ECN Forum Forums General Topics of the Trade Business Related Discussion Customer Care

Today i received a call from a nervous manager, "All my computers are out, a breaker is off, can you come right away?"
I asked what is off, and he replied all 15 of my computers, I asked are you sure that only one breaker is off, yes, they are all on two outlets, and there are 6 strips pluged into each other from there.
It appears, that, this past spring, an EC changed his service panel, as he was asked to, the owner was under the assumption, that changing the service panel gave him more power, the EC never questioned the load or asked any questions, just replaced the panel.

This was a good time for the EC to up sell the customer and he missed the chance, and now it appears he lost any future work from this account.

If the customer wanted a panel change because breakers were tripping then the EC should've pointed out that while it might be needed, a panel change alone wouldn't solve the problem. If the customer said they wanted a new panel because they want to add new circuits for more equipment, then I don't see any red flags for the EC to have seen. Often a new panel causes problems like this becuase the new breakers may be higher quality or the old breakers may not have been properly sized.

It also may depend on the electrician. I have 1 guy that would check it out and up sell everything possible. I have another guy who will go there and do a beautiful job on what he's asked, but won't try and get more work. Both have good and bad points and make me the same amount, 1 gets it done fast, the other gets more out of the job, but takes more time doing it.

Les,
You're right that the EC missed out on that oppurtunity to make a sale.
Personally, in a case like this, I'd sit down with the customer and have a good talk with them (and any IT managers) to find out exactly what their requirements are for supply both at the moment and what they could be in the future.
Throwing a new panel in, probably isn't going to achieve a lot, considering the EC should have been selling the customer some new circuits as well.
Also, just remember this guys:
Bad word-of-mouth comments travel 100 times faster than good ones do.