First Responder, Military, and Senior Discounts.
First Responder, Military, and Senior Discounts.
Klein Cooling exists to provide professional HVAC service while treating customers, their homes, their money, and our trade with respect.
This sounds simple.
Most important things do.
Every employee representing Klein Cooling is expected to:
These standards apply whether anyone is watching or not.
Especially when nobody is watching.
When a customer opens their door to a Klein Cooling employee, they are allowing a stranger into their home.
Remember that.
You may be there to repair an air conditioner.
The customer may see:
Act accordingly.
Some customers will become very comfortable with technicians.
This does not mean you live there now.
Do not:
You came to fix the air conditioner.
Stay focused.
Employees may accept food or beverages offered by customers.
Employees shall use reasonable judgment.
The statement:
“You boys look hungry.”
does not require resistance.
However, accepting a sandwich does not automatically extend the appointment into lunch.
If the customer says:
“There’s more in the refrigerator.”
permission has been granted to obtain more of the item offered.
This does not constitute general refrigerator access.
See future policy regarding refrigerator jurisdiction.
HVAC repairs and replacements can be expensive.
A $1,000 repair may be an inconvenience to one customer and a serious financial problem for another.
Technicians shall not assume either.
The fact that a customer owns:
does not tell us what they can comfortably afford.
It also does not change our price.
Before recommending an expensive repair, ask yourself:
Would I spend my own money on this recommendation if this were my system?
If the answer is no, reconsider the recommendation.
If the answer is:
“Well, it’s not my money…”
you have misunderstood the exercise.
Technicians shall not determine a customer’s financial condition based upon observations made during a service call.
The following are not approved underwriting criteria:
Likewise, a 2003 Corolla does not establish that the customer cannot afford a repair.
We fix air conditioners.
We do not issue credit ratings from the driveway.
Employees shall communicate findings accurately and honestly.
Do not exaggerate a problem to make a repair easier to sell.
Do not minimize a problem simply because explaining it is difficult.
Do not create urgency that does not exist.
Do not remove uncertainty from a diagnosis merely because certainty sounds more professional.
Sometimes the correct answer is:
“I don’t know yet.”
Sometimes the correct recommendation is:
“Let’s keep an eye on it.”
Sometimes the correct repair recommendation is:
Nothing.
This may result in leaving a customer’s home without selling anything.
Klein Cooling has determined that the company can survive this event.
If no repair is required, the technician may leave.
There is no requirement to walk around the property until another problem is located.
The technician is also not required to become suspicious because the system is operating normally.
Sometimes the air conditioner is fine.
Please enjoy this rare moment.
HVAC equipment contains electrical components, refrigerant, motors, compressors, and other things capable of failing.
Customers generally understand this.
There is no need to make the situation sound like the condenser is preparing to achieve consciousness.
Technicians and sales personnel shall explain:
Then allow the customer to make a decision.
Employees shall not manufacture artificial urgency using statements such as:
“You need to decide today.”
unless there is a legitimate reason the customer actually needs to decide today.
The calendar changing at midnight is not, by itself, a mechanical emergency.
The statement:
“Your system is ten years old.”
is a statement of age.
It is not a diagnosis.
The technician shall not state the system’s age and then stare silently at the homeowner as though ten years is the average life expectancy of a Labrador.
Age matters.
Condition matters.
Repair history matters.
Cost matters.
What the equipment is actually doing also remains surprisingly relevant.
A recommendation begins with understanding the problem.
Not with deciding what we would like the customer to purchase.
A technician who has not determined why the system is not operating should be very careful about recommending thousands of dollars in repairs.
A technician who has not determined why the system is not operating should be even more careful about recommending an entirely new system.
The inability to diagnose an air conditioner does not constitute evidence that the air conditioner needs replacement.
This policy applies even on Friday afternoons.
There is none.
Diagnostic standards do not change on Friday afternoon.
A compressor does not become condemned because replacing the contactor would cause the technician to arrive home later.
Similarly:
“It’s probably the board.”
does not become more accurate after 4:30 p.m.
Replacing components until the system begins working is not an approved diagnostic procedure.
This method is commonly known as firing the Parts Cannon.
The customer shall not be used as the ammunition supplier.
Customers should understand the basic reason behind significant recommendations.
Technicians are not required to provide a four-hour refrigeration theory lecture.
Please don’t.
But we should be able to explain:
If a recommendation cannot survive a reasonable customer asking:
“Why?”
we probably need to examine the recommendation again.
Technicians should recognize when the customer’s eyes have glazed over.
This usually occurs somewhere between:
“Your capacitor failed.”
and:
“Let me explain phase shift.”
Stop before phase shift.
If the customer genuinely wants the technical explanation:
Proceed.
You have found your person.
When practical, technicians should show customers the evidence supporting significant findings.
Examples may include:
This does not mean customers need to understand every technical detail.
It means:
We should not be afraid of them seeing how we reached our conclusion.
Photos should be useful.
A dark photograph of something approximately eight feet away does not become documentation merely because a red circle has been drawn around it.
If nobody can determine what the photograph depicts:
Take another picture.
Technicians should make reasonable efforts to keep their finger away from the camera lens.
If approximately 30% of the photograph consists of technician finger:
Take another picture.
Professionalism does not require technicians to behave like robots.
Employees may:
Professionalism means knowing where the line is.
The customer hired an HVAC company.
They did not request:
There will be appropriate opportunities to discuss these matters.
The customer’s kitchen is generally not one of them.
Customers may initiate conversations unrelated to HVAC.
Employees may participate appropriately.
This does not automatically authorize the technician to cancel the remainder of the day’s schedule.
At some point:
Fix the air conditioner.
HVAC is skilled work.
Treat it like skilled work.
Do not take shortcuts because the customer will never see them.
Do not stop learning because you have been doing this for twenty years.
Do not assume new equipment works exactly like the equipment you learned on.
Do not assume old equipment is simple because it is old.
Read the manual.
Call technical support.
Ask another technician.
Look something up.
The installation manual supplied with the equipment may occasionally contain useful information regarding installation of the equipment.
Employees are authorized to read it.
This policy applies regardless of years of experience.
Reading manufacturer instructions shall not be interpreted as evidence that a technician does not know what they are doing.
Occasionally it is evidence of the opposite.
Technicians may read instructions in view of:
No loss of journeyman status will occur.
This statement does not override the current installation manual.
The manufacturer may have changed something.
This has happened before.
They did not call us personally.
Experience is valuable.
Ego is considerably less useful.
The longer a technician works in HVAC, the more situations they will encounter where the answer is not immediately obvious.
This is normal.
The apprentice doesn’t know.
The journeyman doesn’t want anyone to know he doesn’t know.
The senior technician says:
“I have no idea. Let’s figure it out.”
There is a lesson in this progression.
It will be addressed elsewhere.
Repeatedly.
Years of experience alone do not establish senior-technician status.
Additional indicators may include:
Presence of all seven indicators is considered conclusive.
Employees are expected to help one another.
If another technician needs assistance:
Help when reasonably possible.
If an apprentice does not understand something:
Teach them.
If someone makes an honest mistake:
Correct the mistake and teach the lesson.
Do not create an environment where employees become afraid to admit they don’t know something.
That produces technicians who guess.
Guessing becomes expensive.
Usually for somebody else.
Apprentices are encouraged to ask questions.
Journeymen shall answer them when reasonably possible.
The phrase:
“You’ll figure it out.”
may occasionally constitute instruction.
It shall not constitute the entire training program.
If the apprentice asks the same question repeatedly:
Explain it again.
If the apprentice asks it for the sixth time:
Explain it again, but you are permitted to look disappointed.
Do not rush past something you know should be corrected because:
“It’ll probably be fine.”
Secure the wire.
Fix the drain pitch.
Tighten the connection.
Check the charge.
Verify airflow.
Test the float switch.
Clean the work area.
Take the picture.
Write the note.
Ten minutes now saves two hours later.
Occasionally it saves six hours later.
Occasionally it saves Saturday.
Saturday is worth protecting.
Technicians will occasionally spend ten minutes now and still lose two hours later.
This does not invalidate the principle.
It means HVAC won.
If you made a mistake:
Say so.
If Klein Cooling made a mistake:
Say so.
If we need to return and correct something:
Return and correct it.
Do not spend more energy explaining why something isn’t our fault than it would take to solve the problem.
See Section 13.
The customer may be mistaken.
So may we.
Professional customer service does not require agreeing with something that is technically incorrect.
If a customer believes:
we should explain what we find respectfully.
The customer does not need to be right.
The customer does need to be treated with respect.
These concepts can coexist.
See title.
No additional clarification should be necessary.
If additional clarification is necessary:
See Section 12 — The “I Don’t Know” Policy.
Not every incorrect diagnosis was dishonest.
Not every bad installation was performed by an idiot.
Not every difficult customer is trying to be difficult.
Not every apprentice mistake requires humiliation.
Not every technician who gets something wrong is incompetent.
People have bad days.
People miss things.
People are learning.
People inherit problems they did not create.
Start with grace.
Then deal with the facts.
When an employee is unsure what Klein Cooling expects, return to these questions:
Is it honest?
Is it necessary?
Can I explain why I’m recommending it?
Would I make the same recommendation if this were my own home?
Am I treating this customer’s money like it matters?
Am I doing the work correctly even if nobody will ever see it?
Would I be comfortable putting my name on it?
If yes:
Proceed.
If no:
Don’t.
If you’re not sure:
Ask.
We are not going to be perfect.
Neither is anyone else.
The standard is not perfection.
The standard is:
Tell the truth.
Do good work.
Treat people well.
Keep learning.
Own your mistakes.
Help the next guy.
Do the right thing when nobody is watching.
And if all else fails:
Read the manual.
Apparently we have one now.
END OF SECTION 02