Revolutionizing Technician Development and Its Marketing Impact
0:03
Impactful Training Strategies for Technicians
8:22
Enhancing Technician Training and Sales
15:15
Engaging Training Methods for Technicians
21:12
Creating Scalable Training Solutions for Marketing
Unlock the secrets to exceptional technician training and business success with our special guest, Danielle Wernert, a visionary leader who has transformed the training landscape for over 500 technicians. By tuning in, you'll discover how to bridge the gap in technical training and embrace a culture of learning and adaptability. Danielle shares her journey and insights on fostering a mindset shift that encourages experienced technicians to welcome new technologies and methodologies. Learn how a family-owned business successfully created a training academy to ensure a steady pipeline of skilled talent in the trades.
Our discussion also highlights the vital connection between stellar customer satisfaction and effective technician training. Discover how five-star reviews not only elevate your marketing strategies but also help your business shine among potential customers. We explore the synergy required among sales, technical, CSR, and marketing teams to optimize performance. Technicians are encouraged to educate homeowners on potential upgrades, empowering them to make informed decisions and enhancing trust, which, in turn, drives additional service investments and business growth.
In an engaging twist, we dive into innovative training methods that make learning both enjoyable and effective, moving beyond mundane presentations. From creative games like Safety Jenga to the use of funny video clips, we explore how leadership can set the tone for a culture of learning and adaptability. For smaller businesses, owners might need to lead by example, stepping out of comfort zones to partner with specialized companies for comprehensive training programs. Discover how scalable training solutions not only enhance brand perception but also contribute to building a loyal customer base and a successful business.
-
Speaker 1: 0:03
What's up, lemonheads? Welcome to another episode of From the Yellow Chair. I am Crystal and today I'm sitting down with a rock star woman in the industry that is making great moves, doing great things in the training space. She's worked with over 500 technicians, more than 200 of those being brand new to the trades, creating innovative training solutions that make her learning style. She teaches them with an engaging and measurable and impactive techniques. I'm really excited for us to talk about how training can impact your marketing. Let's sip some lemonade awesome. Well, today I have the super sweet already on this call as we got on here to prepare. Prepare. Danielle wernert, owner of upsell, upskilled consulting and a 40 under 40 recipient. So hey, we're from the same thing there 40 under 40s, yes. So, danielle, I always say this for every one of my podcast guests. Why should anyone care what you have to say? Tell me a little bit about who you are.
Speaker 2: 1:16
Yeah, so I have been in the industry for a little over five years now and I have worked with a lot of different technicians at various levels in their career path, right so, from very new technicians coming into not knowing how to read a tape measure or what a hammer really does, all the way to the technicians who have been in the industry for years and they they're very familiar with, with what they do every day, but they also have the mindset that they could always learn more. So I have had the pleasure of helping my previous company I was on the team to start their internal training academy, which is where I connected with so many of those technicians. But I've had the opportunity to also just work with multiple companies across the country and really develop their technical training strategy. We found that there was a gap in technical training specifically. So many people talk about sales training or leadership training and there's not as much there for the technicians on, quite literally, how to do the job that they're in the home to do. So we focus on that gap.
Speaker 1: 2:18
Fantastic. Well, I absolutely adore this because growing up a lot of our listeners know I grew up in the industry. My grandfather, my dad, now my brother, own a heating and air conditioning and plumbing company here in rural East Texas and we started our own training academy called the Home Service Academy, and basically we decided that if we couldn't find skilled technicians we would create our own. And we definitely we went at it full force, so we didn't just put some chairs in a room and a TV. We literally built out a whole entire program around bringing on people that just want to be successful. They just want a good career and how we could train them and honestly, like for the business, how we could be quick and impactful and efficient about getting them in their own vehicles out to be maintenance.
Speaker 1: 3:06
Technicians eventually demand technicians. And then we added that same philosophy to our plumbing program and it really took off for our company. It really helped us have a consistent flow of people into our trade and into our company to where we were basically farming our own team and training them up in the way we should go. Do you see, a lot of times with the ones that aren't new to the industry, do you have to overcome some bad habits when you're training. What do you think the biggest obstacle is? Is you start to train people that are coming from the trades?
Speaker 2: 3:39
Yeah, when you get people that come from, they've already got that experience maybe somewhere else or or you know, there is a stigma of like hey, I already know how to do this, I don't need the training. And it's really that mindset shift and it's not just a training mindset shift. If they're in that head space of I already know how to do it my way, then they need a mindset shift in their entire culture with who you guys are. And so a lot of that is getting them to understand that like, hey, there's new technologies coming out every single day, there's new ways to you might know how to do this, but what if I could save you an hour and maybe you do it differently? And now you're, you're getting to your next call, You're getting opportunities for your next revenue faster, and there's always new ways to do it. And so it's kind of getting them to have that light bulb moment of, even if I know how to do this, or think I know how to do this, there's probably a better way somewhere that somebody else has learned.
Speaker 1: 4:33
Absolutely so. Why my pastor says this sometimes why pioneer when you can partner? So there's really there's very little reason right now to be out there trying to just build your own self, like learn from literally the old ways of learning. Now there's so many people that have gone before you. I mean, even think about it. Now you've got YouTube, training and channels and TikTok. You know, as of today, tiktok is still legal in the United States, but lots of, lots of places, resources for you to access data that really will help you become a better technician, and so you know you're right, like I do think it affects your culture.
Speaker 1: 5:13
Yeah, so one of the things I'll never forget and I'm sure you can speak to this too is when I mean back in the day when we implemented flat rate pricing, and so we would implement, we implemented flat rate pricing and we had people that were like, oh, this is never going to work, how are we ever going to do this? And it literally the more and more we coached around him, we tried to involve them and keep them going, but eventually he stood out so badly because everyone else had gotten on the train. Everyone else was interacting correctly, everyone in was going in with a good attitude to learn these new processes and software and he eventually just literally fell off because he couldn't get. He couldn't get the buy-in, he couldn't get the the. You know drama behind it, yeah.
Speaker 2: 5:56
Yeah, no, you're exactly right.
Speaker 1: 5:57
Yeah. Yeah, so I know you probably see that a lot.
Speaker 2: 6:00
Yeah, oh for sure. And that's the thing is they, they, they find their way out the door, right. If they're not the right fit for your company, they're going to find their way that and move on to the next one. And that's okay, because if if they weren't the right fit, you've got to be okay letting them go Right. And so you kind of talked about at the beginning, like there's so many different resources out there and jump to this website and jump to that. And that's really part of the foundation of why up skilled was even created is so many of these companies offer these giant libraries of you know, thousand videos and thousand courses.
Speaker 2: 6:30
And as an individual technician, and often as a company in general, you you kind of get decision paralysis and it's like okay, there's so much content, I don't know where to start, I don't know what to do, and then you shut the whole website down, right. And so that's why we put such a focus of like, let us help you build that strategy, let's put a place of hey, let's make sure we watch this video at this point. Let's do a safety topic of the month in your department meeting, and we put kind of that impact behind. Here's all the resources that already exist, how do we best use those? So?
Speaker 1: 7:04
I love that and you're right, decision fatigue, yes, is very common, I'm assuming, through from especially especially young contractors that are super aggressive. They're very entrepreneurial mindset, so, or have that type of mindset, so they're always like, oh, we could do this, we could do this, and there's, their brain is just swirling with so many things to do. And so, again, you know, just having someone organize and structure how to train and when, to train on what, when and where and how, is really an asset that we, probably a lot of us, need to take advantage of. And so, danielle, I know that training might not seem like a marketing topic at first glance, but definitely we, as the marketing side of life, we definitely see the connection, yeah. And so I thought, how can you tell me, like, how do you think a properly trained technician really plays a key role in shaping your company's brand?
Speaker 2: 8:04
Yeah, yeah, that's a great question. So you know, when you think about technicians being properly trained, like what, what does that mean for you as a business? And so the two kind of key points that stuck out to me are you, when your technicians are properly trained and they're doing the skill right, you become the company that gets it done right the first time, and that's huge. You know, you think of all those those five star reviews, which is a big giant piece of marketing, right, and so it's OK, the company that has the most five-star reviews is typically the company that is the first one that people are looking for online.
Speaker 2: 8:36
I know that's how I make my decisions half the time of okay, what are people saying about this? And, yep, enough people like it. Okay, I'm going to trust those people. Sure, I'll go with that one. And so when you increase that customer satisfaction and decrease that callback rate through training, you're going to find that those five-star reviews come up. So I think the five-star reviews and just being known as that reputation of we're going to get it done and we're going to get it done right the first time, those are huge marketing pieces that come from training.
Speaker 1: 9:04
Oh yeah, and let me tell you we can have the best marketing tactics out there. We can have really cool offers, really cool loss leaders out there that are just to get you in front of new customers, put you in front of new homes that you can service, with even new products that you have. But if your technician can't flip that lead, that low cost lead, to your maintenance club or over to a higher end repair or eventually a replacement, we're kind of just throwing dollars to knock on a door. It's literally costing us money to do business that way. So when you train your technicians better to understand, I think they need to have a deeper understanding of why you're doing the different marketing tactics that you're doing, so you know why.
Speaker 1: 9:48
Helping them understand in these training meetings like, why are we even talking about marketing in a meeting? I don't care if y'all are giving away a TV, who cares? Well, that TV can help you make more money as well, especially if your performance pay. So how can we help you get there? But also understanding the way that you're positioning things. So we're not going to drive out to a house for $79 and do a tune-up. Well, you're right, you shouldn't, but that got you to the house.
Speaker 1: 10:17
Now it's your job to seek out and make sure you make every recommendation that the homeowner might want to take advantage of and at the very least, getting them on your maintenance program. So when you can really build out a complete like the synergy between the sales team, the technician team, the CSR team and the marketing team and all of those pistons are pumping together, you really start seeing movement. Then. But I cannot tell you how many times we hear from a contractor that says well, my guys just don't want to do that when they get in the home. Okay, well, the last time I checked sorry, you were the one that made payroll, like you were the one that signed the payroll check. So we've got to like.
Speaker 2: 10:56
You know, we've got to make sure everybody understands yeah right like how that works.
Speaker 2: 10:58
It was too like getting them to to understand that it's okay to be proud of their work, it's okay to brag on themselves, and so I think back to you know each semester that I had students come through.
Speaker 2: 11:08
They always had a texting thread at the end and it was hey, they were all best friends and they had the instructor in there, and anytime they post-graduation went out to jobs, you know they're going in, they're doing their work, and they would see something super bizarre and they would fix it. They were constantly taking pictures and sending it to each other and they were so proud of their work. But that's kind of where it stopped. And so it's like teaching them that it's okay Be proud of your work with your homeowner. They might not understand every single little piece of what you're doing, but if you're going in there, even if it's just a maintenance, even if you made sure that that tankless flush went flawless, go be proud of that, educate that homeowner and don't be afraid to have conversations about their equipment, because you might not be the best salesperson, you might not be the most confident salesperson, but if you know your technical skills and you're proud of what you did, that can also sell itself.
Speaker 1: 11:59
Oh, absolutely Absolutely. And you know, I tell, I tell technicians all the time too, it's not your job to worry about their, the homeowner's budget, right, so go in and do a good job. Most of the people that you're probably coaching are just good. They're good fixers. They're not necessarily great salespeople necessarily. Now, some of them really are. If they were honed that skill in, they would be great.
Speaker 1: 12:23
Yeah, but at the end of the day, you have to remember, like, this is a business, it's not a charity. So, yes, we want to repair, we want to do good work, we want to be ethical, we want to repair, we want to do good work, we want to be ethical, we want to be truthful and do the work that needs to be done. But providing options to homeowners like the upgraded things of, like an upgraded efficiency on the or, you know correct. What you should be worried about is that you're just providing as many options that seem reasonable to that homeowner. Options are what the homeowner actually wants more of. Let them tell you, no, don't. Let them wonder why you didn't tell them that you had that option in the first place.
Speaker 2: 13:08
Yeah Well, and as a customer yourself to think about it, like I know for me, if I hadn't had that homeowner education, I wouldn't have bought my RO system. And so now I've. I received all of that information and maybe I didn't make that decision that same day, but now I know okay, this is something that's important for me and my family, and I made the decision to go ahead and purchase one, but I'm not out there in my free time. Goog, go ahead and purchase one, but I'm not out there in my free time.
Speaker 1: 13:33
Googling RO system.
Speaker 2: 13:34
Well, okay, I might be, because of mine, the average person isn't sitting there researching the upgrades that that exist, and so you, as a technician, have to be able to be comfortable educating that that homeowner in what exists and stop spending their, their purchasing money as if it's your budget, because we all know, going into a home, you're not going to judge a homeowner you shouldn't judge a homeowner's budget based on your first appearance, and so stop being worried about what they're going to spend or worried that your options are too expensive or maybe you gave them too many options. Follow whatever process your company uses, but, at the same time, all of those options that you're providing are going to be backed up by the education you provided them during your visit.
Speaker 1: 14:18
Love it. That's exactly right. That's exactly right. And just a little, a little. A little confidence, too, goes a long way. So there's a lot that you can do there. So well, tell me a little bit about like. You have some cool things that you mentioned in your like onboarding call that we did about like inventory races or safety Jenga. These are some things. So this is speaking to my heart for culture, because I was always a really big fan when I was working with my family's company of just and I'm from East Texas, so I say like loving on those technicians, encouraging them, giving them something that's fun and interactive, and not just this hardcore punch them in the face with everything you're not doing wrong, you know not doing right. So I wanted to hear about those engaging and creative training methods that maybe you have taught other companies to implement or implement yourself have taught other companies to implement or implement yourself, yeah, so these are my favorite part.
Speaker 1: 15:15
So people, joke that I drive the fun bus I love to.
Speaker 2: 15:17
I love to take like a boring concept like safety. Nobody loves sitting there and staring at a safety power point for three hours, Like it's just not enjoyable, Right. And so like, how do you take those fundamentals and turn them into a game or a competition? And I'm not talking about a competition of, okay, whoever sells the most UV lights this month gets a hundred dollar gift card. Like, okay, that might work once, but if you're having the same competition or the same game over and over again, it burns out. And so we work with companies and design a lot of games for them that we share, like inventory races, which is my absolute, absolute favorite.
Speaker 2: 15:54
But safety, Jenga, go to YouTube and look up OSHA fail videos and play a funny video. Make sure you bet it first. But like, make sure you play a video at the beginning of like two minutes of people not using ladders safely and what can happen to start your conversation of safety. But just finding fun ways to make it different. At six or seven in the morning they are usually asleep in your department meeting. They're not going to sit there and retain everything that you're spewing out from a PowerPoint, so fun games are a good way to do that.
Speaker 1: 16:20
I love that. And two, it makes it listen. I give this like a precursor to everyone. Listen, male technicians are not exactly the first ones to be like oh yeah, let's do something crazy. You know they really, they really just want to get up and go to work and go fix some stuff. You know they really don't want to be like you know drawing or racing or running, but if you will just plow through those first few times, just do it anyway.
Speaker 1: 16:46
Set yourself up for success. Plant some people in the room that you say hey, john, you know what I need from you today. I really need you to be engaged when we do this running tic-tac-toe game. I know it's not everybody's idea, but, if I can get, you and your leadership should lead by example. If you are an owner who sits in the back of the room arms crossed, scowl on their face, drinking a cup of coffee and complaining that everything's taking too long, that is how your team is going to be.
Speaker 1: 17:10
So culture starts from the top and their approach to training starts at the top, and so really make sure that your leadership team is engaged and on board. And if you're wanting to go like hardcore, super engaging, super energetic and things like that, then I encourage you, like, prepare your leadership team to lead by example from there. Pick out some people and coach them. Hey, I'm going to call on you today for the cereal eating challenge and you know I really appreciate you doing it. If you'll just help me lead with a positive example and a great attitude, I would really appreciate it. But again, they're going to follow the lead that they have.
Speaker 2: 17:46
They do and I love that you hit that. So one of the things that we did which was really silly and we called it Surprise Fives, and this was specifically in our academy at the time. But you could do it with your department meetings, especially if you're a larger company with more leadership and you've got director titles and all of that. But we would plan these. We came in with a silly outfit and we would have almost like minute to win it style games.
Speaker 2: 18:15
no-transcript yourself to this group, because a lot of times you are a scary name on a payroll check or you are a really intimidating person that maybe you're the HR director and they are terrified to come talk to you because your HR it's associated with your role, right, and so getting them involved in playing those games, we would come in, we would do again a quick intro of who you are, when they might see you, and then when you play that silly game with them, it breaks down your title. You're no longer a title, You're a fun person who's there to engage and just build rapport and build connection.
Speaker 1: 18:53
Yeah, yeah, yes, I love that Like, break down some barriers and so you know, and for let's talk about the companies that are smaller. For companies that are smaller, listen, owner, it might be you. You might have to put your insecurities and your shyness to the side and jump up there and lead some things that are outside of your own comfort zone, but you're asking your team to get out of their comfort zone outside of your own comfort zone, but you're asking your team to get out of their comfort zone. So I just really encourage contractors to understand the importance of leading by example. Just like when we're parents or when we're leading organizations, we have to lead by example. And so if you're rough and tumble and not really paying attention and very disengaged, don't be surprised when your team is disengaged. Yeah, and so really trusting that process.
Speaker 1: 19:40
And again to Danielle's point, not that this is a sales pitch for your company, but some of you guys just really listeners need to identify if it is you that can organize and orchestrate and put together a full, comprehensive training plan and implement it yourself.
Speaker 1: 19:53
Or do you need to rely on people that specialize in that area of business, like what Danielle's company does, because we can't be great at everything inside of our company. So we need to surround ourselves with people that fill in the gaps that we have. And for those of you that have like a great personality, you just don't have the time to organize it. Man, you've got like a double weenie there, like a good double shot there of greatness, because just get with someone to create a unique training schedule for you and then bring your personality to the table and it is a win-win for everyone involved there. So, well, listen, what is another way that you think, like milestones and career pathways, leadership development, like what are some ways that you think companies should be marketing or should be talking about when companies have a good training program? You know, like, how do I go out, danielle, and tell people like, hey, I invest in my people, and things like that?
Speaker 2: 20:46
What are?
Speaker 1: 20:47
your thoughts on that.
Speaker 2: 20:48
So those are huge. So your social media is going to be huge, you know, talking about get pictures of those silly games, of those surprise fives. You know we, we offer a leadership academy and so it's gamifying your, your leadership development in your team, like, what are some fun ways that you, you incorporate reading a book versus just a book talk, kind of thing. So I think that's important. Your, the other big piece of it is going to be like when it comes to career pathways.
Speaker 2: 21:17
Companies don't often have very clear pathways and a lot of those promotions are subjective versus objective, with numbers and data and things like that. And so when you have a career path that you can say, hey, new hire, welcome to the team, we're so excited to have you, you get to drive the car, here's your map, and you leave that up to them. That's going to help your recruiting efforts. So so much in your marketing. So, again, if you're going to social media to market open roles, don't wait until your role is already open to have all these social media posts. Keep building that rapport. So then, when companies, or, I'm sorry, people in your local community are like, hey, okay, I'm getting ready to graduate this program, what company do I want to work with, or maybe I'm not getting what I need out of my current company. Who's the first company that comes to mind? You want that to be you.
Speaker 1: 22:07
Absolutely. And you know, when Lemonsie talks about social media marketing, that we do for our clients. Our social media marketing is not necessarily a lead generator in a traditional sense of you know, I spent, I spent $7 and it generated X. It's brand building and letting everybody in my service area know that we are a trusted, a company that you can trust, and we introduce you to the people on our team and we show you the cool things that we do, not only for our customers but for our team, and I just think it validates, like, how good of a company you are, holistically like all the way around. And then people go well, man, that company you know they take they feed their team breakfast every Wednesday. Or man, they're doing this really cool training on this new IQ equipment or they're doing soft skill training.
Speaker 1: 22:53
Man, that's where I struggle, talking about when your team earns things like trips and vacations or whatever you're giving away. You know, celebrating that with them. When your company wins an award, celebrate that with them, because you're actually your potential customers. They want to be a part of a company that looks and feels successful and out there and edgy. They want to be a part of the cool kids group. Yeah, and so you have to tell people a lot of the cool stuff that you're doing so that you don't get left behind. Absolutely, yeah, absolutely. So the last kind of thing I thought we would talk about here is how you guys really like tell me a few like the behind the scenes things of how you guys empower businesses to really create some scalable training solutions that really don't just grow the teams but actually can help strengthen those overall marketing strategies.
Speaker 2: 23:44
Yeah. So again I kind of go back to those career pathways. When you, when you have that you've got, you're really building a foundation, not for just for the technician themselves standing in the room, but they're going to be the one to refer, right when you're having your, your internal training academy and you're posting. I know for one of our semesters we had over 2000 applicants and so that was a huge marketing boost, of like hey all of these people want to come to this program.
Speaker 2: 24:11
We must be doing something right. Don't stop. Incorporate those employee testimonials and things like that as part of the career pathway program. But there's also the new hire experience that we strategize with companies a lot as well. And so you know there was a study I want to say it was through SHRM, but it was something like 60 to 70% of employees were not happy with their onboarding experience and were looking to leave in the first year of employment somewhere. And so when you're marketing that program and you're you're saying, okay, hey, we're not just jumping a truck and go do what that guy does, we have a training, checklists and we have check-ins and we have intentional meetings and intentional questions and all of this development for you You're, you're really just building that candidate pool. And also same with succession planning.
Speaker 2: 24:58
That's one thing that we're working on right now specifically with some of our clients is a succession planning guide you know so many people talk about hey, I want to succession plan, we need to do that, but then it doesn't. As far as I know, there's not really that many guides out there that walk you through how to do that.
Speaker 1: 25:16
So, that's.
Speaker 2: 25:17
that's kind of what we're working on right now with clients and as far as, like the training, interfering with the or not interfering, but overlapping to to impact the marketing.
Speaker 1: 25:26
Yeah, and I'll just tell you again. You know, to reiterate some of the things I've said earlier, you know there's power in a holistic approach to running a home service company. So you can't take your eyes and only put it on the operations, and only put it on the marketing, or only put it on training, or only, put, you know, lead generation. Whatever you put it on and I watch it every day of contractors that are hyper-focused, it's the contractors that really take a step back and look at everything as a whole and this is general for most businesses, right, look at everything as a whole and are you doing the best that you can in each of those areas of the business to grow it? And then are you telling people about what you're doing.
Speaker 1: 26:07
And that definitely changes things for companies when they start figuring out that consistency in training, consistency in marketing, consistency in training, consistency in marketing, consistency in expectations those things are building a trustworthy brand. It's building a customer journey that your team, that your customers, are watching happen, just not only for the actual team members that you have, but for themselves, as the journey like from the first impression to the actual service they're receiving. They're actually watching it in high time, so or in true time. So consistent, high quality training ensures you know that our brands deliver on the promises that we are marketing and putting out there and it really will create loyal customers who advocate like they become raving fans for our business. Okay Well, danielle, I know people have go.
Speaker 2: 26:58
Yeah, jeff what else do you want to say? No, I was just going to echo you on like that customer journey, like having them know that those those career pathways of hey at this level we teach all about our mini splits and these technicians are our mini split champions or our mini split experts. Then I know, as a homeowner, like hey, you know, joe's coming to my house, I'm so excited. He told me he's a mini split champion and I can't wait to see, like I've had this tough mini split that just keeps giving people trouble. And so it just reiterates that hey, our technicians are skilled and they're knowledgeable, and if they're not, for whatever reason, if they get out there and they don't know it, they've got a plethora of resources to get you the right answer. So, yeah, that, that brand loyalty Absolutely.
Speaker 1: 27:36
Yes, I love it. I love it. So, danielle, if someone's been listening today and they're like oh, I need Danielle in my life, I need her company in my life, how can people reach out to you?
Speaker 2: 27:45
Yeah, definitely so. Our website upskilledconsultingcom is a great starter place to just kind of see what services we offer. If you want to schedule kind of a quick consultation. I'm also very active on LinkedIn, so send me a connection request. I'm happy to talk to you there. I share every Friday a training tip of the week and lots of different training resources that you can implement into your company.
Speaker 1: 28:08
Love that, love that and, of course, in the show notes we'll have all of Danielle's contact information and hopefully your CNS promote her on social media. So thank you, guys, so much for listening to another episode of From the Yellow Chair. I think Danielle's story reminds us that investing in training is investing in your company's overall reputation and growth. From forming stronger customer relationships to even employee advocacy, the ripple effect of great training touches every part of business. So thank you guys for listening. If you're really ready to support from the yellow chair, I'd love for you to leave us a review, like all of our social media channels, and share this with someone that really needs to be encouraged about training. Thank you so much for sipping lemonade with us. We'll see you next time.
