Arkansas HVACR NewsMagazine September 2022

HVACR NewsMagazine September 2022

Feature Story

External Customers These are folks outside of your organization. These are the folks your Mission Statement outlines you serve. External customers include: • Clients • Supply houses • Vendors • Governmental agencies When we step back and look at these relationships, owners should set the expectations that distance some employees from specific groups, while empowering others to develop relationships appropriately. As popular as “Just in Time” inventory is, it should not include your technicians picking up parts at the supply house. Developing relationships with governmental agencies (permitting / inspections) should be key with your business team and include your service manager. Don’t take it personal! It’s easy to be offended. We must pay attention on all calls, whether sales or service. When others are frustrated, irritable or short, they may put your team at risk if we fail to educate a little psychology. We must take time upon arrival to assess th e customer’s attitude and capacity for conversation in an effort to read the customer, taking time to get a true picture of the situation. We are invading their space. Give the customer a moment to get comfortable and have your employees take note of body language and communication style. Some customers require distance while others make things easy. If an employee is engaging a customer to solve a problem,

there is the opportunity for the employee to be offended. The employee should be reassured that correct action will never be met with discipline. Employees must be provided with an understand of the companies’ expectations, so when the customer crosses the boundary, they can disengage. You must set the understanding beforehand. Don’t make it personal! If we allow our job to be about us, we worry about what we look like and tend to overreact. When we focus on established company guidelines, we have a perspective to assess the job from making the sales or service visit comfortable. We must be aware of the fact; our initial impression and attitude can set the tone for a customer encounter or developing a relationship. Contractors and employees must remember, we influence the customer’s time and income with the decisions we make proposing work to be done. CYA – Cover your assertions. Write and verbally discuss the contract in clear, concise, understandable language. Make sure to communicate all aspects of required processes and a timetable that contains practical expectations. Document all actions on the contracts or proposals and be ready to amend the job appropriately to include your customers buy in. Every step must be discussed and documented.