• Free Stuff from the Contracting Business Website (Part III)

    April 6, 2011
    This is the third part of a continuing series that highlights the free Service Roundtable downloads available from Contracting Business Magazine.

    This is the third part of a continuing series that highlights the free Service Roundtable downloads available from Contracting Business Magazine. Each month Contracting Business Magazine presents a free business tool prepared by the Service Roundtable that anyone can download from the magazine’s website. Below you will find another half-dozen you might have missed from past issues. Read the description and click the links to any you want to download.

    Technician’s Creed

    The Professional Air Conditioning Technician's Creed is a statement of beliefs, principles, and opinions. It emphasizes the core promise of the industry, the technician's obligations to the employer, the technician’s responsibility for his or her own education and development, and so on.

    This is not for every technician. The word, "professional" was purposefully selected. This creed was written for the technician who sees his occupation as a profession, not merely a job.

    The technician's creed seeks to speak to the technician's better nature. It places demands on the technicians who buy into and can accept this creed as their own. Present this to your technicians in a service meeting. Review it with them and ask them to think it over. Ask those who are willing to sign two copies. Give them one to keep and place the other in the training room, a hall, or the warehouse where it will be in plain view and serve as a reminder.

    You might also consider mailing blank copies to your customers as part of a routine mailing with a note that this is the creed your technicians use to govern their behavior and actions.

    This creed is designed to be printed on regular 8.5x11 inch paper. It is saved as an Adobe Portable Document File (pdf). Members of the Service Roundtable have versions they can edit and customize with their company logo. Click the link below to download the file:

    http://contractingbusiness.com/images/techcreed.pdf

    The Fundamentals of Coupon Design

    You can create your own coupons for use in the newspaper, direct mail, flyers, email, and digital media like your website and Facebook. This chart identifies the fundamentals of basic coupon design. Members of the Service Roundtable who want a specific coupon can contact our content development with their requests.

    The file was prepared as an Adobe Portable Document File (pdf). Click the link below to download the file:

    http://contractingbusiness.com/images/coupondesign.pdf

    Marketing Project Planner/Tracker Worksheet

    Tracking your marketing results is paramount to achieving long-term business success. This Marketing Project Planner/Tracker Worksheet will make it easy to track the results of each project you run, and allow you to keep a permanent record that will be an important resource in the future.

    Use this worksheet before, during and after a promotion has run. It actually includes a step-by-step guide that's extremely useful for someone new to marketing, and will serve as a helpful reminder for even the most experienced marketer.

    Enter your information directly into the worksheet and save it with a unique filename. Print it and store it in a 3-ring binder (you should print out updated copies each week/month/year to track the overall effectiveness of your campaigns.)

    The file was prepared as an Adobe Portable Document File (pdf). Click the link below to download the file:

    http://contractingbusiness.com/images/marketingtracker.pdf

    Flat Rate Flyer

    Part of a Service Roundtable brochure explaining flat rate pricing to homeowners, this flyer can be used with consumers or as a training tool with technicians. The stance taken is that flat rate is designed to present the same price as time & materials pricing, which is true. Flat rate pricing is described as a form of 'repair insurance' that protects homeowners when repairs run long. The flyer also notes that consumers generally prefer flat rate when surveyed and that contractors have no choice but to offer it due to consumer demand.

    The flyer is ideal for companies or technicians new to flat rate pricing. It supports technicians who are uncomfortable with flat rate because it’s unfamiliar and who are uncertain how homeowners will react. Aside from explaining flat rate to homeowners, it educates technicians.

    The flyer is prepared as an Adobe Portable Document File (pdf). Service Roundtable members can download the full brochure and edit it as they see fit. Click the link below to download the file:

    http://contractingbusiness.com/images/flatrate.pdf

    Refrigerant Tags

    With the increased use of R410a refrigerant, your technicians need to be very aware when adding refrigerant to an unfamiliar system. It's easy to make the mistake of adding R22 to a R410a system or vice versa. There's no obvious way to tell them apart-until now.

    Now you can tag any system you work on with a simple label that attaches to the charging port on the condensing unit or heat pump. This color-coded tag makes it simple for someone to quickly recognize what type of refrigerant the system uses. Just affix it to every system you work on with a small zip cable tie.

    This is an opportunity to give the customer some unexpected added value. Make sure the technician builds up that value before 'giving away' your tags. Your customer should understand the issues that could arise if someone mistakenly adds the wrong refrigerant and how easy it is to make that mistake. Your tech can then 'waive' the fee he would normally collect for applying these exclusive Color-coded Weather-Resistant HVAC System Refrigerant Charging Port Identification Tags (better known as the CCWRHVACSRCPIT's). Your customer will love you for it.

    You can actually have a printer create these for you if you'd rather not do it yourself. If you do want to create the tags yourself and you don't have a laminator, here's one that should work: GBC Heatseal H110 Photo and Badge Laminator (available at OfficeMax.com for around $70).

    It accepts paper up to 4 ½-in. wide, so just print the labels and cut the page in half long way. Run it through the laminator, punch a hole in one end and send them out to your technicians.

    Here's a link to the laminator: http://www.officemax.com/office-supplies/laminating-binding/laminating-machines/product-prod1812115

    Be sure to download both sets of tags-R22 and R410a, which are prepared as Adobe Portable Document Files (pdfs). Service Roundtable members have fully customizable tags so they can add their company logo and contact information on the back. Click the links below to download the files:

    R410a: http://contractingbusiness.com/images/R410Arefrigerantporttags.pdf

    R22: http://contractingbusiness.com/images/R22refrigerantporttags.pdf

    Matt Michel is the CEO of the Service Roundtable. Each business tool discussed above, first appeared on the Service Roundtable, where new sales, marketing, training, and management tools are introduced every week. Give the Service Roundtable at try at www.ServiceRoundtable.com. Membership is only $50 a month, includes access to millions of dollars worth of downloadable, customizable business tools, free membership in the Roundtable Rewards buying group that includes thousands of dollars of rebates (e.g., up to 3% of parts purchases, 5% on major manufacturer equipment purchases, etc.), and access to the HVAC Roundtable where you can tap into tens of thousands of years of contractor and consultant business experience with the click of a mouse. Try it for a month. If you don’t like it, quit. There’s no obligation to stay.