Radio Broadcast (May 1928-Apr 1929)

Discussing Some Outstanding Problems THE BUSINESS SIDE OF RADIO SERVICING By JOHN S. DUNHAM QRV Radio Service, Inc. THE ensuing article, which has been permitted, by the Grace of God and lack of penetration of the Editor — no matter what he may be saying about it from his box seat on the right — to appear in this august (or February) publication, does not contain one word of technical problems, but rather of general service questions which we believe are both outstanding and common to most of us who are in the service game. You may, therefore, with entire propriety — and very little loss — omit reading it and wait for the more or less technical problems which we hope to vigorously attack in following articles. In order to discuss any subject intelligently it is first necessary to know what that subject embraces, to effect an orderly division of its phases, and then to discuss each phase separately. If we are talking about our own problems as servicemen, then it will help clarify the situation to classify not only our problems but also to divide up into groups the different kinds of servicemen. We believe that servicemen may be divided into three general classifications, into which fall at least 90 per cent, of all the men in the country who are doing any sort of radio service work. The first, and we believe the largest, class is composed of those who are working alone in their own residence neighborhood, and devoting either all of their time or only a part of it to servicing broadcast receivers. This class comes from the amateur ranks, professional set-builders, high school and home experimenters, commercial and Navy radio operators, electricians, radio "institutes," and many other sources. A large number of them, like Topsy in Uncle Tom's Cabin, "just growed." The second class is composed of those who are working as servicemen for service organizations, or in the service departments of radio dealers. The vast majority of such men has been recruited from the ranks of those who first started working for themselves around the neighborhood, although some of them are from as many different sources as is the first class itself. The third class is made up of those who are the employers of other servicemen, either as executives of their own service or sales-service organizations or as heads of service departments. This third class, which is largely responsible for the beginnings of general organization in the service field, has grown up from both of the other classifications. The author, who has done various kinds of radio work since 1912, including amateur, commercial, and Navy operating, has been successively in each of the three classifications of servicemen since kdka started broadcasting. Every serviceman is a potential employer or director of other servicemen. Most em While the radio serviceman is eager for every scrap of technical information he can get to help him in his daily problems, technical information, unfortunately, is not all he needs. There are business problems to be faced and woe unto him who neglects them, for, even if he be technically beyond reproach, if his business methods are not sound anyone can forecast the result. Mr. Dunham, the writer of this article, is head of the QRV Radio Service in New York and writes from long experience. His article will be interesting to every man doing service work — The Editor. No-charge calls help to increase business. ployers and directors have been servicemen. Those few who have not are indeed unfortunate. The problems of the man who is an employee are also those of the other two classes. The man who is working alone has a great many problems and responsibilities which his brother, who is an employee, does not have to share, but his problems are shared by the third and smallest class, the employers, who, besides all the troubles of all other servicemen, have thrust upon them enough additional problems to keep them awake nights. In this article we shall treat of those problems which are confined chiefly to the lone serviceman and the employer, but in which, we think, every ambitious service employee is also interested. Policies of Procedure NO SERVICE concern, whether it be composed of one man or of fifty men, can operate at optimum efficiency unless definite policies of procedure in all its activities have been clearly formulated and are rigorously followed. Changes of policy are, of course, necessary in any business with changing conditions, but when new policies are formed they must be carefully formed and steadfastly followed. The first outstanding question of policy which must be answered definitely is: Shall we perform service only for the individual radio owner; shall we do only contract work — service for department stores and other radio dealers who do not desire to maintain their own service force; or shall we take all the work we can get of both individual and contract work? The advantages of dealing with • february, 1929 . . . page 237 • the individual, over those of dealing with the store, are manifold. The average individual is more concerned about how efficient the service is than he is about how much it costs. He does not want to pay more than he has to but he is willing to expend whatever may be necessary in order to have his radio properly taken care of. The average store, on the other hand, while having a strong desire to satisfy its customers, wants primarily the cheapest service it can get. While they also want good service, they will not pay a reasonable price for good service. It is a strange, but nevertheless an actual fact, that it is seemingly impossible to convince the average merchandising man in a department store or the average radio dealer how much more economical it is and how much more it means in customer satisfaction to pay a labor charge of $2.50, for example, to have the troubles in a particular radio completely cured by a thoroughly competent serviceman in one call than it is to pay $1.00 per call for the three or four calls which are so often necessary when the work is being handled by incompetent poorly trained servicemen. In that respect, then, the advantage in favor of the individual is that he may be charged for labor at a rate which permits good service and a decent profit, both of which are impossible in contract work. Another Difference r 1 1HE next important difference is that batJ teries, tubes, replacement parts, accessories, and other apparatus may be sold to the individual whereas none of those sources of income may be sold to the store, which is an obvious advantage in favor of the individual trade. The gross income which is normally obtained from dealing directly with the individual, as an average per call, is actually from two to four times greater than that which is obtained from contract work. While the overhead and the investment must be greater for individual work when computed per call. they are actually less when computed per dollar of gross income. In other words, if with a total investment of $1000.00 a serviceman could do a maximum annual contract business of $3000.00, then with the same investment he could do at least $5000.00 worth of individual business and at the same time keep his percentage of overhead expense approximately the same. The real advantage is that. Every service organization should be well equipped.