Service Excellence

Your technician may be leading with the right problem for the wrong reason.

Techs naturally think:

Is it safe?
Is it working the way the manufacturer intended?
How does the customer use it?

Customers often think in the opposite order. If they can still use it the way they want, they assume it’s working. And if it’s working, they assume it’s safe.

So don’t skip the safety issue. Lead with what the customer stands to lose. Then explain how the system is operating and why the safety issue matters.

When a tech reviews findings with a homeowner, the red items are the easy part. Red means something isn't working. That ties directly to utility, so it's already a priority for the customer. You still need a real presentation and a practiced process. You just aren't fighting for their attention.

Everything else on that checklist is where the skill actually shows.

Which items do your techs struggle to present?

When a customer calls your office after five tonight, what does he actually hear?

The homeowner's first question is always what caused it. Answer that and the rest follows. This is the toilet that gets used most, and your water quality is wearing these parts out faster. If it's happening here, it's happening in the others. We should look at them.

That's not a pitch. That's showing them how the house is tied together. When a tech explains the connection, homeowners don't protest.

There are still some trades companies that are not documenting what counts as an after-hours emergency. So the customer decides, or the tech has to. Neither one should be carrying that call.

Define it at the company level, and the pressure comes off everybody. When the phone rings at 9 pm, your tech already knows it's legit. He's not weighing whether this one was worth leaving the house for.

Has your company put an "emergency" definition/protocol in writing, or is it still a judgment call?

In a trades business, culture is the call you make when the numbers and your standards point in opposite directions.

It isn't the retreat or the poster in the break room. It's what happens when a top producer hits his numbers while breaking a standard, or a job pays well but asks you to cut a corner. Your team watches which one wins.

Let profit override people a few times, and nothing seems to break. Until it does, all at once.

Where do your numbers and your standards pull against each other right now?

Stepping away from a business you built doesn't end the attachment. Chris Yano is honest about that on The $100 Million Mindset Podcast.

There's a mad phase. Part of you kind of wants it to fail, and part of you doesn't, because your money and your people are still tied up in it.

Then it settles. He hopes it succeeds. It's just not his success anymore, and he's proud of what they built when the logo was orange and black.

A new tech's wrong diagnosis is easiest to fix before the homeowner approves the work. So build in this one step....

After the diagnosis and before the repair, the tech calls his service manager and walks through what he found. The manager coaches. He doesn't take over the call. The tech still does the thinking, and he's never out there alone.

Track it over a few months. If callbacks are dropping and average tickets are climbing, the coaching is landing. That's classroom training, field training, and supervision working together.

Do your newer techs check in before the repair starts?

The homeowner can't see how good you are. They can only hear how well you explain it. So chase mastery in both. The craft and the words.

Because all that technical skill only reaches the customer through your confidence and whether they understand enough to make a decision. Get great at the work. Then get great at telling them what you found.

The people at the top of anything are still practicing. Not because something broke. Because they're not finished getting better. That's the standard.