Articles by Jim Johnson

It’s the middle of July, and a customer calls to say that the unit that heats and cools their small office “isn’t cooling at all.” When you arrive, you find a 230-V, eight-year-old, rooftop package unit heat pump with three-phase compressor. After an evaluation of the system, you'll be asked a three-part troubleshooting question.

Many service managers move into the position without a great deal of opportunity for training and preparation in the areas of communication skills, customer service, dealing with different personalities, or managing people. This excerpt from a new E-book discusses how to be an effective manager.

In this column, Jim Johnson of Technical Training Associates presents a specific HVACR equipment problem and invites readers to submit their diagnosis. From those who submit the correct answer by the deadline, there will be a prize drawing. Here is a furnace problem.

In this column, Jim Johnson, director of training for Technical Training Associates, presents a specific HVACR equipment problem and invites readers to submit their diagnosis. From those who submit the correct answer by the stated deadline, there will be a prize drawing.

We’ve covered a lot of ground so far in this series, and in this, our final segment, we’re going to focus on the actions that a technical professional can take when providing outstanding customer service.

This segment of the article series discusses communication skills for technical professionals. Some technicians try to avoid the customer service side of the job, but that’s something that is impossible to do.

This article discusses some of the things that technicians need to understand about customers and what they want from a technical professional or any business they buy from.

There's an old saying in Texas: "If you've got to swallow a bucket of frogs, you might as well start with the big one." And, sometimes, the idea of "selling" can be a big frog for technicians to swallow.

This second part of a six part series looks at a simple, down-to-earth way to consider professionalism - something that can be described as the “technical professional’s personal policy.”

If a technician is providing information about maintenance agreements and other services that can be provided because their intent is to provide the best possible customer service, then a technician remains a technical professional acting as a consultant for their customer.