The home heating oil industry has a long and proud history, and Fuel Oil News has been there supporting it since 1935. It is an industry that has faced many challenges during that time. In its 77th year, Fuel Oil News is doing more than just holding
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36 MAY 2014 | FUEL OIL NEWS | www.fueloilnews.com By Keith Reid A Full-Service Manager FON Discusses with Paul Cuprewich What It Takes to Successfully Manage a Service Department in Today's Industry HVAC/ HYDRONICS B eing an excellent service manager requires a full tool- box where the professional skillset is concerned. First, there is the technical expertise. A service manager has to be able to work with the technicians to solve problems, and he or she has to have the professional respect of those technicians. Then there is the management compo- nent. A successful service manager has to lead the department administratively with the required organizing and paperwork, but at the same time manger personal relationships from the ownership to the technicians to ensure maximum efficiency and success. To get a handle on what it takes to be a successful service manager, Fuel Oil News inter- viewed Paul Cuprewich, the service manager for Woolley Fuel, Maplewood, N.J. Cuprewich picked up his trade in high school, where a twist of fate ensured that his talents served our industry. He was originally supposed to go into a carpentry class but that was full, so he was shifted to an HVAC class. He then went on to a work program as a senior where he did one half day of work and one half day at school and began working in the trades in 1980. Cuprewich serves as a mentor today; however, he was fortu- nate to have his own mentor early on — a German-American supervisor named Hans who taught him everything from driving the oil truck to doing sheet-metal, service, pipework and electrical. In 1986 Woolly Fuel bought out the company he was work- ing for and Cuprewich became one of the two lead technicians. In 1997 Hans retired and he became service manager. Cuprewich, along with FON columnist Charlie Bursey, was a co-recipient of the National Association of Oil and Energy Service Professionals' prestigious Hugh McKee Award on May 29, 2013. The recipients are honored for making an outstanding contribu- tion to the fuel oil industry; having had an understanding and cooperation with his/her fellowman; and having unselfishly aided the industry in education and related activities. FON: What has changed the most since you started out in 1980? Cuprewich: The basics with oil heat are pretty much the same, but the components have changed to where you have higher efficiency equipment and the industry is becoming much more technical. Now, education is that much more important in order to keep up with the change and controls and with everything else that is out there. Even motors, where they've come out with the ECM technology. High efficiency has forced this, which is a good thing, but in turn it has forced us to really do a lot more education. When I first started in the business I don't think it was as important. Things were kind of stagnant — we really weren't moving ahead. FON: As important as education is for the technician, how important is it to continue that education for the service manag- ers who are supervising them? Cuprewich: Truthfully, I think education is the most important part of your job for both the service manager and the technician. If my technician has a problem he calls me up, and I'm trying to diagnose a service call on the phone be it electrical or something else. Education is such a great part of that for me, because otherwise I couldn't even communicate over the phone with the technician on that issue. In the same way, the technician going to classes and being introduced to all of the opportunities and knowledge out there for our industry helps them solve these problems a lot quicker and understand what they are doing. FON: An aspect of service management is, of course, manag- ing people. How do you motivate a good technician to become a great technician? Cuprewich: That's a good one. Really, it probably starts out being a psychological thing. The majority of my techs — maybe the newest guys have been here 6 to 8 years — and I have guys who have been here for actually longer than me. We've been working together all this time, and now I just happened to be the service manager. The key is understanding them, understanding what they can do and just knowing enough to motivate them. I came from where they were, so it's not like I was just a manager from an outside company coming in and just trying to force the numbers to be good. I'm actually part of their team, and I think they trust me and that gives them the motivation. Paul Cuprewich