There is absolutely no sense in taking your best service tech out of the field and making him a service manager. That is not a promotion; It is a career change.

I have the utmost respect for a good service manager, and while I expect him to have a firm grasp of what I do for a living, this is not what he does for a living. He is a MANAGER.

Although I have never seen this, I have heard of companies who have a "Trouble Shooter". This is a highly paid salaried tech who works alongside other techs whenever the job calls for more than one man, or when the problem is difficult to find.

His job is to both trouble shoot the difficult systems and improve the skills of his fellow service techs.