< Previous10 APRIL 2024HIGH-PERFORMANCE HVAC TODAY understanding of combustion, carbon monoxide, and system performance. My education in per- formance testing of duct systems originated from my industrial experience. Measuring static pres- sure is essential; without it, system adjustment would be impossible. My engagement with high-performance diag- nostics, albeit not at the NCI level, spans over two and a half decades. This involves measuring stat- ic pressure, verifying proper duct system sizing, and ensuring the system operates within optimal cooling design parameters. Any static pressures exceeding the manufacturer’s recommendations immediately raise a red flag for us. Local competitors often shy away from work- ing on duct systems, viewing it as too challenging. They prefer easy sales, installing a furnace to the old tin ductwork with asbestos wrap, rather than crawling around in an attic and running flex. High-performance diagnostics form an integral part of our standard service agreement checklist. Our technicians are required to check the static pressure, perform the sealed combustion test, re- cord the parts per million readings, and note the oxygen levels. All these checks are incorporat- ed into our Service Titan system, allowing us to monitor these tests. Furthermore, our technicians capture screen- shots of their analyzer showing measured results and include them with their checklist entries. OUR COMMITMENT Diagnostic testing is a non-negotiable part of our maintenance and service agreements. It’s in- grained in our culture. If a technician is uncom- fortable with this, they might find other compa- nies more suitable. I am uncompromising when it comes to our D elivering optimal performance for HVAC systems involves more than just routine maintenance tasks like filter replacement and unit cleaning. My understanding of the significance of system test- ing and measurement began during my Air Force tenure, where I worked on industrial air condi- tioning and refrigeration systems. Upon transitioning from the military, I pur- sued my career in the HVAC industry, continual- ly expanding my knowledge through testing and learning. In March 2016, I established my own company, Accurate Heating and Air Condi- tioning, in Lompoc, CA. From the outset, we in- corporated system performance diagnostics into our service agreements. SOME HISTORY In October 2016, I became a member of the National Comfort Institute (NCI) to further my The Power of High-Performance Service Agreements By Ron Mathias SERVICE Our team takes immense pride in their work. The nu- merous photos we share on LinkedIn and other social platforms often elicit comments. This leads me to wonder why other contractors don’t do the same.APRIL 2024 11HVACTODAY.COM assured. I take personal responsibility for every task I undertake, signing my name to each job. If a new installation doesn’t meet the standards I’ve estab- lished for my company, I won’t pro- ceed with it. My name and reputation are on the line. Some may argue that I’m forego- ing potential revenue. However, I see it differently. The subsequent job will likely encompass a comprehen- sive task, and that’s where I’ll gener- ate profit. SERVICE/MAINTENANCE AGREEMENT SALES Our confidence should not be mis- taken for arrogance. We refrain from discussing our competitors. Instead, our attention is centered on the ex- isting system, our proposed solu- tions, and our methodology to address homeowners’ issues. We present op- tions and empower customers to make their own decisions. Our strategy is to demonstrate our team’s expertise by conducting mea- surements, elucidating the results, and proposing alternatives. There’s no need to mention competitors as customers can discern the difference themselves. From a sales perspective, when it’s time for me to depart, the customer typically inquires about the cost and the commencement date for the work. The subsequent step is follow-up, which is as crucial as testing and mea- suring during the call. At Accurate Heating, we ensure our technicians fulfill their responsibilities through our Service Titan program. Service Ti- tan features built-in checklists for all maintenance and service calls, and I have also devised a follow-up form. If a technician identifies any fol- low-up requirements, they complete this form, attach relevant photos, and provide a description. Service Ti- tan then notifies our office team via email, stating, “Jose has complet- ed a follow-up form for this custom- er,” and flags it on the dispatch board. This system prevents us from missing operations and processes. This ap- proach drives my business and gen- erates leads. We enhance home safety and comfort using high-performance diagnostics. It’s as simple as that. Consequently, we frequently replace ducts. THE CHALLENGE Educating our marketplace pres- ents more challenges than educating our team. Most consumers perceive their furnace as the heating system, unaware of the duct system’s impor- tance. It’s my responsibility to enlight- en them. As Rob Falke from NCI used to say, installing a highly efficient furnace or air conditioning unit on a substandard duct system will likely exacerbate is- sues, not improve them. At Accurate Heating, we always in- form customers that while Company B could install a 90% furnace on their existing duct system, we could install an 80% furnace with a new duct sys- tem, and our system would outper- form the competitor’s. Our approach is to be candid with customers. Interestingly, I don’t pro- vide estimates on the same call. I don’t even discuss price with custom- ers during the sales call. The role of my sales team and me is to educate cus- tomers on why we are their best choice. We seldom initiate cold calls. In- stead, our clients reach out to us when their comfort systems malfunction or are deemed unfit by the gas company. If we find the duct system is in a state of disrepair and falls short of our stan- dards during our visit, we refrain from replacing their furnace unless they agree to a duct replacement. I’m not irrational, but rather self-12 APRIL 2024HIGH-PERFORMANCE HVAC TODAY SERVICE ACCURACY AND PRIDE MAKE THE DIFFERENCE Our team takes immense pride in their work. The numerous photos we share on LinkedIn and other social platforms often elicit comments. This leads me to wonder why other con- tractors don’t do the same. Perhaps they haven’t considered it, or they pre- fer to keep their work private. We, on the other hand, are passionate about our work and eager to showcase it to the world! Our company operates under the motto, “Fast is Fine, but Accuracy is Everything.” If you can’t proudly at- tach your name to your work, then it’s an indication that the job wasn’t done well enough. With this in mind, my counsel to oth- er contractors is to unequivocally back their product. Regardless of wheth- er it’s an installation or maintenance task, standing behind your work is cru- cial. You must embody the principles you advocate. Over-promising and un- der-delivering is a strategy that will de- ter customers from returning. Furthermore, if you’re not incorpo- rating high-performance diagnostics at any level, you’re likely overlooking at least 50% of potential revenue op- portunities, if not more. continually evolving, with daily ad- vancements in technology, equip- ment, and refrigerants. Grasping the workings of modern circuit boards and mastering their troubleshooting is essential. This necessitates ongoing education, training, and practice to stay abreast of these changes. KEEP UP WITH TRAINING Maintaining an NCI membership and ensuring my field service and in- stallation team receive training from them is a crucial strategy for us to stay abreast of high-performance diagnos- tics. We also send our team to other providers to keep pace with evolving technologies. I personally participate in jobs to collaborate with my team – this is all part of conducting business. If one chooses to be an HVAC con- tractor, shouldn’t the aim be to excel in the field? This philosophy guides my life. I made a commitment to myself long ago that I would not only be part of the HVAC industry, but also strive to be the best technician I could be. My personal best. I’m not benchmarking myself against others, but against my own potential. After all, as individuals, our goal should be to continually strive for im- provement. Consider this analogy: doctors are committed to the ongo- ing practice of medicine. Similarly, we should be dedicated to the continuous practice of HVAC. opportunities due to busyness. The significance of this action can- not be overstated. It conveys to the customer that we care enough to fol- low up and helps us seize addition- al opportunities. What better way to demonstrate to the customer that we are the right company? We uphold transparency and honesty in all our dealings and possess the integrity to stand behind our work. LEVERAGING TECHNOLOGY In today’s world, technology has be- come an indispensable asset in man- aging service calls, maintenance tasks, and business operations. Service Ti- tan is instrumental in facilitating the latter. I emphasize to my technicians the importance of investing in the right tools and instruments that offer valuable feedback. Many of our team members utilize Testo instruments, while others prefer Fieldpiece. However, my focus has shifted from purchasing numerous test instru- ments to acquiring more construction equipment to simplify tasks for the team. Nevertheless, the role of tech- nology in streamlining work cannot be overstated. The convenience of having maintenance checklists on mobile de- vices is immense, and the transition from manual note-taking to digital re- cord-keeping helps mitigate clerical errors. Moreover, digital instruments al- low us to upload data to cloud-based servers for storage and retrieval. This not only serves as a backup, but also facilitates remote troubleshooting of complex issues. I can delve into the problem and decipher the underlying cause, which is quite remarkable. The landscape of our industry is Ron Mathias owns Accurate Heating and AC in Lompoc, CA. This $1.9 million residential/ commercial HVAC company specializes in High-Performance HVAC™ contracting and has since opening day in March 2016. He has been in the HVAC trade since he was 18 years old. If you have questions about including performance diagnostics in your service/maintenance agreements, contact him at ncilink.com/ContactMe . “If one chooses to be an HVAC contractor, shouldn’t the aim be to excel in the field?”APRIL 2024 13HVACTODAY.COM14 APRIL 2024HIGH-PERFORMANCE HVAC TODAY a very elastic mind. With new technology come new subjects to learn and new skills to master. Think how far we’ve come: HVAC technicians of the 1980s never dreamed that they’d need ba- sic computer know-how to diagnose the new com- municating systems preferred by many home- owners today. To make things a bit more interesting, modern tools to simplify diagnosing not just equipment, but also air delivery systems, each have their own learning curves. Today, the number of our tools with a mobile app interface is increasing. And nearly every mo- bile app is like a person, with a whole set of idio- syncrasies to remember for each of them. For ex- ample, some such apps are available for: ziManifold z Fieldpiece zResideo zCoolCloudHVAC z PT PRO zBluVac, and more. It’s necessary that every serious technician who wants to provide good service become familiar with each one of them. THE IMPACT ON HIGH-PERFORMANCE SALES How does that come into play with the selling of high-performance residential and commercial HVAC system upgrades? Our philosophy, as stated by Crossway Me- chanical Owner Brian Wright, is to “sell your- self, your brand, your image, before you sell the product.” Equipment brands will change. Con- solidation of manufacturing brands can make it challenging for a homeowner to inherently trust just a brand name. J ust as it’s happening in the rest of the world, the average home in Houston, Texas is changing, along with our weather and power infrastructure. Across America, people are staying in their homes longer than at any other time in history. They are facing many indoor challenges. The need for a healthy indoor environment, especially after the pandemic, became immediately notice- able. This means that it’s essential for the inside of a home to be a healthy space to not just sleep or relax but have full lives. In all fields of building science, upgrades will always be needed as changes come and progress is made. The HVAC industry has never been the exception. The need for systems designed to meet the new challenges that come with this transition is obvious. IT’S NOT MAGIC This is not achieved by magic, and at Cross- way Mechanical, we’ve come to understand that the modern HVAC contractor needs to have System Performance Means Selling Solutions, Not Boxes By Axel Romero SALES Customer Michael Nichley says of Crossway, “Their ap- proach was the most detailed and scientific process I have ever seen with any contracting firm. “APRIL 2024 15HVACTODAY.COM ever seen with any contracting firm. They listened to what we wanted, they went over my options with me, and even made allowances in their calculations for the new windows and attic insulation I was planning to install.” — Michael Nichley, homeowner. Facing such challenges for upgrad- ing systems is possible due to under- standing that investing time and re- sources to educate oneself for the new field standards, products, tools, and practices is not just an optional advan- tage — it’s a must. THE QUALITY FACTOR A system is not just upgraded by the quality of the equipment, but by the quality of the installation. What good is a higher-efficiency system if the instal- lation limits its ability to deliver air? Our mission is to take the lead in pre- cisely that department. That training and education involves a lot, from hav- ing our team certified in as many skills as we can afford, then having them ap- ply the theory in the field. As systems become more complex, the installation practices become more specific and stricter, with the margin for error becoming narrower as the system needs to work in harmony with the rest of the home’s ventilation and envelope. When it comes to the installation, it’s non-negotiable to implement a disciplined quality-control regimen to ensure the system will be installed It is better for them to have an expert whose opinion they can trust. One whose job is to be informed about what system will work best for each home- owner and who knows best how to troubleshoot and maintain those sys- tems. That includes everyone on the team: not only must our installers be properly acquainted with the system they install, but the service technicians must keep those systems just as close to their hearts. CONFIDENCE IS VITAL Your confidence, not just on the quality of the system you sell, but on the quality of your expertise and your work, will be the principal closer of any system performance sale. In an article written for this magazine, we shared how our confi- dence enabled us to help a homeown- er solve complex issues they faced when upgrading their home. It was not easy, and it was not cheap. What made them choose Cross- way? What closed the sale? Was it the brand of the equipment we were sell- ing, or was it our own brand? In the homeowner’s own words: “Their approach was the most de- tailed and scientific process I have “ We recognize how system upgrades in- volve more than the machinery. It involves the whole comfort delivery system, and it requires knowledgeable trained installers AND technicians to ensure that the entire delivery system is just as high-quality and up to date as the machinery that’s avail- able today.” — David Small, Crossway Mechanical’s educational department leader.Axel Romero is a service technician at Crossway Mechanical in Tomball, TX. Before that he worked at Air Analyst owned by David Small . He has been in the HVAC industry since 2017 doing not just in service, but also mold remediation work. He can be contacted at ncilink.com/ContactMe. 16 APRIL 2024HIGH-PERFORMANCE HVAC TODAY SALES a licensed HVAC contractor in these transitional times. For Crossway, beyond the system upgrade itself, our customers have benefited from our reliable solutions to their real-world problems. State-of- the-art systems need state-of-the-art installers and practices. That is how we have been able to meet all the new challenges involved with today’s new homes. rate pricing. It is our professional opinion that lowering your original price at the costumer’s request will prove to be both a disservice to your company AND to future homeowners. To our homeowners, our guaran- tee is that they will not regret pay- ing a higher price for higher quality work, whether that is with us or with any other contractor they trust. To our fellow contractors, our guarantee is that you will not regret investing in the quality of your work, your level of education, and your competence as properly and work according to spec- ifications. Unfortunately, this task has evidently proved challenging for many contractors. We theorize that one of the reasons may be owed to what they prioritize: volume over quality which equates to lower pricing. TIME INVESTMENT IS NECESSARY This approach to new system up- grades means longer periods of time, man hours and resources, spent on ONE house. As you will surmise, our quality control is reflected in our flat- “ We can stand behind our price because we can stand behind our work. We CAN and ALWAYS DO ensure the system installation meets manufacturer specifications, and the job is never done until this is accomplished.” — Jose Marban, lead service tech at Crossway MechanicalAPRIL 2024 17HVACTODAY.COM18 APRIL 2024HIGH-PERFORMANCE HVAC TODAY When John Garofalo became our mentor, he showed us the value of KPIs and helped us im- plement them. It was through NCI that we first heard and understood the phrase, “If you don’t measure, you’re just guessing™.” Today, we use KPIs for everything from deter- mining career paths for our technicians to creat- ing fair ways to pay different levels of technician skills, tracking our costs, and so much more. With John’s help, we determined what to mea- sure and how to keep track of it. We also learned to overcome our mindset of keeping numbers close to the vest – we had to share numbers so everyone knew the score. SO, WHAT SHOULD YOU MEASURE? Reading Peter Ducker or listening to numerous management videos on YouTube and elsewhere teaches you that nearly anything can be mea- sured. Typically, from a business perspective, the experts recommend focusing on: z Revenue and Profit Metrics z Customer Satisfaction Metrics z Operational Efficiency Metrics z Service Agreement Performance z Safety and Compliance Metrics z Technician Performance z Inventory and Supply Chain Metrics z Environmental Metrics z Benchmarking and Continuous Improvement Metrics. Under each of these bullets are many individual indicators you can target. It was super important for me to keep things very simple at first. For example, in the begin- ning, we only picked five KPIs per department. We didn’t want to have super granular informa- tion. That makes it hard to keep things objective. A t Lakeside Service, we are students of the concepts behind High-Perfor- mance HVAC™ Contracting. And though we are a work in progress, the goal is to test and measure as many of the systems we encounter in the field as possible. Are we there yet? No. But we are setting the groundwork for that by creating processes and procedures within our company to measure how we are doing. Management Consultant Peter Drucker fa- mously said, “What gets measured gets done.” In management speak, such measurements are called Key Performance Indicators or KPIs. For me, KPIs are a tool to measure progress to- ward intended results. But this can be tricky be- cause there are many different things to measure, and I struggled to know what was most important. JUST GET STARTED The worst thing you can do is procrastinate get- ting started. We’ve been using KPIs since 2013, but it took bringing coaches from National Com- fort Institute (NCI) to help us implement them into our everyday business. KPIs: If You Don’t Measure, You’re Just Guessing By John Boylan MANAGEMENT During a typical Lakeside Service meeting, managers go over “The Score Card” and discuss with the team goals, suggested improvements, and ask for suggestions.APRIL 2024 19HVACTODAY.COM we are still perfecting. The key is in the numbers’ accuracy and how we share those numbers with the team. KNOWING THE SCORE This is why measuring and track- ing KPIs isn’t enough. You must share the data so your team knows where they stand. I like to call that “knowing the score.” We share the data using a combination of whiteboards posted in public areas and using electronics via our Service Titan business man- agement software, which shares indi- vidual scores via email. For big team scores, we used digital monitors be- cause updating required to track things on a whiteboard manually was too time-consuming. But we’re moving back to white- boards. There’s something about the tangibility of hanging them on the wall. That is what NCI’s John Garofa- lo taught us to do during his years of mentoring. Here’s the challenge: the numbers must be accurate. You can’t just hap- hazardly publish numbers because once you start publishing and posting them for all to see, people get very fo- cused on the accuracy of their num- bers. So, you must be able to stand be- hind the numbers. This process requires a cultural change that can be both difficult and rewarding. It also evolves and changes over time because as your team chang- es by bringing in new people, you get a new set of challenges. Each generation seems to bring a new set of skills and challenges with them. At Lakeside Service, we’ve been us- ing KPIs for so long that they are part of our culture. In fact, if we aren’t pro- viding KPI feedback, techs will let us know and hold leadership accountable. KPIs have become fuel for perfor- mance, and the newer team members need the correct support to get on board. Often, their experience with other employers was to be criticized for underperforming. We plunge them into a supportive team environ- ment long enough for them to realize the benefits. As long as the team encourag- es them to succeed, they eventually bloom into the performers they were intended to be. Ultimately, it comes down to management and how we use the information. Do we see problems or opportuni- ties? Team members respond to our behavior as leaders and managers more than anything. KPI AND CAREER PATH CREATION Key Performance Indicators are not just for management to track how well the business and techs perform. They A QUICK CASE STUDY At Lakeside, we expect all our tech- nicians to sell to some degree. Some are better salespeople. Others have better technical skills. No two people are the same. The KPIs need to make sense to each team member and still have val- ue from a management standpoint. We learned not to put too much weight on categories like sales and av- erage invoices because guys who sell tons of stuff with the highest average tickets are often simply better sales- people. The bad news is they usually have the highest number of callbacks. Then you have technical guys who don’t sell as much but have almost no recalls because they’re wizards with technology. It’s easy to compensate people for sales. You build a spiff into it. But how do you do that for guys with lower sales and no callbacks? These techs are who we typically send out to fix the work of the selling techs. That has a genuine value. This unbillable work is vital to keeping cus- tomers satisfied. So, we settled on the idea of tracking total billable and unbillable calls. Now, how do we pay the guys? Top sellers love the spiffs. Low callback techs don’t care about spiffs. They want good pay. So, we pay them slight- ly better than the selling techs. The downside is that we’re now pay- ing someone in the top bracket to do unbillable work. That pressures the leader to be a better coach and mentor. It’s on us as managers and leaders to limit the call- backs and cut back on lost revenues associated with them. This is a delicate balancing act that Next >