Latest / The Refrigeration Mentor Podcast / Episode 361. How to Bring More Value to Customers

Transcript

Episode 361. How to Bring More Value to Customers · The Refrigeration Mentor Podcast

• 0:00
  Speaker: Welcome to the Refrigeration Mentor Podcast. So happy you're here again. This has been such a great year, 2025, throwing down. I see so many technicians investing in themselves investing in the people around. That's what I love about our industry meeting. More people who care about others in the industry, who want to see them get better, who want them to grow, who really put the effort in, like there is so many people in the community that I've seen share their knowledge, try to help another technician out on a personal level, on a professional level, on a career level.
• 0:01
  I love that stuff, and that's what it should be about. It should be also about fun. And why do we do all this stuff that we do in refrigeration and in this career and and, and in life. And we gotta have fun. And sometimes it's, and when I have conversation, it's, it's difficult for some people 'cause we're just so busy all the time In our industry, we're the big, one of the biggest demand industry out there.
• 0:02
  Motivational self-help, I guess biographies, personal development topics. Some people, oh, motivation affirmation and all this. If you ever heard those words like, oh, that doesn't work. It's not necessarily that. It's all about the action. You can listen to whatever you want, but if you don't take the action.
• 0:03
  And I see it time and time again. Those of you out there are bringing more value to your company, bringing more value to your customer, bringing more value to your friends and family, though that's, that is how you're gonna grow faster. The value always comes back. The people around you are like, holy smokes, this person is, is unbelievable.
• 0:04
  And sometimes it's chaotic. Just like on your service calls, like, man, I got three calls holding. I got, I follow up with this customer. I got these parts that I gotta order. This other person, I got email. I gotta make sure I phone, phone call this customer. You know what it, so it does get hectic sometimes, but the more you put yourself in situations where.
• 0:05
  And this is what I see some technicians in the community, which I love, they're just leveling up so fast. I, I look back, when I started out I was like, and I know I leveled up fast back then 'cause I caught on really quick. I worked really hard. I put the hours in the time in. And I, I did learn, but it was at a different pace than it is today.
• 0:06
  And, and willing to put the work in. I was having conversation today calling people who have joined a supermarket academy, so I'd like to call lots of the people who joined. So, and have a conversation with them and ask them where they're at and where they want to go. And I had a conversation, I think late last week with one of the, one of the techs who purchased a course and, and, and he told me he's just a helper.
• 0:07
  Have an apprenticeship or working under the guidance of a journeyman. And he said that there was a person who already took the, the course who was doing the same path where they were. They, they were at about six month mark driving around with the journeyman and they were like, I'm picking up some stuff, but you know what?
• 0:08
  I see that you're in a course and I'd love to find out, get your feedback. And they were just like. I'm like, so did you get to start it? They were like, I'm almost finished. Level four. Downloaded all the workbooks, and it's been a game changer for me. I understand now when the technicians are coming into the office and they're talking about something, they're talking about TX l they're, they're might be talking about a compressive replacement or a job that they're, they're on, and I can actually visualize some of that.
• 0:09
  It doesn't, it's not gonna take 'em five years to become a journeyman this, this helper in the next two years. Is gonna be working at a journeyman level for sure. I could just tell by the conversation. 'Cause they're eager, they're curious, they wanna learn. And this is what I love about training, education, love about the courses, the technicians in the community, how we share, how we want to help learn and grow.
• 0:10
  I love the, the positive, the people that I talk to, yes, it's, it can be tough out there. It's not rainbows and sun, sunshine every day. Right now here in Canada, there's feet of snow in different parts. You're shoveling your way to condensing units, you're shoveling your way. Heating units on the roof if you're doing it all.
• 0:11
  That's when the game changer happens. And don't get, don't ever get this wrong. The more work you bring in to the company, the more value you bring to the company. People notice that lots of people, I hear people out there and I see 'em online, that they're talking bad about these different companies and that com keep, if they wanna keep doing that, keep doing it 'cause you're not getting you anywhere.
• 0:12
  You're learning every day. You're, you're being helpful. Those people in your office that a lot of people talk down to, they're helping the business run too. It's not just us at the front line doing the work. It's those dispatches talking to the E-Rate customers who are screaming at them all the time and, and just giving them a hard, a hard time.
• 0:13
  It's triaged. But a lot of times you know who the dispatch is in your office. Like I worked at a lot of different companies and we knew who was dispatching. It could be the service manager, could be actual dispatch. But when you start bringing value to those people, they're gonna wanna bring value to you.
• 0:14
  To come back to you. You're gonna start to understand that. Now, don't get me wrong, it's not once again, they're not all perfect. Mistakes do happen, but when you talk about it, you, criticizing people, complaining at people being defensive, it's not going to be helpful. It's talking about the sometimes what happened and getting an understanding.
• 0:15
  The HVAC and heating side, if you're doing all of it, you're gonna be busy year round, but there's always a couple of slow months. You're not working your 50, 60 hours a week that so those senior tech always have stuff. They could probably work 60 hours a week, every week. And this is you bringing value to the company, building the company together with them.
• 0:16
  They don't have to be the top technical people. They need to understand the technical side of it. They don't have to be the, the top technical people. You need to understand people, personality, and this is what our role is. A lot of people say, well, you take the, you take a service job there where you don't need to talk.
• 0:17
  I still have a hard time working on the hardest things I need to work on first because it's difficult. It's like, oh, I got this easy thing I can do. And it brings value to, to people, but not the amount of people I wanna do sometimes. And I'm just like, I do the easy things and I get into that, that habit sometimes.
• 0:18
  Leveling up the people around you. I think one of the things that I'm gonna do in 2026 is invest more time in the people in the refrigeration mentor community. I'm, I'm for sure doing that and investing more time with the people coming into the refrigeration mentor training programs. 'cause I want those technicians, those.
• 0:19
  Because I took those courses and you gave me some confidence to go and try stuff. You gave, you, made me curious on how to learn this stuff, what to do, where to look for the resources. I didn't do anything. I, I, I shared some knowledge I gave, I shared some of my experience, but I wasn't the one out there in the field doing it.
• 0:20
  I know this is a micro thermal board, or this is a multiflex board. This is an ESR board connected to CDS valves like. I did not know that stuff. Definitely as deep as he knows in, in just such a short period of time. And that's what I love and this is why I'm gonna invest in more people in the refrigeration mentor community.
• 0:21
  All this stuff you can do all this stuff you can do. And you can learn it, uh uh, faster than ever before. Hopefully you took a few things away here and honestly, bring value to more people. Bring value to people around you, and that's where you're going to start to see success, more success. And there's gonna be times where you're just working and you're bringing value, and you feel like you're not getting anywhere.
• 0:22
  And if you're not, figure out a way that you can start having fun. Find out, write down that stuff. What you like to do. What do you like to do in the in refrigeration? Is it helping the customers? It solving the tough problem? Is it leading a team? Whatever that is, start doing it today. Don't wait till two weeks when it's the new year.