Insights

Your technicians want to contribute more - what's stopping them?

Having met hundreds of technicians over the past three decades, I’ve never met an HVAC technician who didn’t want to make customers happy. And I’ve never met a technician who doesn’t want to make HVAC work well and reliably. So why is it that field service companies treat technicians as if they don’t care?

I once proposed to a service manager that they have their technicians write field reports that would go directly to customers without office review. She immediately balked at the idea. “That will never happen.” I asked why. “Because most of our technicians are idiots.” Taking a risk, I said, “So your company hires idiots?” “No, but that’s how they behave.”

As gently as possible – not one of my strengths – I pointed out that with the system they have, and the way they operate, if I worked for their company, I would also behave like an idiot. That made her think.

The owner of one of our most successful field service companies always used the adage, If you treat people like children, they will behave like children. This has served him well. He now operates one of the largest field service companies in Western Canada.

Everyone wants to do a good job. Everyone wants happy customers. And yet we seem to do our best to put barriers in place that prevent this from happening. Delays. Office review of work before submitting it to the customer – sometimes twice! Mindless bottlenecks interrupting the timely delivery of value. It goes on and on. And yet this isn’t unusual. In fact, it’s the norm. Why? There is a reason.

1 – Overcorrection Signals Distrust

Company owners know how important it is to do everything they can to help ensure the customer receives top-quality service. Because of this, they feel it makes sense to double-check all communications from the field to the customer. The problem is that this signals distrust and creates an environment where frontline work deteriorates. Technicians begin thinking, I can be sloppy with my writing. The office will catch it and clean it up before the customer sees it.

Consequence: This creates an assembly-line mentality, where nobody takes responsibility for the quality of the work performed.

Pushing problems downstream never solves anything. Always – ALWAYS – fix problems upstream.

2 – Fear of Change Keeps the Bar Low

For most people in the field – from owners to service managers, dispatchers to technicians – this way of operating is all they’ve seen. They’ve never worked in a company where a technician can take responsibility for the entire workflow, from request to final invoice. For many of us, anything new – anything different – appears risky.

The result is that most service companies compete at a very low bar. It’s only when one company streamlines their process by giving technicians more autonomy that others take notice.

Why? Because they start losing contracts to leaner, faster-moving competitors.

Here’s another adage: If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.

Well, it is broken. And we’ve seen the positive impact when it gets fixed: doubling revenues without increasing overhead costs – over and over again.

3 – Technicians Are Professionals

We need to understand where value is actually generated – and what supporting a team and professional growth really looks like. And yes, I use the word professional intentionally. That’s what technicians are. They act as equipment doctors, advisors, and emergency responders when systems fail. These are professionals. And in our view, they should be treated as such.

If we take the premise of "technicians want to do an excellent job, and want customers to be happy" as truth, then what is our job as company owners?

It is to provide them with the training, support, and tools they require – and then to simply get out of their way.

Does this mean we should trust all technicians all of the time? No. We need to ensure we have systems in place that help us:

• monitor apprentices
• audit what happened when things went wrong – and when things went right
• provide proper training and support so they can grow in their careers

Personal and professional growth is what motivates. It creates loyalty, reducing turnover. It increases productivity and makes for very, very loyal customers.

That little premise – that technicians want to do good – can make all the difference in how you operate your field service business.

Ucora stands behind it, 100%.

Let's talk about helping technicians do more for your business.