What do you want to see? 🤔

[KhianaKlatt]

I really want this group to be beneficial for everyone in it - including YOU! What topics would you like to see discussed in future posts? Please comment below with your ideas and I will add them to our list for consideration! 👇

Thank you for joining us here and helping our group grow! 🌱 

[MirandaMel]

I would love to see more traction in this group!  There is so much we can learn from each other!

[Dave]

I've been thinking about this for 4 days.....

I'd like to know what other peoples ST responsibilities are as well their techs-office staff ratio.  We currently have 12 techs and 3 office staff + owner. Having never used anything like this before, I find I have no baseline.  No comperative data.  

[koiring]

Sorry for the late reply - I was on vacation.  We have 50+ Technicians, 23 Office, 6 Managers.  Obviously a bit different due to size, but we are not super happy with that ratio.  We do think that we could probably get up to about 75 Technicians at this office staff level which would be a bit more comfortable.

[AngieBeri]

Hi Dave, I work for a small electrical contractor company. We have 5 techs and 2 office staff. In our company the office staff does all the booking, selling  and payment collecting.. We have sent numerous requests to ST to allow the office staff to be able to log into a job in the same manner as a technician so that we  can book the job when it is sold. In our  company most jobs are done via our techs going to do an estimate and then coming back to the office and doing up the estimate and emailing it to the customer .It usually takes a day or two  for the customer to get back to us to say to go ahead with the  job. We require a deposit before starting the job. Pretty much all of our jobs are custom as there are no 2 electrical jobs the same so each job is definitely  different.  Our techs use price book to call up all the components they will require for the job and then to estimate the amount of  time for labour. Price book is a God Send!! The biggest difficulty we are finding is that ST is designed for huge companies and being a very small company it is the office person that does it all and unfortunately ST is set of so that the technicians do it all.   Hope this gives you an understanding as to how our company works!

[Dave]

Love this and appreciate you taking the time to respond. I can empathize here. 

Quick question, and please don't hold back....  What can your techs do to aleviate some of the burden for your office staff?  I can't begin to imagine being 1 of 2......I'm 1 of 4(ish) and as someone who see's the glass half full, I feel like running into a wall with my head down most days.  

[AngieBeri]

sorry for taking so long to get back to you.. I was busy...  I don''t find the office work a burden at all . I love to be busy from the moment I get in until I leave! I'm so accustomed to it, I even have some days where I have nothing to do ( especially if it is a week with jobs that are open for the full 7 days of a week. Nothing can be done until the job is completed. Sometimes the techs will require extra material. I just order it and have to delivered for the next day... On days that seem a bit crazy , I just put all things that have to be done in a pile and work my way through it during the day. On days that are slow, I go back and double  check that I have all the materials ordered for future jobs, or I go in the shop and check that inventory doesn't need to be ordered... I have never felt  overburdened!  

[KhianaKlatt]

Thanks for commenting and sharing what you are looking for. I will add this to my list of conversation starters! Hopefully group members will be willing to share their company's sizing and responsibilities. We will try to get you some help!