March 12, 2020
Any heating and air conditioning company in Northern California can SAY they want to deliver great results and a fantastic experience.
(We’ve yet to hear any company claim they deliver mediocre results and provide an ‘okay’ experience!).
But delivering on those kind of promises is a lot harder than having good intentions.
At Service Champions, we figured out a long time ago that the only way to be the best company is to have the best technicians.
And there’s no magical place any company can go to find great technicians. You have to commit to “growing” them yourself. And that means investing in training.
At Service Champions, we have a special facility with classrooms, a mini-house, and a 5,000 square foot lab. Every technician that is hired goes through an intensive, full-time 14 to 16-week training program at Champions University.
The program is designed and overseen by Training Director, Ed Kramer. Ed has 32 years of heating and air conditioning experience, and he loves that Service Champions is 100% committed to developing people continuously. Watch Ed’s My Story here
Champions University is like a trade school for HVAC technicians, but instead of the student paying, Service Champions pays to train them.
The program includes Friday ‘ride-along’ so technicians can go out with an experienced mentor and get field training to supplement all the work in the classroom and lab. EPA training and testing and helping our technicians understand the relationship that needs to be built with our clients in order to deliver the best client experience in the industry.
It’s intense, rigorous, and frankly not for everyone. But those who succeed are the ‘best of the best’ – aka Champions and that’s who will be coming to your house to service your system.
We take this so seriously that we make it absolutely MANDATORY for trainees to pass all exams including multiple EPA level tests, and our very own RBG (Relationship Building Guide) test. At the end of the training program, we have a full-scale graduation ceremony and encourage our newly graduated technicians to bring as many friends and family as they want.
We do this because becoming a Service Champions technician takes hard work and dedication. Only the best make it, so it truly is something to celebrate.
As we said above, our training program is 14 to 16 weeks long.
How does is that compare with most heating and air conditioning companies? Well, it’s approximately 14 to 16 weeks longer than their training programs.
THAT’S RIGHT: MOST HVAC COMPANIES HAVE NO FORMAL TRAINING PROGRAM AT ALL!
Instead, it is more of a ‘go out with that guy for a few days or a week’ type training. In many cases, they are looking for techs who already have at least some knowledge, but they have no true training facility or program to make sure a technician is fully capable to handle the work they are being hired for.
This is a big problem, and it’s made even bigger because most Northern California heating and air conditioning companies overbook their technicians and jam their schedules with too many calls in a day.
And that means the pressure to get a technician out in the field on his own is high – regardless if he is ready or not.
All this matters to homeowners because they see it in the experience that we provide them:
It all adds up to this: Service Champions does not just pay lip service to training; we invest real money and resources in facilities, employee time, and personal leadership.
This all pays off when a smiling, knowledgeable technician shows up at your front door in their clean red uniform. You won’t have to guess if they’re qualified – you’ll be 100% sure of it.
Some companies might say that all that matters is whether a technician gets the job done right.
We disagree.
Getting the job done right should be the bare minimum. And we don’t do the bare minimum at Service Champions – ever.
So, for us it’s not enough to train our technicians on servicing heating and air conditioning units; we also spend a lot of time on communication skills and relationship building.
This special training is virtually unheard of with other HVAC companies. But it’s exactly why clients often describe our service as a ‘WOW!’ experience. We’ve purposely designed our training program so our technicians know how to deliver these awesome encounters.
It’s interesting to think about this. If we told most Northern California heating and air conditioning how much we invest in Champions University, in our training staff, and in payroll training time, we have no doubt they would say “that costs too much.”
We see it differently. We think it costs too much NOT to train technicians thoroughly. Companies without the best technicians have more service call backs, lose repeat business, and fail to get ‘word of mouth’ recommendations.
Why not call on the company with a total commitment to sending the very best technicians to your home?
If we sound like your kind of company, reach out to us to schedule an appointment.