HVACR Business October 2018 by HVACR Business

Be Creative with Your Recruiting By Pete Grasso 5

Learn from Your Strengths, Weaknesses By Michael Moore 12

Design a Disruptive Truck Wrap By Alyssa Young 16

Find Where the Talent is Hiding By Joel Frederick 19

Signs You Need to Hire a Business Consultant By Karen Lamy DeSousa 20

OCTOBER 2018 / VOL.13 / NO.10

M A KE YO U R C A L L C E NTER A

REVENUE GENERATING MACHINE

Page 10

Make the Most of Your Marketing Dollars Page 14

ALSO INSIDE Â» Featured Entrepreneur: Marty Rosica, owner of Hawks & Company ..... 6 Ruth King: Essential Maintenance Profitability ........................ 8 20 Questions with Jay Baer Digital Marketing Guru and Bestselling Author.... 22

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CONTENTS

OCTOBER 2018 / VOL.13 / NO.10

F E AT U R E S

Your Call Center Should be a Revenue Generating Machine Have your customer service team become brand ambassadors for your company. By Tom Merriott

Learn from Your Strengths, Weaknesses

Make the Most of Your Marketing Dollars

Conducting a proper SWOT analysis for your businesses is easier than you might think. By Michael Moore No matter how much you spend, you’ll never know if your marketing works unless you track it. By Taylor Hill & Carter Harkins

Design a Disruptive, Eye-catching Truck Wrap Wrapping your vehicles is a costly investment, so it’s important to get it right. By Alyssa Young

D E PA R T M E N T S

Editor’s Notebook

Featured Entrepreneur

There is a way to fill the talent void, but you’ll have to work at it and be creative. By Pete Grasso Marty Rosica, owner of Hawks & Company

20 Questions with Jay Baer Digital marketing guru, keynote speaker and best-selling author

C O LU M N S

Three Essental Business Functions, Part 1 — Maintenance Profitability The foundation of every HVACR company is a thriving maintenance program. By Ruth King

19 20

Find Where the Talent is Hiding Fear not, for there are ways to recruit new and quality employees. By Joel Frederick

Signs You Need to Hire a Business Consultant Hiring a consultant is a way to empower yourself to achieve your goals. By Karen Lamy DeSousa

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EDITOR’S NOTEBOOK

BY PETE GRASSO THE HVACR MANAGEMENT MAGAZINE TERRY Tanker Publisher ttanker@hvacrbusiness.com PETE Grasso Editor pgrasso@hvacrbusiness.com MEGAN LaSalla Art Director mlasalla@hvacrbusiness.com BRUCE Sprague Circulation Manager bs200264@sbcglobal.net BARBARA Kerr Executive Assistant bkerr@hvacrbusiness.com

ADVERTISING STAFF EAST COAST/SOUTHEAST JIM Clifford Regional Sales Manager Tel 201-362-5561 Fax 201-334-9186 jclifford@hvacrbusiness.com MIDWEST ERIC Hagerman Regional Sales Manager Tel 216-409-3246 Fax 440-731-8750 ehagerman@hvacrbusiness.com WEST COAST TERRY Tanker Publisher Tel 440-731-8600 Fax 440-731-8750 ttanker@hvacrbusiness.com

HVACR Business, founded January 1981, is a monthly national trade magazine serving contractors, mechanical engineers, manufacturers, manufacturer representatives, wholesalers, distributors, trade associations, and others in the heating, ventilating, air conditioning and refrigeration (HVACR) industry primarily in the U.S. The editorial focus and mission of HVACR Business is to provide business owners and managers with the very best business management concepts available. Critical topics covered include leadership, management, strategy, finance, sales, marketing, training, education, staffing, operations, human resources, legal issues, customer service and more. We are dedicated to helping contractors master these key management skills and provide them with the resources necessary to build strong, profitable companies. Every effort is made to provide accurate information, however, the publisher assumes no responsibility for accuracy of submitted advertising and editorial information. Copyright©2018 by JFT Properties LLC. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, or by recording, or by any information storage or retrieval system, without written permission from the publisher. Subscription Rates: Free and controlled circulation to qualified subscribers. Non-qualified persons may subscribe at the following rates: U.S. and possessions: 1 year $48; 2 years $75; 3 years $96; Canadian and foreign, 1-year $108 U.S. funds only. Single copies $8. Subscriptions are prepaid, and check or money orders only. Subscriber Services: To order a subscription or change your address, write to HVACR Business, 31674 Center Ridge Road, Suite 104, North Ridgeville, OH 44039 or call (440) 731-8600; or visit our Web site at www.hvacrbusiness.com. For questions regarding your subscription, please contact bkerr@hvacrbusiness.com. HVACR Business (ISSN 2153-2877) Published monthly by JFT Properties LLC., 31674 Center Ridge Road, Suite 104, North Ridgeville, OH 44039. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to HVACR Business, 31674 Center Ridge Road, Suite 104, North Ridgeville, OH 44039. Periodicals postage paid at Cleveland, OH and additional mailing offices. (USPS 025-431)

31674 Center Ridge Road, Suite 104 North Ridgeville, OH 44039 Tel: (440) 731-8600 Fax: (440) 731-8750 Web site: www.hvacrbusiness.com (ISSN: 2153-2877)

www.hvacrbusiness.com www.HVACRBUSINESS.com www.hvacrbusiness.com

Be Creative with Your Recruiting

rom Day 1, our goal has been to provide you — the business owners and managers of HVACR contracting companies — with the best business management advice and concepts available. Whether its marketing tactics, financial guidance, business strategy or simply insight into what works for other prosperous contractors, each month we deliver this information to help you run a profitable, successful business. We regularly study the market, meeting with contractors and industry influencers to understand what you need and want from a magazine. A big part of that is identifying trouble areas in your business and providing content to help you overcome those obstacles. For the past several years, whenever I ask a contractor what they believe to be their biggest challenge, the answer has been the same: finding quality talent.

like Ultimate Technical Academy and things like HVAC Learning Solutions at Lennox,” Hanson says. “We build them up and let them advance within the company.” Hanson’s approach is not unique. In fact, an overwhelming majority of contractors I’ve spoken with are focusing on finding great people and training them to be great technicians and employees. James Kester, owner of Colonial Plumbing, Heating and Air, even goes so far as to partner with the local high school’s vocational program. “Whether I’m at a high school speaking with students or at church speaking with youth, I look for people who have the personality or the desire to learn,” Kester says. “They don’t have to be from any kind of technical background for me to be interested. I just have to see they have that desire to learn.”

There is a way to fill the talent void, but you’ll have to work at it. Make it a priority and be creative with your recruitment strategy.

Its no secret that as Baby Boomers continue to reach retirement age, the industry is having a difficult time filling that void. The Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates there will be a need for 115,000 new HVACR professionals to meet the demand in our industry through 2022.

Sometimes, you’re challenged with trying to recruit talent against your competition. In many areas, several HVACR companies are competing for the same talent pool. Linda Couch, chief operating officer of Parrish Services, says the key is to create a company where employees want to work.

It’s not all doom and gloom, however. There is a way past this problem — but it’s not going to be easy.

“We do everything we can to create a great working environment and create loyalty,” she says. “We create an environment such that people don’t want to leave.”

I’ve spoken with many contractors and, while I often hear finding quality talent is a challenge, I have heard from quite a few successful contractors who are full of advice on tackling this problem.

Chris Hunter, owner of Hunter Heat & Air, agrees that having a great company culture is the best way to fill the skills gap.

For example, this month we feature a column from Joel Frederick, president of Quarter Moon Plumbing & AC in San Antonio. Frederick offers a fairly detailed outline for where you can look for and recruit this next generation of trade talent (page 19). Some of his advice seems simple enough in principle, but make no mistake — like anything else in business, if you want to be successful you’re going to have to work for it. This got me thinking about all the different ways contractors have told me their working at solving the labor shortage. Jason Hanson, president of Sierra Pacific Home and Comfort, says they focus on building their own great technicians. “We hire entry level and use training resources we can get through the manufacturers or other trade schools,

“If you know who you are, what you stand for and what your mission is — and you have fun doing it — you’re going to attract people who want to be part of the team,” Hunter says. “They may not have an HVAC background, but that’s fine. I want people with the same values as us.” Whether its great benefits, opportunity for advancement or simply hands on training and education, what you offer your employees can be enough to get the talent to come to you. Sometimes, you simply have to make recruitment a priority. Chadd and Keegan Hodges, co-owners of Best Home Services, have grown exponentially from 10 to 145 employees in a short period of time. “Hiring is our number one priority because our company culture is one of growth,” Hodges says. “We live by a few simple core values — be a family, be fun, be amazing and constantly grow and learn.” u HVACR BUSINESS OCTOBER 2018

Featured

ENTREPRENEUR

Trying Something New BY PETE GRASSO

ike many entrepreneurs in this industry, Marty Rosica started right out of high school, going first to a technical school where he learned a trade and started as an apprentice in the residential field. “I went from residential into commercial, and then into commercial HVACR sales,” Rosica says. “I worked for some of the big union firms — $70, $80 million companies.”

MARTY ROSICA Title: Owner Company: Hawks & Company Website: hawksandco.com Year Founded: 1976 Headquarters: Deptford, N.J. Work Performed: Commercial Service & Maintenance, Energy Services and Design/Build No. of Employees: 33 Annual Revenue: $6.5 million Vendor-Partners: Mitsubishi, Reliable Controls, Lochinvar Boilers Affiliations: Air Conditioning Contractors of America, Synergy Solution Group Partnerships: Leading Age New Jersey, Health Care Association of New Jersey

Rosica had a sales territory from Boston down through D.C. — selling facilities management as well as facilities services and mechanical services. The network of companies he visited was vast. “I wanted to come back home … travel was not for me,” he says. “Plus, I always wanted to own my own business.” In 1976, Mark Hawks had a vision to provide the Delaware Valley with a fresh approach to mechanical services. With his background in commercial and industrial boilers and burners, Hawks developed a niche position in the marketplace as the region’s expert in this field. Eventually, Hawks & Company added traditional mechanical services such as air conditioning and industrial service to their service offerings in order to support their growing client base with solutions to their climate control problems. By 2006, Hawks was looking to get out of the business and that’s when he met Rosica. An entrepreneur by nature, Rosica loved the idea of trying something new. “I knew nothing about his business,” Rosica says. “I knew the HVACR business, but I didn’t know his business.” Nevertheless, Rosica purchased Hawks & Company and was officially a business owner and an entrepreneur. “I took an entrepreneurial class at the local community college, which consisted of learning how to build a business plan and understand the financing needed,” Rosica says. “I had all the fundamentals, and then they introduced me to a commercial lender. It was great.” In his first 10 years owning Hawks & Company, Rosica added more than 20 employees and grew the business five times over. A 100 percent commercial and industrial service company, Hawks & Company relies on relationships to drive business. All lead generation comes from being seen, so Rosica knew marketing and the look of his fleet would play an important part in obtaining new relationships and clients. “We don’t do cold calling, plan and spec work or bid through general contractors,” he says. “We differentiate

HVACR BUSINESS OCTOBER 2018

ourselves against the status quo, and being seen and remembered is a big part of that.” Another big area of focus for Hawks & Company has been education and recruitment. “We look for people who either went to technical school or came out of the public vocational-tech environment, and have an interest in a trade,” Rosica says. “But I’m not hiring them for what they know. I’m hiring them for all of their potential and what I’m going to make of them.” Recently, Hawks & Company acquired Phillips McDade, a 27-year-old commercial HVACR company with a primary focus on Automated Temperature Controls systems. Having the in-house programing capabilities from Phillips McDade now offers Hawks & Company an amazing range of detailed services. “We’re excited to have such a strong team join the Hawks family,” Rosica says. “As the teams integrate and share knowledge, we will be able to bring more high quality, focused services to our customers and partners.” Rosica’s passion is to deliver a value-enriched service product while working with direct owners and managers. He works very closely with his team of experts to reduce customer owning and operating costs by employing the latest technologies to optimize the use of their mechanical systems “Our staff are held to the highest of standards,” he says. “We are dedicated to training our team through mentorship, on-the-job training and classroom exercises that push them to be the best that they can be.” Over the years, Rosica has developed a great relationship with the instructors at the area’s technical schools, something he credits for Hawks & Company’s ability to recruit quality talent. “I do site visits, but I also invite them here,” he says. “We have a training room in which we do our in-house training. I invite the kids to come here with the instructors so they see our operation.” Rosica believes you don’t need to be college educated to be an entrepreneur and do the right thing … as long as you surround yourself with smart people, you’ll be in good shape, he says. “I don’t have a college degree — I have a technical school degree,” Rosica says. “I came through the industry and that’s where I like to go back and apply my expertise.” u

Pete Grasso is the editor of HVACR Business magazine. Email him at pgrasso@hvacrbusiness.com.

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BY RUTH KING

Three Essential Functions, Part 1 — Maintenance Profitability

he three major functions of HVACR businesses are maintenance, service and replacement. Where does new construction fit in? It feeds maintenance, which then impacts the other major business functions. The foundation of every HVACR company is a strong, thriving maintenance program — whether it’s residential, commercial or both. Over the next three months I’ll cover maintenance, service and replacement/job profitability.

MAINTENANCE PLANS Your maintenance plans must break even. This means breaking even after

The foundation of every HVACR company is a strong, thriving maintenance program — whether it’s residential, commercial or both. overhead is taken into consideration. Overhead cost per hour is total overhead divided by total billable hours. Take at least a six month — or, preferably one year — total overhead and total hours, since overhead can fluctuate from month to month. If your company produces departmentalized financial statements, use the overhead for your service department assuming that

maintenance revenues and expenses are included in the service department. Let’s look at maintenance pricing from a residential and commercial perspective. Residential: Calculate the total time that it takes per system per year, including travel time. Commercial: Calculate the total time for cleaning visits and filter change visits, including travel time and the time it takes to get started working. You might have to get a roof hatch key, pull a water hose onto a roof, etc. Include this time in the calculations.

Determine the materials you need and any SPIFFs paid: Assume: 3 total hours Overhead cost per hour: $35 per hour Technician cost: $20 per hour

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Materials: $5 SPIFF: $10

Break even cost of this maintenance plan: Labor: $60 Overhead: $105 Materials and SPIFF: $15 Breakeven price: $180 If you’re selling your maintenance plans at $160, then you’re losing $20 for each plan per year. If you have 1,000 maintenance agreements, you’re losing $20,000 per year. Revenues needed to cover this loss, assuming a 10 percent net profit, are $200,000 per year.

Here are five ways to help your maintenance plans break even. 1. For residential maintenance: Do not have a $30 technician performing maintenance. Maintenance is usually the first or second step in a career path. Hourly wages should be lower. Of course, there will be times that a $30 technician has to perform maintenance. Make it as infrequent as possible. 2. For commercial maintenance: Have a lower wage technician change filters. You might need that $30 technician (or a higher wage) performing maintenance on chillers. 3. For residential maintenance: If the first system maintenance is $180, then the second and subsequent systems are $160 or higher. Then the only thing that is different is there is no travel time for the second and subsequent systems. Your technicians perform the same procedures for both systems. 4. For both: Route as efficiently as possible. If you can stay in the same neighborhood or industrial park, then travel time is minimized and you earn more per maintenance plan. 5. For both: If the system is dirty, charge regular rates (less the discount) to clean the units. Your maintenance price is for maintenance, not to bring the equipment up to standards. A thriving maintenance program can help increase service and replacement/job revenues. Next month, I’ll cover service profitability. u

Ruth King is president of HVAC Channel TV and holds a Class II (unrestricted) contractors license in Georgia. She has more than 25 years of experience to help grow HVACR companies. Contact her by email at ruthking@hvacchannel.tv.

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REVENUE GENERATING MACHINE

Have your customer service team become brand ambassadors for your company BY TOM MERRIOTT

his may not come as a surprise. After all, your call center is the source of your business, but if you really want your call center to increase revenue, start with a list of potential ways it can do so. Here are a few examples to get you started. Increase conversion percentage. This is nothing more than turning the calls you receive into appointments for your technicians, and this is the place where everyone should begin. If you can get this percentage high enough you can increase call volume without any additional marketing spend, which will increase revenue. Fill the board when the calls aren’t coming in organically. An outbound calling program is an essential part of any successful service business. If the phones aren’t ringing, then your team should be

One great way to get them to love your company is to have them research all the ways you are better than your competition. calling out. Creating work where there wasn’t going to be any is an incredible revenue boost. Seek out referrals from current customers. A “happy call program” will let you know how your technicians are performing in your customers’ homes. Sometimes on those calls you’ll find raving fans of your work.

happy calls I mentioned earlier are part of this puzzle, but empowering your frontline customer service team to make your customers happy is another. Look at each upset customer as a chance to create a raving fan. Don’t be afraid to get a little crazy with this list. Some of the best ideas start as seemingly ridiculous ones.

Ask those people if they know anyone else who might benefit from a great service experience. Don’t be afraid to reward the employees who refer new customers for their efforts.

I was working with a member company who asked how to get more referral yard signs up in their community. One of the first things I asked was if their employees had them in their yards.

Reduce the number of customer complaints and negative reviews. The

After some discussion, they created a program where the managers would

HVACR BUSINESS OCTOBER 2018

spot-check for yard signs and give random monthly prizes to employees who had them prominently displayed.

BRAND AMBASSADORS Having your customer service team become brand ambassadors for your company will build your business. I personally feel more comfortable spending my money on employees who love their company. It makes me feel like I’m part of something special, and you should want all of your team to feel this way so that feeling is transmitted through the phone to your customers. One great way to get them to love your company is to have them research all the ways you are better than your competition. You want your team to be able to brag about your business on a moment’s notice. www.hvacrbusiness.com

PRIORITIZE Now that you have your list, it’s time to prioritize. Look at the things you wrote down and decide what will have the most immediate impact on profits. For most, it will be increased conversion rates. If that’s the case, then the first thing you need to do is concentrate your efforts on booking more calls. Training should center around that goal. Each meeting or business-related conversation should tie in to making the most out of every call. You should also have a plan built around measuring and increasing those numbers. It can be as simple as running a report from your telephone software of daily calls answered by extension or operator. Once you have the number of calls answered by each team member, you can then run a report in your dispatch software to find the number of calls booked. If they answered 100 calls and booked 70, then their booking percentage is 70 percent. Following that, your training and coaching will be focused on incremental improvements to that number toward your final goal. Once the immediate steps are underway, you should take the rest of the list and put it on a timeline. Pick the things you want to get done in the next quarter, the next six months, the next year, and then write down some preliminary implementation dates.

the team for their performance.

Training should center around your goal. Each meeting or business-related conversation should tie in to making the most out of every call. As you’re writing these down, make sure they are all aimed at your original goal of making customer service part of your goal of increased revenue.

TEAM BUY IN Now that you have a plan in place, you need to get the team to buy in. Most plans like this fail because the excitement primarily comes from the architects and not the people who have to do the work. Let them know how important hitting these goals is and how much you appreciate all that they do. Keep in mind that most people need to know the why behind the things they are doing each day. Also, don’t be afraid to gather input from the team. If they offer suggestions or improvements, you should do everything possible to incorporate those into the plan. People are much happier executing something that they helped build. Plus, their contributions show that they care about their department’s success, which is a great thing. I want you to be able to turn to your team and say, “Look what we did!”

GOALS Once you have everyone on board you should also consider some numeric goals. Think about that conversion rate example we talked about earlier. If you find that your current percentage is 70 percent, then post a team goal of 85 percent. Build out a calendar of small, incremental improvements that get you to that goal over time so this doesn’t seem impossible or overwhelming. In the earlier example, a two to three percent improvement is booking just two to three more calls per day, and everyone should be okay with that as a goal. Once you reach a new level of performance, the bar gets raised. Repeat this until you’re where you want to be or beyond. Make a plan to reward the team for meeting those goals. If they can do 15 percent better with the calls that are already coming in, then you’re ahead of the game. It means less marketing dollars to make the phone ring more to increase daily calls. If they can raise the daily booked call count without any extra cash, consider providing a bonus or celebration to reward

It might help you to visually track their progress in the office. A chart or graph that is updated weekly or a whiteboard will suffice. Make it someone’s responsibility to track and report results for all to see. A scoreboard keeps your team pointed toward the goal. This will also keep everyone focused once the newness wears off.

ONE FINAL NOTE The overall success of any effort like this will be dependent on your attitude and the attitude of your team. If you really want something in your business to improve, then this needs to be an area of focus. If you want to increase your booking percentage, every manager who interacts with your customer service team should be checking in and asking questions. Signs should go up with your stretch goal on them. If you’re giving out bonuses, you’ll need to advertise that internally as well. Your attention and attitude will make or break any major plans for improvement. u Tom Merriott, a business coach at Nexstar who focuses on call-center, dispatch and contractor communication process excellence, brings years of call center and management experience from independent HVAC, plumbing and electrical contractors. For additional information, visit nexstarnetwork.com.

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LEARN FROM YOUR STRENGTHS, WEAKNESSES

Conducting a proper SWOT analysis for your business is easier than you might think BY MICHAEL MOORE

o position your business in your particular market, you need to know who your competition is, and what they’re doing. A great way to gain insight is to run a SWOT analysis on the major competitors in your market. SWOT stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats. If you’ve already done that, some of the insights you gained will be useful in analyzing your own business. If you haven’t, don’t worry. You’ll have a chance to gather useful data about your competitors while analyzing your own company. Assessing the strengths and weaknesses of your own business can be easier — you have access to all of the information you need. It can also be harder — it’s tough to be objective about your company.

VITAL TOOL SWOT analyses are a vital tool for business and marketing. They help you to organize important information about your company and your market, before launching a new action plan. Anyone can make decisions based on hunches and what seems obvious, but similar to a general in wartime, you need the best information you can gather, to create a winning strategy. By the way, you can enlist others. If you have a management staff, or a business partner, or a few key employees you trust, you can recruit your team to help you build your SWOT lists.

A SWOT analysis helps you to organize important information about your company and your market, before launching a new action plan. It’s fairly common for business owners and managers to avoid sharing financial details with their service (and sometimes sales) departments. Knowing where the business stands, however — what’s going great for it and what elements are acting against it — can help your staff to understand the importance of their roles to the business’s health. When people feel included and valued, they are more likely to work hard to make the whole enterprise more successful.

VISION If you don’t have a vision for your business, there’s not much point in analyzing whether your current situation and strategies will get you there. If, for instance, you’re aiming to be the premier HVACR company in your area, offering stellar customer service and high-end products, that gives you more details to work with than wanting to make money. You run a SWOT analysis to help your business become more profitable, but that’s not the same as having a vision for what you want the company to be. You can also start with a question. For instance, “Do I need to grow my service department?” could be an area you use a SWOT analysis to explore. “Should

HVACR BUSINESS OCTOBER 2018

we start offering an additional service?” is another example of a question that a SWOT analysis can help you determine the answer to. The process of conducting the analysis doesn’t change, whether it’s a single facet of your strategy, or an entire operational plan that you’re building.

STRENGTHS These are internal factors. Make a list of your business’s strengths. These could include employee dynamics, such as having a strong and close-knit team, financial details, having a good location for your business, competitive advantages, and perhaps pricing. The list doesn’t have to be perfectly complete. You can add to it later.

WEAKNESSES These are also internal, and may be less comfortable to evaluate. What factors could put your business at a disadvantage in your market? These will be things inherent to your business, not threats from outside. We’ll get to those in a bit. Examples of internal weaknesses could be things such as low employee morale, not having enough new customers to support business growth, having trouble stocking enough equipment, parts and

supplies, billing issues, low profit margins, and so on. If your list seems long, don’t despair. The results of your analysis can help you to improve your business. If you do this again in a year (and you should), the weaknesses you find now may be gone, or significantly reduced.

OPPORTUNITIES These are external factors. Consider your market, and what’s going on in the industry. For instance, digital tools that allow you to train new hires without sending them away to a school or class, or that make it easier for your sales team to present information on new products or services to your customers, could present opportunities. Perhaps there’s been a recent influx of younger homeowners in your market. That could be an opportunity to gain new customers. Partnerships with other businesses or suppliers of products, training or tools may also help you to gain a competitive advantage. Some factors may be an opportunity for one area of your business, but register as a threat for another. For instance, if you’re thinking of expanding your services to include a service that a competitor has the corner on, that’s an opportunity to increase profit. But, it could also make your competition seem extra threatening. However you look at it, don’t list the same things in both the Opportunities and Threats categories. www.hvacrbusiness.com

THREATS This final category is also for external influences. The industry-wide shortage of HVACR installers and technicians could be a threat. Increasing competition in your market, rising costs of equipment and supplies, or unfavorable weather could all be external threats, not under your control.

WHAT’S NEXT? Now that you’ve listed Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats, what do you do with that information? As far as organization goes, it’s a decent idea to put your categories side-by-side, such as in a spreadsheet format, so you can look at them all at once. At this point, the items on your sheet may seem overwhelming. It’s okay. You are not going to be able to tackle everything at once, no matter how awesome you are. That’s why the next step is to prioritize.

KPIs can help, too. In addition to the answers you come up with for the above questions, these operational Key Performance Indicators can help to guide your strategy.

Use these “gravy” jobs to maximize your gross profit dollars per day.

Whether your business is small, or one of the biggest fish in town, everything you do needs to stem from a culture based on ethics, excellence and integrity.

What it does is show you the areas where you’re doing well, things you can improve on and external factors that you can proactively address to build a plan for the next year.

Model these traits for your employees, insist on them when serving customers, and reinforce them with training.

Running a SWOT analysis does not give you the strategy to make your business grow and increase profit.

Next time, you may be quite impressed with how you’ve managed to strengthen

your business, using a plan based on the results of your SWOT analysis. u Mike Moore isn’t just an HVACR expert; he also knows a thing or two about employee training for the HVACR industry. As one of the Lennox Learning Solutions founders and Director of Training, he is focused on helping HVACR leaders, salespeople and technicians grow their businesses and develop their skills. Visit lennoxpros.com/HVACR-training for additional information.

In a Residential Add On Replacement sector, everyone in the business needs to know and understand the maintenance agreement business model. Maintenance agreements aren’t just for filling in hours during slow months. They can be a sophisticated marketing platform to help maintain and grow your customer base. It’s more profitable to

If your list of weaknesses seems long, don’t despair. The results of your analysis can help you to improve your business. For each of your four lists, reorder and number the entries so that you have the most critical item at the top, the second most urgent item next, and so on. No cheating. You can’t have two or three (or four!) number one items. Each entry in your list gets one number, in descending order of priority.

STRATEGIZE This is where we get to the good part. You’ve got your prioritized lists, so now you can use that information to develop a strategy that will make your business more profitable. Ask yourself these questions, while reviewing the factors you’ve listed. 1. How can our strengths help us seize the opportunities we’ve found? 2. In what ways can these strengths help us nullify the threats? 3. Weaknesses can keep us from seizing the opportunities. What actions are needed to surmount our weaknesses, so we can make use of the opportunities? 4. What do we need to do to overcome our weaknesses, so we can deal with the threats? www.hvacrbusiness.com

cultivate a long-lasting service relationship with each customer, than to have to constantly add new customers because you’ve lost touch with those you had. All managers and employees need to understand the financial numbers and KPIs. How can they help to boost business performance, if they don’t know what’s needed and expected? For a residential service, maintenance and replacement company, the gross margin should be about 42 percent. Margins and overhead change by business segment, so a plumbing company wouldn’t use exactly the same figures as a residential HVACR company, or a company working more in the commercial sector. If you’re primarily in the residential service, maintenance and replacement business, overhead should be 28 percent or less. This is one of the places where your pricing comes into play. All system replacement jobs should be completed in one day. These are relatively easy jobs that should not entail any complex troubleshooting or diagnosis. HVACR BUSINESS OCTOBER 2018

MAKE THE MOST OF YOUR MARKETING DOLLARS No matter how much you’re spending, you’ll never know if your marketing is working unless you track it

BY TAYLOR HILL & CARTER HARKINS

very business owner wants to know that his or her marketing is working, because marketing isn’t free. But there are a few things that many business owners fail to do that can lead to a lot of marketing money waste. Here’s what you need to be willing to do in order to truly get more from each marketing dollar you spend.

SPEND First and foremost, you have to be willing to spend! A marketing budget is an absolute must. You have to have money set aside just for that purpose and you have to be willing to spend or you won’t reap the results, especially in a highly competitive market.

When setting a marketing budget, the most important thing is that you’re realistic. Don’t assume you can or can’t afford something. When setting a marketing budget, the most important thing is that you’re realistic. Don’t assume you can or can’t afford something — get the real numbers and figure out what makes sense for your business.

TRACK No matter how much you’re spending, if you aren’t tracking your marketing, how can you ever know which marketing tactics

HVACR BUSINESS OCTOBER 2018

and methods are working and which are a waste of your money? Tracking is key to making the most of your marketing, because it tells you where to feed more money and where to cut the budget. Are you tracking your marketing? The whole purpose of marketing is to raise awareness and make your phone ring, right? But if you don’t have metrics in place to track the results of your marketing, you won’t know what to attribute those sales

and phone calls to. It doesn’t matter what type of marketing you’re doing, you have to look at the data. What metrics do you have in place? Whether you’re funneling money into direct mail, email campaigns, online marketing, Google Ads, Facebook Ads, or you’re sponsoring local sports teams, you have to determine how you’re going to gauge the success of those marketing dollars. You can’t just buy an ad — you have to look at the numbers. How much business is that ad bringing you? Are they quality leads that convert? Figure out what success looks like with each marketing dollar you’re spending. SEO has a reputation for being difficult www.hvacrbusiness.com

to track, but there are ways to gauge the effectiveness of your SEO, you just have to do it right.

Sometimes the problem isn’t your marketing and no amount of ad spend will fix it.

TWEAK Once you’ve defined success and determined what metrics to use to track the effectiveness of your marketing efforts, you’ll be able to start refining and adjusting to make the most of your marketing spend. But it’s important that you give your marketing efforts time before you start adjusting things.

No matter what type of marketing you’re doing, no matter how well you’re tracking, and no matter how much money you funnel into your marketing, if you run a poor business that offers poor customer service, you’re going to lose money. All your marketing efforts can do is bring you leads, but you have to close the sale. Is your business set up to make the most of the leads your marketing brings you?

When trying something new, let it run for at least three to six months so you can gather enough data to make informed

Even the best marketing campaign will fail if the business itself is a mess. If you don’t have good customer service, good

TIME TESTED. CONTRACTOR APPROVED.

Even the best marketing campaign will fail if the business itself is a mess. decisions. After that trial period, look at your metrics and if something’s not working, take the time to analyze it and figure out why it’s not working. Be willing to tweak things as needed and if something’s not working for you, try something else. Just because your competitor has had huge success with one type of marketing doesn’t mean you will. So constantly look at the data, be flexible, and shift as needed.

TRY NEW THINGS The marketing world is constantly in flux and new avenues and tactics pop up almost daily. Stay on top of it and be willing to try new things that become available to you. Sometimes being the first in your market to try a new marketing method can bring massive success. Don’t just stick with what you know — be willing to be a little bit adventurous. Don’t be careless, but don’t be risk averse either — the magic is somewhere in between.

MARKETING BRINGS LEADS Many people ask us why we, as marketers, started the Blue Collar Proud movement. Well the answer is this: we kept seeing the same things again and again. We kept having the same conversations with business owners, and they weren’t marketing related, they were business related. www.hvacrbusiness.com

leadership, and good systems, or if you have a whole host of HR problems and unreliable, unprofessional employees, all your marketing will do is put a megaphone or a spotlight to your company’s issues. So take a step back, look at your business, and pinpoint where you need to improve and what systems you need to put in place before you ramp up your marketing spend. Get the business right first so when those leads start pouring in and those phones start ringing, you’re ready to close every sale and gain happy, loyal customers. And make sure you’re tracking every effort, start to finish! u

Taylor Hill and Carter Harkins are the cohosts of the Blue Collar Proud (BCP) Show, a podcast that’s all about having and living the blue collar dream, and co-authors of the book Blue Collar Proud: 10 Principles for Building a Kickass Business You Love. Taylor & Carter also co-founded Spark Marketer, a Nashville-based digital marketing company that works primarily with service businesses. Visit bcpshow.com/contact for additional information.

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HVACR BUSINESS OCTOBER 2018

D E S I G N A D I S RU PT IV E, E YE -C ATC H I N G T RU C K WR AP Wrapping your vehicles is a costly investment, so it’s important to get it right. BY ALYSSA YOUNG

or service businesses, truck wraps represent a perfect opportunity to gain brand recognition in the communities they serve. The best ones function as mobile billboards, communicating who you are and your company’s brand promise. Unfortunately, most fail to deliver on their potential, however, even with the ability to print full color images and

Colorful images may attract attention, but if you don’t know the business being represented by them, they’re not delivering their maximum ROI. other special effects. Instead, they’re often difficult to read and don’t work well at promoting a service business’ brand.

Colorful images may attract attention, but if you don’t know the business being represented by them, they’re not delivering their maximum ROI. Wrapping your vehicles is a costly investment, so it’s important to get it right. What you really want is a wrap design that is disruptive in its mark. Disruptive means a wrap that stands out and doesn’t look like any others in the market while still delivering positive brand promises. Here are a few tips to help maximize your vehicle advertising.

HVACR BUSINESS OCTOBER 2018

RESEARCH COMPETITION The first step in the creative process always revolves around a careful review of the competitive landscape and what the brand colors and truck wraps look like for your competitors. Make sure the proposed branding solution has no chance of being confused with another brand that already exists.

STARTS WITH YOUR BRAND One reason why so many wraps fail stems from a poor brand identity. What does your brand say about your company to those who know nothing about it? Does it give them a compelling reason to feel your company is honest? Trustworthy? Professional? These are parts of what a good brand promise should deliver — and your trucks are the most visible representations of that brand promise. While rebrands should never be entered into lightly, consider them if your current brand doesn’t personify who you are as a company and what your brand promise truly is. If your brand doesn’t communicate who you are and what you do, then no wrap is ever going to succeed. www.hvacrbusiness.com

A truck isn’t a brochure or a print ad. It’s a medium that works best when the messaging is delivered in less than a few seconds. LIMIT ADVERTISING COPY One common mistake often repeated on truck wraps is information overload. A truck isn’t a brochure or a print ad. It’s a medium that works best when the messaging is delivered in less than a few seconds. Avoid bullet lists, Facebook logos, QR codes and meaningless copy (i.e. “Free Estimates”). Keep the wrap all about your brand and how to contact you.

KEEP IT SIMPLE Logos often fail on truck wraps because they were never meant for that medium. Poor typefaces or confusing imaging won’t work well at 50mph, let alone standing still parked in a driveway. Avoid lettering that appears over different backgrounds or requires special effects, like glows and outlines. Viewers want to see your brand and how to best contact you. In terms of priority, it’s best to simply include your brand, web address and phone number. With today’s smartphones, web sites are more important than phone numbers. So, in some instances, it’s okay to completely omit the phone number.

SOMETHING TO REMEMBER A great brand will give viewers something that helps them remember who you are. It will make your truck more disruptive than your competitors’ truck. This is when red and blue arrows typically don’t work, because they’re common — much less distinguishable and memorable. A large, friendly penguin on the side of your truck is more likely to be remembered than generic clip art of red and blue arrows. www.hvacrbusiness.com

Many great truck wrap designs deploy large components of the brand — whether it’s a friendly mascot or a memorable icon — to function as the most dominant part of the wrap. After even just a limited introduction in the community, it becomes something people remember much more than generic art or lettering alone. Make the most of your available canvas to deliver a unique message in your market. Keep in mind that most of your competitors are not using this medium correctly. So, when you build a disruptive brand and integrate it on your truck wrap, you’re already well ahead of the competition. u

At KickCharge Creative, Alyssa Young helps to ensure that clients’ websites are valuable resources for existing and future customers. Overseeing the content team and digital marketing efforts, she is responsible for maximizing the sites’ visibility, conversions and user experience — so that they translate into business success. Visit kickcharge.com for additional information.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Think you have a great truck wrap design? Enter our annual Tops in Trucks Fleet Design Contest and show off your pride and joy. Visit hvacrbusiness.com/topsintrucks for additional information. HVACR BUSINESS OCTOBER 2018

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RECRUITMENT

BY JOEL FREDERICK

Find Where the Talent is Hiding

here’s a trend that’s affecting the essential service industry — the stream of new talent for recruitment is beginning to trickle. Interest in education concerning trade services is slowly declining due to the popularity of other avenues of continued education. Fear not, however, for there are ways to recruit new and quality talent.

START FROM THE BEGINNING High school is the time that young men and women begin to mold and share the interests that follow them into the future. The ability to play a part during this developmental period is a great way to establish a relationship with incoming talent, early. Many high schools provide the opportunity to dabble in the trades such as welding and automotive class and this is the perfect time to start introducing students to trade focused problem solving skills and what kind of living they can make off of it. Trade classes quickly become student favorites, where they learn skills outside of academia. Using this as a time to introduce trade occupations as an option, explaining potential pay rates and opportunities for advancement can prove beneficial in your company’s recruitment efforts. Get involved with your local high schools’ career centers and make an effort to volunteer for career days or job fairs that are hosted among students. This presents opportunity to become a guest speaker, mentor, or source of information for students to go to should they find interest in refrigeration, heating and HVACR services. Similarly, many universities have student-run organizations that are created solely for those pursuing trade specific employment. Make your company available to provide internships, apprenticeship, mentorship and other useful assets to these students, if possible.

www.hvacrbusiness.com

Get involved with your local high schools’ career centers and make an effort to volunteer for career days or job fairs that are hosted among students. VETERANS One of the most deserving groups of jobseekers out there is veterans. Not only do veterans usually have core values including discipline and ethics, but also their willingness to learn and work is first rate. Many veterans went straight into the military from high school and are looking for an opportunity to work hard and continue providing for the community. The good news is that there are many individual organizations, jobs boards and media that are dedicated solely to the military community. Post job openings to military community and job boards, offer complimentary training classes to veterans interested in HVACR, or provide services at a discounted rate. By doing what we can to repay our veteran community, even if the gesture is small, we help to create a good relationship with a group that has the potential to provide quality talent and leadership.

Social media platforms are also a valuable place to post about open positions at your company. For example, Facebook groups are an incredibly valuable tool in finding talent. Some job searching groups in larger cities have upwards of 40 thousand members in a single group. By posting your opening in one of these groups, you have a larger chance of getting your message to the right person.

Opportunity is flowing from all directions; you just need to focus on the right spots. Try out the strategies mentioned in this article and get hiring today. u

As president of Quarter Moon Plumbing & AC, Joel Frederick leads a great team that has been committed to serving the San Antonio community and surrounding Texas areas for more than 30 years. For additional information, visit quartermoonplumbing.com.

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Getting involved with the veteran community builds goodwill and raises morale within your company and the community at large. Always keep these military men and women in mind when searching for talent.

MASS COMMUNICATION There are so many recruitments sites and even specialized job sites just for refrigeration, heating and HVACR jobs. Sites such as hvacagent.com are specialized to the industry, but other sites such as indeed.com and monster.com have a massive reach. On a job posting you can tell the applicant upfront what they will be expected to do and you can convey how a novice can get started.

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Publication Title: HVACR Business Publication Number: 25431 Filing Date: 10/1/2018 Issue Frequency: Monthly Number of Issues Published Annually: 12 Annual Subscription Price: Free to Qualified Complete Mailing Address of Known Office of Publication (Not Printer): JFT Properties LLC, 31674 Center Ridge Road, Suite 104, North Ridgeville, OH 44039; Contact Person: Barbara Kerr Telephone: 440-731-8600 Complete Mailing Address of Headquarters or General Business Office of Publisher (Not Printer) JFT Properties LLC, 31674 Center Ridge Road, Suite 104, North Ridgeville, OH 44039 Full Names and Complete Mailing Addresses of Publisher, Editor, and Managing Editor Publisher: Terry Tanker, JFT Properties LLC, 31674 Center Ridge Road, Suite 104, North Ridgeville, OH 44039; Editor: Pete Grasso, JFT Properties LLC, 31674 Center Ridge Road, Suite 104, North Ridgeville, OH 44039; Managing Editor: N/A Owner – Full name and complete mailing address: JFT Properties LLC, 31674 Center Ridge Road, Suite 104, North Ridgeville, OH 44039 Known Bondholders, Mortgagees, and Other Security Holders Owning or Holding 1 Percent or More of Total Amount of bonds, Mortgages, or Other Securities: None Tax Status (For completion by nonprofit organizations authorized to mail at nonprofit rates) (Check one) The purpose, function, and nonprofit status of this organization and the exempt status for federal income tax purposes: N/A Average No. Copies No. Copies of Single Publication Title: HVACR Business Each Issue During Issue Published Nearest to Issue Date for Circulation Data Below: September 2018 Proceeding 12 months Filing Date Extent and Nature of Circulation a. Total Number of Copies (Net Press Run) 28536 28793 b. Legitimate Paid and/or Requested Distributor (By Mail and Outside the Mail) (1) Outside County Paid/Requested Mail Subscriptions stated on PS Form 3541 (Include direct 27338 27695 written request from recipients, telemarketing and Internet requests from recipient, paid subscriptions including nominal rate subscriptions, employer requests, advertiser’s proof copies, and exchange copies.) (2) In-County Paid/Requested Mail Subscriptions stated on PS From 3541 (Include direct written 0 0 request from recipient, telemarketing and Internet requests from recipient, paid subscriptions including nominal rate subscriptions, employer requests, advertiser’s proof copies, and exchange copies) 0 0 (3) Sales Through Dealers and Carriers, Street Vendors, Counter Sales, and Other paid or Requested Distribution Outside USPS 0 0 (4) Requested Copies Distributed by Other Mail Classes Through the USPS (e.g. First-Class Mail) c. Total Paid and/or Requested Circulation (Sum of 15b (1), (2), (3), and (4) 27338 27695 d. Nonrequested Distribution (by Mail and Outside the Mail) (1) Outside County Nonrequested Copies Stated on PS Form 3541 (include Sample copies, 1035 978 Requests Over 3 years old, Requests induced by a Premium, Bulk Sales and Requests including Association Requests, Names obtained from Business Directories, Lists, and other sources). 0 0 (2) In-County Nonrequested Copies Stated on PS Form 3541 (include Sample copies, Requests Over 3 years old, Requests induced by a Premium, Bulk Sales and Requests including Association Requests, Names obtained from Business Directories, Lists, and other sources). Nonrequested Copies Distributed Through the USPS by Other Classes of Mail (e.g. First-Class mail, Nonrequestor Copies mailed in excess of 10% Limit mailed at Standard Mail or Package Services Rates) (4) Nonrequested Copies Distributed Outside the Mail (Include Pickup Stands, Trade Shows, Showrooms and Other Sources) e. Total Nonrequested Distribution (Sum of 15d (1), (2), and (3) f. Total Distribution (Sum of 15c and e) g. Copies not Distributed h. Total (Sum of 15f and g) i. Percent Paid and/or Requested Circulation Publication of Statement of Ownership for a Requester Publication is required and will be printed in the October 2018 issue of this publication. Signature and Title of Editor, Publisher, Business Manager or Owner Terrence Tanker, Publisher 10/1/2018 (3)

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HVACR BUSINESS OCTOBER 2018

MANAGEMENT

BY KAREN LAMY DESOUSA

Signs You Need to Hire a Business Consultant

orking with a consultant is not a sign of weakness. Let’s get that out of the way right up front. It does not mean you don’t know what you’re doing or couldn’t figure things out for yourself. Hiring a consultant is a way to empower yourself to achieve your goals, whether they might be solving problems, growing your business, planning for retirement or all of the above. A consultant is not omniscient. You will always know your business better than they do (or you’re not in the right business)

Hiring a consultant is a way to empower yourself to achieve your goals, whether they might be solving problems, growing your business, planning for retirement or all of the above. and they can’t wave a magic wand and fix all of your problems. But what they can do is provide you with scheduled, short, powerful stretches

of time that allow you the freedom and motivation to fix your own business issues. The consultant facilitates and focuses your energy and creativity. They’ll help shift your focus out of the box it’s stuck in and help jar some new ideas out of that “stuck” brain of yours. There are probably lots of folks out there who can do without a consultant. They schedule their own brain-storm or journaling sessions to “work on their business instead of just in their business.” They’re probably the same folks in the front row of spin class, listening to TED talks while chugging a kale smoothie and reading Shakespeare. I am not one of these people. I need proper motivation. And let’s face it. If I’m putting money down on a consultant, I want return on my investment so I will force myself to stop what I’m doing and work on the business. If I don’t have the accountability of a consultant checking up on me, I might find another way to spend my afternoon. Not drinking kale smoothies. So, how do you know if you are the person or company who needs to hire a consultant? Ask yourself these questions:

ARE YOU ALWAYS TOO BUSY? It seems like when you’re at your busiest, it would be a terrible time to bring in a consultant to take up more of your time when you’re already stretched too thin. Chances are, however, if you’re workday, week, month, year is unmanageably busy, you haven’t been focusing on your business as much as needed.

HVACR BUSINESS OCTOBER 2018

Being too busy is a sign that you need to find ways to reorganize, prioritize or delegate to run your day-to-day and perhaps others in your company more efficiently and effectively. A consultant can help you find ways to do that.

IS COMPANY MORALE LOW? If you start to experience higher-thanusual turnover in employees or a general feeling of “blah” in your business, it’s a sure sign that your leadership needs a tune-up. So often, we find ourselves focusing so much on the urgent matters of the day, that we lose sight of the role we should play in leading our company. People want to work in a company that stands for something. The mission and goals of the company we’re running are not just important to us, they’re important to each and every person who works there and our customers. It’s easy to lose touch with employees and co-workers in the hustle and bustle and forget to show them how they fit into the big picture of the company. A small amount of appreciation or attention to building their skills can go a long way to bringing smiles back to your workplace. A consultant can help identify where these communication breakdowns have occurred and help fix them.

ARE YOUR PROFITS TOO LOW? You might be thinking, “Aren’t they always?” But there’s a difference between, “Of course I want to make more money!” and truly lagging profits. It can be difficult to justify the cost of a consultant when you’re not in a happy place financially, but you also have to ask if you can afford to continue NOT fixing whatever is broken in your finances. There are a number of different ways a consultant can help with the financial health of a company, but the most important thing is to determine why www.hvacrbusiness.com

profits aren’t where they should be in the first place. Is it slow collections? Lagging sales? Bad pricing? Poor accounting procedures leaving you open to errors or worse, theft? A consultant may take a wider, broader picture of your financial health than your accountant might do. But working together with both could help you to recover and grow in ways you hadn’t considered. Though these three things are a sign that you need a consultant, anyone can benefit from the help of a consultant. Their job description is literally to help

A consultant can help identify where communication breakdowns have occurred and help fix them.

Karen Lamy DeSousa is owner and president of Advance Air & Heat Co. Inc. in East Freetown, Mass. As a Certified Woman-Owned Business, Advance Air & Heat specializes in solving commercial HVACR and control issues in a way that is environmentally friendly, economical and makes sense for the individual business needs. Visit advanceair.net for additional information.

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you with whatever it is you want to focus on. They’re like a coach, counselor, cheerleader and taskmaster all wrapped into one. All you need to do is decide to help yourself. Figure out what kinds of things you and your company need to focus on and reach out to a consultant who focuses on those areas. They will keep you accountable for the priorities that you set and you’ll get to watch yourself succeed. A consultant is not a magician, but sometimes they feel like one. u

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HVACR BUSINESS OCTOBER 2018

20QUESTIONS

>> with JAY BAER

We sat down with Jay Baer, digital marketing guru, keynote speaker and best-selling author. Baer, whose newest book Talk Triggers is available now, discussed digital marketing for contractors, online reviews and what makes for great customer service. 1. Can you tell us a little about your background? I grew up in a small town in Arizona. Went to school at University of Arizona for journalism, but fell in love with politics. I was a politics pro for a bit and moved into marketing, then digital. I’m a seventh generation entrepreneur and have started five, multi-million dollar companies. 2. How did you get into digital marketing? I started in politics, running political campaigns and spent some time working for Senator John McCain, among others. I worked for the government, as a spokesman, for a very short time before getting into traditional marketing, and then digital way back in 1993. I’ve only done two smart things, ever: convinced my wife to marry me; and got involved in digital way early, and had the good sense to stay in it. 3. What is digital marketing? That’s tougher to describe than ever. I guess I’d say “any attempt to drive purchase that is executed in a two-dimensional environment.” 4. Is there still a place for good old-fashioned print marketing? Absolutely — and perhaps more than ever. It’s a zig vs. zag principle. So few organizations do good print now that when you actually execute it well, it really works. Case in point, LinkedIn Marketing Solutions is now publishing a fantastic, quarterly print magazine. 5. Your new book is called ‘Talk Triggers’ — what is a talk trigger? A Talk Trigger is a strategic, operational differentiator that compels word of mouth. It’s that special thing you do that your customers simply must tell someone else about. Any company can do it, and every company should. After all, the best way to grow any business is for your customer to do it for you — that’s what word of mouth can do. 6. Are there different kinds of talk triggers? There are five types: Talkable Generosity, Empathy, Responsiveness, Usefulness and Attitude. None are better than the others. Some fit the cultural DNA of specific companies better. For example, Talkable Attitude isn’t for all organizations. Your talk trigger has to fit your overall brand. 7. How can contractors use talk triggers? What’s amazing is that word of mouth impacts 50 to 91 percent of all purchases. Contractors can absolutely create a talk trigger that their customers will pass along via word of mouth. We use a great example in the book about a locksmith that does a security audit for free after re-keying a home. Another story in the book about WindsorOne, which gives free T-shirts to master carpenters.

HVACR BUSINESS OCTOBER 2018

8. So, how do you implement a talk trigger? The first step is to map out when and how the contractor interacts with customers. Second, is to understand what customers expect at each step (because once you know what they expect, you know what they wouldn’t expect — that’s where you talk trigger lives). Finally, you need to invent a few talkable differentiators and test them to see which of them customers notice and discuss. 9. Do contractors need to hire a specialist to handle digital marketing? It depends on how much time and effort they want to expend, how they acquire customers today and what else they could spend that money on. Digital isn’t hard, but it’s complicated. And it’s getting more complicated by the month. It’s more about time than expertise. I’ll also say this: if you don’t love digital, you’ll suck at digital. You have to WANT to spend the time to learn and get better — or you won’t. It’s easy to be decent at digital, part-time. It’s impossible to be great at digital, part-time. 10. What advice do you have for a contractor who is getting bad online reviews? Step one is to answer every review with grace, humility and speed. Remember, customer service is a spectator sport. Then, analyze the reviews and look for commonality. What are the trends? Step three is to have a very HONEST conversation with yourself about truth (and consequences). Most of the time, a pattern of negative reviews is at least partially true. Fix what’s broken, best you can. Finally, determine if customer dissatisfaction is driven by miscommunication. If so, you need to inform customers better. 11. You’ve said bad reviews are good for business, could you explain? Customers tend to distrust when 100 percent of the reviews are positive. They think the whole thing is

bogus. You want a little bad in there — especially if you respond nicely — to show that the reviews are legitimate. 12. What should contractors do to increase their good online reviews? The obvious answer is to do better work. But, as I say in ‘Talk Triggers,’ competency doesn’t always create conversations. The best way to get more, positive reviews is to do something DIFFERENT that customers notice. Also, it’s a good idea to gently remind customers that you appreciate and pay attention to reviews. If you don’t emphasize it, they won’t either, in most cases. 13. What shouldn’t you do to get good reviews? Do not compensate customers for reviews. It’s not only unethical; it also doesn’t work, according to a new study. 14. What can a contractor do to increase its digital marketing? Just show people what you do. Think like a documentary filmmaker. You know all the stuff you think is routine and boring? Customers think it’s FASCINATING! Show them what you do, and what you know, especially with video. 15. What’s the biggest mistake you see businesses make with online reviews? Ignoring them. 16. How has social media changed the game for customer service? It’s a spectator sport now. The economic consequences of the people looking at social media are way higher than the consequences of the one customer who was happy/unhappy. 17. What makes for great customer service today? It’s a moving target, for sure. In general: fast, information-rich, platform agnostic and empathetic is the way to go. 18. How do you market your great customer service? Usually, you don’t need to do so. If it’s truly great, your customers will take care of marketing it for you. 19. How will marketing change in the future? More video. More messaging (less email). More reliance on real people and word of mouth to drive commerce. 20. What’s the best advice you ever received? Remember: Some days you’re the pigeon, and some days you’re the statue.

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