Boosting Productivity: Well-Trained Techs Are the Key to Home Service Success

By John Akhoian

If you’ve talked to any business owner or critical manager over the past several years about the state of the home service industry, you will no doubt have heard about the ongoing labor shortage and its effects on productivity.

Home service owners and managers have built training and retention programs to keep their quality technicians well-educated and satisfied with their jobs. Some companies have begun offering apprenticeships again, while others have developed unique recruiting techniques in hopes of sparking an interest in the younger generation.

And beyond simply having enough employees to do the work, contractors know that having high-quality technicians helps drive a company’s productivity and profitability.

For most Americans, their home is their biggest investment, and they want to do business with well-trained and knowledgeable technicians. Having these high-quality technicians on staff is not only great for your home service company’s profitability, but it’s also essential to maintain consistent performance.

Trusting Your Team to Handle Critical Tasks

As a contractor, making sure your team performs to the best of its ability means that critical tasks will get done and won’t fall through the cracks.

One of the main reasons we hire employees is because we can’t handle all the business ourselves, but hiring a plumbing team is more than just putting bodies into trucks and customer homes.

A well-trained team is more likely to handle critical tasks with confidence. Having your team feel empowered to make decisions will result in them being able to take the initiative and respond more effectively to any plumbing issues.

It also helps if your team feels comfortable explaining technical details to customers so that homeowners understand the importance of preventative maintenance or the service they need.

This helps your team perform consistently, which means more satisfied customers. When a customer is happy, they will not only book repeat business but will also refer your company to their friends and family.

These referrals require your marketing team to make fewer touchpoints in order to drive new business. People tend to trust a family or friend’s referral over any advertising you can pay for.  For example, a 2021 Nielsen survey about trust in advertising shows that 88% of consumers trust what their close family and friends say over advertising campaigns.

Boosting Revenue with Efficiency

As anyone with a new HVAC unit, automobile or washing machine knows, purchasing modern equipment can save your family money in the long run.

While regulations and innovation have made appliances more energy-efficient, you will need to consistently train your plumbers or HVAC technicians so they are up-to-date on the latest techniques. Plan training sessions during the shoulder month and divide the team up so that some are in the field while others are learning.

But training shouldn’t just be limited to teaching new repair and maintenance skills. You should also be teaching your home service experts some soft skills that they can use to provide better customer service. Your customer service representatives (CSRs) aren’t in the field with your service techs and aren’t there to answer questions.

That means your techs should know how to educate customers, upsell and cross-sell services, and ask customers for positive online reviews. Giving your techs the confidence to interact better with your customers is a  great way to boost revenue.

You should also consider how you can use technology to help your service techs be more efficient, which saves them time. Not so long ago, your techs came to a customer’s home with the tools they needed to do the job but with little else.

These days, however, you have a variety of digital apps that not only make working in the field more efficient but can help your team be more efficient, including apps that:

• Prioritize tasks based on their level of expertise
• Minimize their travel time based on their starting location and list of service calls throughout the day
• Helps them provide more accurate estimates and modernizes invoices
• Assists in checking inventory to help schedule service.

Mentoring Their Peers

Finally, one of the best ways a home service company can improve its profitability is by utilizing the expertise of its more experienced service technicians.

On-the-job training is often necessary in professions where industry knowledge and constructive feedback can educate a new generation of workers. Partnering a younger employee with a more seasoned technician in the field has been a part of the skilled trades since the first indoor sink was a novelty.

But it doesn’t stop with technical advice. Older members of your team will be on hand to help younger technicians navigate career changes and provide guidance on professional development. If you are considering an apprenticeship program as a way to overcome the labor shortage, retaining your more experienced service techs to help with training is the best way to scale your business.

These collaborative efforts help your team build up a workforce that is more productive in the field because it reduces the number of mistakes, and younger workers get instant feedback so they can improve their skills.

Well-trained technicians equal happy customers. When your techs are trained well enough to feel comfortable answering customer questions, providing the right repairs and maintenance and building a customer’s trust through ongoing expertise and communication, you can drive more business.

As the labor shortage continues to loom over the home service industry, empowering your techs and plumbers with the right education and confidence gives you the competitive advantage you need to grow and scale your business.

John Akhoian is CEO of Rooter Hero, a plumbing and drain company serving locations across California, Nevada and Arizona. His mission is to help others maximize their careers and live fulfilling, comfortable lives, and he is the author of several books about achieving success in business, including, “Creating 99 Millionaires” and “The Secret to Real Wealth.” He also published his autobiography, “Temporarily Broken: The John Akhoian Story” in 2022. For more information, visit www.rooterhero.com.