Unbillable service time

Steamhead (in transit)

says the same thing in his seminars.

Helgy_3

Unbillable service time

I was wondering in a given work day how much time should a sevice tech. expect to have as unbillable in percentage aproximate? I as well as anyone knows that as little as possible. But thats not what I'm asking. Getting the morning service tickets, wholesaler visits, and end of the day stop at the shop. This has been a topic of some heated conversations. Thanks for your help.

Helgy

Bill Nye_2

If I

If I was the service manager or the office manager, I would have to come in 1 hour earlier than the techs and leave an hour later just to make sure they are not left standing around.

It is not the technicians fault that the office is not on top of things. This would reduce a lot of idle time. Reducing travel time by keeping the guy in close proximity to all his calls would help.

Keep the technician out of the supply house. Much time is lost there. Keep the trucks stocked, the work lined up, call ahead to verify the tech has access to the property. Don't you hate it when you travel 45 minutes to a call and no one is home? They forgot you were coming.

A really good office manager can do this and should be paid accordingly. You should remove all obstacles in the way of the technician doing his job. You do the CS work and let the technician do what he/she does best, fix/install equipment.

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Bill Nye_2

If I

If I was the service manager or the office manager, I would have to come in 1 hour earlier than the techs and leave an hour later just to make sure they are not left standing around.

It is not the technicians fault that the office is not on top of things. This would reduce a lot of idle time. Reducing travel time by keeping the guy in close proximity to all his calls would help.

Keep the technician out of the supply house. Much time is lost there. Keep the trucks stocked, the work lined up, call ahead to verify the tech has access to the property. Don't you hate it when you travel 45 minutes to a call and no one is home? They forgot you were coming.

A really good office manager can do this and should be paid accordingly. You should remove all obstacles in the way of the technician doing his job. You do the CS work and let the technician do what he/she does best, fix/install equipment.

You could keep some jobs as fill ins, retired customers who are "at home", shop work, etc. Let the guy clean or stock his truck or prepipe some stuff for installs, send him to help out another tech if in the area .

Lots of things can reduce unbillable time. Might as well make it productive even if not billable. Schedule truck maintainence for slow times, send the guy with some one else for the day.

Your billable rate should be enough to "absorb" a little bit of down time. I think if you averaged 6.5 or 7 hrs a day pr man you would be doing real good. On a construction job or large installation you should be able to bill all 8 hrs. Just my thoughts, no expert.

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Bill Nye_2

If I

If I was the service manager or the office manager, I would have to come in 1 hour earlier than the techs and leave an hour later just to make sure they are not left standing around.

It is not the technicians fault that the office is not on top of things. This would reduce a lot of idle time. Reducing travel time by keeping the guy in close proximity to all his calls would help.Reduced windshield time.

Keep the technician out of the supply house. Much time is lost there. Keep the trucks stocked, the work lined up, call ahead to verify the tech has access to the property. Don't you hate it when you travel 45 minutes to a call and no one is home? They forgot you were coming.

A really good office manager can do this and should be paid accordingly. You should remove all obstacles in the way of the technician doing his job. You do the CS work and let the technician do what he/she does best, fix/install equipment.

You could keep some jobs as fill ins, retired customers who are "at home", shop work, etc. Let the guy clean or stock his truck or prepipe some stuff for installs, send him to help out another tech if in the area .

Lots of things can reduce unbillable time. Might as well make it productive even if not billable. Schedule truck maintainence for slow times, send the guy with some one else for the day.

Your billable rate should be enough to "absorb" a little bit of down time. I think if you averaged 6.5 or 7 hrs a day pr man you would be doing real good. On a construction job or large installation you should be able to bill all 8 hrs. Just my thoughts, no expert.

To Learn More About This Professional, Click Here to Visit Their Ad in "Find A Professional"

Richard_4

billable hours

between 50 and 75% billable per day depending on the season. you should price to make a profit at 50% billable.

jeff_51

we could spend alot of time on this one

we figure for a service tech, five billable hrs per day, which means your rate must include that lost time. This is of course depending on the market you are in. we figure 1/2 hr travel time per call. Question? Why are your guys going into the shop? Nextell that first call out to them over the cell and have them go from home to that first call. We do not pay for the tech to his first call or from his last. We all have to travel to and from work on our own time. We just did a cost analysis and a vehicle that a tech takes home is worth 6:30 an hr. That needs to be explained to the tech. Our techs only come into the office to turn in paper work on Monday AM and that is it. All material used on the job is written on the sales slip and when turned in on monday that material is called into the supply house for a truck restock once a week. If you want your techs to do that, then have the supply house run each truck seperate and have it delivered once a week to the shop for the techs to pick up on monday. Remember, travel time, selling time, paperwork time etc is not billable hrs and this needs to be tracked and added into your hrly rate. People never think they have to pay for it. One of the reasons I prefer to flat rate, but that is a whole nother discussion. We do not charge the cust if we have to go to the supply house IF WE NORMALY STOCK THAT ITEM ON THE TRUCK, but do charge if it is an item we do not normaly stock on the truck. Around here, that trip usually costs and hr, so we call ahead and have it put on will call. That should always be pushed on your techs. Always call ahead. Just some more ideas