It comes down to people-pleasing—and it's deeply human. When someone's AC is out in the middle of summer and they're upset, the last thing a CSR wants to do is be the bearer of more bad news. So they say, "I'll try to squeeze you in," even when the schedule is already past capacity.
Amy puts it plainly: "I think it's more trying to keep people happy, rather than just being honest to begin with, and letting them know that we probably won't be able to get to you till tomorrow."
The problem is that promising something you can't deliver doesn't actually make anyone happy. It just delays the upset—and by the time it arrives, everyone is worse off.
Amy teaches her team a concept coined by Mark Twain: Eat the Frog. The idea is simple. If you know you have to eat a frog every day, you have two choices: spend all day dreading it, or just get up and do it first thing so it stops consuming your mental energy.
In customer service, the "frog" is the hard conversation you don't want to have.
Amy explains: "If you have to tell a customer that unfortunately you won't be able to get that AC fixed today, instead of just telling them no, we try to squeeze them on the schedule, we try to put too many people on the schedule, we end up burning out the techs, making the customers upset. We end up causing chaos by not just eating the frog in the beginning."
She also applies this to real-time situations. When a tech is running two hours behind, the instinct is to wait and hope the customer doesn't call. But that avoidance guarantees a frustrated caller. The better move—the "frog-eating" move—is to proactively reach out, let them know what's happening, and keep them in the loop. "People are more willing to wait, and they're more willing to be understanding when we keep them in the loop," Amy says.
Training isn't just about scripts—it's about giving your team a clear plan so they're never left guessing.
Amy describes how The New Flat Rate's CSR training creates exactly that: a structured system that tells your office staff which customers go first, how many appointments to put on the board, and what to say when things go sideways. "They know already you've laid out a plan for them as to what customers should be first, what customers can wait, how many appointments you want on the schedule. So they're not guessing."
She uses Chick-fil-A as the gold standard: "Everywhere you go, in every Chick-fil-A, when you're leaving and you say thank you, they say, 'My pleasure!' It doesn't matter where you are. Why? Because they have processes. They have blueprints."
That's what you're building when you train your CSR team—consistency that customers can count on, no matter who picks up the phone.
Amy brings this home with a story about a technician named Rob. Rob has a wife, two kids, and a 7-year-old son with a baseball game at 6 o'clock. When a CSR keeps saying yes to every call and overloads Rob's schedule, here's what actually happens:
Rob misses the game. The customer doesn't get served well because Rob is rushing or running late. The customer is upset. Rob is upset. Rob's wife thinks he doesn't care. His son keeps looking for him in the stands.
"Have we made anyone happy by not eating a frog?" Amy asks. "Everyone's mad—and whose fault is this?"
She also references a saying from a fellow service business owner in North Carolina: "There's only one Tyler." Meaning, you can always get another customer. You can't replace a good tech—and you can't give Rob back the moments he missed.
Sometimes saying no to a customer, and even referring them to a competitor, is the right call. "We call it co-opetition instead of competition," Amy says. "If I have to give this customer to my next-door neighbor HVAC company, then so be it. They're happy, the customer's happy, Rob's happy, sitting at his son's baseball game. I'm happy, because everyone's happy."
Amy's answer: talk to your people.
Not about numbers or performance—actually ask them how it's going. Find out what Rob is struggling with. Ask Danielle what she doesn't know how to say on the phone. "You don't know what's going on unless you ask," Amy says.
When you understand the real problem—whether it's too many calls, no scripting, or a CSR who doesn't know how to handle an angry customer—you can find the right resources to fix it. "If you don't know what help you need, especially when you are an owner or a manager stuck with numbers and bills, you're not looking at what Danielle is struggling with saying to customers. You don't know what the problem is."
The most important thing you can communicate to your team is that they matter. When your people feel seen, they stay—even when a competitor offers them a dollar or two more an hour.
If your team struggles with overbooking or knowing what to say under pressure, The New Flat Rate's Fluid Dispatching training was built for exactly this. It teaches your team how to run a flexible schedule, prioritize calls the right way, and set clear expectations with customers—without backing yourself into a corner during your busiest months.
Here's how you can learn more:
To learn more about Reliability Home Services, visit ReliabilityHomeServices.com
To learn more about The New Flat Rate, visit TheNewFlatRate.com
To get Fluid Dispatching training, visit TheNewFlatRate.com/fluid-dispatching
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