Speaker 1: Welcome to the Master of the NEEC podcast, the ultimate
destination for anyone passionate about the electrical trade. Whether you're
a season electrician, an eager apprentice, or just someone who
wants to dive deep into the world of electrical work,
You've come to the right place.
Speaker 2: Join your host, Paul.
Speaker 1: Abernaviy, a true authority in the industry with over thirty
eight years of trade experience, as he electrifies your mind
within depth discussions, expertise, and valuable insights that will keep
you ahead of the curve. Each episode, Paul will illuminate
the complexities of the trade de code, the National Electrical Code,
and share the latest industry trends, all while empowering you
to take your electrical career to the next level. So
gear up, plug in, and get ready to supercharge your
knowledge because with the Master of the NEEC podcast, the
power is in your hands.
Speaker 2: Now get ready. Here is your host? What up? Everybody?
Speaker 3: Welcome to Master the ANC podcast, the show where you
don't just talk electrical theory. We don't just talk about
the National Electrical Code, but we talk about real world
situations and actually take it to the next level when
it comes being comes to being a professional in the trade,
and that's what we do here on Master the NEC Podcast.
So hopefully you're catching this podcast on whatever your favorite
podcast platform is. Deezer Speaker, iHeartRadio, Apple podcast, Google podcast, Gosh,
I don't know. You can even listen on your electa
devices if you ask for it to play Master the
NEC Podcast. Anyway, welcome to the show, and you know,
we like to everyday and then step back. And for
those that don't know, my name is Paul Abernathy, and
I've been in the electrical industry in nearly forty years,
written books on the Electrical Code, and I serve on
various committees and you know, and I've taught seminars all
over the country and have courses that are available for
people wanting to learn the National Electrical Code at a
much higher level. I also consult to many contractors out
there and and serve as expert witness on cases that
may have something to do with the National Electrical Code.
But I but most of you may know me for
doing the podcasts, and so I appreciate you listening to
the podcast. Now today we're gonna we're going to step
outside of the codebook a little bit we're gonna you know,
and for many people this is going to be outside
of their comfort zone because you know, if you're an
electrical contractor, from time to time, whether you're the actual
electrician on the site, or you work for somebody, or
you're a company in general, you have employees. At some point,
you're going to have a situation where you have this awkward,
tense situation where you go out to a project or
a job and you complete the project, and maybe you
do it in record time. I mean maybe you get
out there and the thought is it's going to take
you an hour or two hours, and you you actually
get out there and you're done in fifteen twenty minutes,
and then the you know, you give the customer a
minimum of one hour, and then they balk at it,
they start raising a beef, and it's an awkward situation
and if you haven't run into it in the career,
you will eventually run into it. And so I want
to give you some thoughts and how you can overcome this,
how you can train your staff to overcome this and
get a little bit better at that awkward situation between
you and your customer and then be able to know
that when you walk away or your or your employee
walks away, that you're walking away with the customer, that
you still want to keep them.
Speaker 2: I mean, you still want to retain them.
Speaker 3: I mean for whatever reason they're they're questioning your pay
or your rates or the time that you committed or whatever.
Speaker 2: That just par for the course.
Speaker 3: But you have to try to always think about how
I'm going to come out win, win, how everybody's going
to win, how we're going to come away from this
with a positive outcome. You know, the customers always right
is not accurate in our trade. We know that, but
is there some way that we can come out of this?
And in that awkward, tense moment when a customer suddenly
acts after you've already done the work, they act like
they don't want to pay once the work is done,
or they question the cost, and you obviously you've done
the proper things right, You've you've laid this all out
up front. You have your pricing schedule, if you're doing
maybe your hourly rate or your time and material, or
you're just doing like in Texas where you just give
them one rate, or if you know flat rate pricing
and they already know which level or you've looked at
the work and you know whether it's a level one,
level two, level three, which is going to affect the price.
Speaker 2: And obviously jobs.
Speaker 3: Can become more difficult than what you thought they were
originally and take longer. So things can change, prices can change,
and of course with that said, you'll get customers who
will It just puts you in an awkward situation. So
I want to talk a little bit about there. You know,
we've all been there again. You've done that job, it's
it's inspected, it's solid, and now you're you're you're sitting
to go, they're stalling on paying you.
Speaker 2: How does that work? Okay, so how do you keep calm?
Speaker 3: How do you hold your ground still walk away with
your dignity and your customer's relationship intact, Because at the
end of the day, that acquisition cost for that initial customer,
I mean for them to go to the exercise to
contact you, there's a cost to that. You've either advertised,
you've done marketing, you've done something, so don't think, oh
my phone just rang or something like that. There is
an acquisition cost, and we don't want to lose that
acquisition cost. We want to maintain it so that we
keep that customer because you never know when they're going
to need more work done, but you may need to
help set the tone in how this this is going
to work out. So that's what we're going to talk
about today, and in this episode, you know, I'm going
to share ten proven to go ciating tactics can help
you kind of de escalate the situation, recover your payment,
and then maybe turn a bad encounter into a long
term win or long term customer. So grab your coffee,
your codebook or whatever while we kind of go through
this and we're going to kind of break into it
and discuss it in detail. Okay, first, first and foremost,
you know, I usually tell people segment one or part
one of this is going to be the reality check. Now,
before we jump into the tactics, let's get real world
for a second. Every contractor even the best of us,
eventually run into that one customer who either delays payment,
questions the invoice, or flat out refuses to pay. You know,
and here's the truth. In that moment, your reaction matters
more than your reputation.
Speaker 2: How you react.
Speaker 3: There are a lot of times where I've seen employees
immediately jump defense and it becomes a problem, and once
it starts going down that slope, it is hard to recovery. Okay,
you can have the best craftsmanship in the town, you
can be the best electrician in the world, but if
you lose you're cool that one customer can hurt your
credibility so fast. And the old saying, when somebody dislikes
the situation, they will go out of their way to
tell everybody they can.
Speaker 2: Okay.
Speaker 3: The sad fact is a lot of times people live
in misery right and they want to bring other people
to that same level of misery. That's like telling people
who you don't even know, your situation of what may
be going on in your life and you're you're depressed
or down and they don't care. They may act like
they care, but they really don't care. And that's a
brutal fact. I just hate to tell you that, you know,
you know, unless they're your friend or somebody you know
you have a relationship with who you know, make care.
The general public do not care about your concerns about
your needs. And I talk about that in another podcast
where I tell you know, tell your employees do not
bring their personal situation into the work. Do not carry
it over to the customers. And if they're disgruntled or
upset at the company in any way, keep it to themselves.
Speaker 2: There is nothing good.
Speaker 3: And I tell them this, tell them there is nothing
good that can come from you venting your frustration to
a customer, which could eventually get back to me and
only make your situation worse. So there's nothing you're going
to gain. There's nothing that customer can do that's going
to make your situation better.
Speaker 2: Zero.
Speaker 3: So first of all, get that out of your mind.
And I teach people this when we're talking about soft skills,
and I tell them, get that out of your mind.
I know you want to vent. I know you want
to say things. I know you want to you know
you're upset maybe or whatever reason, and you're on a job.
Keep it to yourself. They don't care. Okay, just keeping
that square.
Speaker 2: Now. I had a contracting contractor friend.
Speaker 3: Years ago who blew up at a customer over a
two hundred dollars difference on a four thousand dollar job.
Now he was right, he was in the good he
the customer was wrong, but the way he handled it
was wrong. Now he got his money, but he lost
five referrals, and because of his attitude, he got a
Google review score that tanked almost overnight.
Speaker 2: Now if you don't think that can happen.
Speaker 3: You can have five stars and then all of a
sudden you get one one star or somebody wants to
come in there and taint it. That one star will
drop you down and you're not going to recover from it.
Now you're still main high. But that's not your goal.
Your goal should be five stars all the time. And
if not, ask them what can I do to make
it five stars?
Speaker 2: What you know?
Speaker 3: And I've done that with a customer when they're going
to do a review. Like many people know, I gave
my brother who has a really high rating. I mean,
everything's vibe. My brother's just amazing. But you know those
little pin clips that I have on our website that
have the QR code on there, uh, A lot of
people that order those get it, actually scan it so
it goes right to their Google listing rating, so they
can ask them to do a review while they're there
while you're working out the invoice, say do you mind
doing this while I work out? You know, get this
for you whatever, And and a lot of people say sure,
I don't mind. It's really quickly. Five star boom, give
a little something, say a little something. It really does
help you locally, and it's just as quickly as having
that QR code right there on your hat or on
your business card or whatever you're using to get them,
but you want to get them there. And for my
brother and me, it's it's easy to have this little
clip right here, and it's a conversation piece and I go, hey,
here's a QR code. You got your phone. Just scan
this and I'll go work on everything for you here.
And if you don't mind giving me a five star review,
ask for what you want. By the way, don't say
can you just give me a review? No, say I
hope you're happy with the service. I do my best
to please you. A five star review. It really helps
my business as a local.
Speaker 2: Dude.
Speaker 3: Don't be afraid, folks to ask for what you want. Okay,
first mistake people make, they don't you don't they don't
ask for what they want. And if somebody says to you, well,
I don't you know, if they're ballsy enough to say,
well I don't think it was five stars, then say
what can I do to get you there, What do
you need me to do? If I had a customer say, well,
you can knock twenty five dollars off, and I'm like,
is that that all it takes to get you to
a five, then I'd say a fine, I'll give you
a discount, because, believe it or not, those reviews matter,
and you may be solid so stern, you're like, no, bullshit,
I'm gonna get I'm getting my money the reviews. If
you're local and your work off this social media's and
you're working off this type of things, the review is
much more important in the long run than worrying about
twenty five bucks from a customer that may say that's
the only threshold that they need to get that fifth star.
You hear me, I'm just that's an example. But I'm
just saying, you got to negotiate. So in his case,
he screwed up because he got his money, and he
might think that he won the battle, but ultimately, at
the end of the day, he lost the war because
he called me and the person he did he was like, dude,
that some of a gun gave me a damn one
star rating, and I did his work and giving you know,
and I'm like, yeah, well you won the battle, but
you lost the war. And because I know how he
told me how his interaction went, I was like, remember,
you're not just wiring systems. You're also managing relationships, and
negotiation is part of your craft, whether you like it
or not, whether you're electrician. And you think I don't educate,
I don't negotiate. I'm just here to do a job
blah blah blah.
Speaker 2: That's not true.
Speaker 3: And if you're like that and you're an owner, then
you're in either in a market where there is zero
competition or you don't care, and your business is going
to have a peak and then it's going to slowly
decline as your reputation starts to get weighed and tainted.
Speaker 2: For that.
Speaker 3: Okay, but you get to you know, you get you
got to kind of work through those things. But you know,
it's just kind of things that you have to think about. Okay,
So now let's go into what I like to say
is you know, segment two here of the podcast is
the ten negotiating tactics. Uh, first thing number one is
you need to set your payment expectations early. This is
where people can just screw up all the time. The
best negotiation is the one that never happens because you.
Speaker 2: Handled it up front.
Speaker 3: Always get your pain terms in writing, deposits, whether you
can do draw payments, or whether it's a completion fifty fifty,
whatever it is, get your payment terms. Get it in writing,
whether it requires deposits, whatever, a certain completion, amount of money.
Complete it, whatever it is, get it out, but spell
it clearly in your estimate or contract or opening negotiation
or contract. If it's a sales call, get it up
front so that everybody's on the same page. Don't leave
it ambiguous. And I know guys that do this. They
get there, they're worried about getting work done. They go, ooh,
I'll just I'll give the price later. Don't give it
up front. Let them know that there's different levels to it,
and this is the minimum. It could go up a little.
I'm hoping it's not, but I don't know what I'm
into yet. But I'll keep your breast along the way
and you can determine what level you want to get to.
Communication is key, okay, but the key is get that
out there.
Speaker 2: And here's my rule.
Speaker 3: If a customer says we'll sell it, we'll settle it
after the job. That's a red flag, right if you
have a customer that you go in there and you're
saying something talking prices, and he goes. If the customer says,
we'll settle it after the job, spider senses start.
Speaker 2: Tingling, tingling, tingling.
Speaker 3: You know what I'm saying, because that means that they're
gonna hold, potentially have They're gonna try to negotiate the
price at the end if they don't think you spend enough,
if you spend too much time, or you replaced a
part that they don't think that was that needed to
be replaced, and they're not the expert here, but they're
telling you this, then you're gonna have no talk about
price up front. I just get it out of the way.
And people say say, well, you know what, people that
talk price, you know that's the only thing. Well, dude,
that's right, because it's not like a job interview, right
where people don't want to ask you upfront what the
sour is. You know that's gonna be somewhere in the
conversation when it comes to doing work.
Speaker 2: I'm gonna be honest with you.
Speaker 3: I'm gonna let you know what the price is upfront,
you go by my course. I'mone to let you know
what the price is upfront, no negotiation needed at that point.
But if you don't and you defer it, you don't
train your staff to get it out of the way upfront,
it's gonna come back to haunt you later.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm not saying every time.
Speaker 3: I mean there are good people out there who will
just you know that are honest and you know.
Speaker 2: But again, for every one honest went out there, there's.
Speaker 3: Probably five pieces of crap that you're gonna have to
wigh through. So I'm just trying to save you that.
And that's the first thing, right. One tip I'll give
you is verbal agreements are like loose terminations. They will
come back to arc haunt you later. So verbal is
one thing. People seem to have very short term memories
when it comes to verbal I know, people say, I
don't like to get all this stuff, paper and all
this stuff. Dude, it's very simple to have a one
page contract, one page agreement, one page price thing explaining
that the price could change.
Speaker 2: It's one way to do it.
Speaker 3: And I've helped plenty of contractors develop that, and that's
part of the consulting services that we have will help
you to understand how to do service. Call initial you're
pricing will be different in your region, but we kind
of give you steps and you just feel in the blank.
That's some of the consulting things that we do, or
at least have somebody to bounce your thoughts off of
that type of thing. So again, payment expectations, get it
done up front. Next, use Paul's power. And you're thinking,
what the freak is Paul talking about Paul's power. Okay,
now think about this for a second. When a customer
gets confrontational, the best tool isn't your mouth, it's actually
your silence. People hate silence, and in fact, when you
are negotiating with somebody and you go silent, their mind
all already starts calculating the outcome and a renegotiation point automatically.
Speaker 2: So if I talk to.
Speaker 3: Somebody and I pause, they pause, I pause after they
say something they you know, they're trying to negotiate and
not pause, and I think about it, their mind is
already in this counter point mode and they're not. They're
not expecting you to pause. They're not They're expecting you
have a quick comeback. Like, this is a negotiation. I
give you ten oh five seven eight, No, No, you pause.
So if the customer gets confrontational, you pause, take a breath.
Don't jump in defensively, just take a breath.
Speaker 2: Pause.
Speaker 3: And this is hard for some people, but take a breath.
Maybe tell yourself to swallow five times before you speak.
Speaker 2: That's the kind of little tip.
Speaker 3: Swallow full swallows before you speak five times, and then
say something like I hear what you're saying. Let's walk
through this together. That pause keeps the situation from sparking
into a full blown short circuit situation. Okay, that pause
it breaks the the the the banter of a confrontational negotiation.
It's a technique that you gotta practice, and it's tough. Okay,
I can tell you right now that I do not
practice this practice is very well when I'm arguing with
my son, who is a total pain in the butt
and he kep knows how to push my buttons. But
as I got older, I realized that that's what he
liked and that's what he wanted, and so introducing pauses
in there really threw him off his game. And so
take a breath, pause and think, you know, kind of
look away, nod your head a little bit. You heard
them very good at listening skills active listener and swallows
swallows swallows swallows swallow and then say you know, I
hear what you're saying, and do it in such a
calm way. You're going to be surprised. You're going to
be surprised. Now, the next tip I can give you
is stay empathetic not emotional. Okay, you can be understanding
without surrendering. Folks think so many people forget that. They
think that I've got to just come back with a
defensive tone. But there may be a situation where you
have to understand and have a little empathy for their situation.
Speaker 2: Uh, economy, what's happening?
Speaker 3: And you know they may have told you a story
while you're there working and all that that. You know,
love got problems, I got because everybody likes to share
their problems. So you getting into this now where you're
going to take a fee. Now, yes, you did the work,
but now you're taking this money. So you know, you
just you gotta be empathetic, but take the emotion out
of it. So use empathy phrases like I completely understand
why that might be frustrating.
Speaker 2: You know what it does.
Speaker 3: It causes their brain to go into a pause, a
calming effect, not a instant trigger between two people that
their octave is so high that they're now bantering at
each other, and it gives a brain no time to
register what's going on. Okay, So it calms the brain
down literally, once emotional levers levels were reduced down to
what's called logic means a discussion that you could be had.
Then you walked them through the facts, the materials, the
time permits, where permits were required, unforeseen issues. I can
tell you one situation this worked very well was in
a service call where we went out and just reset Gfciyes. Now,
my brother, for example, this was a call where and
I'm sure you've all had this where people called and
you know, and everybody's different and how they want to
deal with this. I'm different than my brother would deal
with it. But you know, I got a call out there.
It was multiple GFCIs in series in one trip. Then
I didn't know where the other one was. I didn't
know that until I got there. But they right there
were saying this receptacle doesn't work, and YadA YadA, YadA.
So we got there and sure enough it wasn't working,
wouldn't reset, so we had to go hunting for it.
Speaker 2: Well, we found it quickly.
Speaker 3: You know, ten there's only so many circuits that it
can be on, especially depending on the year of the house.
Speaker 2: Y'all know this.
Speaker 3: So we found it and it reset it and it
was probably less than I don't know, probably less than
twenty minutes. And my policy is I charge a minimum
of an hour. And at the time, I also had
a after hours coffee. You know, they could have waited
during hours.
Speaker 2: They didn't.
Speaker 3: Did they necessarily need that gypsy out of work or
that receptacle there? No, but they called it. So there's
a fee. So the customer was like, you know, and
be honest with you. You know, he kind of went
through some sob stories, but honestly, he says, you know,
I think that's overpriced. You weren't here but twenty minutes,
and I know it's an hourly rate. You don't have
a scale for thirty minutes. So he's trying to tell
me how I should run my business, right, And I
looked at him and I was just eye contact important.
I looked at him and I was shaking my head.
I mean I was listening, active, listening to everything he said.
And then after it was done, I kind of looked
at it, and you know, and I thought about it
for a second. I looked at him and look, dude,
I know how you feel. I've had this happen to me.
You know, that type of thing. I get it.
Speaker 2: Unfortunately, let me let me.
Speaker 3: Is it okay if I explain you just briefly, where
my pricing scale, why we do what we do? He said, sure.
You know, he's still a little yamped, but sure. And
there was no thought that he wasn't going to pay me.
He was just you know, he was a little upset
at it for some reason because I found it so quick. Now,
my brother would have just said, no, that's fine, just
give me twenty bucks and move on, okay, But not me.
Speaker 2: Okay.
Speaker 3: I had one hundred and twenty five dollars minimum an hour,
and I had a fifty dollars after hours call. So
I'm you know, I'm in business. You know now you
could have waived the fifty that made him feel better,
but you know what, it's worth a shot in the negotiation,
and I'm using tactics that we train soft skill tactics.
Speaker 2: And I want to get my money.
Speaker 3: I mean, I'm in business, right, So I look at
and I go, you know, I have to pay for advertising,
you know, and I licenses and insurance and accounting and everything,
and so my prices are actually broken down in a
way that makes it so that I have to do
a certain number of calls a month in order to
be able to meet my expenses and pay myself or
pay my employees. And that's these that's what these things
are are based on. And it's I've tried to break
them down to what the cost of living is for
me and what I have to do. And I try
to carry that over honestly, uh with with with my
customers and you know, And after I explained it to
him and and and I'm like, I'm in business, and
I'm you know, I'm a you know, gave him some
of my situations, not to the woeies me situation.
Speaker 2: Like I need the money. No, I just tried to explain.
Speaker 3: The business aspect of in licensing and and the you know,
acquisition of customers and the ads that I run on
you know, different various networks. And he's like he literally
was he looked at me, and everything else went away.
Speaker 2: He's like, dude, I understand. He actually apologized to me
for even notion of it.
Speaker 3: And I'm like, dude, don't you know, don't appolo because here,
at this point, I knew that I could take this
customer and now make a long term relationship with him
and anybody that he may know, because I said, dude,
I get it, I get it, and I understand, and
so ultimately I did give the guy twenty five dollars off.
Now did I have to do that? Absolutely not.
Speaker 2: Why did I do that?
Speaker 3: Well, because after we started talking and he was more
than willing to pay, I started throwing out the things like, dude,
you know what you know.
Speaker 2: You give me, You give me a I'm using. I'm using.
Speaker 3: You know, people like this and some don't like this,
but I don't give a damn because I use it.
I'll say, you know, you give me a five star
review and tell your friends, and I'll be honest with
them as I'm honest with you. And uh, you know,
I'm a local business. I'm trying to make it and
trying to grow, and I'll give you twenty five dollars
off and help you out.
Speaker 2: A little bit.
Speaker 3: You can help me out a little bit. And you
know I rely on.
Speaker 2: These good reviews. The dude, the dude, I swear to you, folks.
Speaker 3: The dude about tripped over himself to say, where do
I give the review?
Speaker 2: What do I do? Where'd I give you? Just for
twenty five bucks? That was worth it for me.
Speaker 3: Now, I could have walked away and got it all right,
But after I took a little time and explained it,
I actually was. What I was doing was networking and
working a possible whale. Possible whale is that somebody who's
going to be please satisfied, give a good review, Tell
their family members, tell their friends, their next door neighbors,
everybody in the neighborhood.
Speaker 2: They probably go out of the way to when something
goes like, hey I got a guy. I know a guy. Right.
Speaker 3: Not the easiest skill to do, but it takes a
little practice. But again, I wasn't bsing them. I wasn't,
you know, working them beyond trying to explain to them.
But I saw an opportunity to hammer that home and
I just had to.
Speaker 2: You have to learn that skill. But if you start out.
Speaker 3: Was showing a little empathy, empathy for them, and then
explaining your situation using techniques, and then explaining it and
then having the ability to seize the opportunity to expand
on that and make it a solid review. That's what
a good business owner does. That's what a good technician does.
That's what a good salesperson does. And if I work
for somebody, I'm an extension of them. So you've heard
me say this before. If you've got employees who are
not willing to do that or work the customer like
that and give them that attention and that care that's necessary,
then they're a cancer to your company and you need
to get rid of them. I don't care how good
of an earner they are. If you're paying them, they
need to reward you with promotion and effort, and if
they don't do that, then they're not worth paying. Get
rid of them, get somebody else. I'm just saying it.
I hope I don't cost anybody their job out there.
But again, if they want to do differently, tell them
to go get their own business.
Speaker 2: You know what I'm saying.
Speaker 3: I mean, they're working for you, make them do it,
but you have to offer them the training, the techniques
and so many electrical contractors with employees. They don't do
enough soft skilled training. They don't train with how to
work with a customer. They don't do training exercises with
all of their technicians. And why is that important? Because
some technicians are shyer than others, and so I want
to see when they do a little exercise and they
do it together at the office, which ones are restrictive
to do it, which ones are like, I ain't doing that,
It's is stupid. I want to see who those are.
That's a good way to identify who's willing to do
this and the ones that are willing to do it.
And that's where you can start keeping a good eye
on your employees and who wants to see the business
grow and who doesn't.
Speaker 2: That's what we're all about. If you're just about an earner,
that's on you.
Speaker 3: But I want somebody that's going to earn for me,
it's gonna be thankful for me giving them a job,
and they help grow my business.
Speaker 2: That's who I want. I don't care how much you
make for my company.
Speaker 3: If you're a shitty person when you're out on the
job and you are hindering my growth, then I'm going.
Speaker 2: To get rid of you and get somebody else. That's
just me.
Speaker 3: Next is reaffirm the value before talking money. You would
think this would come before, but I just want to
point out the fact that when payment conflict starts, customers
often forget what they got. So remind them of what
you delivered. So when I'm getting ready, you know we've
got the pricing, and either you do it up front
or you.
Speaker 2: Do it at the end before you ask for the money.
Speaker 3: For the giving money you, I always used to say
to the customer, I say, okay, let's do a summary.
Require I want to do a summary for you what
I did, so you know you know what you're paying for.
Speaker 2: Believe it or not.
Speaker 3: People like that, okay, so remind them of what you delivered.
Remember too, we upgraded your service panel. We brought it
up to code. We passed the inspections on the first try,
or if they did a service cause. As we were
tracking down the GFCIs, we found the other GFCI.
Speaker 2: So now you know.
Speaker 3: If you have this happen again, where the GFCI is
to reset this so that you don't have this issue
in the future. You know, different things like that, explain
it to them and maybe you're there for twenty minutes
and you instead of leaving, maybe you've worked into like,
for example, I teach people thermal imaging, so thermal imaging
course is great. Pull out your thermal imager and if
you're paid for the hour and you feel inclined, then
you stay for the hour and you say you know what.
That can also stop an argument and say, you know what,
since I'm here and I finished it early, do you
want me to do a thermal imaging of your panel
just to see there's any loose connections whatnot. I'm here anyway.
I'll give you a free thermal inspection. I've got a
thermal imaging camera. I'll go look at your panel. I'll
also look go around at a select a number of
receptacles and things like that and just look and see,
you know, if there's any heat or lose connections, just
things like that, and it kind of makes them thing, Damn,
I'm getting a lot more from I'm getting more for
my money.
Speaker 2: You're still getting paid your hour.
Speaker 3: So if you're the kind of person that's like, dude,
I want to get paid for an hour, but I
only want to do twenty minutes work.
Speaker 2: I was never that way, I'm still gonna get paid
an hour.
Speaker 3: If i'm there an hour, I'm gonna be there an
hour unless there is absolutely nothing they want else from me,
and then I leave. But if I'll offer different things
to them, I said, wuld you like me to check
your panel?
Speaker 2: Now? Some people think, well, you're just doing that to
look for more things. No, I'm not here. I'm not going.
I tell them, Look, I'm not here to look for
more things.
Speaker 3: I'm here to make sure you don't have any issues
that could could cause a problem down the road. Okay,
And these things can manifest themselves at any different time,
and it's usually the worst time. Murphy's law, right. So
I'll look and see if there's any excessive heating on
your lugs, your main lugs, maybe lose connections, whatever like that,
and if i'm hearing if it's a quick tightening up,
I'll tighten it.
Speaker 2: I'm here for the hour, dude, you will look like
a freakin rock star.
Speaker 3: So I encourage everybody to add thermal imaging to their portfolio.
We have thermal images available cameras over on our website
at the best price that I've seen and without going
through is some shady application of these we have directly
sold to us through a distributor and they're less than MSRP.
And we have a thermal imaging course as well that
teaches sales and marketing and.
Speaker 2: All that kind of stuff.
Speaker 3: But at the least it's not brain surgery. There's a
bunch of different palettes on here. You'll find one that
you kind of gravitate to, but it's really nice to
kind of buffer that extra time. And of course, you
know you'll get a technician who thinks, well, I'm just
gonna get ot it early. Well, I would train my
staff to say, look, you're there for an hour. Okay,
you're an hourly employee, so I'm gonna be paying you
for hour, not for the job. So at the end
of the day, offer them other services. And if you're
like me, I used to have a inspection form that
I would give to them when I left, and it
would say we looked at this, this, this, this is
our recommendations. This looks good, this looks good, and you
know you might want to fix this in future. You
don't have GFCIs on account of tax, give a quick inspection.
They might call you back, and again you're getting more
money for your time, but that's up to you.
Speaker 2: Okay.
Speaker 3: Now, as I say, remind them, remind them what you did.
This puts the value front and center before you go
to the dollar mark.
Speaker 2: Okay.
Speaker 3: People pay when they feel what they got was worth it.
So I always go reaffirm the value before you talking money,
other than to let them know upfront what your fees are. Now,
you can kind of do it up front, but at
the end, I do always recommend a summary at the
time of payment. Look at them right in the eyes,
say okay, let's do a quick summary. I want to
explain what we did here today, so that you're aware
of what we did here today. You know, boom boom, boom,
boom boom, and that explains it to them. It takes
a little practice for the technician to get used to that,
all right. Next item is offering options, not ultimatums.
Speaker 2: Okay.
Speaker 3: Negotiations die when one side feels trapped there's no way out,
and that's kind of is not a negotiation, that's a
one sided takeover.
Speaker 2: Okay.
Speaker 3: So instead of you need to pay this today, try
let's look at some ways to get this resolved. So
they may tell you they don't have the money, and
you've already discussed the money, right.
Speaker 2: You've already discussed it. Well, if you already know you're not.
Speaker 3: Getting it, and you negotiate it out and you're getting
ready to just blow your top, maybe you think about
it and say, well, you know what, I can get
something out of this. I'll give you an example. My
son's girlfriend was in a car accident with a illegal
that did not have.
Speaker 2: Did not have a car insurance.
Speaker 3: So they had an accident and I got involved in it.
Speaker 2: So what ended up happening with that is.
Speaker 3: We had to take him to small claims court and
you know, and you know, we got a judgment for him,
but he is had no incentive to pay.
Speaker 2: He's like, so what, I don't care. I got a judgment.
Speaker 3: Well, the way I negotiated out with him and explained
to him that this would sit on his record because
again we won the judgment and we'd be more than
willing to remove this judgment, but we got to be paid.
He will you know, I understand you don't have the money, Well,
getting something is better than getting nothing. So I structured
out a payment plan for ten payments. Right now. I
had to structure this for him and explain the benefits
of keeping his credit. You know, he don't want to
get him in trouble. We want to make sure and
we'll gladly remove this lean. So he made it all
the way up to the ninth payment, believe it or not,
and then he I don't know what happened to him.
Speaker 2: I never heard from him again. He could have died
or something.
Speaker 3: I don't know, but he But we got just about
all of the money out of him up until that
last payment. No, we never lifted a judgment because he
still owes this one payment. But I never heard from
the guy again. He just disappeared.
Speaker 2: The point is, you can.
Speaker 3: Negotiate with people, and it's better to get something. So
maybe you don't get your entire amount, but maybe you say, look,
I get fifty percent of it, and then I will
break the other fifty percent up into two payments or
three payments or two payments or whatever you want, you know,
in that way, and I'll you know that type of thing,
you know, will do you know if you'll ever get
the other two payments? No, but you at least walked
away with something. Now, I'm not telling you that's a
perfect way.
Speaker 2: To do it.
Speaker 3: I'm just saying that sometimes it's basically keeping the flexibility
keeps the door open, and it's a professionalism intact. You
didn't go off the handle, you didn't throw. If you're
not going to get your money and you go, you
gotta get to used to where you feel this. If
I feel somebody has just scammed me, and I did,
they just don't have the money, you try to get
out as.
Speaker 2: Much as you can, Okay, I mean, it just is
what it is.
Speaker 3: Maybe you dump the fifty dollars you know, after hours
fee and just say look, I'll dump the fifty and
get you know, But you don't do that right away.
You wait until you feel the air, you feel the negotiation. Okay,
But but again, flexibility at least gets your money and say,
you know, the fifty, I'll well, you know, can you
pay it in two equal payments twenty five each, you know,
one this month and one next month and we'll be square.
You'd be surprised. They'll be like that's fine, and you
just send them an invoice, uh, you know, and they
may or may not pay it, you know it. But
again you're you're walking away with something and you say
the key is saving the reputation, and maybe part of
that negotiation says, you know what, here's what I'll do
is I will get I will will knock off the fifty.
You got to pay the one twenty five. I'll knock
off the fifty for you because I get it, I understand.
But how about this, I will you can pay the
fifty and two equal payments of twenty five bucks over
the next two months.
Speaker 2: And and and in.
Speaker 3: Turn for that me doing that for you, could you
give me a five star review now? And then you
told it and let them give give a review, and
you go, okay, I have to give the review. You know,
you're right there, have it ready, do it, take the time,
and that review is huge.
Speaker 2: Okay.
Speaker 3: So anyway, that's uh, that's the kind. There's different tactics
for that. But again, throwing ultimatums in there sometimes can
cause it to to really go south quickly.
Speaker 2: But learn to be flexible.
Speaker 3: If you're gonna lose the money anyway, then think of
ways at least you can leverage and get the most
you can and then maybe you offer a payment plan
for the whatever's remaining or whatever. Okay, it's just flex stability.
Our next is use silence strategically.
Speaker 2: What does that mean?
Speaker 3: Okay, you know, here's a psychological trick.
Speaker 2: You're ready.
Speaker 3: After you state your case, just stop talking, just stop,
don't fill in the sentences. Let the customer process it.
Silence makes them respond.
Speaker 2: They're you know any.
Speaker 3: More, I guess thoughtful approach instead of an emotional approach.
Speaker 2: It's uncomfortable. Silence makes people uncomfortable, but it works.
Speaker 3: And I'll also give you another another tip to this
is that when you think about the previous one where
you actually uh talk about everything that you've done for them,
that you've helped to me before you get the money.
Speaker 2: Is at the end of it, you tell.
Speaker 3: Them everything you've done, and then you simply end it
with the simple phrase is like okay, we did all that.
Then you know, so does that sound fair or that
that does that sound like a reasonable reasonable price for
for all the services that we gave you today?
Speaker 2: And just stay quiet, silent.
Speaker 3: Because you're asking, you're giving a summary, and then you're
you're confirming everything you did sounds.
Speaker 2: Good and reasonable to them and that you did all
these things.
Speaker 3: Or you might say something like okay after the summary,
say now you agree you're with me.
Speaker 2: You agree we did all.
Speaker 3: This, uh, you know, all of this for you and
and solve the issue right and and uh everything's you know,
taken care of and we kind of covered everything is
all that is? Uh, you agree with all that? Just silence,
But it works. It makes them feel very awkward, but
it also takes emotion out of it because now they
have to thought think a little bit more about the
thought process of giving you a response. The next thing
I will tell you that's going to save you frustration
and customers like this is document everything. If I had
a conversation with electric contractors out there, and so many
of them do work without agreements, without documentation, without contracts,
and maybe you have a career when you go through
and you never do it and you never have an issue,
and God bless you are. There's somebody out there that
have a problem. Every time you get on a job,
every time. I'll give you an example in the state
of Virginia, if you do work for somebody without a contract,
they're not under any obligation to pay you. Yeah, I
know you thinking, no, that's bulltle crap.
Speaker 2: Nope.
Speaker 3: Now I'm not a lawyer, But if you do work
for them, and it's work that's required under the Virginia
law to be contract work. And you do not get
a written contract that has all of these stipulations that
must be met when the job starts, when it's estimated, finish, YadA, YadA, YadA.
If you don't do that, and ultimately they don't pay
you and it goes to court, it may come up
whether or not y'all had a binding contract, And if
you didn't, chances are they could walk and not pay
you anything. Now, a signed estimate, a text confirming approval,
a dated change order, those things will save your But
I know a lot of contractors who do something. They
do not get a change order. They just let some.
My brother is guilty of this all the time. In fact,
my brother do work for certain contractors and in bill
of eight months later, I'm like, Jesus Christ, what.
Speaker 2: Are you doing?
Speaker 3: But my brother only does work for contractors that I
mean for yeah, for general contractors and builders that he's
known for thirty years, forty years. They've always paid him.
He's not into getting new work, he's not into trying
to find new builders.
Speaker 2: He's not into any of that.
Speaker 3: He only does work now in his sixties he only
does work for the people that he's done work for
for many, many years, so he knows he's getting paid.
Speaker 2: That's fine.
Speaker 3: But for the vast majority of you contractors out there,
I'm going to tell you, whether it's a one page contract,
it's simple to get multiple of them made up and
keep in your truck or whatever. And you're a binder
one page contract, it's all that's necessary. With chat, GPT
today and all these other things, you can most certainly
have it. Create a very simple one page contracts better
than nothing. Okay, change orders anytime you change something, get
it in writing. Just a simple change order sheet. Make
it clear what the change is going to be.
Speaker 2: Simple.
Speaker 3: You'll be surprised in many of you, and some of
you may never encounter anything.
Speaker 2: But when you need.
Speaker 3: It, good to have it. Okay, photos invoices, texts, and
it's your evidence if something ever goes to a legal setting,
have as much documentation as you can.
Speaker 2: Why risk it. It only takes a second.
Speaker 3: If somebody doesn't want to sign something for work you're
getting ready to do or whatever, then maybe you don't
want to do work for that person because that hesitance
isn't I want. If I have a contract to come
and do something. I sign it.
Speaker 2: I'm like, dude, you did the work. I want to
pay you.
Speaker 3: I'm not worried about all these little crap on here.
So anyway, paperwork is power. It's your backup generator, folks.
It's what keeps you okay when crap hits the fan,
and you can produce a document that says, well, they
told me to do this, and they agreed to pay
me to do this.
Speaker 2: I'm just saying.
Speaker 3: And you're a professional contractor, you know, you should be
treating your you should be working professional. You should have
the shirts, you should look the part, wear the boots,
have your vehicle lettered properly, have business cards done properly,
carry look the part, stay well kept and then follow
all paperwork and be very professional about it, very professional,
keep it very neutral. Contract agreements one page simple contract
service call agreement. Have the customer sign it up front
with the pricing and you know, and the levels. If
it's flat rate pricing, it could be level one, level two,
level three. Have a note in there that it could
run into unforeseen issues that could increase the price. Have
them initial that they understand this stuff. There's no room
to argue afterwards. And if you end up having to
go to small claims court and put a lean on
the property, then is what it is. If you choose
to do that, then you've at least got your paperwork.
Speaker 2: Okay, that's up to you.
Speaker 3: I'm just giving you advice when you know, next, escalate calmly.
Speaker 2: We needed What does that mean? Well, if things aren't really.
Speaker 3: Mention the next step, which is respectfully doing this like
we say, I'd rather we handle this between us, then
turn it over to some collections or defollowing. You're not
threatening anybody, You're informing them, and you're only going to
use this tactic very calmly with your pauses. Again, the
old saying swallow five times before you speak. It creates
a pause.
Speaker 2: I don't know.
Speaker 3: You might think that's too long. Do three times if
you want. Sometimes I get so pissed off I need
the five times. I'm just saying now, that's not threatening.
If you get to that point, you're just stating the obvious.
That's a calm tone. Keep your professionalism look the part. Okay,
But it's also possible that you need to use that
tactic in a tough, tough, tough conversation, but know that
it's there and use it wisely.
Speaker 2: Next something in your mind.
Speaker 3: Always think about you, and you've got to train your
employees to think this. If you're a business owner, always
think about retention. Never a revenge situation.
Speaker 2: Okay.
Speaker 3: Sometimes you take a small loss to gain a long
term win. Maybe they short pay this time, but you
handle it with class and dignity and they come back
later with referrals or bigger jobs.
Speaker 2: Or maybe maybe you offer.
Speaker 3: A discount if you think it's going to turn that way,
and you get clever and you say, well, you know what,
we are running a special where we'll give you twenty
five percent off or ten percent off of five percent
off or twenty five dollars off if you do and
give us a five star Google rating. Never say a
Google rating. Say a five star Google rating, okay, and
then be there and make them do it while you're there.
Take the time, folks, it's important that you do this
today because people follow these damn reviews.
Speaker 2: They do.
Speaker 3: If I if I can tell you all the people
that I get calls from contractors who talk about there,
what can they do to fix their reviews?
Speaker 2: Again?
Speaker 3: The ones that I consult with and I tell them, well,
here's how you start. Okay, you're not gonna get rid
of the crappy review, but you're gonna have to. You
have to think how you got the review, why you
got their view, and is there a way you can
offset this. Now, a lot of people think with those
reviews that it's you know, it's it's you. Let the
customer decide. Absolutely not. This isn't buying it wayfair, this
isn't Amazon. You're right there in their face. I Am
going to promote it and push it as a five
right away, right away. And then if you've got a
QR code or you got something, you can take them
right to where they do the review, Yelp review or whatever.
Now I can tell you the thing today is to
have it. Go to your link tree. We're on that
link tree. It has all of them.
Speaker 2: You have it.
Speaker 3: You have your Google review, you have your Yelp review.
And maybe you go there and maybe you come up
with a tactic and you go, you know what, I'll
give you ten dollars off for everyone that you give
me a five star review. And maybe you only have
Google and you have Yelp. Maybe that's it. Okay, maybe
you have bing, Is it worth it to get this
review a five star review? In these Absolutely it is
for your long term business.
Speaker 2: It is.
Speaker 3: I am more than happy to give up thirty dollars
on a call in order to get three five star reviews.
That's going to be easily putting me in a local
search around. I'm just telling you. You can say no,
I don't believe in that crap. I'm just telling you
I've seen it. I work with people doing this. Okay,
that's up to you. I'm not here to tell you
how to do your business, but that's up to you.
Remember your business. Your reputation outlasts your receipts. You understand
that that one job, that one incident where you're fighting
over ten, fifteen, twenty dollars or disgruntle over something can
affect your future revenues. Because people do use these reviews.
They do, not everybody, but a lot of them do.
And now more and more people are going online. They're
looking for electrician near me, and you'll come up in
this list, and the lists with the better reviews move
to the top.
Speaker 2: I'm just saying, think about it a little bit. O.
Speaker 3: Next thing is debrief every conflict once you're done. If
you have a situation, you know, you have a situation,
train your employees to come back to the office and
offer them incentives if they get a weird one like that,
make them know that that they can come in and
they'll get you know, they'll get you know, twenty five bucks,
or they'll get a lunch free lunch or whatever. If
they have a tough situation that they were able to
de escalate or how they work through it, that they
come back and they share it with everybody. They have
to openly share it with everybody. So it's an incentive
program that your company can offer. And if it's just you,
then you're going to do this anyway. So after every
tough customer, ask yourself, what did I miss? What did
I fail to communicate? What in the scope of what
I did did I fail to communicate? Was my quoting vague?
Was my pricing vague? Did I leave something out? Did
I not provide a contract? Did I not do a summary?
What did I do that maybe could have changed the
outcome of this? Every confrontation teaches you something, whether it's
a pricing clarity, whether it's a scope or definition of
the work that's going to be done, the tone, how
you control it where you kind of feel like you
probably got argumented it because we all have that conscience.
Speaker 2: When you leave, you're.
Speaker 3: Like, shit, well I shouldn't have said that because that
took it to another level. So I mean you really,
every tough customer basically is an opportunity to teach a
soft skill. And again, that doesn't mean the customer is
always right. That doesn't mean that you're kissing their ass.
That means that you're learning from every situation. And a
good employer wants to know their employees can learn those
tactics and those things that are going to make their
company better. And ultimately, as an employee, if you ever
want to own your own business, because that's a beautiful
thing about electrical as you do, someday may want to
own your own these skills are.
Speaker 2: Going to be invaluable to you to learn.
Speaker 3: So debrief every conflict, look at how you could have
addressed it better, and also the ones that you had
a conflict than it was successful. We're in that conversation.
Did you find that the tide turned? Was it? You're
giving your summary and asking a question in pausing, was it?
Speaker 2: We're in there.
Speaker 3: Do you feel that it turned the tide from a
customer that might have been confrontational and that type of thing.
Those are important things to kind of share with other
people that work in your company. Now people ask me
all the time, you know, how do I do this
in a kind of a role play situation? So segment
three here is de escalation in actions kind of a
role play.
Speaker 2: So let's kind of work this out. Let's play this
out in a real world situation.
Speaker 3: So I have a customer and the customer says, this
bill is higher than what you quoted, And the contractor says,
I understand that caught you off guard. So there's the empathy.
He said, I understand that caught you off guard. Let's
let's walk through the invoice. Remember we added the dedicated
circuit for that microwave after you requested a mid job.
You wanted me to do this, so mid job, so
we had spend a little more time.
Speaker 2: To do that.
Speaker 3: That's where the additional one fifty came from. So now
the customer is like, okay, you explained it to me.
Now I can see the bit you did the summary
of it. Now that's a calm, factual and non defensive
way you're explaining. You're not apologizing. I'm not apologizing for
the work I did the work you asked me to
do the work. But now think about how this tone
could change. Right, So now let's listen to how the
tone changes here. Let me give you a bad example. Well,
you asked for it, we did what you think? Well,
what did you think we would be free?
Speaker 2: Now?
Speaker 3: That is I'm going to tell you what I can
tell you right now. I know some people that are
just the employees that work for you, that are just
taking a paycheck and they did all the work.
Speaker 2: They're tired.
Speaker 3: They just crawled through a freaking attic, they got damn
dug insulation all over them. They're tired, and they might
spout off something like, well, you asked for us to
add this microweb circuit, would you expect me to just
throw in the wire, the cable and everything for free.
That is not the way you say it. That kills
the relationship instantly. There's no empathy there. You just yeah,
you might have felt like that's the best way to
approach it, but it wasn't. Keep your tone steady, slow, confident,
your professional not a collection agent, explain in a summary
what we did to justify this cost, and don't feed
them bullshit. Okay, I can't stand that if the cost
is increased because something was different. For example, say you're
a flat rate pricing and it was a price one
job and it elevated to a.
Speaker 2: Level two job.
Speaker 3: Let's say it was a ceiling fan and you noticed
that it wasn't a ceiling fan box, and now you're
gonna have to go in the attic. You're gonna have
to put in a ceiling van box with a new bracket,
all this kind of stuff and the price. Originally you
didn't know what was under there, so you gave a
level one, and now it's keep to a level two.
Maybe it's another one hundred and twenty five dollars more,
and you get to explain it. You go, okay, let's
do a quick summary of what we did. So originally
we price you level one. We can't really see what's
underneath that box, and we were kind of hoping that
it was a ceiling fan box. But you still gave
them prices up front so they feel comfortable. And I said,
you know it has on there that it could be.
And everybody that has flat rate pricing should do this.
Speaker 2: Uh.
Speaker 3: The structure of how you can escalate your pricing structure
is it said, look, once we found out that it
you know, per code, the code is going to know
because it could fall out of the ceiling. And so
we had to upgrade it and put a different box
in there that's going to support this weight. And I
can show you in the nec where the added there's
actually weight values that we have to use, and I
can show you in the box the weight parameters for
this box.
Speaker 2: So that's where you're called.
Speaker 3: And it's a little more to install this box than
we originally thought it would be. We thought it was
just put a fan up, take you know, take a
light down, put.
Speaker 2: A fan up.
Speaker 3: So that's where actually the extra prices came from. Is
that extra work that had to be done.
Speaker 2: Uh.
Speaker 3: And and if you explain it to somebody, then it's
easy to overcome that hurdle rather than to just say
what we had, we had to use more expensive pieces.
Would you expect us to do it for free? Do
not let your employees do that.
Speaker 2: Do not. Okay, that is not the way to do it.
Speaker 3: Next segment four, we're gonna talk about building future trust. Okay,
So after remember what I said earlier about taking a
situation and and and using it to gain the trust
of the customer and possible future references. There's an element
where you can, you know, you can take it to
the next level very tactfully. So after resolving a payment issue,
send a quick thank you note.
Speaker 2: Or a text.
Speaker 3: This is this is after you negotiate everything out and
everything's done, not the other one when I'm talking about
where you had to give a discount and you had
to be create, creative and offering them. Maybe if you
do a five star out, I'll give you this, you know,
five dollars off ten or whatever it is all and
then go into it and say because I appreciate you,
where I'm just a small business trying. No, this is after, right,
This is after you've done, payment's been done. You will
be surprised. And I can tell you contractors do not
do this. They do not do this. Very few do this.
And I've had a couple do this, and I tell
you what, they get my business because they appreciate it.
Speaker 2: So after you receive your.
Speaker 3: Payments, send a quick note, thank you note or text
and maybe you'll say appreciate you working through that with me.
Glad we could get the get it squared away. If
you need any future work or maintenance, I'll take care
of you. A small act leaves a positive after taste.
It turns conflict into credibility. Now this is not just
when you're going through this negotiation period. I think it's
a good move for every a service call that you do,
every one of them, that you respond back to them,
either with a text or with an email or even
with a call, that that's your nature and say, look,
I just wanted to call and thank you as a
small business here in your community.
Speaker 2: I just want to thank you for allowing me to
do this work for you.
Speaker 3: You know, just folks, you're in business, you say, well,
I don't suck up, I don't kiss ass you. Something's
wrong with you. It is not about that. Stop letting
the ego get in the way. You're working a local community,
you're working your business networking. Be appreciative of people coming
to you. They could have gone to somebody else. If
you want to call a kiss an ass or the
customer after the fact, that that's fine. I'll take that.
I'll kiss every customer's ass after the fact. If I
think that they will refer me, promote me, call me back,
share me with other people.
Speaker 2: Worth it, worth it. You can disagree.
Speaker 3: That's fine to me, one hundred percent worth it. Lastly,
Segment five closing thoughts. Now, negotiation and contracting isn't about
who wins. It's about how you handle the situation. Remember
you're the professional. You control the tone, You control the pace.
You even have a hand in controlling the outcome depending
on that tone, that professionalism, and how you handle the situation.
And I will say how flexible you can become in
a pivoting being able to detect a potential conflict and
head it off at the past, whether you're involving empathy,
whether or not you're involving summary and explaining what you've done,
whether or not you're offering some kind of incentive like
a reward program or offering discounts if they give you
five star ratings. However, any of that, you control pace
to tone the outcome. Then, when you stay calm, you're
always in control. Because you're offering the service you have
done the tesk. They already feel obligated to pay you,
but you control the tone. Remember, your best wire in
business isn't copper it's patience. It conducts way more successful
deals right in the future. That patience you put in
the wire, you put in the material that's just there.
That's only getting you paid on that one incident at
one time. A good negotiation, a good outcome, a good
working relationship with that customer will pay dividends in the future.
That's where your money's made. That is where you're going
to get repeat customers. You're going to build your base,
they're going to share it with other people. They're gonna
give you those those Googles, those Yelps, those being reviews.
Give them the opportunity to give that to you. I
tell people all the time, if you've never done it before, guys,
just go to my website. Pick up one of those
little hat clips for all of your staff. Let us
know what your link tree account is. That you can
get one count and you can put all of your Yelp,
Google whatever. We'll we'll help set that up for you
if you want, or if you have a website where
customers can give you reviews, or you got just a
Google listening like my brother, and you want us to
put that on the QR code and send it to you.
We sell those whatever it is, you want to make
sure that you actively get a review. Now, people have
been in business for many years and they say, I
don't care about that crap. You better start caring because
people are using it. Statistics are showing that people are
using referrals and they're looking at it.
Speaker 2: And I'm just.
Speaker 3: Telling you, as young, hungry people that are in this business,
not the guys that have been in thirty forty years,
you're setting your ways. If you're young, you're eager, you're hungry,
you've been in the business a couple of years, and
whatever you want to build your base, this is what
you do. You build your base by doing good work,
looking professional, being courteous, understanding when you get empathy when needed,
being able to state your summary, hold your ground, be flexible,
stay calm, and give the customer a good experience. It's
going to pay dividends and they're going to tell everybody.
And that, my friends, is how you negotiate a tough situation.
Hopefully got something out of that episode and can put
any of it into practice. If you're interested in joining
our network or having me as a consultant and helping
you out, give us contact. We'll let you know what
that is, and I'm more than happy to help you
be that sounding block or help you with other things
that you needed from a consulting aspect of It's not
always just about the electrical code.
Speaker 2: We do other things.
Speaker 3: I've owned multiple electrical contracting businesses through the years, so
and I have a very diverse area of expertise. I
have a bachelor's degree in business management, I have master's
degree in engineering, so I kind of wrap all these
things together. I've owned multiple companies through the years, so
we try to give you a well rounded approach to
how you do your contracting business. And we love to
be a sounding board and develop a relationship with you.
If you're interested, reach out to us. Our number is
five four zero six zero seven zero one one six,
or reach out on our website Electricalcode Academy, dot com,
dot net or dot org it doesn't matter. Or go
to our Fasttracksystem dot com website. You can send us
something through there. We have a contact us feature.
Speaker 2: Let us know.
Speaker 3: I'm more than happy to work with you. Till next time,
Stay safe, God bless.
Speaker 1: Thanks for tuning into another electrifying episode of The Master
the NDC podcast. We hope you're feeling more powered up
and ready to tackle the electrical world with the knowledge
and confidence you need to succeed. Remember, in the electrical grade,
knowledge is power, and we're here to make sure you
stay plugged to the latest insights, tips and code updates.
If you enjoy today's episode, don't forget to subscribe, leave
us a review, and share the podcast with your.
Speaker 2: Fellow electricians and industry pros.
Speaker 1: Until next time, keep your tools sharp, your circuits clear,
and you're my focused because here at the Master of
the ANEC podcast, we're all about sparking your success. Stay safe,
stay smart, and keep mastering the trade. From all of
us here at Electrical Code Academy, thank you for all
your support and we will see you on the next
amazing Master of the NEC podcast episode