Specialize

How well can you define your market?

I think about the servicer that advertises, "One Call Does It All!". And the side panel of the service vehicle is hardly enough room for the list of all the services offered. Of course the "list" is prefaced with the term, "SPECIALIZING IN....".

By definition, to "specialize" is to study, work or trade in a special area.

I have been employed by a service company with such a "marketing" strategy and what I knew that the customer didn't, was that all the services offered were provided to compliment one particular service in which the business was primarily engaged. In a sense, the servicer was ensuring that he always had his foot in the door.

The air conditioner goes out at the restaurant, and when the A/C Tech is done with the initial service call, the management asks, "Hey, while you're here, could you repair our convection oven that just went down? What are the chances of the single serviceman being fully competent and versed in all the various services that may be provided? Naturally, the Ace A/C tech was dispatched to the initial call.

When the plan fails however, is when the oven repair gets botched, and the customer dumps the whole lot!

I service medium and low temperature refrigeration. When I'm finished repairing the cooler and my customer asks me to check out the air conditioning, I inform him that I don't do air conditioning. When I am then asked why not, I reply,"I don't want to lose your medium and low temperature business on account of your dissatisfaction with my A/C service!"

You bring up an interesting point herefishy. Our trade requires us to wear many coats, much more so than possibly any other trade that I can think of. We have to be in a generic sense, refrigeration mechanics, electrician, plumber/pipefitter, welder, carpenter, customer relations specialist, rigger, truck driver, machinist, electronics technician, computer operator, insulator, etc. there are many others I can not name right now. In addition you also have to stay on top and be driven and motivated and study all the latest manuals, keep up with the service bulletins, refrigerant changes, codes, and be ready to adapt rather quickly to all this as it changes daily. We take in and work with so many different systems and problems that one should specialize in a certain area.
I like your line of thinking on the matter but the customer is always demanding that we do it all or maybe none. In the end either you or the customer suffers. Some jobs are indeed just over our head and require a dedicated trade to do it right with the tools and knowledge of that particular trade and also to do it efficiently with the lowest cost possible. Pass it on is the theory I have developed, look at the job and figure, can I do that in a timely manner with reasonable cost and have the tools needed and do a ggod job? If not pass it on to another trade and go turn some wrenches on a fridge! It's what we live for.
Mike Hopkins

My boss once told me to work on a CO2 incubator. It was our main account and he would never say no to them.

Not knowing what it looked like, much less what it does, I chatted with the customer for a while, hoping he would point to it. He didn't, so I finally asked him where it was. I was leaning on it.

I managed to stumble my way through it, and get it working. The customer cancelled the service call he had placed to the manufacturer (several hundred miles away). The manufacturer called my boss.

I was sent off to the factory for training (I insisted), and we did all of their warranty work (as well as lots of out of warranty work), on all manner of lab equipment, throughout the state, for the next 8 years. It became our main account.

Diversity isn't always a bad thing. :)

Our company is undergoing much change. I am beset with contracts that sell us as a full service provider... in other words, if your toilet is clogged, call us. My suspicion is that we are the rebound candidate for a company who had such a provider who let the refrigeration go to hell in a hand basket, so now they want a company who can maintain refrigeration handling their plumbing problems, as opposed to a plumbing company handling their refrigeration problems. Good Lord.

A c-store account that wants one numbr to call. But in the contract it is agreed that we will provide the proper contractor to fix anythng we are not experts in. Great for plumbing and electrical service calls, maybe roofing, too... but I know that I will be dispatching fridge techs to fix fryers and roller grills when the calls start raining in.

I am picturing this on a larger scale than Mike and Herefishy is, but the previous posts' reasoning is so right. And now I have to provide that wisdom to a dispatcher, who by definition should not have a clue. Which is about as wrong as having a fridge tech repairing a toilet.

So my worry is regarding what I see as a trend that larger companies are tending toward: Full service.... one number to call and we do it all.

If your customer is large, then there is reason to think they are going to get in cahoots with the large company that promises one-stop shopping.

And if your customer is not large, fully expect that it will be absorbed into a large company in short order.

The times they are not changing exactly the way Bob Dylan predicted.

Can you say "Door closures?"

I don't think the picture is quite so glum, Dan. Large customers are likely to have their own maintenance departments for much of the small work. The major work will be departmentalized or farmed out.

But I think the time is fast drawing to a close when we can say, "I don't do A/C" or "I don't do refrigeration." That's not such a bad thing either. There are more similarities between refrigeration and A/C systems than there are differences. To me it's all the same.

Adding to this thought, I believe size and complexity (domestic, light commercial, heavy commercial, light industrial, heavy industrial) are more legitimate dividing lines than refrigeration versus A/C. Within each category, a service tech should be able to handle both refrigeration and A/C.

Another legitimate dividing line is design versus service. When are we going to stop teaching service techs how to design systems, and start teaching them how to trouble shoot and repair them?

Hoping I'm not confusing everyone with my ongoing editing. :)

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Originally posted by Gary
There are more similarities between refrigeration and A/C systems than there are differences. To me it's all the same.

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One of the differences that I concern myself with in the operation of my business is inventory.... 24V everything, pulleys, bearings, multi-speed motors, etc.

I don't carry the overhead of hauling around Med / Low temp components and eight types of refrigerant, while running A/C jobs (or vice-versa).

That's an interesting point, herefishy. It's probably more of a concern when servicing domestic or light commercial, particularly outside of major metropolitan areas, where supply houses are few and far between.

Servicing mainly heavy commercial and light industrial in the Detroit area, I work on everything, but carry relatively little inventory. Unless it's something very common, the customer doesn't expect me to have the parts.

...and Gary, you have an interesting point there, too.

I have had customers that absolutely insisted that I did (whatever), for them. Even when I advised them, that I'm not particularly equipped to do it (not saying that I am incapable), and when I tell them it's going to COST more, because I don't have the simple part, or whatever reason, for some reason the customer sees some value in just knowing that I'm the one doing it! Regardless of how erroneous I find their reasoning.

But on the other hand, I hate to be taking up time doing the gratuitous service (not that it is free), when I know that there is someone waiting on me to provide to them, the service that I advertise!

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...for some reason the customer sees some value in just knowing that I'm the one doing it! Regardless of how erroneous I find their reasoning.

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In the course of doing business, you find there is a particularly troublesome aspect over which you have little or no control. You are at the mercy of others.

Fortunately, you have found someone who is highly skilled, honest, consciencious, and his rates are reasonable. He has solved your problem. Now, if you can just get him to take care of your other ongoing headache(s).

Their reasoning is not erroneous. A good service tech is not a 'Jack of all trades'. He is a Master of many trades.

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Originally posted by Gary
A good service tech is not a 'Jack of all trades'. He is a Master of many trades.

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EXACTLY!!!!

Nonetheless, I am not insisting that is what anyone should do. I have my market, for which people do not desire to have their podiatrist do their dentistry!!! This is just how I operate my business, and I offer it for others to consider.

Imagine having an experienced A/C mechanic who has worked for at least 10 years in the A/C trade tell you, "I don't know nothing about refrigeration". I find out later that this is somewhat true.
My initial reply would have been "Man, how do you work on A/C
without understanding refrigeration?" but I held my tongue. What is A/C but refrigeration? This belief has been echoed to me many times by seemingly knowledgeable people in the industry. I now use that very question as an inquiry of talent. You do A/C work huh? Do you know anything about refrigeration? You either get a detailed no I don't know about refrigeration or a strange look and many questions thereafter, which usually turns into an intelligent conversation. Amazing what one runs across out there.
Granted, there are some specialized systems out there that would eat a good A/C mechanics lunch but the basics are still there or should I say fundamentals.
Mike Hopkins

In regard to A/C mechanic vs. refrigeration mechanic, one of the most tell-tale signs of the A/C mechanic having worked on the reefer, is when the "number" on the expansion valve always matches the horsepower rating of the compressor.

Hey, if it's a one-horse, you need a number one valve, right?

Also, the lack of pump-down in the install performed by the A/C company, whereas the massive imbilical of wiring going between the unit cooler and the condensing unit includes the looped circuit to the compressor going (through the room thermostat)!

Face it, when you think about it there are signaficant differences in terms of the way the systems are constructed and controlled. In terms of the aspect of the service job, itself, the A/C mechanic knows that every job he goes on utilizes R-22 and a 45degF SST. The refrigeration mechanic never knows till he gets there, what is the design TD (system balance), design SST, refrigerant, head pressure control means, TEV, cap tube, or evaporator pressure regulator, time, temperaure, or pressure defrost???.... all the variables inherant of all the different applications of process cooling (as opposed to enviromental cooling).

I think they are quite different.

I look at in a similar vein to the medical profession - hey, we are all fridge engineers but specialise in different areas.

I can honestly say that I have never installed a commercial deep freeze cabinet, but I have designed several and worked on many.

I specialise in A/C and chillers but that doesn't mean I can't design or build or maintain refrigeration - it just means that I would have to maybe think twice or do the calcs or even consult the books when working on the fridge side. I suppose the same could be said of the deep freeze guy working on the A/C side - would it be second nature for him to know if the air flow or water flow was correct before he came to an informed decision about the performance of the equipment? or would he have to consult his books?

I have friends in the trade that work for competitors and they often ring me for advice or information concerning A/C be it technical or otherwise, and knowledge is shared - we don't know it all!, and then again I often ring my learned friends when I come across a piece of kit that isn't operating correctly and I can't understand why. This is also the whole aspect of this forum - we learn off each other and this broadens our experience and knowledge

Not that it really matters whether you work on one or the other, where I live, one license covers it all.
A refrigeration ticket allows us to work on anything from window units to parallel packs to Centrifugal chillers. What matters is finding the work to keep you busy. Most techs here (if not all) have their gas heating lisence to help keep them busy through the winters.

Gary stated of few posts back that a good service tech is a
MASTER OF ALL TRADES.
I agree, on friday while repairing some low temp boxes, I had to Master the garden hose for about 5 hrs.!!!
All the towns pigeon's made homes in all the condensors, what a god awful mess.