Service Statement v1.7

The last service blog listed a series of items that are required if we are to give customers the certainty they want when they work with the service department. The first of those required items is an inspection. Yes I know the customer tells us what is wrong and what they want done. And yes I agree that many of the customers are very knowledgeable. And finally I agree that most customers know their machinery better than anyone else. So why don’t I want to trust their diagnoses? It is really quite simple.

I refer you back to your doctor. I know many of you don’t visit your doctor as regularly as you should, particularly you men. Women are much better at preventative maintenance, oops medicine, than men are as a rule. Perhaps that is why so many men customers believe that preventative maintenance is only about dropping fluids and changing filters. But go back to the doctor if you will. They see you once a year, perhaps more, and have a discussion with you, check your vitals, blood pressure, temperature, pulse, weight, etc., and then they send you to a lab for blood work, perhaps for an x-ray or an MRI depending on the situation. But don’t you know your body better than anyone else? So why not just tell the doctor what is wrong and have the doctor fix it? Of course you know the answer to that one don’t you? Then why don’t we operate the same way when it comes to the service department? You have to have an inspection. It should be done by specifically named inspectors. It should be a predefined series of steps and indications. It should have the machine operating as it would in a work environment, at operating temperature. Then we can be certain of the causes for the customer complaints. Then we can be more certain on our quotation and completion dates. That is what the customer wants and needs for us. The time is now.