When Things Break Down
Baking Brownies All The Time Is Difficult
As a company doing service and repair work we’re often in a difficult position. If we can fix a serious problem in a very short amount of time we come out as the good guys with lots of brownie points. But if the job ends up being more involved than anyone suspected, then the brownies run out, things get tense, and it’s no fun for anyone.We can’t guarantee there won’t be difficult breakdowns. But by keeping good communication going, the client can know the situation and keep some control of costs and options. There are also things that can be done to reduce how often breakdowns occur.
These notes are penned to explain how CPR approaches repair work, and to clarify expectations.
Fixed Price And Fixed Outcome May Not Be Possible
Corporately CPR has a lot of experience, both fault finding across a wide range of audio, video, and computer equipment, and also in maximising uptime by foreseeing related problems. However there are virtually unlimited combinations of equipment, especially the possible mixes of operating system, drivers, hardware, and application software versions, and it’s often in mismatches of these that problems occur.On some jobs – particularly where we’ve dealt with an identical fault several times before, we can generally indicate accurately what the costs may be and action the most efficient-possible repair.
On other jobs it’s not possible to give a fixed price at the onset, nor even to guarantee that a specific problem will be fixable (it may end up more cost effective to replace an item). However there are things we can optimise in the approach:
Choosing The Best Approach
There are usually several ways to approach a problem, choosing the wrong approach can mean extra costs and down-time.At each point in the repair we undertake to use our best professional judgement as to the path that is likely to achieve the result most efficiently, whilst bearing in mind long term reliability, avoiding resultant problems, and maximising uptime. Where appropriate we’re very happy to discuss the approach strategy with the client and agree together.
There are three possible outcomes to the approach taken -
Both in choosing the approach, and following through the outcome, communication with the client is vital, that’s why we like to offer:
Time Bound Reporting
No one wants a repair project to drag on open ended and with no control of escalating costs, and worse still, with no feedback as to what’s happening with the fix.We want to put the client in control of costs. Our preference is to let the client know the approach we plan to take, and to set a reasonable time limit - after which if the problem isn’t fixed we’ll report back and agree the next step together.
Research Time
In this computer and internet age a very powerful repair tool is research through user groups, knowledge bases, and some information sources to which our company has privileged access.We’re often able to do research and some equipment testing offsite, which has the added advantage of not tying up the system being repaired (eg: an edit suite with a problem in a certain area of operation can often continue to serve the client in other modes of operation while several days of research and preparation is done offsite, followed by a only brief interruption whilst the final repair is implemented).
Unless otherwise agreed this offsite time will be chargeable as part of the repair work, though of course we’d strive to keep it within the time bounds agreed.
Supply Of Equipment
CPR is a service company which finds solutions, and designs and implements them. Our work sometimes involves researching the best equipment to meet a specific need. We may offer to source and supply the equipment directly, other times we may suggest a vendor that the client can source from directly (of course the client is always free to choose).Generally we charge for the investigation and presentation time involved as this research is our service as much as the item itself. In this way our company works differently from many technical equipment suppliers who represent a stable of products and are able to able to provide free quotes on these, often without having to do further research (they make their income purely from the margin on items sold).
When Things Don't Go As Efficiently As Hoped
Sometimes unusual combinations of equipment or simply bad luck may make a job take longer than hoped. Sometimes together with the client it may be decided to terminate a line of work after a substantial amount of time and cost has been invested. Where this is the case – and where CPR has been commissioned to do the work up to that point we are obliged to charge for services rendered.In certain cases we may elect to give the client a degree of concession off our normal costs as a goodwill gesture, however this would be at our discretion rather than our obligation.
Things We Can Do To Minimise Emergencies
There are many things that can be done in advance to minimise breakdowns, and to maximise repair when breakdowns do occur. A lot of our design work revolves around maximising uptime, and can involve some of these techniques, please call us to discuss specific details.