The Merits of Taking Time…and Pride

As I write this, I am on a flight with my National Sales Manager to visit industry partners and RSES Journal/RSES Journal Elements advertisers around the Southeast U.S. As is usually the case when I head out, my travels took me through Chicago O’Hare International Airport’s Terminal 1. For those who might be unaware, this terminal serves as United Airlines domestic hub at ORD (I know…it’s bad when I know airports by their designation letters), and since I generally receive pretty good service and timely arrivals when I fly with them, I try to use United when I can (note to HVACR contractors out there…good service and reasonable prices will earn you customer loyalty and repeat business).
It goes without saying then that I know the ins and outs of this terminal pretty well. And as I walked toward my gate with a few minutes to spare, I stopped next to a shoeshine stand in the B gate area. My father, who spent a career in foodservice sales/customer service, always tells me you can tell a great deal about a man by the way they shake your hand and the way their shoes look. It’s advice I heed everyday. So naturally, I wanted to get the shoes a clean bill of health before I spent three days on the road going in and out of offices from Atlanta to Charlotte.
I waited patiently as the attendant worked on a businessman’s boots, checking my Blackberry to make sure I wasn’t reading the time incorrectly or had the wrong gate for my flight. Then the attendant asked if I was in line for a shine (I would think that somewhat obvious, but I digress), and when I told him yes, he replied: “Well, after this guy, I’m going on break. I don’t know what to tell you.” He then put his head down and proceeded to continue doing an average-at-best job on Joe Public’s brown boots.
Slightly stunned and a little disheartened by both his matter-of-factness and unwillingness to even point me somewhere else, I turned around and started heading toward the underground walkway toward the C gates—where I also knew a shoeshine-box area was located. This move required me to double back and head out of my way considerably, something that was playing through my mind as I made the trek.
Still, when I arrived, there was an attendant standing there, and he quickly told me to grab a seat when I asked him if I could get a shine. He folded my slacks up several times away from my shoes and told me his name was “Junior.” I introduced myself, and then he proceeded to begin polishing my black loafers.
For the next 15 minutes, I sat there utterly amazed. He worked diligently and feverishly all at once, cleaning each seam and stitch until it seemed like the tops of my shoes were reflecting the sun. Most shines that I have gotten are no more than five minutes long, and when you’re done, you think you could have done better if you had the time to work on them. This time, however, this guy seemed to put everything into his work. It was almost as if they were his shoes he was polishing. My national sales director was texting me that our flight was starting to board—yet I couldn’t say a word and ask him to stop.
When he was done, I thanked him and he quickly said “My pleasure sir. That’ll be six bucks.” He didn’t try to hustle me, ask for anything extra or even make a comment about the work he had performed. So I gave him a twenty-dollar bill and asked him for change. As he handed me back the $14, I quickly pushed the ten-dollar note back in his hand. He looked at me somewhat perplexed, and I simply told him “I have a plane to catch, but I have to tell you that I get my shoes shined whenever I’m out on the road. And I’ve never seen someone take pride in their work like that.”
He smiled, nodded and replied: “Thank you very much John. I appreciate that a lot. It’s just too bad more people don’t put that effort in to what they do. It’s what I do…I should do it the best that I can every time.”
I personally can’t think of a truer statement than that. So the next time you’re on a service call, remember that the customer is the one counting on you to do the job right. To help them solve their problem. To be the person that they can count on. You’ve made a decision to make HVACR service, installation and troubleshooting your profession. That’s something you should be proud of every day. And like the ancient Chinese proverb sums up so simply and succinctly, “Work does not define a person. How one performs one’s work does.”

Socially Awkward...or Advantageous?

The debate over the benefits of social media as it pertains to marketing have been well documented. Personally, at least on the consumer level, using sites such as Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn to help drive traffic to your website or promote products/goods/services seems like a no-brainer to me. But when it comes to industries and trades such as HVACR, what type of relevancy does this media really have?
As it turns out, it may have a lot. Let's face it. People are on Facebook. HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS OF PEOPLE. And call me crazy, but I'm guessing that most of those people have a furnace, heat pump, air conditioner or mini-split. Last time I checked, corporate entities such as Whole Foods, Hyatt and the W Hotels all had pages that were offering potential customers tidbits, useful recipes/travel tips and discounts. So the opportunity to develop a connection is there. The question is, how do you do it?
Social media requires engagement. It requires updates (I know, because I've been bad about blogging over the last month...sorry!). And most importantly, it requires genuineness (see, as a Publisher, I can create words too!). If the information you are sharing with others doesn't come across as real, or helpful, it's going to be perceived that way. People (your potential customers) are going to walk away...and they ain't coming back.
At RSES, we are using a combination of approaches to try and build up a fan base on our Facebook page, while also using Twitter and LinkedIn to update followers on press releases, new information and products that we have, etc. We're also promoting certain educational or training products to our fans, offering them unique discounts via those mediums. It's not over-the-top savings, but enough to whet the appetite, and also keep them talking with us.
We're also looking at ways to grow our audience via electronic means. For example, as we expand our subscriber list to our magazine, we're looking at how we can tell those readers about the benefits of following us "socially." Getting those folks to sign up for e-mail alerts and updates is a simple way to do that.
In your business, some or all of these options may work. And you don't need to spend a ton of time on doing it. You just need to do it everyday. A friend of mine who operates an online furniture site (and is making some nice money doing it) commented to me at dinner on Sunday that he wished he would have integrated Facebook into his marketing program two years ago. "It doesn't take a lot of work to offer a special, or ask other sister sites to friend you. And that expands your network and allows you to get more clicks, generate more traffic and get more sales."

Sounds like the goal of all our businesses, right?