#soft skills

Callbacks are horrible. They kill the trade from every possible angle. They destroy customer satisfaction and reduce technician morale by causing long hours, resulting in unprofitability for companies and less earning opportunity for everyone. Possibly worse of all, callbacks tell customers that you are no better than their cousin the maintenance man, or worse, the […]

We all know what excuses are. They tend to sound like, “I would’ve done a better job if I’d just had the right tools!” or “I would have found that disconnected duct if I weren't dispatched at 6 PM!” Some people probably say, “Those aren’t excuses. Those are reasons!” OK, sure, we can call them […]

I knew a tech when I was just starting who was hands down, no questions asked, the best technician at the company I worked. EVERYONE, we are talking over 60 techs… we all knew it. His name was Mike Gilford. Being the little brown-nosing ladder climber I was, I made a complete study of Mike […]

It's Friday at 6 PM. The schedule is clear, as far as you can tell. Other guys have been getting cleared right and left, so you call in standby. Five minutes pass. Ten minutes pass. You check in again, and sure as &%$#, there it is! You get sent across town to another call that […]

It was an awkward conversation, bringing a technician nearly twice my age into my office for a talk. “I'm good at fixing units. I'm not some fancy-talking sales tech,” the technician half-mumbled as I sat looking at him. “The customer complained that you made them feel uncomfortable, you were unfriendly, and you tracked dirt in […]

In the residential HVAC industry, technicians are faced with customers every day. Each interaction presents its own set of unique challenges since no two customers are ever the same. While the variety of people we may encounter is wide, the HVAC technician's variety of soft skills and intuitive ability to communicate needs to be even […]

Our technician, Sam, sauntered into my office this afternoon like techs often do on a slow spring afternoon before the summer hits. It's been a long day for me, lots of training prep, a bunch of little fires, and errands to stomp out, and I still didn't get my article for the day written. I […]

We don't work in a trade of dreamers and unrealistic New Years' resolutions. We are doers who know that nothing worthwhile comes easy, and 2018 is no different. We have some “threats” entering the residential segment of the trade. Amazon and Google are looking to make a bigger entry into the home services trades, standardizing […]

 Bryan answers a listener-submitted question: “Am I toxic for caring?” He gives advice on how to maintain professional relationships while still maintaining very high standards of quality for your own work. Having high standards is great, but it can be frustrating when you perceive coworkers as having lower standards than you. A poor-quality end […]

 In this short Q&A podcast episode, Bryan answers Edward's question about how to deal with customers who ask, “Why didn't you notice it last time?” There isn't an easy answer to that question. The truth is that air conditioning and home health and comfort issues are complicated, and it's entirely possible that an issue […]

PART 1 PART 2   In this two-part series, Les Fork helps us break down some simple best practices from the time a residential service HVAC/R tech wakes up in the morning until the end of the day. Before the service call and good housekeeping Before a technician even leaves to go to work, they […]

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NOTE: If you cannot view the recording, the video may still be processing. The maximum wait time is 24 hours. We apologize for the delay and appreciate your patience.