Time Doesn’t Fix Fires…..It Only Fuels Them!

Mrs. Smith just called and is very unhappy with the service your company provided.

She asked for the owner but you told your Customer Service Rep you were “unavailable” but you would get back to Misses Smith tomorrow after you spoke with the Technician.

Several days pass and the note about Mrs. Smith’s problem is now way down in the “to do” pile. Several more days pass and since you have not heard from Mrs. Smith, you decide to pitch the note. Guess what, Mrs. Smith has not forgotten about her problem. In fact she is seething mad! She may not be a computer genius but she can find several review sites to express her dismay! You may be total unaware of the posts but other customers and potential customers are reading her blasts at your company. Do you think they are going to totally dismiss her comments? Probably not!

Unattended Camp Fires Result in Forest Fires

Why isn’t the phone ringing? When homeowners or business owners look for a contractor, they check the review for your company. With many options for them to choose from, why would they choose a company with less than stellar ratings? You don’t have that! Oh, Misses Smith isn’t the first to have and issue with your company and she won’t be the last (if you are still in business). Every company has customer issues from time to time. It’s how quickly and efficiently you handle those complaints that matter to your customers. Most customers can see through an illegitimate complaint posted by an unreasonable customer. But you must take each and every complaint seriously, expeditiously, and effectively. Every customer concern requires action and often a written response by the company.

Ignoring customer Concerns is Contagious

What you do as a business owner is highly contagious!  If you elect to ignore the concerns of your customers, so will your employees. You keep asking why the phone isn’t ringing with service calls. You really know the answer, you are afraid to admit your short coming in responding to the customer. Well, it’s a good time to make a 2017 resolution to without hesitation, take care of the customer!

 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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If People are Sleeping...

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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You Don't Care!

Employees wear these pink bands

I have been in the plumbing, heating, and air conditioning service business for more than 50 years. My Dad was a plumbing service contractor who worked out of his home. I helped him as a high school student on weekends and during the summer months. I grew to love the business and the ability to help customers by solving problems they could not solve themselves. Why do I tell you this? It is to let you know I have been around the block a few times in this industry. I have seen and heard a lot. I have been with thousands of customers from little old grandmas to auto industry leaders. All have a concern for the integrity and character of the company they use for service and the Technician who arrives at their home or business. So let’s focus in on a way to improve the perception of your business in the eyes of your customers. Remember, Perception is the customer’s reality.

As I search the web for contractors’ websites, receive their email newsletters, or review their customer newsletters, I find a need to improve on the message that the company I’m looking at has integrity and character. If you Google the word plumber what do you see? Many of the images are of someone’s butt crack. If you watch television and there is an investigative sting operation, it’s an HVAC company. We lack professionalism, trust, character, and integrity in the eyes of many customers.

As a customer searches for a service contractor, they have a lot of anxiety about the choices before them. They look for a local contractor, one who’s name they recognize, one some friend or neighbor recommended. Often they are confused and have that helpless feeling. They are pretty sure they are not going to be happy with the outcome of the service, the Technician, or the price. There are many ways to help change that perception including clean well maintained trucks, neat uniformed Technicians, well done website with pictures of babies and moms, friendly Customer Service Reps, booties, and a host of others. But let me give you one more.

A client, Thornton and Grooms, is active in the community. They do most all the activities other

Notice the Pink Shirt

contractors are involved in such as home shows. But they also give back to the community through their “Hearts and Heroes Award” donations to charities, service and installations for the needy, and major campaigns. One such current campaign is focused breast cancer awareness and assistance with “The Pink Fund”. Each of these are company-wide efforts which give the employees a sense of belonging to a caring firm and it helps to show that it’s not about butt cracks and rip-

Another Pink Shirt

offs. The concept is always to provide the best service but to also include the “We care” in everyday business. It helps to give the customer a secure feeling about the business. Click on the Hearts and Heroes Award or The Pink Fund above to see how they use this concept. Then look at the banners that run across their Home page.

Are your future customers confident that You Care when they see you marketing or does your image lack a solution to that customer concern?

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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.

Is this Customer Care and Service?

This week my wife, Lynn, was in the hospital for elective surgery to have a hip joint replaced. Although there is a lot of talk about customer service over the air waves from many of the hospitals, our experience did not show the level of customer service that is expected by the public today. The average HVAC/plumbing contractor has much better customer service than we found in our experience. I will not name the hospital but it is a major player in the Metro Detroit area.

Let me give you a few examples of our experience:              

1.      Lynn would hit the call button to ask for additional pain medications and she would often wait more than 40 minutes for someone to respond. It would often be the nurse assistance who would then need to find the nurse to administer the medication. This was not a life threating situation but very disappointing.

2.      After surgery and being transferred to her room, she had three separate people check her oxygen level within 15 minutes and none of these people were aware that she had just had it done. The right not knowing what the left was doing.

3.      I went down to the pharmacy to fill a take home prescription for Lynn. They took it and told me they would call be on my cell in about a half hour when it was ready since we were waiting for it to be discharged. Over an hour later and no call, I went down to the pharmacy to check on the prescription. It was ready but they never called as promised.

4.      A nurse assistant was walking the halls on the floor of Lynn’s room, looking confused. They had changed his room assignments but did not provide him with sufficient information to effectively do his job.

5.      Lynn often heard the staff speaking to each other saying they didn’t know the answer because they were just getting on shift or it was someone else’s responsibility.

6.      We finished all the discharge paperwork but getting a wheelchair and staff member to handle it so Lynn could be wheeled to our waiting car took over 90 minutes with several calls.

7.      During this wait, an orderly came to Lynn’s room to take her to physical therapy. That department was not aware that she was discharged and just awaiting a wheelchair to take her to the waiting car.

The preoperative situation and the surgical waiting area were run effectively. None of the staff were rude or a problem throughout the hospital stay. The level of treatment for the patient and the condition of the facilities were not the issues. The problem seemed to be at the patient floor level. Here the staff tried to meet the patient needs but management had not provided the tools to do it with true customer care and service. The entire floor where Lynn was recovering was orthopedic patients. The care needed for the patients would be similar day in and day out. Some patients would require more care, have special needs, or require additional time from the staff. Not a whole lot different that our businesses. With effective training, proper staffing, correct tools, and regular oversight this floor could provide much better customer service. Records here are all computerized and information should be available to every department and every care giver. Tasks are repeated day in and day out. A routine and detailed operating formula could be established, taught and monitored.

So let me ask you, “Is your customer saying the same thing about your customer service?” There are only a dozen or so hospitals for us to choose from in the Metro Detroit area, but there are literally hundreds of service contractor options for a customer to choose from. If you are not providing excellent customer service, your customer is going to find an alternative contractor who will do that. “Are you asking your customer their thoughts on the service you have provided to them? Are you changing what you do to provide better service to you customer?”

Change or be left behind, you have to 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 at Dan@SayYesToSuccess.com.

Little Things

I'm sitting in the terminal at Detroit Metro Airport waiting for my 3 hour delayed plane without any other flight options. I decided to check at the Delta service center an hour or so ago and see if there might be a connecting flight that would get me back to Orlando sooner than my 3 hour delayed flight. There were no alternates that would work. The agent was as helpful as she could be for a tired flyer. I even got an exit row seat! Then the little thing caught my eye. On a table between the agents there was a selection of soft drinks, bottled
water and the "Delta" snacks. Those consist of peanuts, pretzels or
some small cookies. It's a small thing but it shows some concern for passengers
who have flight delays or cancelations. I'm not happy with a flight delay but
the bottle of water helped ease the anxiety of the moment. I was up a 5:15 this
morning and arriving at about 1 AM the next day does not make it easy to have
the best of attitudes. As I am sitting and waiting, it brings to mind little things
we can do to relieve some of the anxiety our customers have.

When our Techs go to a customer's home it is like we are invading their castle. The moat
is filled and the bridge is drawn. The defenses are in place. The troops are at
the walls with their bows drawn and the cannons readied. We are not best buds.
But could this change if we came with a peace offering? What if we brought the
newspaper or a packet of flower seeds or some other small thing? Would we be
looked on differently? Would the draw bridge be lowered, the arrows be returned
to the quivers, and the cannons put on standby? Often it's the "little
things".

After the call is completed do we call and thank the customer? Do we send them a token of
our appreciation? It could be a couple of movie tickets, or an air conditioning
cover, or an extra filter. There are hundreds of ideas that could be used. The
cost can be related to the size of the service call or installation. Even something as simple as a couple of garden hose washers or a universal aerator would work. It's the "little
things".

Your employees are also customers. What "little thing" have you done for
them? When they do an exception job do you ward them with a thank you and a
token of your gratitude? A couple of movie tickets or a gift certificate to a
restaurant can do wonders to keep up the moral of your people. Be sure to
remember the office people as well as the field people.

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 11 years has helped small companies in the service business to
grow and prosper. Contact him @ Dan@SayYesToSuccess.com.

Believer or Follower?

We are babysitting our grandchildren in the Orlando area this week. Our Daughter and Son-In-Law are both out of town so we have the opportunity to enjoy and spoil the Grandchildren. There are four of them, all under the age of 7 and keep Grandma and Grandpa going from sun up to sunset. We were able to take them to church on Sunday. They go to classes and we have an hour or so to relax and enjoy the message and worship. Often I catch an idea from the message that carries over to the business world. And that was what happened this Sunday.
The pastor asked if we were a believer in Jesus or a follower. It immediately struck me that this applies to business in a little different way but still as an important point. Are you a believer in the basic principle of business and management or are you a true follower of those principles?
Let me give you a couple of examples. Do you believe your company should make a profit? Or, do you believe your employees should be accountable for their actions and produce a profit for your company? Do you believe a contractor is as valuable to society (customers) as a doctor or a lawyer? Do you believe in providing the customer with “first class” service?
I am quite confident that you believe in at least three of these examples. I find many contractors don’t believe in their own value to society (customers). I work with contractors and techs to help them realize their value to the health, comfort, and well being of society (customers). The other three are areas almost every contractor I have ever met, believe, but that’s where it ends. They believe but they do not follow. What does that mean? There is a huge difference. You can believe in these fundamentals but the real question is do you follow those fundamentals daily in your business? A follower is one who constantly is working at improving these fundamentals. They have a plan and goals. They have check points along the journey to measure their progress. They don’t allow themselves to get caught up in the little meaningless things of the day. They focus on the issues that make their company profitable, sustainable, and customer directed in every area of the presentation to the customer.
Are you a believer or a follower?

Less Calls = More Revenue Part 1

We recently completed 7 weeks of technician customer service training. It consisted of 6 two hour classroom sessions with homework each week and a video taping of the technicians practicing their interaction with a customer. The customer in this case was another technician. As I reviewed the results of the class evaluation from each of the technicians and the owners, who were required to attend the training, the comments varied widely. Some really enjoyed the training and videotaping and others did not like the classroom sessions at all. This is where it gets interesting.
When I met with the company owners two weeks after the sessions ended, and ask if there is any change in the performance of their technicians, I got some interesting answers. Those that did not like the training were performing about the same as they had done prior to the training. Those that liked the training were selling more on fewer calls! It seems that there was a direct correlation between the attitude of the technician and the change in their performance.
Should this surprise us? I don’t think so. With today’s customer, the old attitude of you should just be happy I showed up to fix your plumbing (furnace or electrical issue) just does not work. The importance of exceed the customer’s expectations is what is necessary to develop the long term “love affair” with your company and therefore spend more with your company.
The long held thought in our industries was that we hire a new technician on his or her technical abilities alone. We need to get the job done therefore hire someone who has at least xx number of years experience, and worked for another company we respect. Today we might even do a drug test, a physical and a criminal background check. But we ignore the personality and attitude of the potential new hire. I’m not saying these things are not important, but we need to look further. We need to be testing for attitude and personality prior to hiring. An individual with an open mind to change and growth, and reasonable technical skills is much more of an asset to your company than the super technical technician without the ability to grow and change. Rethink your hiring and advancement criteria and look at adding personality and attitude testing before you hire another mediocre technician and hire a potential asset. Less calls can equal more revenue.