Digital technology has been evolving at lightning speed over the past decade. While we have been living in a digital age for about forty years, it has only been two decades since the proliferation of the World Wide Web - and less than 10 years since the dawn of smart devices.
At the current speed of change, it’s not surprising so many people in our industry are having trouble keeping up. We are especially lagging in terms of smart devices, software, and internet use.
Unfortunately, our industry is not doing enough to educate contractors on how to use fast-changing digital tools, keep up with hardware and software changes, and effectively use technology throughout your business.
That being said, it’s better to subscribe to the adage, “If it is to be, it’s up to me.” You can’t wait for someone else to make sure you get the education you need to keep up with the digital world. While you can’t be expected to become an IT expert, if you want to remain viable, you should continually educate yourself and your team in the use of technology.
There are five major areas in which HVAC businesses need to maximize the benefits of digital technology. Not everyone in your organization has to be proficient in all five, but they should strive to learn more about those areas that impact their respective roles.
While many digital tools can help your business -- from inventory management, to design tools, to GPS tracking, and so forth -- for this article we will focus on the following key areas:
1. Customer Information Management
Contractors need to become better at managing and using cloud-based CRM (Customer Relationship Management) systems. CRMs are essentially databases.
Because things are moving so fast, we need to quickly and accurately manage customer information. We must be able to stay in sync with fellow employees on customer-related activities including incoming and outbound calls, service visits, sales calls, and follow-up. This minimizes miscommunications that not only waste time and money but make us look bad in our customers’ eyes.
A good CRM is no longer a “nice to have.” It’s an essential tool for any small business.
A good CRM is no longer a “nice to have.” It’s an essential tool for any small business. Unfortunately, most companies use less than 10% of the capabilities of their systems. One of the keys to getting the most benefit from your CRM is continually training your team and reinforcing its use.
2. Business Management
A small business owner can’t wait for an accountant or comptroller to provide current reliable information. You should be able to look into your accounting system and quickly find accurate information you can trust to make good decisions.
There are great information management and modeling tools that can help you better manage your business. If you have well-integrated software, many of these tools are built-in so you don’t have to pull together information from multiple systems.
3. Technical Resources
The internet is the world’s largest encyclopedia of technical information from equipment manufacturers, associations, training organizations, etc. Your entire staff must become proficient in using search engines and drilling down to access all the great data on the web.
Your entire staff must become proficient in using search engines and drilling down to access all the great data on the web.
There are many online educational resources you can use to train your team to locate important technical information online. It’s also important to be mindful of good cybersecurity practices to keep your company safe from attacks and malware.
4. Education
The internet is quickly becoming a valuable resource for training every single person on your team. The COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the need for online training. Many training organizations like NCI have been retooling over the past six months, some fasters than others. There’s no doubt training will never be the same.
Digital marketing must be at the forefront of your lead generation strategy.
While there’s no substitute for in-person, hands-on training, we must all find new ways to keep our people trained year-round. It’s important to teach your staff to become proficient at online training, including web-based certification testing.
5. Marketing
If it’s not already, digital marketing must be at the forefront of your lead generation strategy. This includes a website that delivers solid customer education, a strong social media presence, and an effective email marketing program. To remain relevant in your market you must start thinking videos, YouTube channels, and other Top Of Mind Awareness (TOMA) tools.
As you put together your business plans for 2021, be sure to address each of these five key areas. Most importantly, be sure to teach your team to become comfortable with using digital technology in all aspects of their work.
Dominick Guarino is CEO of National Comfort Institute (NCI), (www.nationalcomfortinstitute.com), one of the nation’s premier Performance-BasedTM training, certification, and membership organizations focused on helping contractors grow and become more profitable. His e-mail is ncilink.com/ContactMe. For more info on Performance-Based ContractingTM go to WhyPBC.com or call NCI at 800/633-7058.
CALLOUT: There are great information management and modeling tools that can help you better manage your business.