What the contemporary IT industry in India needs is effec-
tive service centers. Centers that not only give customers the value for money,
but also give businessmen the peace of mind while servicing their own customers.
An efficient service center should have all the qualities of a good production
center, which includes good documentation.
Neglected documentation
Unfortunately, due to rigid taxation and excise formalities,
the documentation part is neglected by most. Now with margins going down
remarkably, the facet of proper documentation needs to be re-looked. Some of the
ways in which documentation can be helpful in servicing are:
- To identify the product, manufacturer and customer who has
returned it
- To identify technical flaws in the product
- To take corrective steps
- To record corrective actions taken
- To ascertain time consumed for repairs
- To maintain cost of repairs
- To find the loss if the product is not repairable
- To find whether the customer is satisfied after the
replacement
- To check whether the replacement materials have been
returned to the principal
- To track how the principal/vendor/manufacturer gives
support…
The list can go on.
Training service staff
Most of the time the personnel at the service center are out
of touch with the latest technologies and remain masters of obsolete technology!
If the right training is not given to them, they become redundant and the
organization loses lot of time in solving problems. The need of the hour is to
train engineers at the principal’s service centers. They will give training on
the latest products. Proper training will enable service center staff to be
aware of current trends and help the organization in customer satisfaction and
achieving profits.
The high speed with which new technologies are developed in
IT, makes it all the more difficult for anyone to keep a track of latest
products. If you do not know the roadmap of your products and have insufficient
spares to maintain them, then you will be losing money on dead inventory. Today,
motherboards become obsolete every quarter due to development of new processors.
Balance of spares
Maintaining a proper balance in the percentage of spares becomes very
important to avoid overstocking or shortfall of stocks. One should also learn to
recycle the repaired stock effi