Make Trades Great Again
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Make Trades Great Again
Going the Extra Mile
Do you ever wonder what makes 'some' contractors stand out from the crowd? What if we told you it's as simple as 'going the extra mile' for customers? This episode is a deep dive into the contractor-customer relationship. We discuss the importance of referring other contractors, and how crucial it is to have an open and honest approach while doing so. As we share our experiences, we underscore the critical nature of alerting the customer about potential issues that may arise, which they may not be aware of, hence adding value to our service.
We also touch on the significance of being observant when in a customer's home. Life's in the details, right? Spotting a potential roof leak or an old softener could strengthen the trust a customer has in you. However, it's not just about identifying issues - we also discuss how to present solutions without being overly salesy. Finally, we broach the subject of customer safety. We explore how taking responsibility for safety, being proactive, and communicating clearly can often lead to upselling opportunities. This episode is a treasure trove of insights for contractors looking to elevate their service game. Tune in!
Send us your feedback or topic ideas over on our social channels!
Eric Aune @mechanicalhub
Andy Mickelson @mick_plumb
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And you look in the brine tank and there's like 10 inches of like guppies and you know, tadpoles.
Speaker 2:Yeah yeah, it's just gross Pond scum in the brine tank.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Hey everybody, welcome to the Make Trades Great Again podcast. Andy, how you doing, man?
Speaker 1:We're back.
Speaker 2:We're back, dude. We're back and we are bold. I don't even know what that means. I don't know.
Speaker 1:I don't either. You're just not italic or under. That's fine, I like. I like a little through to the side. Yeah, yeah, my font in.
Speaker 2:yeah, my life font is really like more probably a strike through what what font are you that's? The yeah, what? Take our quiz. What font are you? Oh man, this is this. Is it dude? That's right, we are full of it today. Man you had a cool. You had a cool topic idea and it was kind of based off of a conversation we're just having too, yeah, yeah, I ran over a cup.
Speaker 1:I ran into a couple of things here recently and we were just talking about in the last episode and it kind of brought it up as that something that we probably haven't really talked about is going, you know, going the extra mile with a customer. So let's say you're, you're in the house and you're replacing the water heater Right, you know, you and I have talked about this. I mean, how many different times you're in there, you're, let's say, you're, replacing that power event with a tankless and you look over and the water softeners in service mode and it's unplugged, right, right. And you look in the brine tank and there's like 10 inches of like guppies and you know, tadpoles, yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's just gross, just pond scum and the brine tank. Yeah, yeah, and it's like human evolution is happening right there, exactly.
Speaker 1:We've got, we've elaborated from single cell organisms to advanced life forms.
Speaker 2:You know like the old sci-fi where the like the, the gill guy, like the he's got the gills and like the big things coming off, that like that was. I think that was a, that was a organism that was pulled out of like a brine tank. Yeah, it came out of the water softener. Yeah, in the in Antarctica, yeah, something. Yeah, probably a webbed feet.
Speaker 1:Anyway, right, anyway. So so you know, what do you do there? You know, in that case, for you and I you know for sure you're going to look at it and be like hey, dude, your softener is broke, let's, you need a new softener. So we're going to sell the softener. Yeah, so let's put it into context that you walk in there and you're working on the, on the heater in the basement, and you look over on the old wood paneling and here's the outlet with the big smoke stain out the top of it. Oh yeah.
Speaker 2:You know you're like yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean, it's not my problem, it's not Mike, not, you know not my game, not Mike.
Speaker 2:You know, I don't have a you're going to need that out there, right, or or? You're or you're going to need some kind of power and you just assume that the rest of the circuit in the room is like toast.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but, but on that same note, let's, let's say you're not, maybe you're walking through a bedroom into, or you know, through a living room, into the mechanical room, and the mechanical room has power and you know whatever. But you see this, this, this clearly, there's something wrong here, right? Yeah, do you go to the customer and say, hey, yeah, I'm doing my thing here. Everything's groovy on your furnace, you're ready for heat and oh, by the way, you know, when I was walking through this room, I noticed this outlet, you know. Do you? Do you go and say, hey, you know, you should, you should call an electrician here's, here's a buddy of mine, here's the guy that I know that does sort of a gal. That here's a company that we trust. Yeah, we've used these people before. You know, if you need an electrician, I'd have somebody take a look at that, because it doesn't look good, you know, just bring it to their attention.
Speaker 2:Yeah, well, I mean you put your it's, that's. It's actually not as easy to answer.
Speaker 2:If you're asking me what do I do? It's not as easy to answer as I thought it would be, and here's why I have a really hard time referring other contractors. Um, I guess at times it fluctuates. I have a couple of guys that I would, without hesitation, refer to to my customer, and then I know guys in the you know, self-employed. They're out there doing. I've known them for years even, and I had and I'm not naming any names, right, but I, there's a, there's a couple of them I wouldn't Refer to my customers and absolutely it. I say that.
Speaker 2:So anybody listening wondering why, if you don't know why already here I'm gonna, I'm gonna open up your eyes a little bit, just a little, if you haven't figured this out already. When you refer somebody, it reflects back on you yeah, and so I'm not. That's not what this discussion was about, but you had kind of posed that question and it may, and I hesitate to say, oh, yeah, of course, of course, I tell him to call this guy or whatever. If I have that person to call, I Will refer. I will say for sure, like I found this outlet, like I was you know, it's down by the heat register and I looked up and I'm like well, this thing smoke, this thing first, you got to get that checked out. Yeah, I mean I won't hesitate to do that, but I will. Just on the detail of it, I have a hard time sometimes, depending on who it is and what it is, to refer somebody, but anyway, it's kind of a sidetrack, sorry.
Speaker 1:No, but I think that that you know that covers the same, the same ground. I guess, if you will, yeah, that If you go in, you know, or let's. I mean here's, here's a different example. You walk it, you're up it working in the attic and you're redoing some plumbing and there's clearly a roof leak, right, you know? Do you? Do you just go? Ah?
Speaker 1:Hope to know about it, you know and, and I guess those are the kinds of things that that we run into and and and. As a Technician, as someone that's a skilled, skilled tradesperson that's in the, in the home sector or even in the commercial sector, we know when things don't look right. You know you may not be trained and like, yeah, you're the mold expert, you know whatever right.
Speaker 2:But if there's a problem.
Speaker 1:There's a problem and you, if you don't bring it up to somebody, then in my opinion You've kind of said, you know, you've kind of just been like, yeah, whatever's not my house, can't see it from my house, not my problem.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean, yeah, I'm not the expert like you said I'm I'm diving right into that and be like hey, by the way, come look at this, you got something going on here. Yeah, I think there's a lot to, there's a lot of ways to build your relationship with your customer, and I think this is one of them. That goes a long way for them trusting you.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean, if you're gonna get all salesy, that's not gonna work for every customer. No, you know, regardless of how you, like Andy, you or me feel about like some customers are gonna be turned off immediately, some aren't gonna be like, well, thanks, even if you're trying to sell, you know, on the side of like your business, because we're in this to make money, right, there are opportunities out there and if you're not Presenting them to your customer, you know it's that whole. If you don't ask, you won't get it. I know, like right, and I've told you we and I've had this conversation many times and I, you know, as a small one-man company, a Good amount of business that comes my way is while I'm already in my customers homes. Yeah, right, absolutely, I'm there, I'm, I'm presenting a real situation like your example, the softener. It's a perfect example. Yeah, I've used it. You've used it like look, I noticed this thing is like Original tier 1989 house. Yeah, it's an old, time-based softener. It's not metered.
Speaker 1:Yeah, at the very least you can upgrade yeah.
Speaker 2:I know it's not working, like it's not effective anymore, like that's a fact. I don't even have to tell me that it's 35, 40 years old. But but the the fact is is like you, it's. It's wasting water, it's using more salt than it needs to. There's all kinds of reasons why you could consider, given its age, it's time to replace it, kind of deal. Yeah, but I present that to my customers all time. But and that's a different subject, but kind of along the same lines is like it's how you present it to like if you're just going to try to sell people stuff, my customers oftentimes turn off by that. Maybe it's my presentation, I don't know.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's, I don't know. I mean to go go a couple of different directions with it. And the softener thing you know, because you do, you run a cost across it routinely. In a lot of cases we'll get to a customer I'm actually going to one this afternoon that we're doing a new laundry box in and they've got a softener that's been unplugged. They've had the house for three years. I went and, you know, quoted this job for him and I said do you want me to cut that out? You know, can I, can I get that out of the system for you so that there's no potential for this? You know, nasty three year old water from contaminating your drinking water and you know they're like, oh you know, someday we might replace it, you know, but right now we don't even need a softener and it's got a three valve bypass on it and I'm like, all right, I'm going to take the handles off at least of these two valves.
Speaker 1:So that somebody can't come down here in a panic, thinking that they're shutting the water off, and turn this thing on and open the bypass and juice your system with whatever's in there. Next thing, your kids have gills. That's right, right, and they can swim upside down. You know, I don't know.
Speaker 2:I think people can swim upside down, just start walking on their hands. It's a figure of speech.
Speaker 1:Have you never heard that before? But you know I, you do do things like that. I mean another example yesterday we were talking about it, we carry these little Honeywell BW personal carbon monoxide detectors. My crew, everybody's got one. It's on their tool bag. I have the same one, yeah, yeah, I mean, I don't know Somebody, somebody turned me on to it. I don't know if it was Mo.
Speaker 2:I remember it was Josh.
Speaker 1:Or Josh, that's right, josh was, it was, josh it was.
Speaker 2:Josh and I deal triangle to it.
Speaker 1:And I I've had that. You know, we've had these for two years now and they were just at the point where they're they're time to be replaced, yeah. And so I ordered a new set for the whole, for the crew, and mine had like six days left on it. Seven days left on it.
Speaker 1:And I walk into this job yesterday at this heavy equipment dealership and as soon as I walk through the door with my tool bag in the parts department, my alarm starts going off and I'm like that's weird. You know what the heck Cause it like largely doesn't go off. You know, like a lot of times I'm like I don't even know if this thing works, but you know, if you got the van door open and the van's running, it'll go off. And so I walk into this building and I literally 10 steps in the building, beep, beep, beep, beep, and I'm like that's kind of weird, right. And I look at it and it says low level alarm and I'm like huh, that's, you know, 35 parts per million is where this thing goes off. And I'm like what the heck? So I walk back outside and as soon as I clear the entry door boot, it's off. Huh, walk back inside, it goes off and I'm like huh, that's strange.
Speaker 1:You know I'm talking to the guy and at the counter and I'm like, hey, you know, do you, you guys ever, you know, run into any you know issues with this? Do you guys? Kind of carbon monoxide detector? It's a big, big warehouse, I mean this thing's, I don't know, 150 by 100. Oh yeah, and he's like, nah, nah, we've never really had any issues, you know, I mean the machine shops on the other side and the big engine dino's over there and boiler rooms over here. And so we walked into the machine shop where I mean this thing's like full of tractors and semi trucks and they do all kinds of stuff Different business, no same business that were in the parts warehouse. And so we walk into the machine shop and alarm goes off, silence, no issue. And I'm like, well, clearly they got the ventilation fans on out here. Walk back in the parts warehouse, beat alarms going off, go into the boiler room. Alarm shuts off, no alarm in the boiler room. I'm like what the heck?
Speaker 2:And it was just concentrated vortex of CO and their little.
Speaker 1:Is it like the wheel called what? No, oh, no, no, no. I'm thinking okay, I get it, sorry, yeah, and so what it is and what I think what it is is. I think they've drive the forklift around in there all day long, loading stuff all in and off of the pallet racking, and they're whatever they had, for ventilation is no longer working.
Speaker 2:They probably turned it off because they're like it's cold in your water time yeah. Cause you don't have a makeup air heater Right and you need to breathe, yeah, and so I'm there to replace a flush valve on a toilet, you know.
Speaker 1:So I go in and I take care of my toilet, call and I go out and grab my other Monoxer and I come in and it's it's not reading like anything, that's, you know, setting it off, and I'm like, I don't, you know, it might be you know a chemical thing that's doing it, but if it was a chemical thing, it would should have been everywhere. Yeah, you know. So I anyway, I go out, I grab my new, brand new one that I hadn't activated yet, activate the thing out in the truck, wait the 30 seconds or whatever, and I walk back in with the brand new one. I mean, within a second of each other. It's going off with the other one and I'm like, well, I, so I don't know, I gave the guy my old one, the one that had seven days left on it, yeah, and I'm like, here you go, you know, play around with it, figure out. I mean, you guys got to figure out where it's coming from.
Speaker 1:Normally, I would be the one that would be like, hey, I'm doing this. However, we put in a proposal on a quarterly maintenance contract for this building and we didn't get it. They went with somebody else. Yeah, and so I'm like you need to call whoever's doing your quarterly maintenance. That's this, this isn't my game. Yeah, you know you have someone else who's taking care of your system. You need to call them and tell them they have a problem here now and you know it's probably a forkless.
Speaker 2:I think it is probably the forklifts.
Speaker 1:They got some really, really old reverberate or Detroit radiant overhead heaters that you've ever worked on, those Yep, where they got one big central fan at the outside of the building and then there's like 10 burner units inside the building. So they got those and I'm guessing I mean it could be those, it could be the holes in it. Oh, I bet it does.
Speaker 2:The radiant tube. Yeah Well, they had gas valves off on two of them that I saw from the floor.
Speaker 1:So I'm like yeah, I guess on that one right there Got a problem, it's probably got a leak in it Right.
Speaker 2:So anyway pumping carbon monoxide. Yeah, go the extra mile. Tell your customer.
Speaker 1:Well, it gets fixed, Right? Yeah, I mean it would. It would suck. I mean, in that particular case, right, Am I on the hook for not telling the customer that they my carbon monoxide alarm went off? No, but I think it's a good idea. Oh, but it kind of feel terrible if somebody got hurt or died.
Speaker 2:Oh, yeah, you're right, it goes without saying Absolutely.
Speaker 1:So same thing with, like an outlet or some other hazard in somebody's house. Just, I mean, it doesn't take but a few seconds to go. Hey, I noticed this is an issue. You're not, you're not on the hook to fix it, You're not responsible to fix it.
Speaker 2:but and sometimes it might no, yeah, but also sometimes it might mean you know you add a sale onto your job.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and that's not a bad thing?
Speaker 2:It's not a bad thing to do that, trust me. Nope, it's not, I'll tell you by yachts. All right, everybody. Thanks for listening. If you haven't already subscribed to our podcast, we really do appreciate it and if you could, in one way or another, find a place to give us a review, we'd love to hear from you and it helps other people find us. And you have a good day, dude. All right, you too, see ya.
