A Day in the Life of a Service Manager at RDO Equipment Co.

As you consider your next career move, I’m happy you’re considering RDO Equipment Co. as an employer. I’ve enjoyed working as a service manager in Bismarck, ND. 

Finding a career where you feel valued at work and truly enjoy what you do can be difficult. I’ve found this, in large part, as an RDO service manager here. I’m confident you can, too.

In this article, I'll break down a day in my life to give you a better understanding of what it’s like to work as a service manager at RDO. This includes my duties, some challenges I face, what I enjoy most and which skills have made me successful. 

Near the end, I’ve included some thoughts on who a service manager position is a good fit for (feel free to skip to that if you want).

What Does a Service Manager Do at RDO?

At RDO, service managers do a lot of things.

Overseeing a team of service technicians and the profitability, efficiency and safety of a service team comes with diverse responsibilities.

Among other things, as a service manager, I’m trusted to:

• Oversee the day-to-day management of eight service technicians.
• Assign jobs to service technicians according to their skills and knowledge.
• Own the management responsibility relating to hiring and performance management within my team.
• Manage the work order process.
• Follow and understand our manufacturer partner’s guidelines, processes and expectations.
• Review and approve daily team member timecards.
• Manage customer relationships by seeking feedback, anticipating problems and responding.
• Respond to team member issues and concerns.
• Review and process all repair work orders for accuracy and completeness — focusing on parts, materials and labor.
• Approve the release of equipment for delivery to the customer when ready.
• Facilitate employee meetings, including annual reviews, one-on-one meetings and quarterly Career Path Level (CPL) meetings.
• Use company tools like the Work Order Scheduler, Ewalk, Precise, DTAC, Service Advisor, Service Advisor Remote, etc.
• Handle warranty claims, including calculating charges and partnering with the Central Warranty Department on claims.
• Ensure appropriate communications throughout the store by facilitating/participating in monthly open-book meetings, conducting regular team meetings, encouraging an open-door policy and proactively seeking feedback from team members.
• Lead and manage all activities related to ensuring the customer experience is positive.

Although this is not a comprehensive list of everything I do, as a service manager, they’re my main responsibilities — and they could be yours. 

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A Typical Day as a Service Manager

One of the cool things about this job is there’s so much going on. This is a fast-paced role where no two days are exactly the same. 

On a typical day, when I first get to work, I review my tasks from the previous day. 

This includes checking emails, looking at new work orders that have come in, reviewing the status of active work orders and reviewing my team’s inspection sheets. 

From there, I like to check in with each of my technicians as they arrive.

This helps me know where they’re at with their work and how I can support them that day. I also bring up questions about any jobs I need to follow up with other stakeholders (customers, other teams, etc.). 

Once I’ve connected with my team, I will spend time at my desk, making phone calls — often to customers to keep them in the loop with their equipment.

Next, I may do any number of things. 

This includes spending time in the shop, helping my team, analyzing and signing off on work orders (making sure the time and parts listed are correct) or attending meetings with other store members. 

I am the safety lead for the service department in our store so I facilitate our monthly safety meeting. 

Each Monday, I attend a meeting with our sales department to ensure we’re aligned with their goals and to give an update from my team. 

Depending on my team’s workload, how I spend my time in a day may vary. 

For example, when we’re busy, there are often many things I need to focus on (following up with customers, communicating with other departments, analyzing work, approving work orders, etc.). 

At other times, I may have more flexibility to focus more on a set of tasks that will move the needle in one area.

As a service manager, I’m also responsible for meeting with each team member individually. Although my door is always open, each month, I have a 15-30 minute one-on-one with each of them.

In these meetings, we discuss their current workload, areas where I can help and their progress along our career path levels program. Training is also a common topic.

Related Topic: Service Technician John Deere Agriculture Training at RDO Equipment Co.

The Best Parts About Being a Service Manager at RDO

There are a lot of great things about working in this job. Leadership is a big one. If you’re interested in developing others and supporting those around you, becoming a service manager might be perfect. 

Here are three more things I enjoy about this job. . . 

1) Learning From The Technicians

RDO’s service technicians are truly the best in the business.

It’s awesome to get to work with them every day. Between the tenure my team has and the training program(s) RDO offers, our service technicians have a lot of expertise. 

Having the opportunity to learn from them is a highlight of my job. 

You can tell they’re passionate about their work simply by listening to them speak about it — this is energizing for me.

I have an auto background so I’m still learning about working on heavy machinery. Luckily, my team is more than happy to share. 

2) Meeting All of Our Customers

In Bismarck, our customers do the vital work of feeding and building the world. It’s my team’s job to support them through quality, efficient equipment service. 

Getting to know these customers when they come into the store is something I look forward to.

As a service manager, I am the primary point of contact for customers while their machinery is in the shop. 

This helps me develop ongoing connections with these customers. 

Though sometimes I have to deliver bad news, developing strong relationships with customers makes this easier.

3) Building Relationships With Colleagues

The third thing I’ll highlight here is the relationships developed with colleagues. The culture in our store is strong. Parts, sales and service team members get along great and build relationships across departments.

I like this. 

Not only does this make coming to work each day more enjoyable, but it helps to keep lines of communication clear between everyone — making us all more efficient. 

Beyond this, RDO is a big company. With more than 80 locations across 12 states, as a service manager, I get to meet all kinds of talented people around our organization.

Common Challenges Service Managers Face at RDO

Like any other position, there are some difficult things about the service manager role. Though there are always more good days than tough ones, here are three challenges you should be aware of as you consider this position. 

1) It’s Relatively High Pressure

This is an important job. There’s no way around it. With this, comes added responsibility and some pressure to do a good job. This pressure shows up from number of sources, but the root cause is that the work matters. 

In the heavy equipment world, there’s a lot of money at stake — particularly compared to the automotive industry I came from. 

Repairs can add up quickly and the cost of a repair on the machinery we work with is far higher than I had previously experienced. 

All this means is that as a service manager, you need to be on top of your game. If you’re not, you can fall behind quickly. 

2) It’s a Fast-Paced Role

The second challenge you should note is the pace of life in this job. There are constantly a lot of moving pieces, from the sales team looking for answers to a technician requesting help to a pile of 30-segment work orders, there’s a lot going on. 

This is why organizational skills are so important for a service manager.

3) Staying on Top of Communication

This one kind of ties into the fast pace of the work. In this type of environment, I’ve found it can be challenging to stay on top of communication. 

To run a successful, safe and productive service team, you need to be proactive in your communication — with colleagues, customers and your direct reports. 

Service managers are the point person for most communication to and from their team, keeping up with everything can be difficult at times. 

Who is the Service Manager Role a Good Fit For?

It’s difficult to pinpoint exactly who should and should not apply for this type of role. 

However, here are some insights I’ve developed after more than three years on the job. 

First, you absolutely need to be organized. Without systems in place and the ability to compartmentalize tasks, you’ll have trouble staying on top of everything. 

Next, interpersonal skills are important. On any given day, you communicate with other people up to 70 percent of the time, so good people skills are crucial.

This includes having thick skin. 

In this position, there are times when you have to deal with conflict. If this is something you wouldn’t like, it might not be the role for you. 

Finally, it’s good for a service manager to come into the role with some kind of mechanical background. As I mentioned, I joined RDO after years as an automotive technician. 

Having this background — even if it’s not fixing heavy construction or agriculture machinery — is beneficial as it helps you speak the language with technicians, customers and other stakeholders. So if you’re currently a mechanic, looking for the next step in your career, consider a service manager position. 

Learn More About RDO Management Careers

Finding a career that fills your cup each day can be difficult. The service manager role at RDO has been a great fit for me. In this position, I get to lean into my passion for helping others, building relationships and creating value for customers. I have also developed professionally over my time in this role. 

Now that you understand what a day looks like as a service manager, do you think it could be the right fit for you? 

Your next step is to learn more about management careers at RDO by watching this video:

Once you’re ready, find an opening in your area here. 

If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to reach out to the RDO careers team for more information.