ON THE ROAD – FOR HOW LONG ?

Does the ever-increasing rise in road fuel prices signal an end to traditional “home visit” technical support ? Traditionally, whenever a support call comes into the workshop, the PC Man would jump into his sign-plastered wee van and run on over to the location and do an on-site diagnosis. Fix it if possible – “ you can’t dial out because your modem lead is unplugged” or even worse, but more profitable - “ It looks like the doohickey is not interfacing with the whotsit and needs to be repaired / replaced / re-configured. It’s a workshop job I’m afraid….” ( look suitably glum at this point ).

I used to travel a lot, very often over 100+ miles a day, and this was never a problem. The tweaked-performance van was a joy to drive, diesel was cheap, and the scenery was excellent most of the time. But nowadays even that option isn’t viable as road fuel becomes more expensive and the home visit is more of a rarity. Of course you could factor in the cost into the work, but quickly find out that the work dries up. Best strategy to employ is to offer the alternative - explain that all work is cheaper if delivered to the workshop, and that the “road trip” is a chargeable service. Of course I still deliver and install new systems, just to ensure that they are working correctly and its also a “customer connection” opportunity. I often get other business purely because of this service.

Over course this scenario only really applies to the rural enterprise. However, in the towns there is the question of safety and security for personnel and vehicle. There are some places locally where even I don’t like leaving the vehicle, or entering certain premises. One of my colleagues keeps a aluminium baseball bat in the back of his vehicle, in the window, where it can be seen. He says it’s a deterrent. Seems to work.

MAY 2007 UDATE - no improvement - fuel prices still too high & rising. Resolution is to charge for any trip out of the workshop.