chris cooper wrote:
Im wondering how everybody else is handling signal tests for resi subscribers.
We ask for a $50 deposit before we send a tech out to do the signal test. (With a very few, very limited exceptions, we ALWAYS do a signal test before scheduling an install.) If the test is a no-go, the customer gets the $50 deposit back; if the test is a go, we apply that deposit to the installation fee.
Note that there's no way to get the $50 back if the signal test is a go. That's by design. We used to do signal tests "for free," but we had many hundreds of "good" tests where the customer never followed up and wanted service installed. It was a waste of our time, money, mileage on the truck, et cetera. This discourages, subtly, folks that aren't actually interested in the service, or who are just window-shopping.
Prospective customers are informed that they'll be checked "within two weeks," which we've generally been successful at. Assuming the check is a go, we then schedule the install. (Normally we don't need anyone at home for the signal check.) Checks tend to stack up for a few days, then get done when a tech is in the area; if we're installing someone just north of Smalltown, we add an extra hour or two onto that tech's schedule and have him do all the Smalltown-area checks while he's in the neighborhood.
This does require someone, or some software, to keep track of these things, to make sure no checks fall through the cracks, and occasionally a tech still has to take a day doing nothing but driving around doing random signal checks. It's not perfect, but it's the best we've got so far.
We still have to do a truck roll for each signal test, of course, and there are still plenty of no-go checks. This way, though, the good checks are basically guaranteed to make us some money.
David Smith MVN.net -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- WISPA Wants You! Join today! http://signup.wispa.org/ -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- WISPA Wireless List: wireless@wispa.org Subscribe/Unsubscribe: http://lists.wispa.org/mailman/listinfo/wireless Archives: http://lists.wispa.org/pipermail/wireless/
