When you’re crewing an upcoming project, your go-to AV techs may not always be available. That means contracting someone new and taking a chance on them without knowing their equipment experience, personality, and abilities.

Technician Profile Cards in Mertzcrew offer an overview of the technician along with other pertinent information to help you book exactly the right tech for your project needs. You can search by roles, certifications, skills, and view star ratings and notes to help you decide which qualified AV technicians are perfect for your next project. 

What is a Contractor Profile in Mertzcrew?

A Contractor Profile in Mertzcrew is a snapshot of a contractor, including which roles they can fill and what skills they have. Here’s what you can expect to find in a technician’s profile.

Roles

The most important element of a Contractor Profile is the section where contractors indicate which roles they can fill. Next to each role, you’ll see a number that indicates how many times the technician has been contracted for that role in Mertzcrew.

AV companies can search by Roles to find the technicians they need and view the technician’s history and work experience. Clients can create online assessments to evaluate candidates for a role. Once they’ve passed the assessment, the tech will have a “Certified Role” on their profile so you know who has the ability to meet your company’s standards.

Ratings

Ratings appear as yellow stars on a technician’s profile. You can rate an AV tech after a project has been completed, using a scale of one to five stars:

• 5 stars: Rockstar status. The contractor went above and beyond what was expected of them and performed all AV technician duties with excellence.
• 4 stars: The contractor provided “A” work and did exactly what was asked of them.
• 3 stars and below: Our support team gets an automated email that the contractor did not meet the client’s expectations. We’ll follow up with the client to get more information about how their experience could have been better.

The contractor will never see the ratings you give them. Star ratings help clients find the most qualified candidate for every role.

Skills

The Skills section of a Contractor Profile is where the contractor can define their expertise and abilities with specific equipment. 

If the tech has a certification for certain gear, you’ll see a medallion next to the skill and can click it to download the certification. AV industry clients can also filter contractors by specific skills using the Availability modal.

Tagging

Tagging is one of our newest features. It allows project management teams to organize and search technicians using custom criteria.

Anything that’s tagged to a tech profile is searchable from the “Search” box on the crew page. Best of all, you can also use these filters to identify employee technicians, not just contractors.

Contact Info

A contractor's contact info is also available from their profile. Available info includes:

• Phone number
• Email address
• City and state
• Closest big city

You can simply click on the email icon to open your email app with the contractor’s address already filled in.

Background Check

Some venues and clients require background checks for all contractors.

A green checkmark on a profile indicates that a background check has been completed. If a contractor doesn’t have a green checkmark, you can request a background check by emailing us at support@mertzcrew.com. Screenings may take up to 14 days to complete and are valid for two years.

Social Media Links

One of the newest features in Mertzcrew! It’s common today for AV techs to use their social media profiles as their portfolio to showcase their past work. Contractors have the option to link their social media profiles on Mertzcrew.

Simply click the globe, LinkedIn, Facebook, or Instagram icons to be redirected to the linked profiles. 

Notes

The notes section is where clients can enter notes about a technician. Like the ratings, these are not visible to the contractors but may be useful for general information for clients and their retrospective field offices.Notes may include anything from information on a technician’s work habits and attitude to details about their skills with equipment.

Resume

Contractors have the option to upload a resume onto their Mertzcrew profile. If you’re viewing a profile and see a resume link, simply click it to download the resume to your device.

This feature is particularly useful if a contractor has limited project history within Mertzcrew.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do role history and certifications help in selecting the right technician for a project?

When you’ve worked with a technician on a previous project, you know what you’re getting when you contract with them a second or third time. That’s not the case if you’re in a position where you’re contracting with someone for the first time, whether that’s due to availability or location.

With Technician Profiles on Mertzcrew, you can filter technicians based on their skills, view their equipment certifications, and use that information to decide who to contract. There’s no guesswork involved because you can see which contractors have the skills that match your project's needs.

Why are ratings important, and how do they influence the decision-making process?

Ratings may be subjective, but that doesn’t mean they’re not useful. AV companies have the option to rate the technicians who’ve worked on their projects on a scale of one to five stars. These ratings are a useful tool for any scheduler who’s evaluating multiple technicians for a role.

 It’s especially helpful to use star ratings in combination with Notes to get details about the technician and what it’s like to work with them.

How can skills be used to filter and select the best contractor?

Every live event has its own special requirements when it comes to technicians, equipment, and skills. With Mertzcrew, it’s easy to use the filtering option to find AV techs who have the exact skills, experience, and certifications you need for your next project.

Entering skills in their profile allows technicians to highlight their expertise and abilities, particularly when it comes to their experience working with specific equipment. Using filters can help you identify, contact, and contract the best fit for each position on your crew.

What is the significance of the new tagging feature and how does it improve the searchability of technicians?

Tagging technicians in Mertzcrew is our way of simplifying the search process for live event companies who need crew members for their next project.

With tags, you can expedite the search process. You can tag employee technicians, too, which means there’s no repetition of effort. You can quickly filter technicians according to custom criteria and find exactly the right people when you need them.  You can create your own custom tags (“corporate-ready”, “Lead-potential”, etc) or we can help you with best practices.

How do contractor profiles benefit schedulers?

Schedulers benefit from Contractor Profiles in a variety of ways. For example:

• Search by roles to narrow the pool of available techs by qualification, project experience, or equipment experience
• Avoid technical issues that may arise if your contracted techs don’t have the skills you need to create an AV installation or run an event
• Find all the information you need about AV techs in one place

In other words, Mertzcrew removes the guesswork from crewing your next project, making it simple to find AV techs with precisely the project experience and skills you need to create live events your clients will love.

Why should AV production companies consider Mertzcrew as their go-to crew management software?

Contracting with the right people for any project can be a challenge, particularly when it’s a large event in a city you’re not familiar with. Mertzcrew is the only crew management software that puts everything at your fingertips, including:

• A list of vetted AV freelancers
• Technician profiles to help you search for AV techs with precisely the skills, experience, and
  certifications you need for a successful event
• Compliant contracts
• Streamlined communication with freelancers
• W-9 collection and 1099 distribution
• Crew insurance acquisition and tracking

We’re here to make your job easier, and we’re always adding new features to streamline everything from finding freelancers to creating contracts to communication during events and paying freelancers on time.

Crew Scheduling Has Never Been Easier

The bottom line is that you need the right tools to identify and contract with the best AV technicians in the business. Mertzcrew is the only crew management software that puts all the relevant information you need in one place, thanks to Contractor Profiles. Get answers to questions about Contractor Profiles at our Help Desk.

Are you ready to use Contractor Profiles to crew your next project? Contact us today!