This short YouTube monologue (Freedom Friday Focus) by Kenny Chapman argues that technician education—teaching technicians to communicate, build rapport, and explain warranties/options—directly improves customer service and drives higher sales. Chapman emphasizes relationship-based selling: technicians must help customers "know, like, and trust" them so decisions are not reduced to price. The talk stresses differentiating a company through communication and letting technicians share company strengths rather than assuming customers already know them.
Chapters
Hey everybody, Kenny Chapman here, the blue collar coach coming to you live with this week's video version of Freedom Friday Focus. Now this week I want to talk to you about something that's very near and dear to my heart. After all the training I do, all the ride alongs, all the time I spend with some of the best companies in the country. In fact, I'm just coming off of a couple days of training with a great contractor in Virginia, training their team, doing ride alongs and observing what I see that works and what doesn't work. This week I want to talk about education. And education equals higher customer service and higher sales, period. So there's something that we need to focus on with our team and with our training that we do at our own companies is focus on this education piece. Most technicians don't want to be sales people. They don't want the label. They think used cars, they think negative, they think all these types of things. We get that, we understand that. But the reality is sales is simply a derivative of good customer service. The better we can have help our technicians understand the importance of education. See, they know their products, they know their company, they know the installation procedures and processes and warranties. All these types of things are right here with the technician. But they don't always let the customer know. They expect the customer to understand that they're working with the best company in town, that they have some of the best warranties available, that they have a company that will stand behind anything and everything that they do. Here's the thing, they that's not about the stuff. The customer can get the stuff anywhere that they want, but they can't get you. They can't get your technicians, they can't get your warranties, they can't get who you are as a company that stands behind the things that you do. Help your technicians open up. They've got to make connections outside the box of the technical things. Most technicians would rather have a conversation with a condensing unit than a live customer. We need to challenge that and realize that it comes from relationships. We're in the retail consulting industry, my friends, and it's based on relationship type selling. They need to have a quality relationship. When they arrive at the home, they are a stranger. By the time they sit down to cover their option sheet and talk about pricing, they need to have connection. The customer needs to know a little bit about them. They need to know them, they need to like them and they need to trust them. Otherwise they can't say yes to any number. And then it becomes about price. We want to differentiate everything that we do from everything that everybody else does, and that comes from quality communication and education. I'm Kenny Chapman, the blue collar coach. Until we talk again, have a better than fantastic day, and I'll see you next time.
