“Slow Down And Do It Right”
We Give Our Techs Incentive To “Slow Down And Do It Right” Instead Of “Hurry Up And Get To The Next Job.”
Some Southern California Heating & Air Companies Schedule Techs 8 to 12 Calls A Day – WAY TOO MANY!
Every heating and air conditioning company has a fundamental choice about what business model they want to operate under.
Will they…
Incentivize their technicians on QUANTITY ALONE (i.e. – how many jobs can you crank out and bill per day) …
OR
Incentivize technicians to go slow enough to get the job done right the first time (i.e. – give them tangible encouragement for the QUALITY of the work they do).
At Service Champions, we’ve made our choice for quality first. That makes us somewhat unique among heating and air conditioning companies in Southern California – and we’re just fine with that.
What A ‘Rushed’ Heating & Air Conditioning Tune-Up Or Repair Is Like
Before explaining our methods and incentives, let’s look at what a rushed, sloppy experience looks like from a homeowner’s point of view.
There are some companies that will schedule technicians for 8 to 12 calls a day. In our opinion, that’s just crazy and has no chance of producing quality results.
And even companies that don’t take it to that extreme will schedule technicians for 6+ calls without batting an eye.
Even if you assume a technician will sometimes work more than 8 hours a day, working anywhere from 6 to 12 calls a day means there’s not nearly enough time to make sure nothing is overlooked.
At this pace:
- There’s NO WAY to fully listen to the homeowner and find out in detail what problems they’ve been experiencing with their heating or cooling.
- There’s NO WAY to be sure that any problems with the HVAC system have been properly diagnosed, especially smaller issues likely to turn into BIG expensive problems later.
- There’s NO WAY to complete a THOROUGH cleaning and tune-up of an AC or heater to get it running at peak efficiency.
It’s just literally impossible to do those things when you have to run 6-12 calls a day.
Here’s what’s really behind all this. Companies are training their technicians to look for big, obvious problems that are expensive to fix. And if they don’t see any, the technician is out of there – FAST.
That explains why so many heating and air conditioning maintenance “tune-ups” from other companies only last about 10 to 20 minutes.
And there’s one other huge problem with the ‘quantity-first’ approach. The technicians simply cannot maintain that kind of pace and still be mentally and physically sharp on the last few calls.
Ask yourself if you would want to be a technician’s 10th call of the day?
A Different, Better Way To Service Heaters & Air Conditioners
At Service Champions, we’ve never been afraid to go against “the way things have always been done” in the heating and air conditioning industry.
Because the “way it’s always been done” is rarely what’s best for homeowners.
Here’s what we do instead.
Our technicians don’t go out on 8 – 12 calls a day – DOESN’T HAPPEN. On average, our technicians are scheduled for 2 to 3 calls a day.
This gives them the appropriate time to talk with our clients and find out about the current comfort level of their home and if there have been any recent changes in how well their system is running.
If it’s a tune-up, our technicians have as much time as they need to dig into every detail, including our super thorough 21-point checklist that ensures that every key component of the system will be inspected.
It also guarantees a complete cleaning that restores your heater or air conditioner to factory fresh condition and keeps it running at peak efficiency.
That’s why our tune-ups typically take AT LEAST 90 minutes. And if it takes longer, our technicians are told to stay as long as they need to get it done right.
We do the same with AC and heating repairs. We don’t just rush in and fix the first thing we see that’s wrong. Our technicians are specifically trained to complete a thorough diagnosis first. Only after we’re sure the diagnosis is complete will we recommend the right repair.
We don’t want to miss anything and then have to be called back when something else goes wrong a week later.
And that is exactly how we incentivize our technicians. Quality is a big part of our bonus system.
If a technician has to return to a home at a later time because something was missed during a heating or AC repair, tune-up, or installation, that will factor in when calculating their bonus for excellent performance.
Which means our technicians know that mistakes or rushing a job can eat away at hard-earned bonuses.
By connecting bonus money to the quality of the work that is done, it sends a clear message about the Service Champions culture. That message, loud and clear, is that “QUALITY MATTERS HERE.”
If we sound like the kind of Southern California heating and air conditioning company you’d like to do business with, reach out to us using our Contact Us form.
(By the way, if you’d like to read about another way we encourage our technicians to slow down and keep our clients smiling, be sure to read this article: Why Our Heating & AC Techs Waste 45 Minutes A Day).