Latest / The Refrigeration Mentor Podcast / Episode 204. 10 Tips to Boost Your Confidence Talking to Customers with Andrew Freeburg

Transcript

Episode 204. 10 Tips to Boost Your Confidence Talking to Customers with Andrew Freeburg · The Refrigeration Mentor Podcast

• 0:00
  Andrew: Communication is the most
• 0:01
  Trevor: important thing with these customers, plain and simple. And building the relationship with them will build your confidence and their confidence in you. Welcome to the Refrigeration Mentor Podcast. I'm your host, Trevor Matthews. As a former technician turned entrepreneur, my goal is to really help train you, educate you, and mentor you in the commercial refrigeration industry.
• 0:02
  Each week, I'm going to have top guests from technicians, manufacturers, The manufacturers to experts around the world to really help us grow and learn together by sharing their knowledge in commercial refrigeration, commercial HVAC, and not only on the technical side, but really the professional and the personal development side as well.
• 0:03
  I'm really excited that you're here. Now let's get a conversation going.
• 0:04
  Welcome to this. Building confidence, talking with customers. We think this is such an important topic. That's why we're a host of that. I have my good friend, Andrew Freeburg here hanging out with me because we're going to be, we want to have a conversation about some of the things that we want to get better at.
• 0:05
  And I think this is a topic that a lot, a lot of people talk about and we are, we need to work at this. This is a skill. That we can get better at Andrew. How you doing brother?
• 0:06
  Andrew: Great. Trevor, how are you? Thank you for having me on the show again.
• 0:07
  Trevor: No, thank you for coming. This is what it's all about. Share knowledge, growing our knowledge and helping other people out.
• 0:08
  So some of the things that I really believe in building confidence when you're talking to this customer is practice, you know what I mean? Getting out and doing it. Uh, and, uh, if you don't do that. It's really hard to get better at it, you know, cause if you go into a job site, I've seen people do this, don't talk to anybody, go try to do the job and then try to get out there as fast as possible without talking anyone.
• 0:09
  Have you ever experienced that before? And, uh,
• 0:10
  Andrew: unfortunately, yes, a lot of the guys coming in, they either get intimidated or something, or they're just busy cause they got another call. But man, and the communication is the most important thing with these customers, plain and simple.
• 0:11
  Trevor: Yeah. And I agree with that.
• 0:12
  It's super important to, to really build that relationship with, uh, the customer and building the relationship with them will build your confidence and like their confidence in you. There's, there's lots of different tips out there that we're going to talk about. Uh, but first I want to talk a little bit about, uh, if you haven't been on a refrigeration mental podcast.
• 0:13
  Definitely get on there. Uh, you'll have, you'll hear this one on there that me and Andrew are going to talk about today. Get onto the YouTube channel. It's super important. There's a lot of technical tips. There's a lot of personal development stuff. This is how you grow your knowledge. I was at a meeting today with some, uh, some engineers from the UK who watched every one of my CO2 videos that I did with all the experts around the world.
• 0:14
  And like Trevor, this was hands down. Some of the best training that i've ever gotten for free out there So go check out that youtube channel and lots of social media stuff. There's a lots of tips on growing your knowledge A lot of them will be in the podcast and different podcasts and youtube videos but what we're going to talk today we're going to be diving into some of the things that you really need to know and understand as a service technician to build that your confidence and to build that relationship because at the end of the day You When you have more confidence, you're going to make your business more profitable.
• 0:15
  You're going to save your customer more money. You're going to build a culture around the people you're working with, as well as you're going to want to stay with that organization you want to, because once you have a great team, once you build a Google culture and you have great customers that work for it, man, that you're, you're three billers, you that.
• 0:16
  Magic to a service technician. Uh, and some of the things that we're going to dive in is product knowledge. So understanding refrigeration, and this doesn't mean you have to be the master on a Subaru, the, the, the best expert in the world, but you do need to understand what you're doing and having those conversations are hard sometimes, especially when you're first starting out.
• 0:17
  Andrew, do you remember when you first started out trying to have those first technical conversations with a customer?
• 0:18
  Andrew: Absolutely. Uh, nervous. I'll get out for, you know, when you first start, you're just like, man, I hope I don't mess this up. Right? So you go in, uh, my boss always said you have to at least talk to the customer very first thing.
• 0:19
  And when you leave, that's just bare minimum. Uh, I I always kept a communication with them throughout the day. You're going to see them in the, in the sales floor, talk to them. Don't, don't avoid them. Uh, cause they'll, they'll sense it. They'll, they'll definitely sense it. And then they'll lose confidence just like that.
• 0:20
  So be confident, know your stuff. Um, take the time and not to know, uh, Order of operations. If you guys, if we could understand the order of operation, you guys could fix anything. That's the key to success right there.
• 0:21
  Trevor: And, and you don't have to know it all. You just have to communicate with your customer.
• 0:22
  You don't have to tell that you don't know anything, you know what I mean? But you do know stuff 'cause you're there. You knew how to, you knew how to drive there. You knew the tools that you needed, a meter and uh, some gauges and temperature probes. So you do have some knowledge. Maybe you're not that expert, but I think really important, that first step that you said is.
• 0:23
  Talking with uh, the customer themselves. So what are some things that the questions that you ask Or tips for a technician to ask that customer when to get there because a lot of times the android you get the call from Dispatch all the cases down the walk in box is warm. There's no details at all Uh, from the customer, what are some of the probing questions you are asking when you talk to that customer?
• 0:24
  Andrew: Yeah, first I go in, introduce myself, if I haven't, uh, seen him before. Um, talk to him and ask him, what is, what's going on? What, what, uh, what happened to the deli case, let's say, if that's what you get called out for. Um, maybe they have some insight for you and, and kind of give you a hint of what's going on.
• 0:25
  Oh, the case is holding high temp. Uh, a lot of the. Uh, managers will actually walk you to the case and say this is what's going on and then you could kind of put your hand up there and make sure you got some airflow. Um, but listening is a huge part. Just, just listen to what they're saying. Um, and if, uh, they have a department manager or anybody that was there when, if the, anything happened, they, they will explain to you, well, this is what happened.
• 0:26
  All right. Let's say you go in and says, yeah, I just noticed the temperature started to increase day after day after day. And then finally it's getting, getting to that almost danger zone. So I want you to take a look at it. I mean, that kind of gives you an idea of what to diagnose right there without even hooking up tools, nothing.
• 0:27
  I mean, you just, you kind of have a set place where you need to go.
• 0:28
  Trevor: And that is key and that right there that a lot of times like Andrew said you can you can figure it out from that conversation. Because there's a lot of history sometimes in that big time because I've seen a lot of customers being frustrated because three or four people came in and they didn't really listen to them.
• 0:29
  And they just went in and they worked on something, got it up and running. But then two or three days or a week later, two weeks later, somebody's back there washing the case out again. And that, that can be frustrating. Sometimes they'll take it out on you because you're that person there. And it's like, man, again, this is the fourth time, but you're going to think every call is that first call.
• 0:30
  You know, there's a new call every time that you get in there. Right. And it's important to look at that because you've got to come with a fresh mind. Even if that last call went bad. And the conversation went bad with that last customer. You gotta just think, you never talked to this person maybe before.
• 0:31
  So let's get that conversation going. What do you think about active listening when you're having these conversations, uh, Andrew?
• 0:32
  Andrew: It's huge. Um, communication, like I said, is one of the most important pieces in building a relationship with the customer. You have to be actively listening to them. And understanding what they're saying.
• 0:33
  And if you don't ask the questions, they want you to figure it out. That's why they called you or your company to come out and fix this service call, whatever it may be. So they want, they want to be listened to. They want to hear you. And that's, that's
• 0:34
  Trevor: exactly right. I really think one of the things that we have is on, on anyone who's listening, uh, on the slides I have, the next point is role playing scenarios.
• 0:35
  This is something that we don't do in our industry. This is something that I started to do outside when I started to get into business development, more of a training role and the sales role is I started to role play. It is weird. It doesn't feel comfortable when you're doing role playing at first, but how I got really good at presenting.
• 0:36
  For example, I used to present in front of my family, or in front of the mirror. This is like role playing. So when you're having a conversation with your customer, maybe start doing some role playing. Have you ever tried role playing before?
• 0:37
  Andrew: Uh, no, not, I wouldn't say personally I ever did, but I would, uh, pull up like videos of hard conversations and not, and not necessarily service calls, but you have an angry customer.
• 0:38
  How are you going to deal with that angry customer? Cause you might get in, they could be actually waiting in front of the store, waiting for you to come in. I've had that happen before. And you could see the steam just. Upset. And you're like, oh man, it's going to be a, it's going to be a rough one. But just kind of preparing yourself and how to handle a, um, a difficult customer is really going to go a long way.
• 0:39
  Trevor: And that's it. And I think these role playing scenarios and examples, maybe it's do it with another teammate who has dealt with a irate customer or do it with a service manager or do it with a friend and say, listen, I want to try, here's a couple of lines I want to ask you and see what you, what, what happened to that conversation.
• 0:40
  Because everyone's going to take it and look at it differently. People from the outside is going to think differently than when they're in the heat of that monument. And I think the more times you do it, the easier we'll get. And you really got to think before you, you say something, you got to really think about what that customer said.
• 0:41
  Andrew: Yeah, exactly. And I actually, now I'm sitting here thinking about it. When I was an instructor over at a college, Perry Tech, um, we would actually have the students write out invoices for any lab work that we do. And I would actually be that angry customer to them, see how they would handle situations. So, I'm going to take that back.
• 0:42
  I actually have done that. I totally spaced that.
• 0:43
  Trevor: Yeah, and this is, maybe you've done it before and you never really thought about it, but this is important. Doing things that are uncomfortable, but doing role playing can be uncomfortable if you've never done it before. But so many people do it. It happens all the time in like corporate world.
• 0:44
  We should be doing it in the service world because that's how you get better practice and you're going up to the customer and they're just like you said, they're pissed. And if this is the first time and you're taking off guard because it has nothing to do with you. Unless you went in and you broke everything and then you're the one back there with the callback.
• 0:45
  Uh, but that's, that happens as well. Then you're going to just own it and then work on it and get it better. Because what do you want to always do is this next point is have. Positive language and have a positive attitude when you're talking with them because they can sense it on you. People can sense body language, tone, words that you're saying, and this stuff is the hard stuff.
• 0:46
  But if you can adapt, you know, that positive tone, that will get them to loosen up or at least cool down a little bit. Maybe they're not full notch on the angry side, but it might help them cool down and relax to get their senses.
• 0:47
  Andrew: Yeah, absolutely. You got to be a professional at the end of the day. Um, and if you're, if you're blowing up, uh, the customer's blowing up, no one wins.
• 0:48
  No one wins at that point. So, definitely, I know it's harder than, you know, it's easy to sit here and say, just remain calm, right? But definitely find yourself, remain calm, deal with the customer, whatever's going on, and really, they're angry because something's broke, but they want to be heard. Because they probably didn't get heard when, uh, whatever happened prior, or whatever's going on.
• 0:49
  Just listening goes a long way, and active listening, just be calm, listen, and if you have to almost repeat what they said, then they know that you're listening, really goes a long way with those customers.
• 0:50
  Trevor: Yeah, and that's, that's funny because that's the next point, stay calm and be patient because sometimes after they vent everything out, they're like, oh, okay, no, I'm sorry about that.
• 0:51
  I've had customers say that they just vented on me and none of, well, I'm sorry, you know, it has nothing to do with you. I've been dealing with all these other problems and I just unloaded on you. A lot of people don't do that. You know what I mean? They won't say that, but, uh, I've had that happen before.
• 0:52
  And it's just like, you're super surprised when it's happening. Uh, but if you're prepared and you practice. Uh, and then you, you can come out. Yeah, I totally understand. It's Friday, your store is full. We're trying to solve this problem that continue going on. I'm just here to service you right now and really try to figure out how I can help you in this moment.
• 0:53
  So that it's easier on you because they have a lot of pressure on them too. So understanding, you know, listening to them on, on what's really coming up. Cause they're, they, there's some that there'll be screaming and screaming, screaming, you're going to pick the word, what that one word out of their conversation, that's actually the problem.
• 0:54
  Cause it might have nothing to do with the case that you're working on or the login box.
• 0:55
  Andrew: Absolutely. And in staying calm and actually listening to what they say goes a long way and they're going to appreciate it. They're going to remember, and then you might get that phone call. But when you say, Hey, I want, you know, Andrew, like, cause, you know, because he actually took the time and listened to me and it definitely goes a long way with these customers.
• 0:56
  Uh, I totally
• 0:57
  Trevor: agree with that. And the big thing is, is that when you just did that, the next point is like learning from feedback because you'll get feedback and you'll consistently start to get more feedback. Your service manager will tell you when someone calls up and said, man, Andrew, you did a great job.
• 0:58
  Like we just got a call back from the store manager. They said they were so happy with the work that you did. Um, and that goes, that's that building, that rapport servicing them, delivering them more value. And this comes back to that conversation that you have with them and the way you talk to them, the way you show up, if you're at the beginning of a day, if it's the first call in the morning, you need to be in clean clothes.
• 0:59
  Okay. By the end of the day, if you're full oil and you're all dirty, so be it. But that first call in the morning, you should be clean, hairbrushed, brush your teeth, or hat on, whatever, clean, smelling okay. You shouldn't be showing up, ripped clothes, ripped shirt, looking like you're falling apart. Like, that's the end of the day stuff.
• 1:00
  The beginning of the day, you gotta show up and look professional.
• 1:01
  Andrew: I'm gonna agree with you. I actually keep a couple pairs of shirts in my van, just in case for that scenario. If it is where I'm working on something extremely dirty, and I look, and I I don't look like a professional. I'm changing my shirt.
• 1:02
  I, I mean, I'm not going to sit here and change pants. It is what it is, but the shirt, uh, your, if you have hair, you know, that's kind of important. Uh, I don't have hair by the way, uh, beard shaped up, you know, that's, it's all important. That's your professionalism. Like I was trying to say, so I print, you know, that's the first thing they look at you and you were like, you said, red jeans.
• 1:03
  oil, maybe, maybe not even a, uh, professional shirt on that kind of sets the tone for them right there before you even get to talk to them. So it's huge. It's definitely huge. One of the most important pieces is look professional.
• 1:04
  Trevor: Hey, I want to take a minute to talk about my upcoming programs. There's so many great things happen at refrigeration mentor.
• 1:05
  We got awesome compressor programs. We've got awesome supermarket programs and signature CO2 prone. These are game changing. These are getting the results you're looking for. When you take these programs, you're going to be able to start Implementing and applying the things that we talk about in these programs, really helping your customer out, helping your business out and helping yourself out by having that confidence, be able to finish jobs quicker, troubleshoot faster, reduced.
• 1:06
  Callbacks. This is going to help you get to your next level. It's going to get you the results. I look forward to seeing you in these programs. Head to the refrigerationmentor. com website and check out the courses page because this is where you're going to take yourself to the next level and becoming that elite technician.
• 1:07
  The next point is like building rapport with them. And like, how, well, how do I build rapport? Well, first of all, be personal, you know, say, ask them their name, write down their name. So if they tell you their name, you should write that down. Cause lots of people say, I'm no good at remembering names. I used to say it all the time.
• 1:08
  Until I took a course to remember names and I learned how to remember names a lot easier And then I'd go to parties and stuff and I'd remember everybody's names and I said at the end of the day the host would come I was like, you know what everybody who really enjoyed that, you know enjoyed you and it's really I was just saying their name back to Them they saved me once I walk around the world gonna.
• 1:09
  Oh, hey Andrew, how you doing? You know, I just took a course to learn how to do it, you know, and, but it's practice because I'm not as good as I was at it when I was practicing all the time, but building rapport is you got to be personal with them. So if you go meet them the first time, you know their name, write them down.
• 1:10
  If they have kids, you write that down too, you know, if that, and that's what you say when you come in. Hey, Tim, how are the kids doing? You know, right there, it'll stop their tone. It'll be like, this service technician, remember me? That's huge. That goes a long way. Have you, have you encountered any of that, Andrew?
• 1:11
  Andrew: Yeah, I, just being personal with them. It's not, you know, we all have a job to do and work, but that, just what you just said, Trevor, remembering that they do have kids, that's going to speak volumes to them. They know that you're actually listening. And I want to build a report with each other. It's not just business.
• 1:12
  So a little bit of a little bit of that will definitely go a long way in your communication piece and, um, your service abilities too. I would say, I would say building a relationship is. Probably more important than getting the job fixed probably the first time, uh, to be honest. Um, because if you go in you can fix it right the first time but if you kind of have a bad attitude or You know, we all have stuff we have to deal with but that customer could be thankful you fixed it But if he can't communicate with you, you're i've seen it where People weren't able to go back to those stores just because of that, even though they fixed it right the first time.
• 1:13
  And it's, you know, the vice versa effect where they didn't fix it the first time, but they're personal and able to talk to them and they were able to get in there again and again and again.
• 1:14
  Trevor: Yeah, that's it. And then when you learn from that, so that, that's how you build reward. You'd be honest with them.
• 1:15
  Yeah. I didn't make a mistake there. I left that ball valve off. That's why the court, the hot gas didn't defrost the coil the next day. That's why I'm back here again. I totally made a mistake. Like I'll own this, like I will do this and even if you have to, you know what, build even a bigger value to them, especially if it's a small store, like a mom and pop shop, be like, okay, these two hours that they're on me, this is a callback that I made makes a big difference.
• 1:16
  Now when you, it all depends on the situation, but if you want to build that value with them and own it, that you made the mistake and you tell them, they're like, they'll be surprised. They'll be like, no one ever did that to us before. No one ever offered to come in. And own their callback and not expect me to sign a service ticket.
• 1:17
  I've seen that time and time again And this is where you build that relation because you're building that relationship Because that two hours could lead into a massive job when you do the whole reno now because you have that relationship Versus two hours where it's a callback situation. Okay, the next one we talked about already maintaining professional appearance We're not going to go through that again But that hands down when andrew said have some extra shirts in there have a clean hat maybe You Um, depending, if you're going out of town and you're going to work out of town for a long time, you're doing the, I have to go do service somewhere, bring some extra stuff.
• 1:18
  Bring more than you would have at home. Another one we have on the list is celebrate small wins. You know, these interactions that you're having that maybe you're not as good at right now, and then you have this conversation, go and reflect on that conversation. Was it a good conversation? What did I learn from that conversation?
• 1:19
  What could have been better? And how could it have even went worse? You know, what, what are your thoughts and small wins of those conversations with customers?
• 1:20
  Andrew: Small wins leads to, uh, bigger wins. Uh, I think small wins is very important. And then getting busy throughout the day, and you're not really thinking about what happened throughout the day.
• 1:21
  It actually, you can, it just, it'll build your, your confidence just by taking the time. And yet, you know what? I actually did a really good job at this call. And then you could sit down and think like, okay, what did I do right on this call? What could I have done better? And then you could start doing that with every service call, every job that you do, and you're, you're just going to progress in your career.
• 1:22
  So I think it's, I think it's huge because those get overlooked so often. And you know what? Sometimes you, you deserve to recognize yourself and say, yeah, I did a really good job here. Sometimes a good old pat on the back really helps you out.
• 1:23
  Trevor: It does, it does, because sometimes there's no one else there to pat you in the back and you need to, you need to be proud of yourself what you're doing, because as technicians out there, we do a lot of great stuff, but we don't recognize ourselves.
• 1:24
  We might be seeing somebody else at the company, oh, like this guy's, this person's crushing it, or they're favored, or this or that, uh, and then maybe you don't feel like you're getting the love from there. But give back. The self yourself, the love, and you'll start to see more people giving you love as well, because that's important on being proud of the work and the job you're doing and the more proud you do it, the better job you're going to do.
• 1:25
  The better job you're going to do. More people are going to see that didn't people start saying, Hey, great job.
• 1:26
  Andrew: Absolutely. I'm going to second with that because, you know, you got to take pride of your work. If you're not going to take pride, that's where it starts, right? If you're not taking pride in your own self, in your own work, then no one else is going to see it.
• 1:27
  So you want to start right there. That's how you start. Totally agree. And
• 1:28
  Trevor: I've seen this before. I've worked with so many, uh, refrigeration professionals around the world and they do so many jobs a week, but there's that one that they, they, it just didn't go right. Right. And they just. It just spoils their whole week, which I've had it happen to me before.
• 1:29
  But if you think about all the other ones that you did, well, if you think about that one, well, what went wrong with it, what could have went better? What could I do next time? That's that's where that problem job now just is shouldn't be as tough on you. Now you're learning from that. The problem I see is people do well on that mistake they made, and then they don't learn from it.
• 1:30
  They don't grow from that mistake because you shouldn't be. After, after you understand, you learn from it, you shouldn't be stressing about that, that situation as much anymore. You should be, okay, I learned this, so next time I get in this situation, I know what to look for. And then that, where, that's where your confidence gets built a little bit more, a little bit more, and you add on that.
• 1:31
  It's like the stacking effect. These small wins, like Andrew said, turns to a massive win. And then all of a sudden, They're just gonna, wins are going to be happening all over the place for you. Last point we have is continuous learning. Keep an update with your skills. This is how you can build confidence with your customer and in the conversations.
• 1:32
  Because now if you build the rapport, you are professional with them. Uh, they, you know, as you grow over time. You're going to be their advisor. That's what you are. You're their salesperson. You're their advisor. You're their service and maintenance person. Even though you work for your, your company, when you're coming in there, that's what you are.
• 1:33
  And so as you build that rapport, and I've seen this, where that technician, if that technician ever left the company, that whole, Store of change is going with that guy or you know That's it because they got that value that they bring that company and this continuous learning could be like when they're gonna do a reno They come and chat with you.
• 1:34
  Should we add variable speed drive? Should we add digital compression? Should we be changing and upgrading to a different controller? What are your thoughts and continuous learning to help boost your confidence with? Uh, talking with customers, Andrew.
• 1:35
  Andrew: Yes. Uh, 100 percent agreed with that too. Not just on the technical level, but personal development level too.
• 1:36
  Um, it's all about learning, moving yourself forward. And the more you can do, the better you're going to be. Um, so 100 percent always, always keep learning because there's so much to learn out here and, and the more your knowledge base grows, the better that you're going to be as a technician.
• 1:37
  Trevor: I totally agree.
• 1:38
  So those are the 10 things that I really think that we just walked through that will help you start your way. I'm building confidence talking with customers because this is important. This is something we don't talk. We're always talking about the technical. I need to be more technical. I need technical training.
• 1:39
  But like Andrew just said, is that personal development side that we really need as well. Some people call it the soft skills, uh, mindset skills, whatever it is. But for sure, if you put the work in now, it's going to pay off later. Andrew, any final thoughts?
• 1:40
  Andrew: We, I feel like we talked about really the most important things is, uh, communication with the customer.
• 1:41
  Definitely. 100%. Don't go in there, get the job done and leave. Talk about you're here. You're here to fix whatever it is. And then tell them at the end when you get done, say this is what happened and now we're good. Have them sign off on the invoice or whatever it is. Make it a little personal thing if you, if you know them.
• 1:42
  And then move on to the next job, you know, it's just that communication piece is one of the biggest thing that really the new guys that I see are either timid or scared or whatever it may be, but it's one of the most important to start building a relationship is communication. Once again,
• 1:43
  Trevor: head to the podcast.
• 1:44
  If you listen to the podcast, leave some, uh, something in the description and comment what you thought about this. What are your thoughts on communication with the customer. That's so, so important. Head to the refrigerationmetro. com website to learn more about our different courses, our different training, because this is how you grow your knowledge.
• 1:45
  This is how you get better. Andrew, I want to thank you so much for taking the time to chat with us today, sharing your wisdom and your experience. And I'm excited for the next time we chat with everyone. I see. Thank you, Trevor. I want to thank you so much for hanging out with me and the Refrigeration Mentor podcast.
• 1:46
  If you enjoyed this episode, please leave a comment. Let me know what were your key highlights, what you took away from myself or my guests as well as if you have not subscribed yet, head over to Apple podcasts or Spotify and subscribe. And if you enjoyed this episode, please share with a friend, let your friends know that there are people who care, who want to share the refrigeration information to help them get to the next level in their career.
• 1:47
  If you have not been to the refrigeration mentor website at refrigeration mentor. com, go check it out. There's a ton more guest podcasts I've been on as well as the event page. Check out the events page because there's a lot more free trainings. As well as paid training to really help you grow your knowledge base.
• 1:48
  Super excited. Can't wait to see at the next refrigeration mentor podcast. Let's get a conversation going.