I’m not going to bore you with how hard it is to find people out there with 12 million open jobs and an unemployment rate of 3.9 percent.

Instead, here are some practical recruitment strategies for you to employ…

Think about it: If a friend recommends a product or new restaurant to you, you’d probably be inclined to try it, right?

I’ve been writing a lot about how efficiency and profits go hand in hand; that efficiency in a service department is measured by the average number of technician hours billed each day, also often referred to as first call completes.

Hourly pay is a typical remuneration model in the appliance repair industry. It is also an inefficient model that lacks incentive for technicians to work efficiently.

Are you charging what your service is worth?

is also fiscal year-end.  If your financial year-end is Dec. 31, then you will be combining calendar year-end functions with fiscal year-end routines, but they really should be thought of independently.

Unfortunately, there are lots of dealers whose service departments aren’t profitable

There are hundreds of stocking locations and thousands of service companies with parts available when you need them. The question is, how much time do you spend looking for these parts before it is no longer cost effective? 

A service department’s efficiency is measured by how many technician hours each day can be charged to a customer or manufacturer — aka first call completes.

Employers often ask us where they can find the going pay rates for various jobs.

How many times have you interviewed someone in person and realized in the first five minutes that the candidate was a no-go dud? And then spent the next half hour trying to excuse yourself from the interview?

By Rich Lindblom, YSN As a dealer whose service side of the business generated nearly 50 percent of our annual

Are you looking for ways to increase the profitability of your company? Who isn’t?

So let’s look at the options: Lower your costs, raise prices or improve efficiency. Which of those do you have the most control over?

Are your service operation profits not where you want them to be? Do you have a hunch that your service department could use some attention, but you’re still buried by increased sales and worried about inventories of products to sell?

Years ago, manufacturers would conduct training sessions in local cities around the country. Your technicians could attend for free and get the latest model training and repair tips on problem units in the field.

We’ve all been there: You want to find a restaurant in a part of town you haven’t explored before.

Where do you start? Google, of course, which may lead you to Yelp or another online review site. You’ll probably search for the type of food you’re considering, then read through a few user comments and see how many stars a particular place has received to help with your decision.

Three months ago, BrandSource Power Dealer Joe Heslin did the unthinkable: He raised his company’s service rates.

It was a calculated risk.

Troubleshooting electric circuits is the single most common skill missing from appliance techs today. It is also the single most profitable skill, even more than sealed system repair, because it is needed on many more service calls.

While service is not impossible to operate without measuring performance, I will bet it’s draining margins from the sales side of a dealership. Appliance service departments are often looked at as a cost of doing business. This cannot be further from the truth.

A service business purchases man-hours from technicians for the purpose of solving a customer’s problems. Whether in warranty or not, the goal is to accomplish this by repairing a household of a malfunctioning appliance. In doing so, efficiency is defined by our ability to charge for as many of those purchased man-hours as is possible.