Recently, I came across a story of an air conditioning repair technician who, while giving the homeowner an update on the repair, frightened her by waiving a knife around during their conversation. Now, he used the knife as a tool for cutting things on the job, but she didn’t know that.

Interaction with customers is extremely important for service companies. Building a good relationship is what turns that client into a repeat customer and gets your company word-of-mouth advertising. That woman will most likely call a different company next time she needs service on her air conditioner. She won’t remember that the company did an excellent job, only that the guy they sent scared her to death.

HVAC technicians have to know how to approach and talk to people. Customer service skills are a must. In fact, I’ve spoken with several companies in the past few months that have stopped hiring experienced technicians in favor of hiring people with previous customer service experience and training them in HVAC.

I’ve been in situations where a service/repairman has given me a creepy and uncomfortable vibe. In light of this, I’m currently working on a story about technician conduct. How do you train your technicians to interact with customers? Email me at nicolekrawcke@achrnews.comand your responses could be used in the article.