Friday Fun: Patriotic Fisher Paykel Washers

Here's a little appliance trick from down under in New Zealand. Apparently, at least on some Fisher Paykel machines, a test setting on the control panel will play the national anthems of the USA, Australia & New Zealand. Sounds to me like engineers had a little too much time on their hands!

Thursday Tech Tip: How To Alienate Customer and Drive Away Business

Usually here on the W.L. May blog we often try to share tips and suggestions to help build your business and be more profitable. Maybe that's not your thing. Today we offer some tips that can help if you want to drive away customers and lose repeat business.

• Be hard to reach. Don't answer your phone and don't return calls. They say time is money. Don't let a potential customer take that away from you, after all they probably want your help or something.
• Make an appointment-but don't show up on time. So that pesky customer managed to track you down, now what? To make sure they are unhappy, set up an appointment. This works best if it is an inconvenient time for them. Let them know they need to be there and then don't show. Don't bother calling either. They'll call you to reschedule if they want to get their machine fixed.
• Arrive dirty and/or smelly. You know you are probably going to get dirty while you fix a machine, and honestly you were up kind of late last night so why bother showering and putting on clean clothes just to get dirty. Don't forget, you are doing them a favor by fixing their machine. So if you smudge some oil on their counter or smell like b.o. plenty, that is their problem. If you are smoker, light up while you do the repair. If they want to have a clean house they can clean after you leave. You do repairs, you aren't a maid!
• Look like an amatuer. There are several ways to do this. First, don't wear a uniform. A uniform can make you look like a pro. Now think about your service vehicle. Leave off the identifying signs. Those will probably just cause others to call you for repairs. At  the home, make sure and park in their driveway. For real style points and to create that extra  "I don't care about you" effect, make sure your service vehicle is leaking fluids. 
• Don't actually do a repair. Bang around a little bit. Scratch your head a bit and tell them what a unique problem they are having. Give them a real high quote for doing the job and suggest that they would be far better off to replace the unit. Give them an invoice for your "diagnosis" collect your fee preferably a high one and payable only in cash.

So that's it. While we are obviously kidding that you would want to hurt your business, it is true that if you follow these tips you can do a lot to chase away new business. If you would rather grow your business, look elsewhere on this blog for advice and check out our Facebook page for other news and tips as well.

Wednesday Worth Considering: Are You Ready For A Heat Wave?

Creative Commons license on image.

Summer brings to mind thoughts of vacations, picnics, beaches, and ball parks. If you are in the appliance repair business summer also brings some predictable service calls. For those of you in the trade, you want to be ready BEFORE the first heat wave hits your community. Once things get hot and start breaking, your preparation will pay off. When the temperature rises so tempers can rise and patience often goes down. If you are not ready to complete the job in one day, your potential customer may well try to find someone who can. This is definitely one of the times you want to make sure your truck is well stocked. I'd recommend paying particular attention to your refrigerator parts. Are you ready to install an icemaker when your customer requests it? Not on the next day, but on the same day. Do you have the defrost components and motors for the types of refrigerators that are common to your area? If you do sealed system work are you ready with fittings, freon and start devices? Or maybe a universal compressor or one of the more common boards? I'm sure that I have probably forgotten at least one common warm weather request, so I ask you: are there other items that you stock to prepare for heat-wave business? If so, please share them in the comments section. Have a great summer and don't forget to drink plenty of water!

Kelly's Korner - Inventory

Hey, All!

OK, start the groaning now because "inventory" has to be one of the most dreaded words around.  No one likes to crawl about to find and count the myriad parts that are on trucks, in stockrooms, garages, shelves, desks or wherever else you keep your parts.

But answer this:  Do you have any idea of how much money you have sitting there?  Maybe about tax time when you HAVE to account for your parts but how many times do you want to do that?  How many times have you ordered a part because "I know it's here somewhere, I just can't find it!" 

Now, I am the last one to preach about organization (at the best of times my desk looks like a hurricane hit it), but when parts are your bread and butter, it pays to keep track.  It may take awhile to get your truck, stockroom, garage, whatever, into shape and to inventory those parts and train yourself to keep up on it (kinda like cleaning the gutters on your house and just about as fun).  But when you realize the amount of time and money that this will save you, it will be worth it.

There is lots of software out there for you techno people (you probably have it on something you're using now but haven't utilized it) and it can integrate it into your invoicing and definitely make tax time a lesser burden.  Also, lots of storage containers for those parts are out there!

And those parts that you have no idea where you got them and haven't used and have no idea what they go to?  Try networking on the internet to get them to people who are looking for them.  There are lots of "antique" appliances out there people don't want to get rid of and parts are no longer available for them but they will hunt to the ends of the earth to find them to keep their beloved appliances.

Send me a postcard from your vacation with all the money you've "saved"!

Have a great week!

Motivation Monday

Friday Fun: Ziggy vs The dryer

For a few years during the mid 00's there was an event held annually in Florida where competitors would bring homemade fighting robots to do battle. It looks like it was a fairly interesting event. I found the video below that features Ziggy, one of the super heavyweight class of robots, putting the hurt on a dryer. The video says it is washer, but its really a dryer. Regardless of that, here is some fun appliance destruction to wrap up your week. Have a fun weekend!

Truck Stock Thursday: Safe-T-Elements

According to the National Fire Prevention Association, "Ranges, with or without ovens, accounted for the majority (58%) of home cooking fire incidents and even lager shares of civilian deaths (87%)." It's no surprise to find that the appliance in home with the most direct heat would start the most fires. Due to advances in technology, that number could be greatly reduced. Pioneering Technologies has created a great fire prevention solution with the Safe-T-Element. This electric range modification works by causing the element to cycle on and off keeping the element hot enough to cook as normal while staying just below the point of ignition. This has a side benefit of reducing electrical usage while it helps provide fire safety. Studies show that the majority of kitchen related house fires are in the homes of seniors, students, a low income residents. In many rental situations these are the tenants in the units. If you do service for, or own or operate a rental unit, the Safe-T-Element is a worthwhile investment for the extra layer of protection it provides to your property. Of course, the Safe-T-Element can help protect ANY home with an open coil electric range. Check out the video below and for more information or to order Safe-T-Elements, contact us at W.L. May Company.