Knowing When It's Time To Fix — And When It's Time To Replace

By Bill Pollock, president and principal, consulting analyst, Strategies For Growth (SFG), www.pollockonservice.com

It’s largely up to your field technicians to determine when it’s time for a customer to replace equipment — and to communicate that need to them.

You can probably almost hear Kenny Rogers singing, “You’ve got to know when to hold ‘em, know when to fold ‘em” with respect to the game of poker; well, virtually the same rules apply to the equipment repair “game” as well. Sometimes it will be best for customers to have the equipment fixed, and sometimes they will be better advised to replace either the entire unit or just certain components of it. In most cases, however, it will be up to you to provide them with the proper “argument” for doing “the right thing” — and this will not always be easy to do.