The Service Technician “WOW” Factor

Now you see it. Now you don’t.

By Matt Koop, Technical Trainer

What does it mean to be a good service technician? Is it that you are able to average more dollars per call than the average technician does?  Or is it when a technician can take their time and do a great job and give the customer a better warranty while building peace of mind with clients you are working for?

• There are 2 ways to be a great technician, and they are both equally important.

#1  Non-Visual Skills.

Non-visual skills mean that you are constantly improving your skills and learning how to make the systems you touch work better. Such as cleaning the coils, combustion calibrating and learning the Physics behind super heat and sub cooling, etc…

Non-visual skills solve problems and are a necessity, but when your customer comes to inspect your work after you leave, they cannot see the added value you have given. If you take off the control panels to show them, then all they see are a couple of plastic parts you put on for no telling how much money.

So, how can you improve your non-visual skills?  Here are a couple suggestions:

1. Go to continuing education classes.
2. Join online technical chat boards and do not be afraid to ask questions.
3. Think outside the box, pay attention to the surroundings such as duct work and the building envelope and what it is going through on a daily basis.

Then, once you begin solving problems, focus on how can we get a, “WOW!” reaction from the customer.  So, how do you get the “WOW”?

Simple, with skill #2: Visual Skills.

Visual skills are those extra things that make the customer say, “WOW! I can see you are really good at what you do.” They are those things that make your customer tell their friends about you. And they are those things that when their neighbor says, “I saw the A/C guys over there yesterday what did they do?” Visual Skills will cause the responses like, “Come on over and I’ll show you!”

Now of course there are always the small visual skills like wearing shoe covers, using drop cloths, and not making a mess, but what are some things you can do that will cause more of a “WOW” type response?

1. How about washing and waxing the outside of an a/c system.
2. Painting the covers of an older unit that might have rust or deck paint on it.
3. Repairing the insulation on a line set that has sun damage.
4. Putting down nice gravel around an outdoor unit to keep the weeds off.
5. Even labeling different types of equipment and disconnects for easier maintenance.

And these are just a few ideas; the list goes on and on.

Find something that you can do in your market to make the customer say, “WOW!  I’m so impressed!”

At the end of the day, a good service technician is one that will take the time to do a better job both visually and non-visually.