How would you rate your efficiency?

[JosephLeo]

So I'm going to challenge myself this Monday. I've been planning this for 1 week now and I've managed to book 4 In-Home virus removals for Monday.

I'm going to do this as a benchmark for my efficiency. The homes are all in different towns each about 15 miles away from each other. Fort Lauderdale is my first appointment, then there are 2 in Pompano Beach and finally one in Lauderhill.

I will arrive by the first house by 10:00 AM and then start my timer. I will tell you guys how it goes- but I want to know something more...What would you rate your guys efficiency at and do you think my efficiency is good enough (if I can do all 4)

 

[ProTech Support]

You are planning to do 4 full on-site virus removals in one day at 4 different locations.....good luck with that one, be ready for a long day!

If it was me, I would be far more efficient by scheduling to pick up all 4 computers in the morning, taking them to the lab and multi-tasking with the virus removal. With your method, your wasting your time (no offense )

The problem is, you really never know what to expect. You could have one computer that throws off your whole day. At least in the shop, if you have a "problem child" you can work on it while still working on the others. In the field, you are sitting fighting with the "problem child" while the others just wait.

 

[JosephLeo]

You are planning to do 4 full on-site virus removals in one day at 4 different locations.....good luck with that one, be ready for a long day!

If it was me, I would be far more efficient by scheduling to pick up all 4 computers in the morning, taking them to the lab and multi-tasking with the virus removal. With your method, your wasting your time (no offense )

The problem is, you really never know what to expect. You could have one computer that throws off your whole day. At least in the shop, if you have a "problem child" you can work on it while still working on the others. In the field, you are sitting fighting with the "problem child" while the others just wait.

This is true- but I need to do this so I can know my physical limits. Normally I would just take a customers computer in for service if I had more than 2 appointments in one day. But this is literally just for benchmarking my skill and ability to handle work.

 

[ProTech Support]

This is true- but I need to do this so I can know my physical limits. Normally I would just take a customers computer in for service if I had more than 2 appointments in one day. But this is literally just for benchmarking my skill and ability to handle work.

I think it will be hard to measure that based on one day. Like I said before, you never know what you are going to run into. You may have a day where there are just light malware infections on all 4 computers, making your day quick and easy. On the other hand you might have 4 computers with rootkits and other nasties.

Truth of the matter is, no matter what happens Monday it is far more efficient to take them back to the lab.

 

[NickCat11]

Let us know how this one turns out Joe. Like ProTech said I think you're in for a long day unless you get off easy with light malware. If it were me, I'd be bringing them back to my shop as well.

 

[ComputerClinic]

That should be an interesting day. I've actually been trying to do as much work on-site as I can, because I feel that I make more money that way. I don't know about you guys but when I bring a computer back home I end up billing for less time than it actually took me, and I go overboard making everything perfect. When I'm on-site I bill the full time and usually develop a better relationship with the client (meaning repeat work and referrals).

I changed my malware removal to a flat rate because after mastering UBCD for removing malware, I have yet to find an infection that has taken over 2 hours to remove.

 

[NickCat11]

I don't know about you guys but when I bring a computer back home I end up billing for less time than it actually took me, and I go overboard making everything perfect.

This is one of the main reasons I do mostly in-shop repairs. I want to make sure their computer is perfect when I'm finished. When I do on-site repair (very rare) I always feel rushed or that I may have missed something. It's probably more paranoia than anything but it still bugs me.

 

[iisjman07]

I reckon 3 of those 4 malware removals will be fake antivirus removals, as they seem to be the most infected thing I see nowadays. As said previously, you will probably run into rootkits, so make sure you've got the latest software to help remove them.

 

[ProTech Support]

This is one of the main reasons I do mostly in-shop repairs. I want to make sure their computer is perfect when I'm finished. When I do on-site repair (very rare) I always feel rushed or that I may have missed something. It's probably more paranoia than anything but it still bugs me.

I am the same way. Although I don't mind the pressure, there is always a sense of urgency when on site. In the shop I can take my time and thoroughly inspect/clean the computer.

 

[Wheelie]

So I'm going to challenge myself this Monday. I've been planning this for 1 week now and I've managed to book 4 In-Home virus removals for Monday.

I'm going to do this as a benchmark for my efficiency. The homes are all in different towns each about 15 miles away from each other. Fort Lauderdale is my first appointment, then there are 2 in Pompano Beach and finally one in Lauderhill.

I will arrive by the first house by 10:00 AM and then start my timer. I will tell you guys how it goes- but I want to know something more...What would you rate your guys efficiency at and do you think my efficiency is good enough (if I can do all 4)

Welcome to my world .... but not at their home. In the shop only. Sit around in jammies all day I can crank out 5 or 6 PC's at about $175 avg invoice. When you get really good you'll convince them to drop them off and pick them up and you don't even have to change when it's bed time!

 

[Mushin]

Welcome to my world .... but not at their home. In the shop only. Sit around in jammies all day I can crank out 5 or 6 PC's at about $175 avg invoice. When you get really good you'll convince them to drop them off and pick them up and you don't even have to change when it's bed time!

Our average service fee is sitting at $150 and we are working to push it to $157.... Do bill by the hour or flat rate?

 

[Wheelie]

In the field I bill hourly. In the shop I "try" to flat rate. But I always give huge caveats about what happens if I encounter problems bla bla bla and how it might go up if that happens. But most of the time I manage to keep it at my quoted price. That's important to me. But I can tell you if it turns into a wrestling match I call the customer and let them know exactly what I'm faced with (and what their bill's gonna look like). That's also the point where they squirm and say: "hell I can get a new PC for $xxx!" and I say perfect! I have some brand new Dells in factory sealed boxes for that price. I keep a selection of good, better, best PC's just for those situations. I like to make sure I can capture their businmess no matter what happens.

 

[NickCat11]

I have some brand new Dells in factory sealed boxes for that price. I keep a selection of good, better, best PC's just for those situations. I like to make sure I can capture their businmess no matter what happens.

Interesting. How many PC's do you keep in stock at one time? Do you carry any over from year to year or do you go through them at a pretty good rate?

 

[Wheelie]

I buy 8 to 10 at a time. I do about that many a month (plus or minus).

 

[msherman]

In the field I bill hourly. In the shop I "try" to flat rate. But I always give huge caveats about what happens if I encounter problems bla bla bla and how it might go up if that happens. But most of the time I manage to keep it at my quoted price. That's important to me. But I can tell you if it turns into a wrestling match I call the customer and let them know exactly what I'm faced with (and what their bill's gonna look like). That's also the point where they squirm and say: "hell I can get a new PC for $xxx!" and I say perfect! I have some brand new Dells in factory sealed boxes for that price. I keep a selection of good, better, best PC's just for those situations. I like to make sure I can capture their businmess no matter what happens.

ha! Thats a good idea!

 

[Iconic]

So I'm going to challenge myself this Monday. I've been planning this for 1 week now and I've managed to book 4 In-Home virus removals for Monday.

I'm going to do this as a benchmark for my efficiency. The homes are all in different towns each about 15 miles away from each other. Fort Lauderdale is my first appointment, then there are 2 in Pompano Beach and finally one in Lauderhill.

I will arrive by the first house by 10:00 AM and then start my timer. I will tell you guys how it goes- but I want to know something more...What would you rate your guys efficiency at and do you think my efficiency is good enough (if I can do all 4)

Keep us up to date on this one. I have only ever booked 3 in a day allowing for 1/2 hour for travel between sites. Depending on the level of infection I could be early or late for the third appointment. It always varies. I believe I could do 4 but have not had that many customers calling around the same time in many months.

 

[JosephLeo]

Despite my heavy schedule today I actually found some free time between customers. So here is my progress so far.

Customer 1 - Fort Lauderdale
Left at 10:05 got there at 10:10. Turns out he was only around the corner from me. His computer was infected with a couple minor viruses that were just slowing down his computer to the point that it was unuseable but nothing too hard to remove. Popped out the hard drive and put it into my netbook via external enclosure manually removed most of the viruses and then had to scan for the rest. Popped it back into his computer and lucky me it was all gone. I wrote some basic upgrade recommendations like I do for all my customers and left at 11:49.

Break
Went to Publix supermarket for a sandwich, chips and soda. Ate in my car and got out of there by 12:20.

Customer 2 - Pompano Beach 1
Got there by 12:46. This guy didn't have much wrong with his computer. Didn't even need to take out the hard drive. Plugged in my SD to USB adapter with write mode disabled, removed the virus, wrote some upgrade recommendations and was finished by 1:20. The guy gave me a little hassle about the price ($129.99) so I gave him my "First time customer discount" which I made up on the spot and took $20 off. He was more than happy to pay once he figured he "got one over me"...so after that little hustle I was out by 1:35.

Customer 3 - Pompano Beach 2
He was on the other side of Pompano Beach (not too big though) so I got there by 1:50. This guy had some REALLY tough stuff in his computer. Did some manual removal and a scan- no good. disabled all startup items via Autoruns no good. I suspected the hard drive was infected so I did a manual backup of all files, reformatted it and moved the files back...still no good. It turns out the guy had a virus in his freaking BIOS! So I did a BIOS flash and wouldn't you know it...the virus was gone! Although- it took me until 4:05 to get out of there. However, this guy really loved the fact that I went to so many extents to get rid of everything. He said he was a tech-guy too and used to work for Geek Squad and never knew that viruses can physically infect a hard drive- let alone the BIOS. (lol). He gave me a $20 tip- so I made my money back that I lost from the previous customer

Now
Now I'm at home waiting for my next appointment. I booked her for 5:30 since I figured that's when I would have been done. But my second customer had a rather easy problem so I got some extra time to kill. So I fixed myself some Eggs & Potatoes w/ Bacon and had some...Linner? (Lunch for Dinner). Although now that means I'm either going to eat 4 times today- or just have to skip out on Dinner



Keep rooting for me guys- I have a suspicion that this next customer is going to be a very tough case. She keeps saying "Blue screens" and "My son tried to remove..."
It was originally a virus removal, but now it looks like it's going to be a hardware repair. (I'm going to have to bring some spare parts with me...sucks that I don't have any spare hard drives lying around though.)

 

[NickCat11]

Sounds like you've been pretty efficient so far. Let us know how the last customer goes. Good Luck!

 

[JosephLeo]

Thanks Nick. Okay, well here is the story about my final customer of the day.

I got there and what I found was a disaster. The customer said that it started with a warning message that said "Your computer is infected" and it wanted her to buy something to remove it. Her son being the tech of the household was told to remove the virus and in turn made the computer BSOD on boot. So the case was screaming "Kid removed registry entries" to me.

In this case I did in fact have to take out the hard drive just to see if there was in fact any data on the hard drive. Luckily it was all there. I informed the customer that as a precaution she might want me to backup all the files in the hard drive just in case the problem is a little too deep. This was one the the few cases that I wasn't confident in fixing the problem- I hate BSOD's with a passion and they hate me just as much.

So she gave me the go-ahead with the temporary data backup- A nice extra $30 for all my gas and lunch and I was off to try and fix the problem. I knew at this point I can do a N&P but I chose not to since she was my last customer of the day- plus I did say that I was going to challenge myself today.

Before I put the hard drive back in the case I did a little manual virus removal then I put it back in the case, connected it and popped in Dr.Web and ran some basic virus scanning which removed most of the other stuff. Now that this was out of the way I managed to get the system to boot into Safe Mode but not standard mode.

I tried an MBAM, SuperAntispyware scan, Autoruns and Hijack this and couldn't find anything else in the system. I knew there was no BIOS virus or hard drive virus so I thought maybe it was some missing core files. Did a check- and nothing.

After some googling the obvious pointed itself to me. The kid when he attempted to remove the virus removed a driver file and delete the WinSXS folder thinking that it was too suspicious looking (He admitted this later).

I didn't know how to replace the WinSXS folder so I just did a N&P afterward and installed all their drivers and hardware again. Luckily they had all their software disk as well for their older software. (Microsoft Office, AutoCAD and TurboTax) so I installed those free for them.

I did some final virus testing on their old backed up data and then sent it back in there PC and got my days pay from them. They certainly got their $129.99 + $30 out of me, that's for sure...I was there for a whopping 5 HOURS!!!

I told the kid to stay out of the windows directory and to try joining some forums (not this one of course) if he wanted to learn more about how to fix computers. I directed him to BleepingComputer and he was exstatic.

All in all- it was an AWESOME day today. I have no work for the rest of the week though- so now I have a lot of free time on my hands. I might try advertising my company as best I can in the neighborhood and then do a little long overdue shopping- but I am just glad I finally benchmarked myself...never again will I do 4 in-home jobs in one day...UNLESS I charge by the hour after 6:00


OH AND HELP: Anyone know how I can restore a WinSXS folder? These things are different on every windows computer and I had NO CLUE how to fix it in the first place. On my computer they range from 3GB to 20GB so I know it's probably not easy...any advice?

 

[ComputerClinic]

Not bad for a days work. Do you always stay on-site when it takes that long? If I feel that a job might take 3 or more hours to finish I will take it home.