CharlieM hit it on the head! As a former Field engineer for an equipment OEM and now for my own business, the first thing you will hear when you walk on to the factory floor is how bad the last guy was if he didn't do a good job. What most engineers or there managers don't understand is that their mission while on site is two fold; first is to fix the machine in a professional manor maintaining the original quality of the equipment and second is to fix the client, if needed. You need to understand your client and what drives them. By understanding their true needs the field engineer can build a relationship with the client that benefits both parties. A client needs to know you have his back and that when things happen, like the engineer can't be there tomorrow, that there is a plan in place to get their equipment back up an running ASAP. Parts is the other main issue of course. For example, if you're based in North America and the parts are in China with no regional stock, this is bad! Letting your client know about critical spares and potential lead times is important. Better to be honest then have an angry end user; one wrong can undo a 100 rights! And I definitely agree with what Frazzled said, Be on time with the tools to do the job. Things will happen, travel delays, TSA dumped my tool box and now "X" is missing and sometimes the scope of work changes. The key is communicate with client, don't be afraid to provide information, not the "sky is falling" but let them know what's going on, before, during and after the service. Remember the person you are interfacing with has a boss that wants to know, so good communication is paramount. I would also like to add in that there are many top field engineers that saw the light broke off from the mother ship and started their own services businesses. You don't always have to use the OEM, outside of warranty issues. A lot of times this equates to better service at better rates as the secondary provider has a greater vested interest in the final result! Knowing good secondary providers gives the equipment owner another option or maybe the only option with legacy and obsolete platforms. Great service will extend the life of any piece of equipment.
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