Any Other Technicians or Service Co Owners Here?

[alwaysaffordableappliance]

Hello everyone, Ive been a member a while but dont post often and don't know anyone here but would like to, so I just wanted to introduce myself and ask a few questions. My name is James and I am an appliance service company owner in Detroit Michigan area. I have been operating for at least 5 years and am largely self-taught or educated through online repair courses but occasionally run into situations I am unable to solve, so I in the process of trying to build a network of other technicians or repair companies I can correspond with as well as opening a line of communication with various manufacturers for technical support resources. I would love to get to know some of the more active and knowledgeable members and know where people are located, how long they have been in business. I am also interested in knowing about others experiences on the site here, how helpful they have found it and any and all advice they can give to a technician and self made service provider like myself to eliminate the knowledge gaps and plug in to the right resources to become more efficient at my trade and more effective in my business without spending thousands to do it. I certainly am not ONLY looking for free type resources, however I would like to compile as many of this type as possible and fill in gaps with paid resources.

A little background on myself;
I got into the industry slowly after selling used appliances for a while. I learn fast and continue to do so and am resourceful so I rarely if ever encounter a job I cannot complete for lack of knowledge, however I often feel that I am spending too much time and being inefficient solving the issues that I do encounter and could be far more efficient with a better network and process of staying up to date and in the know. Additionally I often have questions about the many business related aspect of the trade and owning a service company as well as whether or not there are things I could be doing better, shouldn't be doing, or maybe should start doing. I do not currently have many resources that I am able to get good answers to these questions, so if anyone has advice on this or would just be willing to exchange info to correspond over the phone or online so that we might we might provide complimentary resources to each other I would be very interested in that and grateful to make your acquaintance.

I have a reasonable foundation of knowledge and take work on brands and types of appliances regardless of previous experience or resources at hand. As stated, I complete 99% or better of these repairs if they can fixed and to this day walk in on calls for something that I have never worked on without prior knowledge and still often complete those calls in that trip. My experience is largely on older model appliances and I do sometimes have trouble solving complicated control board and design flaw related issues without a good service manual, digging up an answer online or getting direct input from somewhere.

Some of the best resources I am using at the moment are websites, youtube, other forums, compiled service manuals from previous jobs, appliantology.org, EMAServiceTips.com,
https://www.applianceblog.com, http://www.applianceaid.com etc.

Sorry for the LONG post, haha. I know its a lot but I am trying to make a strong effort to become more connected and better at what I do, getting to know other techs and business owners is important to me and this is one of the best ways I have to do that at the moment. Thanks for reading all this and welcoming me to your community, I look forward to being a more active and more informed member!

James

 

[rickgburton]

I complete 99% or better of these repairs if they can fixed and to this day walk in on calls for something that I have never worked on without prior knowledge and still often complete those calls in that trip.

You can't get much better than that. Why don't you try answering a few questions on this site so we can see how much you know. If you have any questions, just ask. Online resources is good to have but nothing beats experience! Good luck!

 

[alwaysaffordableappliance]

Thanks, who knows, it might be closer to 95% or something but that said there are usually only a handful of calls a year I am totally stumped on and unable to complete. That does not mean I am always doing one call completions on those or even making money, as I have had somewhere I had to leave and seek additional assistance or order additional parts after a misdiagnosis or educated guess, which unfortunately is the best I can do sometimes lacking the fundamentals and resources need to put the unit through diagnostics or understand full testing procedures for a part. In these case I sometimes even order multiple parts I believe could be the issue even if I am fairly sure it something else to cover myself if I am wrong.

Oftentimes I end up solving difficult things simply by being effective using search browsers and spending what can easily amount to hours weeding through documents and forum posts on the internet largely wasting my time or receiving misinformation until I get lucky and stumble across something describing the exact issue, likely causes and a solution. Other times I have to struggle through using the closest version of a service manual I can locate, one in which not all procedures are the same. Often times I do not even get around to posting asking for help as find the other method to more direct despite the large amount of time it can take and frustration it can create.

That said, after doing all of this, making multiple trips, paying return shipping on unused parts etc I will often times have saved face and completed the job but not looked good at all doing it and certainly not made much or anything at times, in addition to devoting numerous hours that should have been spent on other jobs just trying not to leave a customer hanging and have to admit defeat, which is my strongest motivator to keep working at it. I certainly will do my best to become more active here, however it is not terribly often that I have something valid and unstated to contribute to the conversation and often dont post things for fear of not being entirely correct or just plain wrong and revealing my relative inexperience in the area.

In addition, most days it is all I can do to complete all my calls in 8-12hrs, eat, shower and maybe have a few minutes to myself so despite my strong desire to be more active in these communities often find myself completely sapped of time and energy during the only time I have to do it. I am very much hoping to change this though by continuing to push forward and become increasingly effiecient at diagnosis which is by far my biggest time sync, as well as doing more calls and gaining the experience necessary for me to recognize something as common and make an effort to keep parts for those repairs in stock from then on to up my one call completion rate and minimize customer wait times.

 

[rickgburton]

OK