Trent Urban of WireNut Home Services in Colorado Springs details how he’s kept revenue consistent with 40% less calls, due to COVID-19.

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Are you starting to see Yeah, we're about 40% down approximately. It depends on how you measure it year over year versus week over week. But, um, yeah, we're about 40% down, but our revenue really isn't down a whole heck of a lot at all. Um, and that's because everybody's taking it that much more seriously.

Welcome to the Successful Contractor Podcast. Powered by Success Group International, a show for residential contractors about residential contractors. We chronicle business journeys, share insights, and celebrate successes in this wonderful industry. I'm your host, Bob Houchin. On today's show, you'll be listening to a conversation I had with Trent Urban of Wire Nut Home Services in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Now, this interview occurred several weeks ago, please keep that in mind, but we talked about the changes he's made to his sizable business due to COVID-19. Trent was full of great information.

He explained how he's moved all of his meetings and trainings virtually.

He described how Wire Nut now offers service calls where homeowners and technicians never have to physically interact. And he shared some highly interesting marketing strategies he's recently taken that should pay big dividends. I know you contractors always enjoy marketing talk. Let's take a listen, and I hope you enjoy.

Hey, I just want to thank you for your time. For those listening here, if you haven't had the pleasure of meeting you, if you could kind of just share your name, company name, and where you're at and how you got tied to SGI.

Yeah, Trent Urban, WireNet Home Services, aka The WireNet. So the home services after we went into multiple trades. We've been with SGI since 2005 or 2004, actually, when they started ESI, that side of it, and then added Airtime after that and then recently added PSI. So we're in all 3 of them. 3 of the 4.

3 of the 4. How many employees do you have now?

53. 53, wow.

Things have changed quite a bit since 2004.

They have, yeah. It's been an interesting ride for sure.

Sure. Well, if you kind of share with everyone, how's Colorado Springs been impacted by COVID-19? Have you seen much of a flare-up or is it primarily in Denver?

Denver's gotten hit hardest. Colorado Springs has its cases. And then it's interesting to see the different demographic response to it. Colorado Springs has been, you know, a decent chunk of people that are saying they just didn't think it was as big of a deal as everyone was making it out to. But then, you know, that changes. That's been one of those fun things to chase down. And I say fun, and it's a little bit of sarcasm. You know, the temperament changes almost on a half-day-by-half-day basis. So.

Mm-hmm.

Just 2 days ago, our governor, state governor, issued a stay-in-place order, and so that applied to the whole state. So, we saw what I believe to be maybe the final fear wave that hits unless something more significant comes along that we don't see.

Sure. So, as news has trickled down and has changed, and, you know, I'm sure team members get riled up, what have you been doing to kind of, you know, calm those fears, kind of talk some sense into people and settle them down a little bit? Are you doing big company meetings? Or how are you communicating with everyone?

We've actually— so I've been doing company internal videos. So I'd shoot a video, throw it on YouTube, and share the link with everybody. We use Microsoft Teams very, very heavily. And so there's been a lot of chat conversations in there. That's how we stay in touch. We do videos daily. In fact, I think I kind of live in front of the video screen anymore with meetings and things. So actually, that's been good and bad though. a lot of cool things we've learned from this. And, um, and, you know, from a remote management standpoint, I think I've gotten, uh, that training in hyperspeed, you know, through all this.

Sure, sure. How about the nuts and bolts? Uh, how have you changed how you run service at all? Have you put— I mean, I know obviously you do the booties and all that good stuff, but, uh, you know, are you trying not to shake hands and, and, you know, wipe down tools, or what kind of anything unique that you put in place?

Yeah, the shaking hands, I was never a huge fan of anyway, because I figure if we've got customers like Howie Mandel, they really don't want your hand in their hand.

Right.

And so we have business cards that, you know, this is something honestly I've been trying to get driven through our culture for a while, and COVID just helped it. And so hand them the business card, you're touching one half of it, the customer grabs it from the other half, you never have to touch. And it's a nice way of not being offensive to someone. So we're doing that. And then Face masks, which there was a shortage of those. And one of our service managers, she used to run a medical clinic, and so, and she happens to love sewing, so she took it on herself to make a bunch of them, and they're reusable.

Okay.

So that took the, you know, the loss of those items out of the picture. So now we're good to go on those, you know, for quite a while. And then as far as cleaning supplies, the same thing went with alcohol, you know, or disinfectant. So we went with bleach water and sprayers, which it won't freeze up. So we're in Colorado, you know, it gets a little cooler. You know, this is the time of year it can be beautiful, or you can get a weird blizzard that goes— pops in for a day. Sure, sure, for sure. Um, yeah, I mean, we've been doing all that, and then any surfaces we touch, we spray down and wipe down, and, uh, just doing the best we can for it. My goal was that we continue on and we carry the essential nature of our industry while doing it safely and keeping people employed.

Sure, sure. Um, how has, uh, training been impacted at all? Is the, uh, you know, what you're Are you talking about, you know, either maybe the value of every opportunity? Are you stressing that, or are you just, you know, keeping the typical schedule and typical message?

Training has gone all fully virtual, which that's another thing I think that's been a benefit. You know, we're in that age where you can do that. I just don't think any of us had quite figured it out. And so I'm not saying we have, but we're a lot closer now. And so we've been doing a lot of that. Well, really what it comes down to for us is we do our regular training, do a lot of it virtually, but then we're adding in messages from various people. So I've shared messages that I've run across from friends, from the group, from all these different sources. And we get that in front of the team and do like a screen share and let them experience it too. And so they're getting the message, you know, multiple different messages, most of them mindset, a lot of fear control, back to basics, like take every opportunity seriously. In a lot of ways it strengthened our team.

That's great.

And back to your question of what you'd asked about how are we getting in front of it also.

Yeah.

Those videos I'm doing, If left unchecked, the team is just going to be coerced by whatever CNN tells them to feel.

Sure, sure.

And so they needed some other counterbalance. I felt they need, you know, everybody's looking for some guidance in what to think here. I was myself. So once I figure out those pieces, then I kind of feel I owe it to the team to share pieces of that as well.

100%.

100%.

Um, talked about how service has changed a little bit. How about, uh, answering the phones and, and maybe explaining what you guys are— are you CCRs Explaining what these extra precautions you're taking just to make sure, you know, every call that gets booked stays booked?

Yeah, we've still seen cancellations. Of course, we can't control everybody on that, but we've got some different rebuttals for it, you know, reminding them how safe we are. Just yesterday, we ironed out the details on how to do a virtual consultation.

Oh, okay.

2 pieces of it. One of them is if they don't even want us to the home, how can we help them over the phone or over video? Yeah, that one is more for the Simple fix, but which might lead to a bigger thing, which might lead to letting them, you know, them letting us into the home.

Right.

And then, uh, in addition, there's another one that I never would have thought of, but our HVAC service manager, he said, hey, we're getting this struggle where people will let us in, but they don't want to be near us.

Right.

And so we set it up. The final details of that are actually being done today, but, um, how each technician has a link to their own meeting, video meeting, so they can be in the basement or wherever and the customer can be in their bedroom.

That's great.

I, I'm sure we're going to You lose a little bit of influence or lost in translation kind of thing there, but better than nothing.

Yeah, for sure. Is he going to just walk with his phone the whole way and show him what he's looking at and just kind of verbalize the entire experience or just kind of calling at key points?

Yeah. Once he's got something to present, then that's the point where they would say, okay, here's the link. When I'm ready, I'll let you know. And then that's where we're going to need you to jump on and I'll share with you. I'll do a show and tell.

Sure, sure.

And we'll talk about your options.

You guys are all on iPads, right?

Right.

Okay. So I guess—

Tablets too.

Are you just going to communicate the options verbally, or are you going to maybe send them a screenshot or something, or how are you going to work that out?

Verbally. Time will tell for sure. So verbally, as well as video, you can share, of course, your camera so we can show them what we're looking at, just like you would if they were next to you. And then for the techs that know how to do the share button on it, They can show them what's on their tablet, so they can show them those options visually right there. They can see what's available to them. And then as far as getting the acceptance of it, if the video is recorded, then we could just take that verbal acceptance of it.

Okay.

Otherwise, we still would have to, you know, maybe have them go to the tablet briefly to either sign it or whatever.

Right, right. That's interesting. Very interesting. Um, you said, you know, you're dealing with some cancellations. How about on the other side of things with the call counts? Um, are you starting to see a drift off in your call counts?

Yeah, we're about 40% down approximately. It depends on how you measure it, year over year versus week over week. But, um, yeah, we're about 40% down, but our revenue really isn't down a whole heck of a lot at all. Um, and that's because everybody's taking it that much more seriously. I, I feel this is a time where Maybe the complacency, laziness, taking things for granted has died off a bit. And it's a chance for the 80/20 rule to kind of kick in.

Yeah.

And, you know, so we did have a few people early on that we laid off because we weren't sure what the congressional bills or Senate bills or whatever would come to. And we just felt guiding them would be too difficult.

Right.

And, you know, the other ones, I've just made sure that that message was very clear that if they're If they're working hard for us, I'll be working hard for them.

That's great.

So I, I didn't have to say the other side of it. They know what I'm getting at.

Sure, sure. Is there any, any trade impacted more than, than the other that where you don't notice where, you know, the call count's going down? Is electrical, say, hit harder than the HVAC because of the maintenance side, or is it all just across the board?

Uh, it's actually been HVAC that's been down more.

Interesting.

Electrical, we're booked out, I think it's 2, 2 and a half weeks right now.

Okay.

Okay. And HVAC, we're on a next-day basis, which, you know, is good in some ways, but we don't like also in others. And so we've been doing a lot more outbounding. Um, that's another strength point where normally we'd get a certain number on outbound, and then just, uh, Tuesday we challenged them with getting higher numbers and the necessity of that. And they, man, they just tripled their efforts, and they've been sticking to that. And so it's made a big difference. Maintenance is where we've I've really had to get in front of the message, make sure that— there's a lot of debate about should you run maintenance now or not, and I can get into that if you care to, but there's a lot of things to discuss there. Sure.

No, I was going to follow up and ask you about that, what the messaging has been on your outbound calls and how you're pushing maintenance and the safety angle that it's okay to have your guy out. These are all the precautions we're taking. So what have you been selling in particular?

Maintenance is one of those necessities to keep a service business open, you know, in a lot of ways. So from a strength standpoint, if we're going to be here for people, we need to continue doing that, or it could lead to shortening up, you know, the size of the team. And so running maintenance for that reason, yes, but that doesn't answer why it would be important for the customers. And the reason there would be, you know, you've got more people in the home using in the home more, loading it heavier on electrical, heating, you know, cooling, any of those standpoints. Um, so there's all of that that you have to do right now. Otherwise, when is it going to get done? Because I personally feel once this is over, we're gonna have so much pent-up demand that you're not going to be able to get to everybody. And so how many of these systems are going to fail because you didn't get proactively in front of it?

Mm-hmm.

And so If one of these people want to stand in line afterwards and hope they can get you out in the right season, I guess they can take that chance, but I don't know that it's going to happen. And so we've just been making sure— so our TV commercials were reshifted to address the safety side of it. Our outbound has been driven to that. I don't know that we've really attacked the shortage, future shortage aspect of it enough.

Right.

But that's something that we can add in as needed, you know, along the way, letting them know. It's just like the housing industry. They didn't build homes for many years, and what do you see now? Inventory shortage. And housing's been through the roof for years because of it.

Right. Now, are you just outbound club members, or are you outbound anyone that's used you in the past? Or have you gotten to that stage?

Uh, we started with club members, and then we're also adding in people that have used us in the past. And, uh, Oh, what was it? September. I bought a customer list, so we've been contacting them as well.

Okay. Okay.

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Welcome back to the show. When we left, we began talking about Trent's marketing strategy. We're going to explore that topic much more.

You mentioned your marketing strategy. I think I saw online, weren't you on some kind of TV show or something to kind of talk about, you know, how you guys are different and what you're doing and, you know, be precautionary?

Yep, yep. I did a live interview actually a week ago today. With the local Fox TV station, and we talked about the essential nature. We talked about the, you know, getting ahead of maintenance, doing all of that, and the reasons for it and how we're doing it safely. And then, as I said, we changed our TV commercial to address those topics. And then social media was never something I was a huge believer in. I just don't think our industry is that exciting for people. You know, it's not like a sexy car or something.

Right.

So, so we've addressed that from From pretty much a different standpoint, which is a real social side. There's still a lot of— so we have another vendor who posts social media for us, and they've still been doing kind of the standard stuff, but our own efforts have been more social-based. So we have an image of a bunch of us holding up a sign that, you know, we've got your back, that kind of stuff.

Oh, that's cool.

From a trust standpoint, we've got that one on Facebook, and then just activated our Instagram account, been doing stuff on Twitter also.

Very cool.

And, uh, yeah, it's kind of teaching me to maybe reconsider social media a bit and do it perhaps the right way.

Sure, sure. Um, you kind of mentioned earlier some lessons you've learned in terms of communication virtually. You care to share any of those things that might help other people that are, are starting to drift towards that?

Uh, yeah, sure. Um, so a couple of years ago, uh, I somewhat enslaved my middle son, who's very, very technology fluent or whatever. And I said, here's what I want built out. I don't wanna rely on an onsite server. I don't wanna rely on if the internet gets cut to the building, any of that. I want backup for all this stuff. So we went cloud-based a couple years ago.

Okay.

And that was almost like the perfect primer for this because when we went remote, everything was there for us. It was very easy.

Right.

And we did that A little bit earlier than most people because we had a couple of, uh, young ones, you know, the kids of our managers and so forth that were at risk. And so, um, in doing so, we've just had that open communication. And, and as I said, I've been on countless meetings, you know, video meetings, and they're actually in a way more beneficial than doing them on site is what I've learned. And a bunch of us are agreeing.

Yeah.

And so if done right on the right frequency with easy access in, so everybody knows where to go and all that, we found that it's It's really not a huge stretch other than, you know, if you have to meet up for handing over some kind of whatever, you know. Otherwise, the communication is kind of there because really when you're in person with somebody, they're sitting next to you and you can see them. Well, there's not a whole heck of a lot different from seeing them on a screen.

Sure, sure. That's interesting. Just to kind of shift a little bit and wrap up with a few more questions here. Thanks again, Trent, for all your time. How much are you talking Have you been talking to other members, other contractors, just kind of seeing what they're doing, how they're responding? Are you doing much of that, or have you just been too busy focusing on what's going on with your business?

No, there's been a lot of that. Yeah. Sharing ideas, getting feedback, seeing what's going on in different areas. So yeah, that's been good. There's other various friends within the group that I think I owe a call to, or maybe vice versa. But yeah, there's been quite a bit of that conversation. And then I'm also in a— it's called Vistage. It's a local peer group.

Oh, yeah.

And so, I've got everybody from the CEO of a local credit union to the owner of a massive construction company, a software company, all that. So, we're seeing this from different versions, different industries.

That's great.

And, yeah, really, really is pretty enlightening to see all of that, not just from our industry.

Sure, sure.

And then perhaps what may be next, you know, how can this shift the business environment long-term?

You know, you've been in business for a long time. You've seen a lot, I mean, from recessions to 9/11, and obviously you're not in New York, but still it's impacted business.

Right.

How do you keep a positive mindset with this, and is there anything you do specifically in terms of things that you consume in terms of news or motivational videos, or are you just a— when you're driving home You just turn off the radio and just kind of zone out, or what do you do to, to get, uh, and keep that strong mindset?

Um, counting our blessings, realistically. So I had a web video with Vistage last night, and we were asked for, you know, one thing we're thankful for. And as weird as it sounds, one of mine was that we went through this.

Interesting.

I think, um, You know, there's a cycle, there's a season in your life for everything. And if you're going to go through one of these, which you're going to, you know, you're going to go through challenges in your life. I think it's good that I'm able to do it at an age in my life where I can handle it and maybe make a difference.

Right, right.

And so it's more challenging for different people, different stages of their life. I think it's something where we can all learn from it. And the really cool thing is seeing, you know, the communities and everything band together that much more and be more appreciative. Like, what is it? Takeout Tuesday is something around here now.

Oh, okay.

You wanna go support your local takeout shops and so you go get takeout.

Yeah.

Yeah, so shift from taco to takeout. So that's kinda cool. You know, it's a community thing. And then just talking to the right people, making sure I'm careful where I'm spending my time. I personally don't spend my time on the news much. I've never cared for it. And that's part of that conscious decision.

Sure, sure. Um, well, obviously, you know, we all hope this, this wraps up, you know, faster than it seems to already.

But, uh, yeah, hopefully.

Yeah. In terms of, are you thinking long-term or, you know, how, um, you know, you mentioned the demand, you expect that to spike? Uh, anything you're doing in particular to get ready for that? Are you just going to kind of take it day by day and worry about call count and whatever happens happens?

We have tripled our media spend, so we're on TV way more. We're actually buying it at a much better rate because if you really think about it, here's one nugget. So the car dealerships who usually consume all of the TV commercials, they're not advertising now.

Interesting.

Same thing with furniture stores and any other big ones like that that are not essential. So the TV stations need to sell spots. So supply and demand, you know, there's a huge supply, not much demand.

Yeah.

So we're doing that, and the idea comes from like Henry Ford during the Great Depression. He wanted to take more market share during that, so we're doing the same thing. And then we've been shoring up who we give money to because there is an opportunity here where you can get a couple of months or whatever from various vendors, you know, banks, anything like that.

Okay.

And so honestly, just doing what I can to shore up and strengthen the company while also putting in that investment for what's next. And then, um, one of the people that is working in our office every day, he's one actually with a son that was a preemie, and, um, he handles our fleet. So he's currently there getting our vans ready, and we need those vans ready by the time we pull out of this. And so he's actively working on that so that we're ready You know, in the next phase. And then we've got a new sales process that makes it way easier for us to bring in what I call kids into the trades, and they have a better part in this. And so all of that aligning together, I have hopes that, you know, it's going to make it just a massive difference when we come out of this.

That's great. That's great insight. I appreciate that, Trent. Well, that's all I have for you. Like I said, I cannot thank you enough for all your time, Trent, and your contribution to SGI over the many years. Have a great rest of your day, and just know if there's anything we can do for you, just let us know. Thank you, sir.

Okay.

Thanks for listening to the show. If you feel like you have a great story worth sharing that also would help other contractors, email me at bhouchin@yoursgi.com. You've been listening to the Successful Contractor Podcast powered by Success Group International.

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