John has been with Pirtek for 19 years after moving from a career in manufacturing. John already knew of Pirtek as he was friends with a franchisee, and this opened his thinking up to the opportunity of switching career and working as a Pirtek Hydraulics Service Technician.
He really enjoys the freedom and responsibility the job offers. “Yes, we have structure to what we do, yes we have the standard working hours during which we are required to be available, but in that time we are able to organise our jobs, develop relationships with our own customers and plan our weeks,” comments John.
A typical day starts at 8:00am. “Usually, I have a job arranged for first thing in the morning but if this isn’t the case, I spend some time calling my customers, both old and new, to see if there is anything that they need from me. I try to pick an area and call all my contacts nearby; this way, if a job needs doing, I can get to them quickly. But because of the nature of our job, 75% of the work is breakdown related and therefore unplanned, meaning that my day can very quickly get turned on its head.”
All the administration is done on site at the time of the job being completed, cutting down on the time needed to do the paperwork at the end of his working day.
“The variety is my favourite part of the job and the days fly by quickly. We get a huge amount of support and back up from the service center I’m based at, in Waterford. We have a great team behind us to enable us to provide the very best level of support to our customers. As we are paid commission on top of our salary, the better the service we provide the higher our opportunity to earn.”
John has worked on some really interesting jobs during his time with Pirtek. One of the most memorable was fixing the hydraulics on the crane that offloads lifeboats from the Irish Ferries ships. John had to attend the Rosslare Port and meet the ferry when it arrived; he then had a two-hour window of opportunity to fix the crane before the ferry set off again. It was crucial that the machinery was fixed whilst the ferry was in port: for obvious health and safety reasons, a ship cannot carry passengers and crews safely if the lifeboats are out of order. I managed to fix the crane with five minutes to spare, a really satisfying job and a very happy customer.”
John is an incredible source of knowledge and advice for anyone who is considering a career with Pirtek. “The key with everything I do is about getting it right first time. This keeps the customer happy and encourages recommendations to other businesses. You cannot underestimate the power of positive word of mouth in our business.”
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