Day 13 - Operations and Project Planning

Day 13 - Operations and Project Planning

On this day I sat with the TelComTec team in the war room or conference room. The team meets in the morning to discuss upcomming projects and the progress of current projects. Communication between team members is critical for the completion of proper projects. The success of the project is dependent on the execution of the guidelines, and timeframe set by the manager and the leaders of the assigned projects. Any hurdles or setbacks have to be communicated from the technicians to the project lead, and then the project manager. During the meeting project managers will place calls to customer contacts and outside contractors to communicate updates and discuss potential setbacks as well as workarounds to challenges. The meeting lasted about one hour. Then I looked at some project diagrams.

Day 12 - Warehouse / Inventory

 Day 12 - Warehouse Training

I spent the day learning how to inventory and stock products that came in from vendors. I Scanned barcodes and stocking items for TelComTec. The scanned information was saved on a scanner device and uploaded to the database. When a product is sold by a TelComTec manager or technician the item is removed from the database and the stock count is updated in the database. At TelComTec there are no sales reps, the managers or technicians sell all the products and the database keeps track of the merchandise. The warehouse products are organized categorically, based on the technology it is applied to.

Day 11 - Full Day of Live Customer Support

 Day 11 

I was allowed to make calls and receive calls the full day. I started the day by receiving calls and was assisted on scheduling appointments for service visits. I was very comfortable taking the calls and followed the guidlines provided during day 6 and day 7. I then made call backs at the end of the day to follow up on service visits. I was also comfortable making call backs and getting feed back from clients.

Day 11 felt like a full day of work.

Day 10 - Customer Support Training part 3 call backs

 Day 10 - More customer support training.

I spent the day watching dispatch take calls and make calls. At the end of the day I made a couple of calls to follow up on completed jobs. All calls to customers were short and pleasent. I got a couple of positive feed backs and all customers agreed to complete a email survey, which I sent out after the calls. I felt comfortable making the calls and got better after couple of calls.

Day 9 - Customer Support part 2

 Day 9 - TelComTec Customer Support part 2

Additional training for answering and returning calls

 Mostly got training on communicating with customers that left voicemails on the phone system.

5 P's

Prepared

Now the history of the service call and study the notes.

Present

Start the call by presenting the description of the job

Polite

Be respectfull and treat the caller like you would like to be treated

Patient

Allow the customer a chance to explain the problem

Personable

Be friendly 

Professional

Stay on topice and remember you are talking with a business client

Proactive

Take good notes and make appointment time and date that works for the customer.

Day 8 - Dispatch Training part 2

Day 8 - Dispatch Grid

Dispatch additional training 

I mostly watched dispatch close out jobs on the software and call customers back.

Script for follow up calls-

Start by asking for the contact on the ticket. Introduce yourself and ask if their needs were met. Always offer customers options for a return visit if needed. If the job requires an additional visit use empathetic language and reassure them that their issue is important. If no follow up is required send an email with a survey.

Day 7 Dispatch Training

Day 7 - Dispatch Grid

I received detailed training on how to use the dispatch software, Service Fusion. The software allows for scheduling appointments. The software is cloud-based and contains a database of all the customers TelComTec has serviced over the last 30 years. When creating a service request a registered customer name is required. If the caller is a new customer a new entry is created for the caller. Then a technician is assigned to the job by the dispatcher. 

Day 6 - Customer Support

 Day 6 - TelComTec Customer Support

I started the day by watching dispatch answer calls on the customer support line. At the end of the day I got to answer a couple of calls. I was provided some guidelines to keep in mind.

 

• Answer the phone within three rings.
• Use a professional greeting. ( Hello, this is TelComTec how can I help you today.)
• Speak clearly. Use positive language.
• Avoid overly technical talk, keep it simply and leave the troubleshooting to the technicians.
• Actively listen & take notes. If necessary repeat the stated problem.
• If immediate support is necessary, transfer the call to the appropriate technician.
• Announce transferred calls and do not blind transfer.
• If a future appointment is necessary use scheduling grid to set the appointment.

 

Day 5 - Customer Communication and Call Backs

 On my 5th day I spent more time at the office watching interaction between callers and dispatch but also got to see the head of the Cabling department make some call backs to customers to see how their projects had turned out. I was told that the importance of the call back was to encourage the customer to feel comfortable with communicating any future needs. Today I realized that TelComTec is about customer relationships. It seems that this is where the business gets all its returning business and business referrals. "The business has been around almost 40 years and the reason is they don't lose customers and grow relationships" said the head of the Cabling department. 

Day 4 - Costumer Communications

 On my 4th Day - I watched Dispatch take service calls and handle service requests. 

All TelComTec Service requests come in one of two ways, a phone call or a company email. Dispatch consists of a couple employees that take the calls and get the customer information and request and turn it into a ticket, which is scheduled immediately. If the request is urgent it is transferred to the appropriate department to be handled by the head of that department.

The interaction between dispatch and the clients is very formal but also very pleasant. TelComTec seems to be very good at making the clients feel as if they are very important. 

Day 3 - Services and Solutions

On my 3rd day I spent time with the heads of the two departments, Cabling and Information Technology (IT). 

The cabling department manily deals with wiring of any type of cables, audio, video, and CCTV. All these services deal with wiring so it makes sence that they fall under this department. Video involves anything TV related, such as projectors and screens. Audio involves Sound systems for businesses. CCTV involves security cameras systems. 

The second department is Information Technology (IT). It has the most complex services at TelComTec.  IT involves anything related to computers, and communication of computers with each other and the internet. In today’s world phones are a subcategory of computers. I was told Services offered by TelComTec IT would be covered at a later day.

Picture from the TelComTec Lab (computer cabling example)

Day 2 - Learning Business Structure

On my second day I got to talk to spend time with the office administrator, Angela Stricker. She talked to me about the business structure, which was described a functional business structure. All critical decisions such as business direction, hiring and firing where made by Mr.Garrett, but day to day office tasks and business mangaement, such as finances and dispatching were completed by the office staff independent of the CEO. TelComTec had two main departments: Cabling and Information Technology (IT). Each department contained one independent field supervisor and various in-house lead technicians, and sometimes subcontracted outside technicians. The Supervisors worked side by side with their department technicians out in the field on various projects and services provided by TelComTec.

Picture of the Lab / Training Center at TelComTec

Day 1 - Learning the Business Backgound

 On my first day, I met Ron Garrett, the CEO of TelComTec who is also the owner. He showed me around the office which is a small space consisting of a lobby, and a couple of personal offices, conference room, and a lab/testing area. Additionally, there was also a large warehouse filled with tech gear.

For the most part I watched the inner workings of the office and talked to Mr. Garrett about the business history and structure. 

Mr. Garret explained that TelComTec was founded by two former AT&T technicians in 1986. The business was started in a home garage with the goal of providing telecom services to the city of San Diego. These services included telephone wiring, and basic business telephone installation. Mr. Garrett started as technician in 1990 and eventually bought the company in 1996 with the help of a bank loan that was paid in full in 2006. Today TelComTec consists of small office staff, with 2 department heads, 12 specialized technicians and various subcontracted temp technicians.