Myth #5: I don’t have time to start generator monitoring!
Reality: Nonsense! The best time to start is now!
We hear this one a lot. “I’m so busy right now with preventative maintenance, I can’t think about monitoring”. What we hear is a missed opportunity. You could be wasting time and money when you could be making serviceable and profitable visits. We know routine maintenance is important and should be a part of every service plan, but the frequency is always the kicker. Most of the clients we talk to will do quarterly visits. A round number, but only one or two of those visits might be profitable. The other two are a waste of time for very little money. Minor service inspections are the least profitable work you do so why roll a truck if you aren’t going to make any money? So, where’s the balance between routine maintenance and making profitable visits?
What if we told you that the answer is simple? It’s through remote monitoring. We often hear that generator dealers don’t have enough technicians for the current service work they have. It’s a common statement and the industry recognizes that. The way to combat this is effectively utilizing your technician staff with the help of generator monitoring. The simple answer is to combine both efforts by sending technicians to problematic sites rather than routine maintenance visits. The best way to shore up more time for your technicians is to delete at least one or two of the routine visits. Instead of going out four times a year, you could go out twice and use those available hours to send a technician to a serviceable opportunity. Don’t waste your time and your money sending a valued technician to a service call that is not making you money. Use monitoring to your advantage. It’s like having a technician onsite 31,536,000 times per year (seconds in a year).
How do I start?
By now, we all know the benefits of monitoring your generators. The next step is where to start and what works best for your business. The truth is you can start monitoring today. For dealers starting out, it’s a good idea to bundle it into your service plans and new generator sales. It’s an easy add-on and less pressure for the customer to make this decision after the fact. If you’re unsure that your customers would even say yes to monitoring, refer to our second monitoring myth here. Luckily for you, most customers understand the need for monitoring and there’s a higher guarantee that they’ll say yes when asked. If you need more tips on how to get started, check out our brochure on four easy steps to get started here. Otherwise, give our sales team a call to find the best solution(s) for your business and how to maximize your efforts through monitoring.