Much has been written about training and certification in the HVAC industry. Intuitively most agree that certification is a good thing. Getting your field people trained and certified helps them on their path to being true craftsmen within our industry and your company. But have you stopped to think about all the additional positive impacts? Let’s take a look at some of the other benefits for your company, your employees, and your customers:
Customer Benefits
1. Higher Quality Work. A certified tech or installer is more likely to perform better, more accurate, and cleaner work. With many HVAC certifications, including NCI’s (National Comfort Institute, Inc.), the individual takes specialized training to learn the new skills needed to pass the certification exam.
2. Increased Credibility. A certified technician instills higher confidence in your customers. This increases your company’s credibility in the customer’s eyes.
3. Done Right the First Time. A certified technician is more likely to verify his or her work using good test instruments and doesn’t guess as to whether the work was done right.
4. Higher Perceived Value. When a technician informs the customer that he or she is third-party certified, the customer perceives greater value for their investment in your services.
5. Peace of Mind. Service and installation work done by certified technicians tends to be safer and more reliable. This gives customers a better comfort level and peace of mind.
Employee Benefits
1. Links Knowledge to Skills. Training and certification increase a technician’s technical knowledge and helps translate that knowledge into good diagnostics, repair, and installation skills.
2. Improved Career Paths. Well-trained and certified technicians have a much better chance for advancement as they become a more valuable asset to your company.
3. Increased Income. Certified technicians will help your company generate higher revenues and profits, making it easier to pay them more for their knowledge, skills, and abilities.
4. Greater Job Satisfaction. Every good technician and installer likes to become more knowledgeable and valuable. Employees who feel challenged and appreciated tend to want to continue working for your company.
5. Happier Employees. When you invest in training and certifying employees, they tend to be happier and have greater job satisfaction.
Company Benefits
1. Differentiation. Having well-trained and certified employees helps to differentiate your company in your marketplace. Advertising this uniqueness can give you a real competitive edge.
2. Third Party Endorsement. Certifications by third parties instill confidence in your company’s capabilities and value
3. Increased Productivity and Fewer Callbacks. Better trained techs and installers get the job done faster and right the first time. This will reduce callbacks and enable you to work on more profitable projects
4. Better Employee retention. By providing career paths based on increased knowledge and skills, employees stay longer, reducing turnover.
5. Motivated Employees. Certified techs tend to be self-motivated. They require less supervision and prompting to do the right things.
Why is Recertification Critical?
It often seems like a nuisance to keep up certifications, which typically involves some type of continuing education. There’s the cost of recertification, the time away from work, and of course, the non-billable hours.
The fact, is as technology continues to change, HVAC systems become increasingly complicated, and new tools and instruments continue to hit the market. With this continuing evolution, the need to stay current is more important than ever. Training towards maintaining certifications should not be looked at as a nuisance, or a waste of time, or money. It is instead one of the most important investments you can make in the future of your business.
Dominick Guarino is CEO of National Comfort Institute (NCI), (www.nationalcomfortinstitute.com), one of the nation’s premier Performance-BasedTM training, certification, and membership organization focused on helping contractors grow and become more profitable. His e-mail is [email protected]. For more info on Performance-Based ContractingTM go to WhyPBC.com or call NCI at 800/633-7058.