When we just critique someone, anyone can figure out what someone does wrong. But I like them to see the actual, how to do it right so that they have that pattern. If we’re the experts as owners and experienced technicians, we’re the ones that should be leading the way so that the new hires can see exactly how it’s done. So that’s a big part right there, is that I don’t allow anyone to practice on customers. I like to show them how to do it.

David Heimer: That actually makes a lot of sense. If you think about it, there’s sort of a performance anxiety that takes over. You can be very comfortable at doing something but knowing that somebody is watching you and going to critique every little thing that you do, even if they’re not, you sort of feel that way. It’s going to make the call so much more difficult and I would think it’s going to be a little bit awkward on the customer, surely, they are going to pick up on that as well.

Dale Mincks: It’s very awkward for the customer. What happens is the new technician is trying to impress the trainer or the person that’s riding and forgets completely about the customer and what’s good for the customer. Bottom line is, it has to be all about the customer. And if that experienced tech is in there and running the call properly, that new hire is going to see and understand how to go about it also.

David Heimer: Makes perfect sense. What else?

Dale Mincks: Well, let me talk about a couple things that I’ve learned doing the ride alongs, is not everyone knows how to be quiet and it’s very important that if there are two people on a call, and one first, has to be in control of the call. And even when you’re running a call by yourself, you’re the one that has to be in control of the call, not the customer. So if you have someone riding with you and they’re talking and you’re talking then the customer’s kind of back and forth, back and forth. And if for some reason you say something different than the other person, now, all of a sudden, all the credibility; and confidence; and trust that you built with that customer so far, could be thrown right out the window. So, it’s very important that only one person talks and only one person drives the call.

Now, in doing ride alongs over the years, hundreds of ride alongs, I realized that a lot of companies turn out their technicians way too soon. And I know we’re busy. I know we have a lot to do and a lot of calls, but what happens is when we turn technicians out too soon, we get a high turnover rate; we lose our customers; we hire technicians to generate revenue. Well, let’s help them learn how to do that properly, and that way, we’re not practicing on our customers, we’re not losing customers. We’re not losing a new hire. It’s very expensive to hire, and find people, and go through all the training, so slow that process down. And I know it’s hard, but we need to slow this process down and get some good solid technicians out there. So turning them out too soon and not training them in proper procedures.

I’ve ran calls in the past that the technicians that are riding with us don’t even know how to use their iPad or service site, or whatever program they have. And that’s very challenging to be in front of a customer and not know your pricing, or your price book, or even what the company offers as how the ride alongs — Okay, what’s your understanding of what the company offers? I get blank looks a lot of times. So, I think we need to slow the process down. The ride alongs are great, I think they’re absolutely needed to bring the tech to the {inaudible 05:17} part. I think in the beginning, we need to slow it down, we need to explain our expectations of the {inaudible 05:23} of policies. We need to help the technicians to understand what goal-setting is and why we set goals. We need to train on the procedures and how to run a call, and what the company offers and why the company offers it.

We need to role play in the office one-on-one with new hires, even the experienced. If we hire an experienced tech, we need to still follow the same procedures and the same way of training, which is role play in the office. We should make sure that they’re clear on what we offer; why we offer it; what to say; how to say it; when to say it; how to close the call. By doing that, that can be a way to {inaudible 05:56}, depending on the confidence and so forth, that you would have in the training.

By doing that, it builds confidence in that technician, inside of them. So when they’re in front of your customer, they’re confident, and their development will help set that trust factor, and all of those words we like to say. But the bottom line is that the customer senses that the technician knows what they’re talking about, and they’re company employees and they’re going to do the best for them. So they’re not practicing on that customer.

David Heimer: So what you’re saying is, doing a ride-along, if they’re not already prepared, is a waste of time, I think. They can see what’s going along and to learn from it, but if you really want them to learn, they have to have been properly trained first. Is that right?

Dale Mincks: Yes, absolutely.

David Heimer: So what I’ve got so far is, prepare for the ride along by making sure that the technician is ready, and make sure that two people are not talking at the same time, and don’t critique the call but instead demonstrate the good calls. Is that right?

Dale Mincks: That’s absolutely correct. I think if we’re going to want a technician to run a proper call, I believe they need to see that proper call ran. And if it’s a manager, or the owner, or an experienced tech doing it, they know the policies and procedures, and that new hire can see how the call is supposed to be ran.

David Heimer: So, you’ve been talking about this in terms of a new hire. But my guess is that you get hired and conduct ride alongs with technicians that are not new hires as well, right?

Dale Mincks: Absolutely.

David Heimer: Do you conduct those ride alongs in the same way? Are you still doing the call yourself and having the tech observe? Or in those cases, do you switch roles?

Dale Mincks: I’ve only switched roles twice in five years out of the hundreds of calls that I have ran. I’ve actually allowed the technicians to run a call and both times I’ve regretted it. What they try to do is to impress me and it should be impressing that customer. So, even with someone that is a top technician in a company, I run the call, I show them how to run the call, and I believe that that gives credibility to my training naturally. But then, if I’ve worked that confident and I’m not that experienced technician doing a ride-along with an experienced or inexperienced guy, either way, there is no credibility in the training; in the procedures; and that’s what we need.

David Heimer: So, what’s different about doing a call with an experienced tech, one that’s been doing it for, let’s say five years and one that is relatively inexperienced? What would you be doing that’s different in those calls?

Dale Mincks: Well, on the new side of it, I’m going all the way back to the basics and just figuring out what that new hire knows, what they don’t know, and just really focusing on training them from the beginning. When I have an experienced technician with me, it is a lot of fun. I mean, it can be just so much fun doing it. You’re traveling between calls; you’re getting the mindset of how to run a call properly; you’re maybe bantering back and forth about procedures – about what the best way to do it is. And I’ve learned a lot myself on ride alongs running calls with other technicians and that’s been great for me too. When I’m running with an experienced technician, I definitely rely on their expertise as far as diagnosing calls and so forth, because it is their company and they’re the ones that have to figure out what needs to be done. But again, I’m the one that presents it, but I do rely on them a lot and their experience, and that tells me where they’re at; and then I can help the company, and that matters too.

Is this a great tech or does he need some help in certain areas? It’s a kind of a team thing there. But what I also find is I end up being the sounding board to the company about everything that goes right and wrong in the company. I end up being the sounding board for it, which is fine because I can handle that. It’s a great way to bring a technician back down to what he’s actually supposed to be doing. You shouldn’t be focusing on what the office is doing; you should be focusing on what you’re supposed to be doing, running calls, closing calls, and doing the work. Everything else should be like a new drama to you where it doesn’t matter what’s going on, we’re running the call, we kind of keep our focus on running calls.

David Heimer: So it sounds like there’s a little bit of psychology and attitude adjustment sometimes, that goes into this as well. You’re teaching professionalism.

Dale Mincks: Sometimes you have to get right down to a yes and no and what you should and shouldn’t do. And not everyone is brought up the same way and understands respect, and customer service, and so forth, and I’m dead on that. I’ll call someone out real quick on it. The call has to be run in a certain way and they need to understand that and I believe that I help them grow up, frankly.

David Heimer: Technicians are largely male, and as one, I think I can say that sometimes it takes us a while to grow up.

Dale Mincks: Right. But I’m still growing up.

David Heimer: What about appearance? We have a variety of opinions in our industry and a variety of presentations in our industry. Some companies are pretty strict about it, others are very lax. Some people allow smoking and have technicians that come in reeking of cigarettes. Others are incredibly strict about it and don’t even allow cologne or any odor. What do you tell technicians when you ride with them?

Dale Mincks: Well, I’m basically from the old school. I know and I believe in it, it’s worked for me. Of course, I’m clean-shaven, I don’t necessarily have a huge problem with facial hair. But I believe that if you’re going to have facial hair, it should be kept in such a manner that when someone looks at you, they look at you and say, “wow, I wish I could have that.” As far as piercings, and tattoos, and things like that; I’m a no jewelry kind of guy. The tattoos, I think, should be covered. A lot of our customers, if you think about it – I’m over 50, let’s say that, and what is our customer clientele? Who are we out there to see? And we need to have that utmost respect. I’m a long pants guy; I’m a uniform pants, uniform shirt, whether it’s a decent polo. And I think we should be replacing our shirts from time to time.

David Heimer: From time to time, like once a week you should wash it whether it needs to or not.

Dale Mincks: No. What I mean is you should have a clean shirt on every day. But what I see is a lot of times we wear them for three years and they’re faded and they just don’t look good, so I think we should be replacing them in that manner. But I think your appearance when you knock on that door and you say, hi, my name is Dale, how can I help you today? And the company name and so forth, they should be looking at you, your hair should be in such a manner that is respectful. We need to be respectful to our customers and smoking, I think, isn’t respectful. A lot of people are allergic to it and you get a whiff of that smoke, it’s like whoo! Even what we say and how we say it. What we have in our pockets; the boots we wear; the tools that we use, all of that is appearance. The trucks we drive. People are paying for a service and it’s no secret that professional service technicians and companies, we’re not cheap and I’m not saying we shouldn’t be expensive, but we shouldn’t be cheap and we shouldn’t have a cheap appearance and all of that. What we represent should be in such a manner that it meets what we’re charging and so forth. It all goes hand in hand.

David Heimer: And it’s a lot easier to get more work from people when they trust you. You have a professional appearance. They believe that you’re going to take care of them and their families. And we’re visual species, humans pay more attention to what they see than anything else, that’s how we’ve evolved. And if they like what they see and what they see appears to be professional, I think it becomes a lot easier to sell them additional services and products.

Dale Mincks: Absolutely. And one of the things that I train heavily on is perception. What I mean, that is, that customer’s perception of you is the rule, first impression, however you want to say it. All throughout the call they’re perceiving what you say and they’re watching you and they’re taking stock of everything you’re saying and their perception is what’s going to close that call. So you need to be right on the line.

David Heimer: Yes. So we’ve kind of digressed here on to some other stuff. Was there anything else on the ride alongs that you wanted to cover before we wrap up?

Dale Mincks: That’s it on all ride alongs just in a nutshell. We need to make sure we’re running a professional service call so that whoever’s observing learns from it. That’s the bottom line of it, whether we’re doing a safety inspection, however, we run that call is how we’re to expect that other technician to run it and we get to that point by the role-playing and so forth, in the office and making sure they know our expectations, all of those things. I’m a really confident guy. I think that one of the top-notch things about technicians – when someone comes to my house, if they’re confident in what they’re doing and if I sense that confidence, I will {inaudible 15:16}. That’s what we’re trying to do. We’re trying to get that confidence in that understanding that we are professionals.

David Heimer: Dale, first, thank you so much for doing this with us today. I think you mentioned once that you have a ride-along guide for contractors. If I remember right, it was something like, The Six Steps for Successful Ride Alongs. Did I get that right?

Dale Mincks: Well, it’s evolving. It’s the Six Plus Steps.

David Heimer: It might be overrated at this point. Okay. If our listeners wanted to get their hands on that, how could they do that?

Dale Mincks: Well, the best way is to email me at dale@dalemincks.com and just ask for it.

David Heimer: Dale, D- A- L- E @ dalemincks and that’s D- A- L- E- M- I- N- C- K- S.com. Alright, well, thank you so much for doing this, I really appreciate it, and I look forward to talking to you again in the future.

Dale Mincks: Thank you, David, and have a great day.

Outro: We’re always looking for good ideas and interviews for our podcast. If you have an idea or maybe you think you should be interviewed, just shoot an email to profilesinprosperity@serviceroundtable.com. That’s profilesinprosperity@serviceroundtable.com. If you think what we’re doing has any value, it would be very helpful if you would give us a great rating on iTunes. Thanks for your support. Hope to see you again soon. Bye.