Play Meter

important to me when I'm hiring somebody-atti-
tude, aptitude, and responsibility. If they have the
aptitude for electronics, and they're hard workers
with the right kind of attitude toward work, and
they're responsible people you can rely on, you can
train them . And there are people who will help
you- there are manufacturers that will give you a
hand . Very often when you go into the same field to
hire someone, you find people who are set in their
ways.
PLAY METER: Do you try to keep a certain ratio
of servicemen to machines?
MENDELSOHN: We have a different way of doing
it. Our servicemen are almost like individual
contractors. Over the years of breaking down our
costs, we have come to a specific amount that we
use to pay a mechanic, fifteen dollars per machine
per month. That includes the service of the
machines, the use of their own vehicles, and they do
their own collections on their games. We've
developed certain areas and have the mechanics
based in those areas; so the mechanics can live in
the areas where their machines are. At this time,
our average mechanic has about seventy ma-
chines, but I believe that a good mechanic, when
he's fully trained, can have anywhere from 100 to
125 machines. With this, we find that the person
develops a certain pride in his own machines.
c. A. Robinson
"Fasest
Service
in the
West"
e.1. RobiNon & Co.
2301 W
t Pi
PLAY METER: You mentioned earlier that you're
trying to educate your servicemen in the logic end
of the machines. How do you plan to accomplish
this?
MENDELSOHN: We have classes for all our
technicians here at the shop once a month. A step
up from that, we send the people down to the
distributors to learn about specific machines. And a
step up from that is occasionally a distributor will
set up a manufacturer, like Atari, to go in there and
train us. As far as service schools, all our
servicemen are required to go to the seminars that
are put on by the different manufacturers because
some of these are very helpful. But there is quite a
need for more service schools in this area. To the
average operator, there really isn't enough
available today.
PLAY METER: Could YOU tell us some more about
the monthly schools you have at your own shop?
MENDELSOHN: Our school is usually conducted
either by my vice president of operations, Greg
Stevens, or my service manager, Mike Watts. One
or both of them will give the class, or they will
choose one of the service technicians who is really
qualified in an area that they feel the people should
learn. So we all learn from one another because we
all have different aptitudes. And besides, it's just a
good idea to get everybody together once a month
like this because it creates unity in the company.
Some of our areas are so far away that you can lose
track of who you work for. Now one of the things
we go over each month at these classes is all the
different modifications that we have come up with
on our own, because with all the units that run
through our shops, we are always finding things
PLAY METER, July, 1978
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WARS
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