Stephen is a service engineer at BIB Ophthalmic Instruments. Read on to find out about a day in his working life.
Every day is different, depending on whether I am in the office or out visiting customers. On an office day I answer service phone calls, offer advice, provide technical solutions and product user advice and respond to email enquiries. I also book jobs for customer site visits across the UK. Journey planning plays a big part for me.
On a different day I might carry out in house workshop repairs or provide remote support for customers. I also liaise with manufacturing partners regarding general service matters. Other days I could be anywhere in the country installing or repairing equipment onsite. All in all a very varied role. Every day is challenging and I always learn something.
What do you start with every day?
An office day generally starts with a good cup of tea and sorting through emails. Most manufacturers we deal with are in different time zones so my queries and support questions generally get responded to overnight.
If I am on the road then it’ll normally be heated seat on, podcasts on, satnav set, grab a coffee and drive until I arrive.
What do you love about your job?
I love being on the road, visiting customers to solve their problems and seeing the country. We travel across the UK and Ireland to carry out work. Generally the whole job variety is what I love, along with providing a high level of service and exceeding customers’ expectations.
Customer greatly appreciate our assistance, both in words and in testimonials which gives me a great sense of achievement and keeps the boss happy!
What are the challenges?
Time is the biggest challenge, especially from the customer’s point of view. If a vital piece of equipment has broken down, this could mean no testing for them so getting them back up and running as fast as possible is very important. My challenge is to find a solution either by attending their site or sending parts.
Expect the unexpected!
Finding the unexpected once you arrive at a customer’s site happens all too often. Customers do their best to provide the most accurate information that they can about a problem but often the problem is different or worse. I go to every job expecting the unexpected, with additional spare parts, cables and general electrical spares/bulbs etc. I can arrange a follow up with another site visit but this leads to more down time delays for the customer and costs to the company from re-visits so getting it right in the first time is the challenge.
What do you do to wrap up the day and prepare for the next one?
Generally when in the office I will tidy my work area, ensure all customers I have spoken to that day are kept informed of service progress as well as updating the CRM. I check any equipment/PCs I have been working with that day are shut down. I then forward plan and prepare for the following day, be it a customer site visit, or working from the office.
