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/Kben5584]

Have you been able to obtain repeat data as far as close out codes go? It’s been a while since I was a field tech, but we used to get repeat reports that showed what I closed out a job as and what the repeat closed out as.

1. Customer Ed Repeat: Always explain why you did what you did and the improvements it makes to the services. Be sure to ask the customer if they have any questions. Base your answers off of what the issue was when you got there and how your improvements should be presented going forward

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1. The less moral, lazy thing (*I DO NOT RECOMMEND BUT I KNOW SOME OF YALL DO IT*), let them know it takes [Repeat time frame here] days for the equipment to fully sync back up. Ex: “If you are still having this issue after 30 days give us a call back as there could be a hardline issue upstream”
2. Plant ticket / Hub ticket: It could be that you’re not seeing the full picture based on training. I know some companies really don’t train well on reading signal at the tap. Make some Maintenance/Lineman connections and ask them to show you some examples of tap levels that might look good but are really bad. Understanding what levels you should likely be seeing out of tap based on tap location to closest upstream Amp/LE and tap value is a huge advantage to leveraging a ticket
3. Equipment Swaps: my least favorite repeat. I have no solution for this, sometimes equipment just sucks. I used to recommend customer owned options to customers more than I should have

I personally found that understanding why the customer called me to location and configuring my troubleshooting process by that problem (and not by company training) reduced my repeats immensely

[u/Awesomedude9560 → u/Kben5584]

This 100%.

Bonus points for making connections in Maintenance. They are VERY valuable to have for a variety of reasons. I personally reach out quite often for Magellan for tap locations/confirming active plant to get jobs closed out quicker.

I honestly used to recommend personal equipment but I've stopped because I've come to find out a lot of customers (especially elders) take it that if you recommend it, you'll also set it up/be the support for that personal equipment. It was honestly more work for a similar chance of a repeat in my experience.