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What was once the Frozen Tundra is now the Heated Tundra? This sneak peek into the latest from the Hub on the Road series that takes the team to contractor Tweet/Garot’s Wrightstown, Wis. prefab shop and a visit to the mechanical room at Lambeau Field to see how this venerable stadium keeps its visitors comfortable. Stay tuned for the full length Hub on the Road video coming soon.

“Submarine duty taught me well.”

Born in San Jose, Calif., Jeff Seveland thrived amid the lush warmth of central California. His father was a Navy man, and it seemed that every other kid in school grew up in a military household. So it only made sense that, shortly after completing high school, then two years of automotive tech school, he enlisted in the U. S. Navy.

Seveland spent five of his best years (’95 to ’99) as a machinist’s mate in the Navy.  At 6’3”, he’s no easy fit for submarine duty, but that was the assignment.

“As it turned out, Navy submarine duty was a great fit for me despite the dozens of head wounds I suffered hitting the bulkhead,” Seveland recalled, his hand involuntarily moving to his rub his scalp. His duty included seven months at sea in both South America and in the Mediterranean Sea.

“One thing’s for sure,” he quickly added. “Working on a submarine and its wide range of equipment was the perfect entry point, and training, for my jump into boiler work as a civilian. He explained that, on the sub as an “A-Ganger” (critical services crew), he serviced refrigeration equipment, oxygen generators, CO2 scrubbers, high pressure air and hydraulic systems, and a wide range of other mechanical and HVAC equipment. Choosing not to reenlist, Seveland was quickly hired as a building technology and commissioning technician with energy services companies.

Quantico-bound

It was while Seveland was in his early years in the energy services industry that he was assigned to Quantico, Va. where he commissioned and installed new commercial boilers. “Funny how things change: I expected automotive, but boilers won the decision. The jobs I took were a great fit for me, made to order for the type of work I like most and am good at.”

Quantico is headquarters for many training institutions, including the Marine Corps, the Naval Criminal Investigative Service and the FBI and DEA academies—though is best known as the largest Marine Corps base with 12,000 Marines.

“There was plenty of low pressure cast iron equipment, high pressure steam systems and an assortment of firetube and watertube boilers that needed attention at Quantico. “I guess that’s what they call job security,” he said, smiling.

Soon after, Seveland joined Framingham, Mass.-based Ameresco, a leading renewable energy and energy efficiency company offering Energy Savings Performance Contracts (ESPC) for federal agencies, funds used to provide energy solutions for public and private organizations.

“Fortunately, after so many years of preparing for the perfect job—with training and experience that fit me like a glove—the move to Ameresco was the best fit of all.” Today, as Ameresco’s O&M Site Supervisor for Quantico, Seveland—now 19 years into fulfilling the company’s 25-year, $1.1 million annual contract there – directs the efforts of a team of employees on the base.

Today, Quantico includes 80+ Marine Corps buildings for a total of more than 1.2 million square feet. Through its ESPC contract, Ameresco provides predictive and preventive maintenance, condition monitoring, commissioning, repair and equipment replacement services. Boiler maintenance is an important facet of this, one that also includes maintenance and replacement of pumps and circulators, valves, controls and water treatment systems.

Building 15

Among the many Marine Corps facilities at Quantico, Building 15 is a typical residential quarters. According to Seveland, Building 15 is served by three boilers—two for space heating and one for domestic hot water (DHW).

“As is often the case, if one boiler failed, another could jump in to meet heat demand,” he said. “Even if the DHW boiler would go out, either one of the other space heat boilers could be adjusted for service.

“All three boilers have served the facility well since their installation in 2003, so we plan to replace the three units soon, preventively,” he added. Building 15, he explained, consists of three floors, including the basement and rooftop levels, 80,816 square feet, and 114  residential rooms, each with its own bathroom, and many other common area bathrooms.

With so many Marines on base, it doesn’t take a military strategist to understand the need for many residential buildings at Quantico. Banish from your mind any recollection of WWII-type boot camp barracks. The Marines on this base have earned the right to a good night’s sleep in real beds, hot meals, and bathrooms with plentiful hot water.

Boiler of Preference

“The provision of space heat and domestic hot water is our key focus at Quantico,” added Seveland. “With so many large boilers and volume water heaters on base, we know a thing or two installing, maintaining and servicing hydronic heating systems.”

Ameresco teams, including Seveland’s, work to find the most innovative and best fit equipment and technology for each project.  They found the best-fit for installations at Quantico to be Thermal Solutions’ Evolution boiler. “We were first introduced to these systems back in 2006.”  The boiler he refers to is a copper fin-tube constructed, with water-backed tube sheets and maintenance-free burner.

The Evolution boiler’s burner features a large surface area and lower flux that allows for high heat transfer and more uniform heating, extending the life of its copper tubes. A sturdy cast-aluminum blower assembly, fitted with a replaceable combustion air filter is used to keep the burner free of contaminants.  The Evolution boiler can be operated with its jacket panels removed during inspection to avoid nuisance problems associated with pressurized compartments.

Ameresco Knows a Thing or Two

By design, the low NOx, modulating boiler’s ceramic radiant burner rarely requires inspection or maintenance. The non-condensing boiler’s (with 250, 500, 750, 1,000 or 2,000 MBH sizes) provide up to 87% efficiency.

Seveland explained that, at Ameresco, experts are on call 24/7/365. “There’s no real downtime. Sure, things tend to quiet down during the holidays, but because of our ongoing, routine maintenance and our familiarity with the equipment, we’re still on call.”

“All of the equipment on base must be properly and consistently serviced and maintained,” he continued. “I take great pride in having a tight maintenance program.  In addition to the routine boiler service work—and thanks to sophisticated building automation controls and fiber optics—we continuously monitor temperatures and pressure in all of Quantico’s buildings. If any temperature goes out of range, sensors alert us. We reply long before an alarm goes out, long before base personnel know of an active issue.”

Old and New

The existing storage tank at Building 15 is more than 50 years old, but is still doing its job well. A shell and tube heat exchanger works in concert with a 1,500-gallon storage tank. “It’s aging, but continues to perform well,” he said.  “It dates back to the days when the base had a central heating plant that’s since been decommissioned. In this case, the old adage applies: If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.

“We helped decentralize heating operations many years ago when it was recognized how much heat was being lost in the distribution of heat throughout the base,” added Seveland.

Seveland explained that, early in his tenure at Quantico, many of the boilers were large, cast iron, low-pressure behemoths, and some high-pressure steam boilers, with an assortment of firetube and water-tube boilers.

Many of the Evolution boilers are 1,500 MBH in capacity. Some of them contribute to both the space heating and DHW loads. Typically, for residential buildings there, Seveland and his crews pair-up- a heat exchanger to a boiler to heat domestic water that’s stored in large, insulated storage tanks.

All boilers installed during the big ESPC project at Quantico receive routine combustion efficiency testing by Ameresco pros, and monitoring of water quality. He added that, every 10 years, the Evolution boilers are taken apart—an easy task given their removable jacket design—serviced, cleaned, and reassembled. The service work includes a re-sealing of the combustion chamber.

“We’ve settled on a good recipe for reliable heat production at Quantico,” concluded Seveland. “After all—if you were responsible for keeping 12,000 Marines comfortable—wouldn’t you choose equipment you could rely on?”

Sidebar

Quantico—unique among military bases

Since its establishment in 1917, Quantico has been home to many of the nation’s most  innovative, intelligent and patriotic men and women. It’s there, at the Crossroads of the Marine Corps, that vital concepts, training and equipment of the future are developed. Some of the most important techniques in warfighting were born there, including expeditionary warfare, for which the Marine Corps is best known.

In 1917, with the US just entering the largest war the world had ever known to date, the small town of Quantico, Virginia became the home of Marine Barracks Quantico, with a complement of 91 Marines and four officers. The barracks was a training center for recruits, and eventually grew into the nation’s largest Marine Corps base, having an excellent position near Washington DC.

In the 1920 and 1930s, Quantico was the center of the development of amphibious assault doctrine, and where some of the early amphibious vehicles were developed. This doctrine gave the USA an advantage in beach assaults over any of the Axis powers in World War Two.

Today the base has completely surrounded the town in almost every way, and in addition to Marine training, hosts the FBI Academy, FBI Lab, the FBI Hostage Rescue Team, the Army CID HQ, the Air Force Office of Special Investigations HQ, the Naval Criminal Investigative Service HQ, the DIA, and the DEA training facility. They are undoubtedly secure under Marine guard.

A Carlson-Holohan Industry Award of Excellence honoree, Bob “Hot Rod” Rohr travels across the country as a trainer for Caleffi North America, sharing his 40+ years’ of experience as a plumbing, radiant heat and renewable energy contractor, all while bringing his rubber-to-the-road experiences to life.

Be honest, do what you say you will do.  It’s that simple, really.

If you bill your training as a technical event or class, make it that. Certainly, everyone of your attendees has an opinion, and that is a good thing. So at class end they get to decide if it checked the boxes they brought along to have filled. For example, a boiler piping presentation needs to have schematics of piping. I’d take it further and make the drawings as generic as possible.

Fortunately I work for a manufacturer that publishes a very generic, non-biased trade journal. This makes for some excellent content for the classes.

But also be realistic in your expectations; not everyone in the room will be at the same level, and have the exact same expectations. Promote the event as basic, intermediate or advanced to help clear up the  content. A trainer should, poll the room right off to get a feel of the experience level of the class. Ask occasionally if the info is meeting the needs or expectations. A trainer needs to be prepared to shift gears

Keep additional PPTs ready to go on your desktop if you need to raise or lower the content level, or bounce around to assure everyone gets something from their time commitment.

Know also that generous giveaways and CEU offerings will get some attendees that are there for the “goods” more so then the content. It’s easy to spot folks like that. They spend a lot of time looking at their phone.

Someone is paying the trainer to get to the event and spend a few nights on the road. Expect the sponsor to have a product table, or some handouts that are brand specific. A few questions on a form or link to QR code to get feedback is helpful for trainers.

Timely topics help fill a room. Clever course names help people click on the training promos.

Like any trade, time on the job helps a trainer learn what works and what flops, so be prepared to change up your presentations or presentation style occasionally. A Toastmasters class can sharpen your presentation skills. Speak loud and clearly. Move around the room.

Watch big name, professionally-trained  presenters. See how they move and observe the techniques they use to keep the room’s attention. Who is your favorite actor and why?

Got any tips or suggestions? Pass them along.

Keep your technical knowledge close in the tool bag; emotional intelligence is a highly valued personal trait that can help you run a more successful business.

We’ve all heard the expression before, “You’re thinking with you heart and not your head.” But what if both were true? On a recent Thursday night Plumbing Perspective (@plumbing_perspective) Instagram Live, guest Shreya Nagwani (@_shreymvp), sales/service expert and coach for Service MVP, discussed an interesting aspect of Service MVP’s training that translates to running a successful business. It’s called Emotional Intelligence or EQ. Almost counterintuitive—because of the opposite nature of how people can think one way and act another—the term actually makes an abundant amount of sense.

According to Harvard Business School, Emotional intelligence is defined as the ability to understand and manage your own emotions, as well as recognize and influence the emotions of those around you. The term was first coined in 1990 by researchers John Mayer and Peter Salovey, but was later popularized by psychologist Daniel Goleman. (Goleman lists five components of EQ below.)

In the realm of home service sales, emotional intelligence (EQ) often takes a backseat to technical expertise. However, it is a critical component that should not be overlooked. EQ refers to the ability to understand and manage emotions effectively, enabling individuals to relieve stress, communicate well, empathize, overcome challenges, and defuse conflicts. In the sales process, where emotions heavily influence buying decisions, focusing on logical reasoning alone can leave clients hesitant.

But how does it translate into plumbing and HVAC business? While plumbing and HVAC techs have a high IQ, and what they communicate is overly technical, a non-technician, i.e., customer, doesn’t understand what that means, says Nagwani. “All they want is safety, comfort and health for their family and their home.”

Home service technicians, typically analytical and left-brained, tend to prioritize the logical aspects of their work, inadvertently neglecting the emotional side of the sales process. The gap lies in the lack of training on communicating solutions in an emotionally intelligent manner. To successfully bridge this gap, technicians must be equipped with the skills to connect with customers on a deeper level, understand their unique needs, and present solutions that resonate emotionally.

“It’s a very emotional job,” says Nagwani, but there is a gap. “To bridge the gap would be learning emotional intelligence. How do I communicate this job, which is just a plumbing job, to something like, ‘What is the effect of this system for their family? If they have chlorine in their water and their son has eczema.’ That’s how you connect emotional intelligence to a plumbing job,” says Nagwani.

And, not only that, people buy things when they have high self-esteem, when they feel like they deserve it. “People who have a high self-esteem buy premium,” says Nagwani.

How do to techs learn how to communicate that? “What we teach—in part—in our Service MVP offerings is, how do you raise someone’s self-esteem during a visit that by the end of the appointment the client feels better about themselves as a person? What happens is they’ll pick an option,” says Nagwani. “‘I deserve endless hot water,’ for example, connecting a technician’s job over to emotional intelligence.”

Moreover, sometimes it can be difficult exude confidence, stability, empathy on a tremendously busy schedule. “It’s confidence. Even if it’s not a lack of confidence, it comes off that way. This also goes to managers and owners. If your’re giving your guys six or seven calls on the board, they would see all of the calls stacked up and it would really affect the way they ran those calls and they would burn through all of them. They are just thinking of getting in and out. That is going to affect the service to the client, the job, the revenue and the happiness of the technician.

“We have a rule where a technician can see only one call at a time and they get a long time on that call. They have all the time they need; it’s quality over quanitity. What starts to happen is, there are less upset clients, there are more 5-star reviews, they triple their revenue, literally. The confidence of the technician is really important. How is somebody going to be confident when they don’t have communications training?” says Nagwani.

By incorporating emotionally intelligent communication techniques, technicians can establish a stronger connection with customers. Understanding and addressing customers’ emotions not only builds rapport but also allows for customized solutions that meet their specific needs. Training programs, such as those offered by Service MVP, specialize in teaching teams to utilize emotionally intelligent approaches. Implementing these techniques can lead to a significant increase in revenue per technician, averaging at 297%. This approach enhances customer satisfaction, improves conversion rates, and fosters long-term customer loyalty.

Goleman’s 5 Components of EQ

1. Self-Awareness: Recognizing and understanding your own strengths and weaknesses, your emotions and moods, and the effects these things have on other people. A self-aware person is not easily offended by criticism, but rather learns and adapts.
2. Self-Regulation: To think before doing and to express your feelings maturely with restraint. Rather than being controlled by emotions and impulses, an emotionally intelligent person can control impulses and emotional responses. 
3. Internal Motivation: High EQ people are self-motivated, pursuing personal goals for reasons of self-development and self-gratification, rather than money, titles, external praise or esteem.
4. Empathy: Empathy involves recognizing, understanding and feeling the emotions of others. Unlike sympathy, empathy involves actually sharing the emotional experience another person is having. Empathetic people genuinely understand and respond to the needs of others.
5. People Skills: Emotionally intelligent people easily build trust and respect with others. They are good at managing relationships and building networks, and they avoid power struggles and deceitfulness. Their high levels of the first four components of EQ make for deep bonds and genuine, non-competitive friendships.
   Source: Forbes.com

Service MVP is an e-learning website featuring video-based micro-learning content designed to revolutionize your office, service, sales and install teams. It is the ultimate service sales training resource, where high performers increase the value of their solutions to create higher revenue and profit.