Using the “3-R’s” to pump up your techs and other employees! (Part I)
Discover how to effectively recognize achievements, track performance, and foster a winning team environment everyday in your home service company.
KickStart: Bring FUN back to your day by using the 3-R’s to 1) Recognize, 2) Reward, and 3) Relax With your people!
Ever start out to one destination and you wind up in a whole new place? And no, Sioux, it isn’t because I’m getting older (never “old”!) and easily get confused!😯
Anyway, that’s what happened last week. I started writing about using the “3-R’s” to motivate your techs and instead wound up focused on the entrepreneurs in our industry. (Such as YOU personally as a HVAC, Plumbing or Pest Control contractor!)
Over the next few KickStarts, I’m determined to focus on using the “3-R’s” to manage and motivate your techs! Why is this so important? Because…
No Very Best Person (VBP) will stick around long-term in a joyless, toxic environment. On the other hand, you will…
Tie your Very Best People to you EMOTIONALLY by...
1) Recognizing their accomplishments, 2) Rewarding specific actions, and 3) Relaxing With your employees in a family atmosphere your team will stay with you forever!
New Hire Reminder: This “emotionally focused” 3-R strategy works really well with a brand-new employee. Click HERE for 7 Tips to Keep New Employees.
But now, let’s refocus on the 3-R’s to motivate, encourage, pump up and yes, at times to discipline your hardworking front-line production workers. Today we’ll look at the first “R”:
#1. Recognize. I wrestled with where to insert this step. At the beginning of our "3-R's" where it is now? Or after our next step, “2) Reward”?
Even the dictionary struggles with this word, “Recognize” with 11 different definitions! 😶
My favorite choice? “To show appreciation of an achievement by some reward, public honor, or the like.” I LOVE this as a recipe for motivating techs!
But upon reflection here’s the one that applies first in this KickStart today…
“to identify as something previously seen, known, etc.” Yep, BEFORE you can “reward” you must first identify (or recognize) an achievement as worthy!
Step-by-step: Tom Peters (with a little help from me) said it best, “What gets measured (along with recognized and rewarded- Steve) gets done!” Soooo ask yourself…
1. "What BEHAVIOUR do I want to encourage?" Decide what tech actions and results (Gurus call this stuff “KPI’s”) you want to see in your home service company’s “Game”. (In my company we called them “Targets”.)
Candidates for your “Targets”? Profit per hour (meh!), upsells (I hate this word!), lowest complaint ratio (better!), or my personal favorite, percentage of 5-star reviews! ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
NOTE: Here is one great “game” many of my coaching clients have implemented with great results!
2. “What gets TRACKED gets done!” So, develop automatic tracking systems. Program your technology (AI?) to quickly and easily calculate and post each tech’s daily individual “scores”. (Results)
CAUTION: It is easy to develop a "Kitchen Sink" system that is so cumbersome it won’t get used and is a huge waste of resources. To paraphrase good old Tom, “What gets tracked (EASILY) gets done!” However, this leads to our 3rd step…
3. “What gets FOCUSED on gets done!” Yes, I know YOU personally are focused on this stuff! (After all, you wouldn’t have made it this far without focus!) But I want your techs to focus on their scores and total results… daily and even hourly!
ProTIP: Program your CRM to give daily Target Scores (results) on each tech. Dedicate a wall mounted monitor to share the previous day’s individual scores for each tech to see when they walk into the office in the morning.
SUPER ProTIP? Keep a cumulative average running total of each tech’s results on the monitors too. NOW you’ll have your tech’s ONGOING FOCUS! And a healthy bit of competition too! (More on this next week.)
MoraleTIP: I like to think of myself as a “fair person. “DUH, Steve! We all SAY this!” Granted. But I gotta tell you- I grew to hate the word “fair”! It went like this, “Steve, that’s not fair! The office has given Charlie all the easy, high profit jobs this week and I’ve got the leftovers!” GRRR! Here’s some “fairness tips…
Make each measurement period a “fair” length. Translated? Long enough to smooth out bumps in the road (several low-profit days, long travel time, etc) but short enough that you keep your techs’ interest.
Suggestion? Depending on your company and accounting system I usually recommend every two weeks or monthly.Raise your prices. (You need to do this anyway!) Why? When you start handing out rewards (at least in the short term) it will lower your net profit. However, even a small price increase will more than cover your rewards and you get all the benefits of an excited, eager work force for… FREE! 👍👍
Base each tech’s score on what he or she can directly affect. For example, don’t calculate techs’ income or bonuses on the total “net profit” of the company. This will lead to suspicion, cynicism and/or paranoia- exactly the opposite of the team approach you want! There are simply too many variables in “net profit” (including possibly bad management on your part!) that techs can’t control!
Take your time and calculate carefully.🤔 Too many of my coaching clients have impulsively changed their compensation formulas (many times out of a sincere desire to help their workers💖) and then later had to backtrack. Don’t be this guy. This indecisive approach leaves a bad taste in your employees’ mouths. All the above points leads us to…
Remember my first choice for “Recognize”? I love this definition when we talk about motivating people, (including your own kids) “To show appreciation of an achievement by some reward, public honor, or the like.”
Now that you’ve Recognized (identified) what you want to “Reward” we can move to this second “R” of our “3-R’s” in our next KickStart! (Spoiler Alert: It will include a healthy dose of “Recognition” too!) 😁
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