Oh No! My Service Manager Just Quit!

Losing key people in your business is always difficult. It could be a senior Technician, a Service Manager, or an important Office Staff Member. They may leave your business for any number of reasons. Many of those reasons you believe you do not have any control over and so you just to “buck it up”. Here is a partial list of reasons employees leave our type of businesses:

·        Moving out of the area  

·        Family issue such as divorce, new baby, or family illness

·        Pursuing another career

·        Health issues

·        Distance from the office

·        9 to 5 Hours

·        Not really suited for the service business

·        Pressure for change from the spouse

·        Benefits

·        Pay

·        On call

·        Going into business

·        Being a stay at home parent

·        Conflict with other Team Member or Members

I know there are others that I did not include but these are the ones I hear about the most. From owners I hear that it is often a total surprise that the employee is leaving. They had no idea it was coming. I don’t accept that in many cases. To me it is a fundamental issue the owner has failed to address in their business. That issue is communication with each and every employee on a regularly scheduled basis to discuss that employee’s performance and future with the company. Every employee should know how well they are performing and what the future for them with the company looks like. These are not the sit downs to discuss a pay increase, although those do need to occur. These are quarterly sit downs to discuss the progress the employee has made in the previous three months and what is expected in the next three months, one year and even five years. At these the owner should get a sense of where the employee is in their position at the company. Employees want to know how they are doing, what they can do to be better, and what the future holds for them.

Here is a method you could use. Get out your calendar and write in a ½ hour block of time for each employee sit down each quarter for the next twelve months. On your calendar mark ten days prior to each sit down with a note to give that employee an evaluation form for them to fill out and return to you at least two days prior to your sit down. Your will review the form and add your comments (constructive comments) and a plan of action for the next quarter, year and perhaps five years to the form. When you have the sit down with the employee you will review that form together, come to a consensus of the review and plan and have the employee sign the form and provide them a copy. Regular communication about their future will provide a way for the employee to be more open about what’s up in their head. Each time you meet you will use the previous meetings form and the new form to conduct the review and plan. This process goes hand and hand with a specific blueprint for each employee’s progression within your company in career development and pay. I call it “Blueprint for Success”. Between the reviews and the blueprint the owner will have reduced much of the “Where am I going” uneasiness of the employee. There are no magic bullets but regular communication and a plan will provide a more stable environment for the employee thus reducing the chances they will seek other opportunities and be lost to your company.

If you would like a copy of a form you could use in these sit downs and a sample of a “Blueprint for Success”, email me at Dan@SayYesToSuccess.com and I’ll send you a copy.  

Dan has been in the service industry for nearly 50 years. He has operated a large plumbing, heating and air conditioning service company and for the past 12 years has helped small companies in the service business to grow and prosper. Contact him at Dan@SayYesToSuccess.com.

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Are you the same person you were as the New Year started a WHOLE year ago, but you WANTED to change?

Let’s talk a little about that issue. Same old, same old, different day! I’ll bet the year flew by and you ran out of time to make the changes to your life to become “who you wanted to become.” Life moves quickly, daily emergencies come up; insignificant tasks are on your lists, others use up your time and on it goes until the day is over. Then the week is over, then the month is over, and finally it’s a new year and you haven’t become “who you wanted to become.”

As a businessman, you have a list of things you need to accomplish each day you arrive at your business. That list could be on paper, on your cell phone, on your computer, in your head, or in a planner. Of course the list is long and daily you have a number of items you just don’t get to start or finish. Those items seem to keep rolling forward to the next day, the next week, or the next month. These often are the things we need to be doing to become “who you want to become.”

You also have a calendar with things scheduled for certain datesand times.These could be meetings, seminars, conventions, vacation, kid’s ball games, a social event or perhaps a golf outing. Most of these are based on outside influences and demands. When you take a close look at your calendar, you find that there is little or no time left for “who you wanted to become.”

"Whether you think that you can, or that you can't, you are usually right."

Henry Ford

Schedule less about what to get done than who you want to become!

To become “who you want to become”, requires a commitment of time, energy and perhaps money. Let’s look at a couple of possible examples. We’ll look at a business related scenario and a personal related scenario.

Business

You would like to grow your business but since you came up as a Technician, you really don’t really understanding of the financial side of your business. You have said you need to do something about that but another year has gone by and you’re not making any more that you did when you worked for someone else. Then another year goes by and the same thing all over again! Time for a timeout! Time to put a couple of hours aside (your business won’t fail if you do this). You need to analyze the options. You could go a local junior college and take classes in finance and accounting. You could take some online classes in finance and accounting. This is not the best option since it’s too easy to sluff it off and never get the financial understanding you need to improve your business. You could hire a business coach to work with you in your business and teach you the fundamentals of finance and accounting. These are just a couple of options. Surely there are more.

Now comes the hard part. You must change your life in some way to accomplish this goal no matter which choice you make to move forward. To truly become “who you want to become” you will need to put a much higher priority on understanding the financial side of your business than you might have in the past. If you take classes at a junior college, you will need to attend the classes (time), do the studying and assignments (energy), and pay for the classes (money). The same would apply if you took online classes with the exception that it would require a lot more energy to learn what is needed that a classroom setting. If you hired a business coach, time, energy and a lot more money would be involved to get the understanding that you need. The upside is there would be someone right there with you as problems and concerns arose. Change is required to become “who you want to become.”

There is one more issue to keep in mind and that is balance in your life. You still need time, energy and money for your personal life of family, friends, home, and recreation.

Personal

You enjoy playing golf with some friends and you’re able to play 9 holes 2-3 times a month with

them. Your handicap is 25 and has been for years. In fact a couple of years ago it was 23 so you have slipped a little. Some weekends you’re able to watch an hour or so of the PGA Pros play and deep down you would like to play more like them. You realize you’re a contractor and not a golf pro but a score in the low to mid 80’s would be a dream for you. For this dream to come true, you would need to commit a heck of a lot more time, energy and money to achieve that dream!

This will require ongoing lessons and coaching for as long as several years to change your game on a consistent basis. This is a real money, energy and time commitment. It would also require hours and hours at the driving range to practice what you have been taught, more time energy and money. And it will also require playing much more frequently to maintain the consistency and feel to shoot the lower scores and become “who you want to become.”

Here also there is another issue to keep in mind and that is balance in your life. You still need time, energy and money for your personal life of family, friends, home, recreation and your business. 

It's a New Year

So as we start a new year, are you going to become “who you want to become” or are you going to repeat last year and the year before and the year before that? You decide!

 Dan has been in the service industry for nearly 50 years. He has operated a large plumbing, heating and air conditioning service company and for the past 12 years has helped small companies in the service business to grow and prosper. 

Contact him @ Dan@SayYesToSuccess.com

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Until You.......

Yes You

Until you as a business owner decide to change and improve the performance of your company, profitability won’t change.

Until you decide to improve the look of your business and your Technicians, your company will still look like amateurs rather than pros.

Until you begin to understand the financial side of your business, you will continue to operate like a “Ma & Pa” operation rather than a business.

Until you understand that an employee won’t always do the way you would do it, you will micro-manage every phase of your business and limit it’s potential.

Until you expect and strive for the very best customer experience, you will just be another contractor, not memorable to your customer, not recommended by your customer if they even remain as a customer.

Until you enforce your company standards, you will have none.

Until you look at your employees as customers who deserve the best customer service, you will only attract mediocre employees.

Until you improve your marketing, you can expect that you won’t attract large numbers of new customers.

Until you have menu pricing (flat rate) and keep it current, you can expect customer complaints and low profits.

Until you plan and put aside money for retirement, you will be working until you die.

Until you train you Technicians, you can expect other companies to take you customers with better knowledge and better customer service.

Until you set goals, your future will drift like a ship without a rudder.

Until you check costs in each part of your business, you will loss profit by over paying to that friendly salesman.

Until you have your call takers use a script and check on 

them, you will loss opportunities to other contractors.

Until you work with a consultant or a contractor group, you will not grow in knowledge and learn from other’s experiences.

Until you set financial controls in your business, you open your business to employee thief and dishonesty.

Until you decide to change, your business is falling behind and will eventually fail!

Need help with change? Give me a call or email me, I can help if you are ready for cultural change.

You can get more information at our website www.SayYesToSuccess.com 

Dan has been in the service industry for nearly 50 years. He has operated a large plumbing, heating and air conditioning service company and for the past 12 years has helped small companies in the service business to grow and prosper. Contact him at Dan@SayYesToSuccess.com

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13 Small Simple Actions to Change Your Company Culture

Being an owner or manager in a service business is fast paced, grinding, and can be total consuming

of all your faculties and inter-resources. This also holds true for your inside staff and your field Technicians. So here are 13 tips to improve the culture in your company by small things you as a manager or owner can do on a regular basis.

1.       Morning Greeting

As you walk in and some of your staff is already at the office, greet each one by name and with a positive greeting. I know you often come in with things on your mind, or lack of sleep, but this can give your staff a boost which can carry over to the customers they touch that day.

2.       Feed the Crew

Having a meeting? Stop at Mickey D’s or Dunkin Donuts and bring in something for them to eat. It doesn’t need to be exotic or expensive. They will feel you care about them. Be sure to recognize any food allergies or dietary issues and take care of those individuals also.

3.       Acknowledge

Acknowledge years of service with your company for each employee. You can do this on social media, send them a card, post it on the company bulletin board, have a cake with their name on it,  or even have something like a special hat or jacket for 1 year of service, 5 years of service, 10 years of service and so on.

4.       Celebrate

ALWAYS celebrate wins. When you reach a goal within the company such as meeting the monthly budget for sales and profit, reaching a specific number of Maintenance Agreements, excellent customer reviews, or a successful change within the company celebrate. This can be as simple as an announcement at a meeting or something more like lunch for everyone. Be sure to include everyone and show the benefit of the success to the employee.

5.       Orient

When a new employee comes into a company, they have a great sense of uneasiness. Introduce them to every employee you can. Let them know who to go to for payroll, uniforms, truck issues, in the warehouse and so on. When they agree to come on board, send them a letter welcoming them and their family to your family (company).

6.       Suggestion Box

Have a suggestion box where employees can express their ideas on improving the company. When a suggestion saves the company money or greatly improves customer service and revenue, acknowledge that suggestion and reward the employee. Incidentally, all suggestions must be answered by management within 1-2 weeks with an answer why or why not the suggestion will be implemented. If you don’t, the employees will stop giving suggestions.

7.       Ring the Bell

Have a bell and ring it when a replacement system is sold, a maintenance agreement is sold, or an add-on sale by a Technician. People like wins so celebrate wins. Casinos have bells, sirens, lights, and other devices to acknowledge wins.

8.       Post Results

Post goals and employee results to meet those goals. This could be sales, maintenance agreement sales, CSR sales, number of customer calls vs. closes and so on. This will increase sales just by posting and create some competition among employees. Also post a simple monthly company financial statement for all employees to view.

9.       Play Games

With the daily grind, employees get bored and their job becomes a heavy task each day. Have some games from time to time. Have everyone bring in a baby picture and post it. See if someone can guess whose picture each one is and have a small prize for the most correct guesses.  There are books with ideas for games that companies can play.

10.   Think Family

Each employee has a family outside of your business that is very important to them. Many employees are lost because of issues outside of work that deal with family. Look at your company policies and view them from an employee and family perspective. When you have a company activity, such as a Christmas party or picnic, think about making them family focused to include spouses, important others, and kids.

11.   Safety

Be sure to have a safety manual for the company and be a stickler for safety in the office, warehouse, and on the jobsites. Think of safety as an employee benefit that is reasonable to conduct and tells each employee that you care about them. If you bypass safety issues they feel you don’t care for their wellbeing and will not give their best to the company.

12.   Image

The image of your company is displayed every day by your trucks, employees and building. Employees don’t want to work for a company with dirty bathrooms, messy warehouses, poor uniforms, filthy office carpets, and so on. They want to work for the companies with the best images because it is a direct reflection on them. This is not an overnight or cheap change for some of you but if you make strides in the right direction without back-sliding, they will notice the change.

13.   Career

Most employees are looking for a career not just a job. For each employee, layout a career path they can achieve over a period of time. I would suggest over the next 5 years. There should be title changes as they advance, improved compensation, company provided training, and direction for them. They should have specific goals and skills to reach in order to move to the next level. They should be evaluated at least yearly but I would recommend semi-annually. Your employees are being enticed by other companies with opportunities. What are their opportunities at your company? Show them!

14.   Bonus Idea

A simple “Thank You” to an employee for doing a great job or going beyond the call of duty, goes a very long way!

Change Starts

Change starts at the top. These are “nice ideas” but if you don’t change and implement them or other cultural changes, your company will not change for the better. The culture will not improve and you will continue to struggle with many more employee issues and greater turnover.

Help

Need help with change? Give me a call or email me, I can help if you are ready for cultural change.

You can get more information at our website www.SayYesToSuccess.com 

Dan has been in the service industry for nearly 50 years. He has operated a large plumbing, heating and air conditioning service company and for the past 12 years has helped small companies in the service business to grow and prosper. Contact him at Dan@SayYesToSuccess.com

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What's Your Excuse? I think I Know It!

Here are some excuses you may have heard, or perhaps you will soon.

•          I was stepping out of my trailer and I missed the step and landed on the ground injuring my back.
•         My waterbed busted and my room is flooded.
•         I spent my paycheck on lottery tickets, and I’m out of gas until payday.
•         My wife said she is going to conceive today, and I want to be there when it happens.
•         When I got up this morning I accidentally took two Ex-Lax in addition to my Prozac. I can’t get off the john, but I feel good about it.
•         My car ran out of gas on the way to work so I pushed it to a gas station, but I got a stomach hernia and I have to go to the doctor’s.

Thought you would like to see some of the excuses people use to get out of work. I think I know yours! For most all of us, that excuse is tomorrow. We use it all the time. I'll update the menu price book tomorrow. I'll get that quote out tomorrow. I'll talk with "Joe" about his poor performance tomorrow. I'll look at the company financials tomorrow. I'll return that extra material tomorrow. I'll check tech invoices tomorrow. I’ll do a budget tomorrow. I'll set company goals tomorrow. I'll get back to that unhappy customer tomorrow. I'll call that customer that owes us money tomorrow. Guess what.....tomorrow never comes. It is just our number one excuse to avoid doing the hard stuff.

We all have a mental list of the hard stuff we must do at some time or another. Start off slow and easy. Select one of those tough tasks and do it today. In fact do it as soon as you finish reading this blog! After you complete it, you'll be so glad that one of those tough things is now accomplished. Then while the joy of the moment is still there, ask your secretary, wife, girlfriend, or key employee to keep on you to accomplish at least one difficult task every day. You'll be surprised how quickly you get though the list. Yes, more things come up but our issue is often the mountain looks so very big. What you are doing is breaking it down to small hills or just bumps in the road. They are a lot easier to overcome than a big mountain of tough tasks.

Some people like to use a calendar and put those bumps on a certain day each week or month to accomplish. Example would be to check receivables every Tuesday morning and call customers in the afternoon that are behind. Often these tasks are best accomplished when you have fewer distractions so close you door and only be disturbed if the building is on fire.

Remember, a bump or even a hill is a lot easier to get over than a mountain!

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The Walking Dead

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Often owners and managers need assistance in using their time wisely to grow the business or improve the business. We can help. Contact us.

Dan has been in the service industry for nearly 50 years. He has operated a large plumbing, heating and air conditioning service company and for the past 12 years has helped small companies in the service business to grow and prosper. Contact him at Dan@SayYesToSuccess.com.

a

The Walking Dead

The Walking Dead is one of the most popular programs on television. This fall the fourth season will begin. It is on Facebook, there are apps, there are games and I expect there will be a series of movies in 3-D. The idea came from the comic books which began back in 2003. After an apocalyptic event, humans fight “walkers” similar to zombies.

My question for you is “Are you one of the humans or one of the ‘Walking Dead’”? Now you’re asking what I mean by this question.  I’m asking how engaged you are in your business. Let’s do a little self-analysis.

First pull up a 5 day hour by hour calendar on your computer. One with at least hour slots on it. It might be best to print it unless you are on your computer all day long. Start by tagging each of the calendar’s days with a number from 1 to 5. I have put one together for you that you can access on our website (Go to www.SayYesToSuccess.com, click on the Free Stuff button and Download the pdf form). You are going to write in the calendar hour by hour what you are doing. I know this isn’t easy but you can do it. If you get an hour or two behind you can think back and put into the calendar. You must have some disciple to do this and be of the right mindset. You must be ready to change your business and your life.

As the days progress you start to gather a picture of what you do all day long. As a business owner or manager, there are an endless variety of tasks you must perform. You’re the coach, the CEO, the CFO, the CSR, the Buyer, the Technician, the Service Manager, the HR department, the delivery driver, the estimator, the collections department, the referee, the trainer, the tool crib man, the vehicle maintenance department, and on and on. There are a never ending list of tasks you can handle and a myriad of problems and issues for you to solve. After the 5 days you will have a reasonable idea of where your time has gone.

Now comes the interesting and difficult part. I want you to take an hour alone with your office door closed, computer screen off, cellphone turned off and a mindset that you want to improve your business. If the office doesn’t work, try a quiet coffee shop in your area such as a Panera to analyze your input to the business. Perhaps you need to do this early in the morning or on a weekend so you won’t be distracted by your people needing you during this hour. I can assure you that your business will not fail because you have been out of touch for an hour.

Look at the various tasks and honestly ask yourself, “Could someone else in our company do this instead of me? Could I hire someone for a lot less payroll expense to do these tasks? Could I sub these out to someone else?” Then ask you, “Have I put in a real effort during this week or have I just slacked off?” And finally ask yourself, ”What did I do to make changes within the business that will make the business more profitable this week?” These last two questions are the real telling ones.

If you haven’t put the time into your business or the true effort, you are one of the “Walking Dead” as far as your business is concerned.

If you have done little or nothing to make changes to improve your business then you have not been the spark to make things happen. You are one of the “Walking Dead”. These could be checking you invoices, flat rate books, and financials for price changes. It could be developing or editing the employee manual. It could be building a budget. It could be looking at new income producing options for your business. It could be training your Technicians to have better customer service skills. It could be improving your marketing. The list is endless and different for every owner and business. But, you must do it to survive in today marketplace.

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Often owners and managers need assistance in using their time wisely to grow the business or improve the business. We can help. Contact us.

Dan has been in the service industry for nearly 50 years. He has operated a large plumbing, heating and air conditioning service company and for the past 12 years has helped small companies in the service business to grow and prosper. Contact him at Dan@SayYesToSuccess.com.

Are You An Addict?

Just a few days ago we celebrated the 40th anniversary of the cellphone. It has revolutionized communications in just 4 decades. The Internet, texting, email and other new modes of communication own their birth and explosive growth to the cellphone. Dr. Martin Cooper, the inventor of the cellphone conceived the idea after seeing a military walkie-talkie. You probably remember "the brick".

The cellphone is so common that there are nearly 6 billion worldwide and by next year there will be more cellphone subscribers than the population of the world! Little by little landlines are disappearing as people no longer view them as needed. Have you seen a pay phone lately? But there are also several downsides to cellphones.

Bills for cellphones can easily exceed $100 a month and for many $200 a month for an individual or a family. A business may spend $1,000 or more per month. At one time we complained about a home telephone bill of $25.00 a month or a commercial telephone bill of a couple of hundred dollars. It's an expense of the instant communication society that did not exist in the past. There is also the cost of the cellphone itself partial paid upfront and in the monthly charge. There are charges for internet access, insurance, text messaging, and other add–on services.

Dr Martin Cooper with first cellphone

Instant communication devices have caused your Technicians to have created a dependence on you! They don’t need to think for themselves of solve problems on their own. Why should they take any responsibility if they can call you and let you make the decision or solve their problem? You have become an enabler for them.

We have all heard about the dangers in using the phone while driving. Then there is texting while driving. And for some surfing the internet on the cellphone while driving is happening. Recently a helicopter pilot crashed and died along with the others on the helicopter because the pilot was preoccupied with texting while flying.

Yesterday I was shopping at Lowe’s for some brackets to hang in our utility room and passed four different employees all talking on their cellphones as they were being paid by Lowes. Perhaps, some were on calls from customers or associates but I doubt that. How many lost hours does your company have from your employees spending countless hours on their cellphones talking, texting, or surfing the internet? Must of the touted efficiency gains of cellphones have been lost to misuse by employees.

Now on to my major point of the article, have you become a slave to that handful of plastic, chips, and buttons? A year or so ago, I had a business owner in my NATE review classes and then take the NATE test. All through the review classes he was a wreck because he couldn’t be constantly watching the screen of his phone. He barely made it through the test without his phone. He was an addict to the instant communication age. He actually had the shakes after the test as I checked his paperwork for submission to NATE. I see people constantly checking for texts, calls or the internet in restaurants, stores, malls, walking, and every other activity. I’m not talking an occasional check but every 2 or 3 minutes. Some of my family members can’t sit and eat a meal without checking their phones. It has become an addiction for many. This new addiction will cause us to hear about CA (Cellphone Anonymous). "My name is Dan and I'm a cellphone addict. It's been 1 hour since I last used my cellphone." There are very few calls or texts that are so critical that they must be responded to within seconds.

Cellphone Anonymous?

So what to do? Review you cellphone bills for ways to save costs. When your Techs call you to solve their problems, ask them how they would solve it. When they answer, hang up. Have a company cellphone use policy in place and active. You can be an example to your employees by not being connected 24/7 for every call. If there is an emergency, I guarantee you that you will hear about it quickly. Decide to turn your phone off after hours. Get a life! The world will not end! You won’t miss the blah-blah of most calls and texts!

Dan has been in the service industry for nearly 50 years. He has operated a large plumbing, heating and air conditioning service company and for the past 13 years has helped small companies in the service business to
grow and prosper. Contact him at Dan@SayYesToSuccess.com.