It was tough getting past the gatekeeper. Every sales call was blocked.

Sorry, we are not interested.

We already have a system.

We looked at such a system a few years ago and decided to keep what we have. No, he’s not available.

Didn’t you call last week?

Then one day during the lunch hour, a substitute who was not versed in the art of blocking and parrying was taking calls at the front desk. I pounced. She said that most of their field techs were gaming the system and that management was frustrated, but had no choice but to go along with the game.

What system were they gaming, I asked? The text messaging system, she replied, and the GPS system was a joke, she added. Was he in, I asked?

And just like that I was transferred to a human voice of authority.

Now, let it be known that most owners of small to medium sized HVAC companies are cut from the same cloth. Once was happy that the company had grown and finally they could do whatever, whenever, but suddenly the pressures of keeping the business going, care and feeding of the sometimes prickly, sometimes double-dealing field crew and ever increasing customer demands and lingering debt load made these folks wishing there was a better way to make a living.

So who wants to talk to a damn sales guy while eating a baloney sandwich at the desk?

Yes, we have a decent text system, especially when it’s working.

No, a replacement was not in the cards because his boys just got used to the new upgrade and there would be a riot if he introduced a new system.

No, it was not a question of the tail wagging the dog it was just a question of the expensive stuff and all the tech heads that he’ll have to hire and he likes his existing dispatching system, anyway.

But send me some stuff, not too much, he said.

Needless to say, three calls and two cancelled visits later I’m sitting in the office of the Man. After the usual sports trivia small talk and him perusing paperwork on his desk, he says that he looked at our stuff and can’t see why we would waste time programming FAQs and manufacturer repair instructions into the device.

His boys know what they’re doing and would never look up computer instructions. But he likes the look of the new PDAs, especially if it can secretly track some of the laggards in his field crew. He can’t see any need for a receipt being printed on a mobile printer because most of his business is on commercial contracts and he invoices weekly. Just as he tries the built-in camera on the device he is interrupted by a phone call from one of his crew.

I sit through five minutes of him tell and advising his team member how to fix a particular problem. When he hangs up the phone he swears and calls the guy an idiot.

What do these babies cost? Aren’t the screens a little small? They’ll lose it for sure. It’s too small. These clowns will probably flush it down the drain.

Any hoots, come back and do a demo and let’s see where this takes us.

This is a far cry from:

Sorry, we are not interested.

We already have a system.

We looked at such a system a few years ago and decided to keep what we have

Don’t you wish business owners had the time to step back and reexamine their procedures before a crisis hits?

Don’t you wish business owners had a quota of taking a dozen new calls every week?

Don’t you wish owners took time out to attend a course on something not directly related to their main business so as to get away from the daily busy stuff?

Don’t you wish that small business could get some of the breaks that the big boys do?

1	The Problems Text Messaging system	TaskCaddy Solutions TaskCaddy provides a formatted system
2	Time spent assisting techs	Built in FAQs and ability to store repair rules
3	Devices too small	Small devices more advanced than old bricks
4	Lack of visibility at job site	Camera to take b4 and after pics of job site
5	Gaming the system	Tasks are given standard start and end times
6	Receipts not necessary	Printed doc is solid confirmation of work
7	Invoices done weekly	Rapid feedback = daily invoices
8	GPS system a joke	Can be integrated with advanced GPS

For more information on how HVAC companies could benefit from the utilization of affordable field services technologies go to www.taskcaddy.com

Instant Benefits from TaskCaddy

1-Using the TaskCaddy system, the project manager can input all task orders into the database. Task steps are defined once, and used often, so that the job ticket creation for routine maintenance projects is dramatically speeded up.

2-All job standards – Task duration, scheduled stat time, planned material usage and other costs are measured against actual

3-The field tech can print the work acknowledgement directly unto a mobile printer in the presence of the customer, thus speeding up the approval process and reducing return calls, faxes and unnecessary correspondence

4-Using TaskCaddy, the supervisor would match the technician with the assignment before deploying the project

5-Using TaskCaddy, the supervisor would attach installation instructions and other support material if required, to be viewed on the PDA or on the host server via the mobile device.

6-Using TaskCaddy, the supervisor may automatically assign multiple projects to multiple techs (paperless)

7-Using TaskCaddy, the system would match tasks by qualifications and certifications

8-Using TaskCaddy, the tech start-stop activity would be logged and sent to the main server

9-Using TaskCaddy, the tech would capture an electronic customer signature and print a service acknowledgement

10-Using TaskCaddy, the system would automatically compute inventory usage upon job completion

11-TaskCaddy provides the ability to store and reuse estimates from previously completed jobs for current or future use

12-You can Incorporate the ability to use GPS for driving optimization and Location Based Tracking

13-Using TaskCaddy a field tech has the ability to take a before and after photo capture of the job site

14-Using TaskCaddy mangers can capture the task completion metrics and feed to Excel or other business reporting systems

For more information on how HVAC companies could benefit from the utilization of affordable field services technologies go to www.taskcaddy.com