We charge a trip fee and three levels of diagnostic fees (if applicable). We also offer financing through a consumer finance company.

We have a call center. The CSR's use scripts for everything. The first thing they di is get all the customer information, address, phone number including cell number, email and nature of the proble.'

Then the CSR let them know when we can be there, usually within a few hours if not not within an hour. Then then let the customer know the trip fee, diagnostic fee and that we will quote the repair or job before we start the work. We also let the customer know we will be collecting at the end of the call. How will you be paying for this, cash, check, cc, or would you be interested in financing. If they are interested in financing we ask them if they would like to get pre-approved.

We collect at the end of the job. If it's a big job and will take several days, we get half down.

We never order any special equipment of parts without collecting a deposit equal to either the price of the order or half down, which ever is more.

We've been doing it this way for 15 years. We use a software called Successware21

 

[wirenuter]

that we will quote the repair or job before we start the work.



Flyboy, who quotes the job the tech? For example what if the customer does not have a simple straight forward repair, or its a laundry list of small jobs, or both. I have had my techs quote small jobs and the problem I find is that they are afraid of underpricing, so they grossly overprice and scare the customer off.

 

[jmsbrush]

Most companies that use flat rate either buy electrical flat rate software or are affiliated with a franchise group. A good electrical flat rate book will cover everything that you can think of. Its like having you the owner in the truck, but in book form.
It's a guide to help your technicians always price work correctly.

 

[flyboy]

that we will quote the repair or job before we start the work.



Flyboy, who quotes the job the tech? For example what if the customer does not have a simple straight forward repair, or its a laundry list of small jobs, or both. I have had my techs quote small jobs and the problem I find is that they are afraid of underpricing, so they grossly overprice and scare the customer off.

Our electricians quote all jobs. Our flat rate book has a task for just about every electrical repair imaginable. When there isn't, which is rare, they use a chart we call the "Task-O-Matic". The left side of the chart has material cost in increments of $5 down to around $900. On top are the hours in increments od 15 minutes. You follow the material line horizonally to the labor line and you get the price of the job. Labor is calculated at 375/hr. A job that takes 4 hours and $300 in material goes for around $1,850. I don't have a book in front of me, but it's close to that.

 

[krisinjersey]

$375 per hour? That's got to be a typo, even if the math works. At $375 per hour I can put 5 guys on the job. We bill out crews at $150 and hour and service techs at $75. Are you getting that work? Or are you trying not to? When our guys have a large change or add they write up a T&M ticket for what they think it would take and then run it by their manager over the phone. Takes about 15 minutes and saves the manager a trip to the job.

 

[electricguy]

$375 per hour? That's got to be a typo, even if the math works. At $375 per hour I can put 5 guys on the job. We bill out crews at $150 and hour and service techs at $75. Are you getting that work? Or are you trying not to? When our guys have a large change or add they write up a T&M ticket for what they think it would take and then run it by their manager over the phone. Takes about 15 minutes and saves the manager a trip to the job.

Maybe this Company used something like this
http://www.masterplumbers.com/utilities/costcalc/

and used the info from this

http://forums.mikeholt.com/showpost.php?p=1160443&postcount=13

They could have higher costs and only do service work

 

[flyboy]

Not a typo

Not a typo

$375 per hour? That's got to be a typo, even if the math works. At $375 per hour I can put 5 guys on the job. We bill out crews at $150 and hour and service techs at $75. Are you getting that work? Or are you trying not to? When our guys have a large change or add they write up a T&M ticket for what they think it would take and then run it by their manager over the phone. Takes about 15 minutes and saves the manager a trip to the job.

Nope, not a typo. Our electrical department does service work 24/7. No new consruction, no bid and spec and very little commercial. We do alot of service upgrades, generators, home entertainment wiring, lighting, pools, spas, etc.

We will discount up to 20% when we need to in order to get the job.

Here's what our gross margins look like.

24% Direct Labor including all taxes and benefits and apprentices
10% Material
34% Total Direct Costs
66% Gross Margin

Overhead runs between 38 -42%

We follow the same business model for our HVAC and Plumbing departments.

Company wide we net between 12 - 18% / yr.

We've been in business 24 years, have over 25,000 customers and have an A+ rating with the BBB.

We chose not to participate in the recession.

 

[brantmacga]

We do not book service calls for new customers with out first securing a credit card number.

I have a friend with a clockwork home services franchise that operates this way. They don't seem to have any problems with it.

We don't do it at our office, but chasing money on service calls hasn't been a problem for us, except with a small number of billable accounts. For the COD jobs it has worked out just fine. I don't think we'd hesitate to move to that type of system if it really became an issue.

I have had my techs quote small jobs and the problem I find is that they are afraid of underpricing, so they grossly overprice and scare the customer off.

I would advise you to take a serious look at moving to a flat-rate system. There's already a massive thread on this that's been going on over the past couple of months, so I won't go into the details. do a search for 'flat-rate' and it should come right up. lots of varying viewpoints there, but carefully read the positives from those who actually use flat rate.

 

[renosteinke]

I think this thread got a bit off track ...

Paperwork, paperwork. A business cannot succeed without the paperwork being in order - and keeping an office in order is a skilled trade. A critical one for any business. (A side note: does your office person get "journeyman" wages? Why not?)

The 'numbers' are critical for any number of operations; billing / collecting from the customer are only one. You need to continually keep track of your expenses, have everything sorted appropriately for the various taxmen, keep ALL of your licenses and certifications current.

You also need to 'crunch' your numbers to see where to put your energies; there's little point in expanding a part of your business that's not making you money - or to overlook something that is! Just because you 'cleaned up' doing service changes for the last few years, there is no guarantee that the trend will continue.

I believe that most of you share a fault of mine: I really NEED to get some FORMAL training in bookkeeping, as well as the various computer programs out there. Sure, it costs money and time ... but I already know that I'm not using GIMP, SKETCHUP, ACCESS, or EXCEL to anything near their potential.

So ... how do you keep it all straight?

 

[flyboy]

I think this thread got a bit off track ...

So ... how do you keep it all straight?

Easy...hire people that are smarter than you. It worked for me.

 

[jmsbrush]

That's what Henry Ford did.

 

[mtfallsmikey]

Easy...hire people that are smarter than you. It worked for me.

I really like this guy!!!...a lot of you would be wise to listen to him (I think?)

Done any work for the Teutuls?

 

[flyboy]

I really like this guy!!!...a lot of you would be wise to listen to him (I think?)

Done any work for the Teutuls?

Yes, we have done work for them, right up until they moved their business to Newburgh. See them around all the time. A few months ago I saw senior and a couple of suits (attorneys I suppose) go into the Orange County Court House. He's is (or was) involved in a law suit with Jr.

Thursday, I saw Mikey on route 84 riding a red scooter.

My wife runs into Sr. at the beauty parlar every once in a while. I see him at the Wards Bridge Inn eating dinner once in awhile.

They used to charter flights from a guy I know who flies a King Air 200. He didn't care for how they treated the interior of his airplane and told them they would need to find someone else to charter flights. That was a few years ago.

 

[LEO2854]

Our electricians quote all jobs. Our flat rate book has a task for just about every electrical repair imaginable. When there isn't, which is rare, they use a chart we call the "Task-O-Matic". The left side of the chart has material cost in increments of $5 down to around $900. On top are the hours in increments od 15 minutes. You follow the material line horizonally to the labor line and you get the price of the job. Labor is calculated at 375/hr. A job that takes 4 hours and $300 in material goes for around $1,850. I don't have a book in front of me, but it's close to that.

{Labor is calculated at 375/hr. A job that takes 4 hours and $300 in material goes for around $1,850. I don't have a book in front of me, but it's close to that.}
WOW $375/HR considering that you pay all your helpers about $8 to $10 ph
thats a pretty good profit and the fact that your in New york state and don't need a license hey you can keep those labor cost down.
So considering your calclations and the fact that i live in massachusetts and the board rules one licensed journeyman $38 ph one helper ,I should be able to charge at least $375 just like you do right?
I have been in the business since 1975///yes your 9 years older than me. but i think my 18 year old helper is more grown up than you are.
If you price out a job more than $130ph per man around here you will get 0 jobs
http://www.mikeholt.com/statelicense.php#NY
http://www.dos.state.ny.us/CODE/ls-codes.html

 

[macmikeman]

Leo, you have your own plane like Flyboy does? ...

 

[bradleyelectric]

{Labor is calculated at 375/hr. A job that takes 4 hours and $300 in material goes for around $1,850. I don't have a book in front of me, but it's close to that.}
WOW $375/HR considering that you pay all your helpers about $8 to $10 ph
thats a pretty good profit and the fact that your in New york state and don't need a license hey you can keep those labor cost down.
So considering your calclations and the fact that i live in massachusetts and the board rules one licensed journeyman $38 ph one helper ,I should be able to charge at least $375 just like you do right?
I have been in the business since 1975///yes your 9 years older than me. but i think my 18 year old helper is more grown up than you are.
If you price out a job more than $130ph per man around here you will get 0 jobs
http://www.mikeholt.com/statelicense.php#NY
http://www.dos.state.ny.us/CODE/ls-codes.html

http://www.hvacprofitboosters.com/

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