Hire good technicians and empower them

 

BY RICHARD DiTOMA

L.M.P.

 

All professional sport franchises start their seasons with hopes of winning the championship of their respective sport by season’s end. All franchises have an owner or owners. And each owner needs a total team consisting of players to put on the field; a coaching/managerial staff to train the team’s players; and administrative personnel to tend to the clerical needs of the sporting business. But those requirements alone do not guarantee any team a championship. Victory requires each person involved to perform at the highest level possible. It also requires the owners to give the team that which it needs to perform excellently.

 

No major league baseball team ever won a World Series by fielding eight players. Baseball requires nine players on the field. If, for instance, they were missing a first baseman, the short stop would have no one to whom he could throw the ball in order to get the batter out at first base when the ball was hit toward the short stop.

 

In football, a team that consistently fields only 10 poorly equipped players would be at a great disadvantage. When their opponents were properly equipped with 11 players on the field, they would not be able to win a game, let alone a championship. But fielding the proper number of appropriately equipped players alone does not guarantee success. A total suitably equipped team puts you on the road to victory. Excellent execution leads you down that road to the championship.

 

This also holds true for sports like single’s tennis. Professional tennis players are usually their own owners and players. But, they too employ coaches and administrative personnel.

 

Your business is no different. You need a top quality team that can perform in sync with each other to give your business the chance to win the championship. The first step regarding your business team is to hire personnel with the following traits: integrity; loyalty; aptitude for their position on your team; great mental attitude; self- motivation; intent and ability to be excellent, intent and ability to follow legal and ethical orders; responsibility; and dependability.

 

In your business you are the owner. Regardless of the size of your business, you have responsibilities that require a total business team even if you are the only person on the team, in which case you are the team. PHC service business owners must train and field one or more technicians and also tend to administrative responsibilities. Therefore, in order to give yourself an opportunity to succeed in your business, each of the members of your team must have the intent and ability to perform the duties of each team position in an excellent manner. If you, as the owner, do not properly equip your business team personnel they cannot perform in an excellent manner. In turn, your business will be at a disadvantage.

 

In the PHC service business many contractors do not properly equip their technicians — who are often the only people from their businesses with whom their clientele will ever have contact. In your business if your technician doesn’t have the proper tools and material to perform a technical task for your clientele, you have placed your business in jeopardy regarding your customer’s perception of your business. In that instance, from your technician’s perspective, you have sent a detrimental message to your team. That is, if the boss doesn’t care, why should I?

 

Since consumers want to know the price they must pay for any service before they authorize that service to be performed, one of the primary tools PHC service technicians need is the ability to rapidly quote proper, profitable selling prices for services that will deliver excellence to the client and reward to the business enterprise. Stammering or stumbling before quoting a price makes the price dubious in the eye of the consumer. It sends a message to the consumer that this technician isn’t fully qualified at his/her job. In turn, the consumer may, in their mind, question the diagnosis of the tech regarding the task he/she recommended to resolve that client’s problem.

 

If your tech must call you for every price, in addition to still giving a flawed perception to the consumer, you will be kept from performing your other business duties. As the number of techs in your employ increase so will the valuable time you spend giving them prices. That time could have been spent guiding and growing your business.

 

When a consumer goes into a store and asks the salesperson for the price of an item, a good and well-trained salesperson is able to answer the question rapidly and confidently rather than trying to locate the owner for the price. Since your techs are usually the only people with whom your clientele comes in contact, they are also your sales personnel. Rapid, confident price quotes allow your tech to make more sales in the most efficient manner.

 

Therefore, common sense dictates that you empower your PHC service technicians with the ability to quote selling prices. After all, your techs are the only representatives from your business who have actually seen the circumstances about the task for which the price pertains. This practice will give consumers more confidence in the tech’s diagnosis and the price.

Your technicians should have an updated written price guide that allows them to see common typical jobs and their variables dependent upon circumstances of any consumer’s situation. For tasks which are not typically common, the tech should be given 1) cost factoring information such as the properly calculated cost of labor and overhead for one tech hour; 2) the ability to find material costs; 3) the profit margin divisor that must be applied to each task; and 4) any discount percentages which may apply to any of your contract clientele or specials you may have at the time of that price quote.

You can make your own price guide. But, keep in mind that this is a very time consuming task, especially, keeping up with the ever changing costs you incur. Or, you can subscribe to price guides which are printed by others. My Readily Available Pricing Information Digest© for the Plumbing Heating Cooling Contractor is a price guide I customize to your business factors and should take care of your price guide needs. It will empower your tech to answer the price question rapidly.

 

With regards to having your tech calculate prices on the job, Figure 1 is an E.A.S.I.E (Efficient Accurate Sales Itemized Estimate©) sheet (an excerpt from my book Solutions Management Theories and Methods for the Contracting Business©). I created it to help technicians develop proper profitable selling prices. The top of the

form provides space for the date of the calculation; client name and address information; and, description of the task being calculated.

 

The next section is for identifying the time needed to perform the task. It takes into consideration the time to travel to the work site; to speak with the client regarding diagnosis and explanation; to perform the task; to pick up material, if any; to test the work done; to do the paperwork; and a space for any other time needed to perform the task at hand.

After adding up the time to perform the task, there is a space to multiply that total time by the hourly cost of technician labor and overhead. Next in line comes space for calculating material costs and applicable taxes, if any.

 

By adding the total labor, overhead and material costs, your tech can arrive at the cost to you to perform the task. By dividing that break -even cost by the percentage difference between 100% and your desired profit (e.g. to reach a 25% profit you would divide by 75%), your tech will be able to quote a price rapidly and profitably. In conjunction, these tools will empower your technicians to better serve your business and your clientele.

 

When your tech brings back the invoice with the monies paid, the tech should give you information that will indicate whether he/she arrived at each selling price from your price guide or by calculation. If he/she calculated, the form used should be turned in to your office. Those forms should be attached to the invoice for your records. If the tech quoted prices from the form calculation for jobs which were not done, you can file them in the client’s file so you have them for future reference. The client may decide to do that job at a later date. If you have the information you can just update the costs and selling prices.

 

If you need my assistance empowering your techs; or, for my consultation services, “how to” book Solutions Management Theories and Methods for the Contracting Business©, customized price guide, workshops, customized invoices, brochures and/or business forms, give me a call at 845/639-5050. I can show you how your business team can give have an opportunity to win your championship so that you, your techs, and your clientele will be much more satisfied. As always best wishes for your health and prosperity.