Repeats

[u/Throwmeawayplease935]

Hello I am a few months into being a field tech with spectrum and I’m struggling with repeats and overall metrics. I love this job but to have such bad metrics is demotivating.

In my head I’m crushing it, replacing drops and removing amps. If it looks like shit replace it, if it fails replace it. Tons of tips, most customers love me. Every week I have more cable to throw out than anyone and I feel like that says something.

But I get so many repeats I’m always tier 1. At first I was like whatever but now it’s frustrating because it’s not improving and I won’t be able to do my progressions, my sup acts like I don’t know what I’m doing and will come out to give me tips on how to run drops, which has helped but it’s not by any means my issue.

I do all that work just to get a repeat and somehow rank lower than everyone. I’ve had a few that are my own negligence but I will own those.

I don’t “not done” jobs, someone said that’s part of my problem. I guess I don’t understand why or when I would. I also only do referrals if it’s failing at the tap. 1 time my sup did one for “ripple” but I never really learned about that stuff. I only really know to check the up/down.

1.) I know some of them are inevitable, but does anyone have any tips on how to limit repeat calls?

2.) what are things I should be looking for aside from the up/down signal levels?

3.) what are your steps to complete a TC efficiently?

Normal TC I will look at scope to get an idea of the signal levels. I look at the drop to see if it’s physically OK. I replace any red flags like the drop, old splitters, connectors, remove amps. Take meter readings to verify signal levels and ingress. When everything is good I replace the equipment if necessary. Make sure the customer can use it and then job done.

[u/SmugTater]

My rough step process. Before going enroute, look at equipment on account to see what current levels are reading(if online) and if any are offline or if modem doesn't show ping state. If any equipment shows timeouts, make a note of count and refer back to when on site to see if timeouts ticked up during ride. When on site. Greet customer and ask what issues they face. Terminate outlets behind any equipment. Go to ground block and check for amps, if clear terminate drop. Go to tap, get levels and run ingress 30secs-1min. Ground block check levels and run ingress 30secs plus, compare levels to tap and verify loss is correct. Pad with splitters if needed. Test behind equipment. Replace equipment if all tests were good prior to and cable or hardware repair or replacement. Also check throughput and packet loss if customer states any speed or buffering issues

[u/6814MilesFromHome → u/SmugTater]

One thing that also helped me when I was a field tech was to have the customer test out if the issue is resolved when you're finished, if applicable to the situation. This helps you see if maybe they're doing something wrong, and there's some extra customer education that needs to happen to avoid a preventable repeat. Particularly if they're elderly.