Ruth King
Contributing Writer
Profitability Revolution Paradigm
It’s summer and the telephone is ringing off the hook. Cash flow is good and you are feeling positive. Now is the time to earn profits and prepare for the slower times. You might think I’m nuts but according to Jim Rohn, one of the richest and most successful business philosophers, “Ants think summer all winter. Ants think winter all summer.” When you are busy is the best time to prepare for the slower times.
Here are twelve things to do:
1. Make sure that your technicians write everything down that they see wrong with a system during the diagnostic they perform. During busy times technicians can be reticent to write everything down. They fear that the customer will agree to have everything fixed that needs to be fixed and cause the technician to work late.
2. Make sure your technicians fix the disease…not the symptom of the disease. When it’s busy, the technicians have a tendency to find the first problem they see and fix it. Many don’t take the time to find out why that problem occurred. The last thing you want, and the customer needs, is a callback a few days or a week later.
3. You never want callbacks. However, they are especially painful when it is busy since you definitely could be performing a revenue producing call rather than a non-revenue producing callback or warranty call.
4. Take care of your warranty customers and service agreement customers first. Dispatch has to be good at saying “no” without saying “no”. Let everyone in your company know that you take care of these customers first.
5. It is unlikely that the customer will have the technician fix everything. However, save these tickets in a tickler file for work to do when it gets slower later this summer. Your techs are in your customers’ homes and offices. They are your eyes and ears.
6. Continue to enroll service agreements. Always talk about agreements. They will keep you busy in the slower times of the year.
7. Return telephone calls. Sometimes you get so busy giving estimates and handling the day to day that returning telephone calls is low on your priority list. If someone has called with an issue, you need to resolve it as quickly as possible. The last thing you need when you are busy is for a minor problem to become a major crisis. (You don’t need this EVER!)
8. Call customers whom you have given estimates to. You might be thinking that you are so busy that you can’t take another job. However, if you give an estimate to a customer, you have to call that customer back to see what they have decided to do. You might get the job (the customer might be waiting to see who does call back). You also might get valuable information about your competition.
9. Take a few minutes to ensure that the materials and instructions for your jobs are complete. You don’t have the time to waste running to the parts house (not that you do at other times of the year either). This is the time of year to be productive. Stopping work to pick up a part hampers productivity. In addition, customers appreciate your starting and completing a job without having to stop in the middle and disappearing for a while.
10. Make sure that everyone finishes jobs even if the crew must work a little past normal quitting time. From the customer’s perspective, they appreciate your crew’s additional effort to finish that day so they don’t have to spend part of another day at home. In addition, the job is complete and they can get back to their normal routine…more comfortable than they were the day before. They don’t have to wait an additional night for that comfort. If it takes an hour of overtime, it is much better to finish a job than come back the next day. You’ll spend more than that hour in labor and truck expense getting back to the job and completing it.
11. Continue disciplining. If an employee breaks company policy, even in busy times, you must discipline and take the appropriate action. If you have to lose an employee because of a disciplinary action, it’s tough when it’s busy. However, everyone else will see that you are following the rules and respect you for it. Most times they will pitch in to get the work done.
12. Say thank you frequently. Let them know that you appreciate their hard work. There are many ways to say thank you. It could be said in meetings. Publicly thank everyone for their hard work and let them know you appreciate their taking care of your customers. When you get customer appreciation letters read them during the meetings. Post them on a bulletin board where everyone can see them.
These are activities that you need to continue to do when it is extremely busy. You might think that you can’t handle one more service call or one more job. However, you’ll always fit in what needs to get done. In addition, when you are busy is the best time to look for work for the slower times.
Ruth King is CEO of HVACChannel.tv and a nationally recognized HVAC expert. You can reach her at ruthking@hvacchannel.tv or review her manuals at www.hvacoperationsmanual.com.