Customer Service for Technicians 3

What's up guys, it's Mike. I'm happy to be here with you again and share some knowledge with the new technicians. And if you are a seasoned vet, then I thank you for all that you do for our trade. And please share this video with some of the new guys. We're all just a community looking to learn more together. So in the previous 2 videos, we had a discussion about the steps that you need to take as a technician to have a successful visit with your customer, starting with the night before, you know, going to bed at a reasonable hour, eating and, you know, hydrating, and just making sure that you're clean and presentable and that you're feeling good about yourself and about your skills and about the interaction that you're going to have with your customer. It's being prepared for the job before you arrive to the job. The other thing that we talked about is how you enter the house and how you show respect to your customer's home. It's important that our customers understand that we are here to help them. We're not here to dominate or to, to somehow make them feel like they need to just stay out of our way and let us do our job. Right. We are here to help, and that's, that's all we're here for. So to that end, I have created this series of videos to help us understand a little bit better the things that we need to do to make our customers feel comfortable. So if you remember toward the end of the last video, we were talking about, you know, the steps that we're going to take when we're diagnosing, being mindful of respecting the customer's home, Listening to them, listening to the problems that they've been having with their system, summarizing back with the customer what it was that they said, and letting them know the steps that we're going to take before we, you know, in order to diagnose their system. And then finally, letting them know our findings and unfortunately, yes, the cost that's that's going to. Be for them, what it's going to cost them to get their system fixed. So, um, in this final video in the series, I want to talk to you about not actually used cars, as you see on the board behind me, but I want to talk to you about a problem that many of us have seen in the HVAC industry, and that is the rise of the sales technicians. Now, I'm not going to tell you that these are all just bad guys and, and, you know, like somehow they're all just, you know, selling snake oil. Um, it's not, you know, it's not as simple as that. You know, everybody is just trying to feed their family and, you know, keep their family housed. All right. Um, but, you know, as HVAC technicians, our primary job is to be mechanics. Okay. So when we're talking to that customer About that repair on their system, you know, that's the point at which it gets really tense because a lot of customers are waiting for that hard sales pitch. You know, oh yeah, it's going to be $500 to repair your— replace your inducer motor, but, you know, your system is 16 years old and And you know, it's probably only got a couple years left anyway. You know, it's just, if you got a new system, boy, you'd have warranties and all this great stuff and the sky will open up and angels will descend on your front lawn. And you know, sure, there are advantages to a new system. I mean, energy efficiency has definitely gotten better, but realistically, If you spend $10,000 on a new system or more, how long is it going to take you at a $5 a month savings on your energy bill to make up for that purchase? So yes, energy savings, but is it really actually benefiting the customer for us to replace their system? So that's why I like to remember that we are mechanics Okay, that is what we are here to do. Yeah, Mr. Brown, your system is, uh, going to need an inducer motor. It is going to be $500 to replace it. I, I don't even bring up system replacement. I mean, typically on an older system, I might pull the burners, make sure they're clean, you know, at the very least do, do a visual inspection of the heat exchanger, just, just to quick glance, you know, shine a flashlight down past the burners and just see like, are we heavily rusted? And that can certainly be an indication. You can run a, uh, you can run a combustion analysis and you can even offer that as an add-on. Hey, so I noticed the system's older, the, you know, it seems to be fine visually. I think that all you're gonna— you're gonna be fine if you just replace this inducer motor. But just out of curiosity, because it is an older system, I'm just wondering, have maybe you and your family had any headaches or, you know, any problems with just feeling nauseous or just, you know, overly tired when you're at home? Um, you know, that's, that's the kind of question that gets us in the door of You know, this guy cares about me and my wellness and my, my well-being. You know, Mr. Brown— did I just change the customer's name? I think I did. Anyway, their name is Mr. Brown now. Mr. Brown, um, you know, I don't know if it's necessary or not. I, I think your furnace is fine, but, um, you know, if you'd like, for an extra, I don't know, $100, $150, however much your company charges, You know, I'd love to run a combustion analysis just to make sure that, you know, we're not leaking any carbon— carbon monoxide into the home. Um, so, you know, they might go for that. They might, you know, if— they might just say, no, you know, I think we're fine. We're not— we're not feeling sick at all. We're good. Um, and leave it at that. You know, there's no clear indication that there's something drastically wrong. So leave it at that. Don't push it any further. If the customer wants a combustion analysis, then by all means, give them what they ask for. But we absolutely do not need to push them to purchase a new system. I have heard of instances where a technician went in, diagnosed a system as bad, red-tagged it, And then another technician was— well, called in a sales guy to come in and measure for a replacement. The customer called another company, technician goes in, and it just had a bad hot surface igniter. And they even did a complementary combustion analysis, and it was fine. It just needed a stinking igniter. Like, really, people? What, what good are we doing the industry if we are doing this kind of crap to people and trying to act like used car salesmen? Not that used car salesmen are bad, by the way. I know several who are awesome human beings. Um, but unfortunately, we're getting that same stigma as an industry. So again, mechanics first, and also give them the choice. Okay? Yeah, be honest. You know, your system is older, and you know, I would be willing to do a combustion analysis if it's a gas furnace. Obviously combustion analysis doesn't help you much if it's an electric air handler, but, um, The— or yeah, heat strip. The, uh, the option though should be in their, their court. Now if they say, no, we're getting headaches, man, we feel nauseous all the time, this is, you know— I'm gonna be like, you know what, Mr. Brown, um, I think your furnace needs further diagnosis, and, um, I need to, I need to do a combustion analysis, and I need to make sure that you're safe. Because this is a safety issue. But if they're saying, no, everybody's feeling fine, then there's no reason to think that anything's wrong. You always got to give them the choice, and with that is the power. If I just red tag their unit and I say, this is out of commission, you cannot use this machine anymore, then that puts the power in my court, okay? But they are the homeowner. Now, we need to do what's in the best interest of our customers and their safety. Okay, for instance, just last week I went to a house, and this was actually a garage heater, but you know, those are basically half of a gas furnace that are suspended from the ceiling. And, well, they couldn't get it to light, and I was pretty sure the gas valve was just seized shut. Um, so I go and, you know, just looking up, and I take my flashlight and shine it up, and there's a big old gaping mouth. Oh my gosh. One, one of the, one of the clamshells of the heat exchanger had just split right open, and there was a new split forming on the next one. And that was the point in which I said, okay, I'm shutting off this gas valve. This thing's out of commission. There is no question in my mind that this furnace is not safe to use. So again, we are putting our customers' safety first, okay? Um, The only time we need to red tag a unit is if we actually know for a fact that this thing is going to hurt someone. Okay? So remember that as mechanics, safety is our number one priority. Okay? Just as an auto mechanic cannot and will not allow you to pull your vehicle out of the shop if it's going to be dangerous for you and others. We as HVAC mechanics cannot and will not allow a system to continue running if it's going to be dangerous for the homeowner. But if the system isn't dangerous, we need to not push them to purchase a new system. Okay, I sound a little bit like I'm preaching, and I'm sorry about that, but it just, you know, ultimately it comes down to our integrity. Our integrity is number one, and not just my own integrity or your own integrity, but truthfully, it's the integrity of all of us as a trade. Okay, how does that reflect upon all of us if I'm pushing people to purchase a new furnace just because? So on another one of my videos on TikTok. I thought it would be fun to post a little like, you know, here's the symptoms, tell me what the problem is type video. All that it was was the— it was a newer, I think slightly oversized furnace in an older little house, and they had one small return, and they had put a super thick like MERV 14 PET filter in it. Well, if you took the filter out— the furnace was tripping out on high limit, of course. Took the filter out, no problem. That's all it was. I just told the homeowner, get a thinner filter. It'll be fine. If that doesn't solve it, then we'll cut another return vent into the top of the trunk, the return plenum. That's all it was. 3 or 4 people commented, well, did you sell them a new furnace? Why didn't you sell them a new furnace? I just sold them a new furnace. No! Their furnace is perfectly fine. There's absolutely no reason to go selling them a new furnace. It's that exact type of pushy, sleazy, slimy salesmanship. That gives us a bad name. And, you know, a lot of these guys out here too are pushing these sales training things. And, you know, I'm all for some customer service and, and some, uh, you know, let's learn how to talk to our customers and learn some better people skills. God knows I can use them. But at the end of the day, are we acting with integrity, with the best interests of our customers? Are we really just out to protect their safety and ensure that, that, you know, they're gonna be okay with the system that they have. Um, you know, because honestly, pushing the, the higher, uh, energy efficiency and all that stuff, it's, it's not really that, that big of a win or a gain for the customer. You know, maybe in light of certain tax credits and stuff you can get, but really at the end of the day, they're still going to be spending thousands of dollars that they Otherwise wouldn't have had to spend. So if their system's repairable, to me, we should do everything we can to keep that system running in that house. So it's not really a question of should we sell our customer a new system, it's a question of do they actually need a new system? So that's what separates the real professionals from the super tech salesmen, is we're not going to sell them something that they don't need. That is the ultimate trust, and that's how you build a customer for life. I would rather go out and replace 100, you know, hot surface igniters and flame rods and inducers and all these little piddly jobs. than to have one big huge job that I sold on a system replacement that didn't really need it. That's enough of me preaching at you guys. I'm sorry if I was a little too strong on the whole thing, but at the end of the day, again, we want our customers to feel respected in their home. When we prepare for our day, when we prepare our truck and ourselves and make sure that we have everything we need, when we ask to enter the home, when we ask to— or does the customer want us to put shoe covers on? When we take steps to protect their home and communicate with them the steps we're going to take while we're in their home. If we then summarize what it is that we found and make our recommendations based on What is best for the customer. And then we don't push them to do anything beyond what is absolutely necessary. That is when we have a successful day, and that is when you become a successful technician. I want to thank you guys. If you watched all 3 of these videos in this series, I really do appreciate it. The, you know, the support I've gotten from the community has been just unreal. So keep it up. And, you know, again, these videos are free for use for anybody. If you're an instructor or a lead tech and you want to share these videos with your techs, feel free. Don't even have to ask. As long as you're not making money off of them, because I'm not. I do this for free. Appreciate you guys. Appreciate everything you do for our trade and for each other. Have a fantastic day, and I'll look forward to hanging with you again soon. Bye for now. Bye.