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“I’m traveling South on Hawthorne Blvd., approaching PCH.” He finally answers my question.
“Pull over and park. I need to change your routing.” Depending on the tech and location I will continue with: “I will hold until you are in a safe place to write.” Or “Call me back when you are parked in a safe place to get your new information.”
Once I reconnect with the tech, I give very specific instructions. “Your car stock inventory shows you have one exposure lamp #834579. Make sure you have one that is not broken. Actually take out your meter and check for continuity before proceeding to this next call I am going to give you. I want you to turn around and backtrack. You are not going to the Smith Company next. Use customer service order # 678990, Wrightwood Corp., 512 Mt View, Hawthorne. They are on an MA; parts are covered. Jim (another tech) was just there. They are down. I want you to get Wrightwood working before you do the PM at Smith. They need this lamp. Inventory shows you have one. Call me back to confirm you have a good lamp before going to Wrightwood. Please tell me what you are going to do.”
“The Smith Company is only a couple blocks away. So after I do that call I will check to make sure I have the lamp, backtrack and do the Wrightwood call,” replies the tech.
Anyone who has ever dealt with field techs realizes this type of misunderstanding happens on a regular basis. Whether you are using automated dispatch, GPS, single call or batch dispatching, errors due to miscommunication happen on a regular basis.
Hopefully, I am listening more closely to the tech’s response than he listened to mine.
Just because I gave what I believed to be clear, specific instructions, does not mean I communicated my thoughts to the tech. He was focused on going to his next call. He was close to the Smith Company. His brain is on auto pilot. He missed the ‘backtrack, not, down, before, check for continuity, call me back to confirm.”
My next response will be upbeat and non-judgmental. At this point I clearly understand both of us have failed in doing our work effectively. Communication is a two way street. “Let me go over this one more time.” I will repeat my instructions, followed by a new group of questions. “Why did I change the order of your calls? What address are you traveling to next? What must you do immediately before you go to Wrightwood which is your next call? What part number are you looking for? What must you do before calling me back to confirm you will be going to Wrightwood next? Are you going to be billing for the lamp? What CSO # are you using at Wrightwood? How far will you have to backtrack to get Wrightwood up and running before you do the PM at Smith Company?”
Each question requires a specific response that ensures we are communicating. Questions also reconfirm and clarify the information that we are discussing.
With $5.00 a gallon for gas and service labor hour burden rates costing $70-$100, taking a couple extra minutes to confirm a field tech understands what is required of him is proactive managing. Redundancy pays off in the long run.
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