Starting over at 50. Sounds like a good book title — maybe one I should write. For more than a year now Sanitary Maintenance has allowed me to deliver a message near and dear to my heart (not to mention my wallet). Many people have responded in kind with e-mails or phone calls of support and agreement with the equipment service issues we have presented.

As a matter of fact, I receive more calls now than ever before on the subject. Most are calls from middle managers who all of a sudden have the duty to get service underway in earnest within their company. Or, they were just struck by the lightning bolt that equipment care is the hottest issue within our industry. Whatever the case, the situation today is not much different that it was 10 years ago when I decided to dedicate my work toward helping advance the servicing of cleaning equipment by the agents who sell it.

Well, here we are a decade later and I feel scant satisfaction that we have picked up the ball of opportunity. I know there is a modest number of you out there who have done a superb job of setting up a professional service platform and I salute your commitment. However, the fact remains that the vast number of distributors who sell equipment can’t service it worth beans and have no real plans to do so. Eventually, someone will because the end user is insisting that we fulfill our duty as the selling distributor. The reality remains that the equipment sales of the future will be made by the companies that can service this stuff.

I am a little disappointed both for our industry and for myself for failing to have the impact I believed I could. And now, I am moving on, returning to a role of full distribution leadership with a new focus and duties. Although I will no longer have the time to write these articles, several very qualified contributors are stepping up to the plate and will offer their visions and words of wisdom so the “Fixin’ for Profits” articles can continue to help those who see the future in equipment service.

My thanks to those individuals whom I have asked to contribute and I invite others interested in doing so to contact me or SM if you are interested in writing an article.

Next month Dr. Michael Kucks will again offer new ideas on service training. Mike has now taught well over 100 technicians on the Triad 24-hour Certified Electrical classes and will continue to do so along with offering other training courses in the near future. I encourage you to seek out his help for training your technicians. Mike can be reached at 717-464-7215. Jerry Crawford, the national commercial service leader of Tennant will be the following month’s contributor.

It’s been a blast connecting with you and I thank Sanitary Maintenance magazine for having the commitment to our industry and the understanding that this part of our daily business has merit for you, the reader. I again encourage you to call, write and e-mail the magazine with your feelings on this subject and how they could be of even greater value when you, too, decide that today is the day to commit to equipment care. I look forward to seeing you around the industry as we all do our part in cleaning up the world.

At 50 I am rebooting my career and looking forward to the challenges ahead. Thank you for caring about service and reading along the way.

Phil Consolino is a Michigan-based consultant specializing in powered cleaning equipment service. He can be reached at (517) 788-7423.




POSTED ON: 3/1/2001