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One of the things I often hear from managers as they grow their departments is that they don’t have time to do ride-alongs as frequently as needed. An excellent solution exists: Hire a dedicated person to perform ride-alongs and training for your technicians.

After all of these years in this industry, I am still more than a little impressed that consumers pay to be a part of our service company clubs. But I have a question: Can you say with all certainty that your club customers are treated across-the-board better than everyone else who uses your company?

Training means consistency, and consistency means predictable results for you and your customers. But where to begin? A good training plan consists of three things: schedule, content, and facilitation.

This is the time of year when we all think about thanking the people around us. As we enter the new year, we begin to make plans for how we will be better in the upcoming months. While we are in this mood, we need to seriously consider thanking the other people that make our businesses possible: the customer.

A business coach once told me to “always make the system the heavy” when coaching my technicians. What she meant by that was focusing on evaluating how well the tech was adhering to a sales system or process. In doing so, the discussion would remain based on facts and not my subjective opinions.

The holidays are a great time of year, depending on who you are and what you do for a living. Most people on the front lines in a retail organization will tell you that this time of year is exhausting. This time of year can also be stressful to our people in the home service industry.

This month we’re going to continue our discussion of ride-alongs by reviewing two additional expectations that need to be set with yourself and two that should be set with the performer. By taking the time to establish these, you’ll both be in the right frame of mind to begin your ride-alongs.

I work with owners and managers all the time, talking about various parts of their businesses, but one aspect that gets little thought is the definition of their ideal customer. I realize that we would all like to take care of everyone who calls our business, but we need to put some thought into our ideal.

Ride-alongs can be a great success in coaching your employees to higher performance, or they can be a disaster which forever spoils the abilities of the people under your leadership. The outcome is heavily based on the role you take and your commitment to stick to that role no matter what.

Everyone has trouble hiring good employees: This is a fact of business that has been around as long as people have thought about it. But when I ask a manager exactly what employee he or she is looking for, the most common answer I get is, “Someone good.” What does this mean?