I can't get my Tech to produce!
This is a statement I hear all too often. As soon as I start to ask a few basic questions, I find that the problem is not with the tech but with the manager/owner. Before you can consistently improve tech productivity, you must determine the cause of the problem. 

Here's what I have found to be major problems or road blocks placed directly in front of your techs that will, without question, reduce their efficiency.

1. Managers not knowing, understanding, or even being aware that goals and benchmarks must be in place and tied into their Flat Rate system.

2. Managers who do not understand all of the aspects of their job and how to measure their own performance.

3. Managers not able to communicate the goals and benchmarks to the techs.

4. Manager not measuring the benchmarks and offering coaching to increase the performance of the specific benchmark.

5. Bouncing a tech back and forth from Service work to New work.

6. Tech not understanding, or, even worse, not knowing what's expected from him/her in Sales, Close Ratio, Productive Hours and Customer Satisfaction.

Bottom line is that if you want to increase the productivity of your techs, you first have to set realistic, specific benchmarks for technician productivity. For example, use 50% billable hourly efficiency which is 20 productive hours per tech per week.

How would this translate into a real world number?

1. For a tech to produce 4 hours, you would need a call volume of at least 4 calls per tech per day.

2. The CSR would need to close 3 of those 4 calls. 

3. In the field, the tech should close 2 out of the 3 calls.  If your tech is well trained he should have more than 1 task on each ticket for the day and this should lead to 4 productive hours.

This process needs to be measured on a regular basis.  The manager/owner must understand how to provide the tech with the proper training and support to help him improve his performance.

If you need a hand setting your goals and benchmarks, give Mike Conroy a call or drop him an email at nspginfo@nspgweb.com.  He can help you combine your current numbers with your target company size, so you can set measurable benchmarks and build your own right-sized company.

Measure Monthly, Adjust Quarterly
 & Achieve Annual Profit Goals

 Fun with Air Conditioning
In January 2006, Carrier held their dealer convention at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.  The focus of the convention was the new 13 SEER line of air conditioners. 

The energy efficiency of air conditioners and heat pumps is measured in SEER - Seasonal Energy Efficiency Ratio. The minimum efficiency standard increased from 10 SEER to 13 SEER in January.  Dealers can continue to install and service older units with a lower SEER level.  Because 13 SEER units are larger than 10 SEER units, dealers may need to increase storage space to accommodate current inventory or to adjust delivery schedules.

The U.S. Department of Energy estimates that by 2030, the change to 13 SEER will reduce carbon dioxide gas emissions equivalent to removing 3 million cars from the road each year.

This efficiency change gives you an opportunity to market system upgrades to your existing customers as a way to address energy impact and cost concerns.  It may be a good strategy to send a mailing to your customers who have older systems highlighting the benefits of the change to the new higher efficiency models.

Our experienced A/C readers will note that the unit pictured here seems a bit strange.  That's because it's made of Lego blocks.  During the convention, this condensing unit with functioning fan was built by Nathan Sawaya.  You can see more pictures here.

Free Numbers Cruncher Updates
As you may know, Numbers Cruncher 2.5 includes free version updates included in the purchase price.  This means that any time we update the current major version of the software, you can download that update for free.  These updates include new reports, performance improvements, and user requested features.

If you have Numbers Cruncher 2.5, you can check for and download updates from the Button Bar on the File form (shown below).  Checking to see if there is an update available is easy and no information from your system is sent to NSPG. 

Click on the Check for Update button to begin the process.  Numbers Cruncher will connect to the NSPG web site and check to see which version is available for download.  If there is a newer version available, a message will pop up asking if you want to download and install it.  Answer yes, and the file will automatically be downloaded and installed.

That's all you have to do.  A couple of clicks, and you'll have the latest version of Numbers Cruncher.

You can get more information at numberscruncher.com.

The next Money Masters™ will be at the
The Peabody Memphis on April 7 & 8, 2006

This Money Masters will visit Conway Services.  In the last two years, they have had a 100% growth rate with net profits of 18% in their replacement department. Conway Services employs over 45 people who are paid a professional wage plus benefits. Here's a quote from  their excellent website:

We do what we say we are going to do, and always, always strive to provide 100+% customer satisfaction. We accomplish this by doing things the right way, the first time.

I plan on being at this exciting Money Masters event at The Peabody in Memphis and at Conway Services. 

I hope to see you all there. We can all learn from a quality operation.

Mike Conroy