The ACR Industry needs a 'Fred' Award

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The ACR Industry needs a 'Fred' Award

It is around twenty years ago that Mark Sanborn, a professional speaker, trainer and author on leadership and customer services met Fred his postman. Mark had just moved into his new home in Denver when Fred knocked on his door, introduced himself and welcomed him to the neighbourhood. He also asked Mark about himself and how he wanted his mail handled while he was away.

Mark was astonished. This was not the service he had come to expect from a postman. He was truly pleasantly surprised and delighted by Fred's approach and manner.

Mark became interested and asked Fred more about his job and how he approached it. Fred's answers inspired him to develop motivational seminars and a bestselling book (The Fred Factor) promoting Fred's attitude and approach to life.
In a nutshell, the Fred philosophy is to realise and practise that everyone can make a difference; success is built on good relationships; you must continually create value for others and it doesn't have to cost anything; you can reinvent yourself whenever you want.

In the past few months I have had the pleasure to meet two 'Fred's from the ACR industry. The first was a service engineer who I bumped into by chance when I walked into a client's refrigeration plant room on a site in Birmingham. The young engineer was knowledgeable, enthusiastic, helpful and a pleasure to speak to. The second was a food factory engineer who managed the refrigeration plant along with all the other services required in a modern food production environment. Although not a specialist refrigeration engineer, he went out of his way to provide the information I required and to answer all my questions and more.

Both of these engineers embodied excellent customer service qualities described in the 'Fred Factor'.

We should never forget that although highly technical by nature, the ACR industry is a still a service industry with customer service excellence being a key to business success. If you think that is a cliché, imagine how long a company can survive that ignores this in the competitive market place we find ourselves in today. Customers do have a choice and they will go to where they perceive they most consistently get what pleases and impresses them.

The 'Fred' philosophy is built on timeless values like personal responsibility, authentic relationships, and respect for others. It is in essence, a mind-set that looks for and seizes opportunities to turn the ordinary into the extraordinary.
The ACR industry has individuals who go beyond the ordinary and create extraordinary experiences for their clients. These are not only service engineers; they are from all business fields, from sales through to administrators. Their attitude to customer service should be recognised by this industry in the same way as technical excellence is. Normal is overrated and has never been a term that should be applied to our industry. We should have a 'Fred' Award, although I am sure that we can give it a more appropriate name from one of the many fine examples from our own industry.

Posted by Steve Gill 15 April 2013 23:21:00 Categories: Fresh Talk

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Comments

Amy Whitehouse

21 January 2016 23:16:16

I never get to meet any of our customers in person. But I speak to them via the phone, and email. They are all faceless but I have learned that telephone manner is so important. If I sound and am cheerful, I am able to help the customer with their problems better. I find that that my listening skills are better because I was trained to listen very carefully to what the customer is saying and how they are saying. I cannot rely on body language. I have found that if I smile, even though they don't see it, they can somehow sense it. Perhaps my voice sounds different

Customer service is recognized as important in many businesses and industries but in the HVACR industry there is very little recognition. This article makes a wonderful change from the 'how to charge a system; type articles that usually shared around the industry

Good luck with the award. I enjoyed reading the article. thank you

Katie

21 January 2016 17:50:59

I couldn't agree more with this wonderful article. It is perfect.

The ACR industry is full of characters and indivduals doing great jobs. Although we all appreciate them in our day to day working lives, we do nothing to celebrate or acknowledge them as an industry. This is a wonderful development for the industry.

Thank you Steve. You are a great role model. If the award is to have a name, it should be named after you

Carol

21 January 2016 13:39:02

I like this article. It speaks up for and recognises the role of support staff. It also proposes recognition for them at the highest level.

Thank you Steve. I heard that the voting for this year's award was close to 1000. That shows how many people agree with me that this is an excellent initative.

Thank you Steve

Matt Powell

20 January 2016 13:41:07

Great blog Steve. Very interesting example to use to show what you mean by customer service.

I agree that an Award for this was long overdue and overlooked. But now we have the award, I think it is a great opportunity to celebrate those special individuals that work in our industry

Kate Lester

19 January 2016 00:48:16

What a revelation this blog is. I can't say it is the best blog ever, but it is brilliant none the less

And as for the comments? Well.......they take some beating. I would say that they are the best. Totally awesome. HVACR has never felt so good.

Kate, from West Hollywood, California

Sali Morris

18 January 2016 12:22:47

Great idea for an Award and a well written article. The start of a revolution me thinks. One day more awards will go to deserving individuals rather than faceless products.

Good one Steve

Jamie Burgraff

18 January 2016 06:35:53

After reading this I feel inspired and re-energised. Thank you Steve!

Mike Lyman

18 January 2016 06:12:53

Steve, really good article. I think the trick with customer service is just to get on with it and try to help your customer. If we stop and think about it, we an over think a task and make it more complicated than it needs to be. In your story, the postman simple asked how the customer wanted his mail handling. It is the same in our industry. Each site is different. So gaining an understanding about how the customer operates is essential. We ask about delivery times, we ask about production times, we are about out of hours access and security, we ask about site rules for H&S etc etc etc. You are absolutely right when you say that this is something that we are good at but don't give ourselves any credit for.
A postman asks a few questions and gets a book written about him, our guys do the same day in day out, year on year, and nothing is said. There is no fanfare. That is because we are good at it

Excellent article Steve, and brilliant proposal for an Award, But more than that, you have the whole industry a pat-on-the-back for being so brilliant. So times we can't see ourselves until someone holds up a mirror. You have done that, and enabled some of us to hold up a trophy. Fantastic.!! You have made a difference

Alison Williamson

18 January 2016 05:43:28

To be good at customer service, the solution, I suggest, is to learn how to care. It is a fact of modern business life that the focus is on achieving targets, particularly financial ones. Business success is important, yes of course, and failure and its consequences can be disastrous, but let us try to safeguard that little flame of caring inside us. As much as income is important, the passion behind doing an excellent job, the passion behind taking 'the ordinary and making it extra ordinary', remains priceless.

We of us who work in the ACR industry know this. We are an enigma to those outside of the industry who do not understand why we take calls late into the night when a customer's plant failures, or an engineer requires a part urgently. We can not be easily explained. 'Normal is not a term that can be applied to this industry', thank heavens for that. I love it just the way it is

Excellent blog Steve. Easily deserving of all the attention it has been receiving. And as for the comments, well, they are truly extraordinary.

Good luck to all the finalists in this year's Award. The is a winner amongst you, but you are all extraordinary champions and should be proud of it.

Daniel Hicks

17 January 2016 22:49:46

One of the best posts I have ever seen concerning the ACR industry. Very timely too given that it is awards season starting. Thank you for sharing

Samira Holt

17 January 2016 22:31:00

Well said and well written. Life is full of choices, we all budget time according to what matters most to us at the time. When at work we are all often guilty of forgetting who pays our wages. That is just who we are. This article is a reminder that although we are engineers, we are also service providers and as such have customers. Well said!

Rakesh Kumar

17 January 2016 22:26:00

Very true sir! Praise to the ACR industry

Keith Millar

17 January 2016 22:24:09

Hello from Lancaster! I see many greetings from all over the world from exotic places, well, here I am in Lancaster to balance things out a bit

I think Steve is right. There are many professionals in this industry doing a good job and they deserve recognition. Especially those on the tools that very few people actually get to see working except the customers themselves

But sometimes this industry focuses too much on reaching targets and goals rather than customer satisfaction through customer service. It is results that count. For engineers, it is how quick we can fix a job and then get to the next one. We have little time to make sure the customer is satisfied, or if we can improve in some way. We are always under pressure to work as fast as possible and get to the next call. This is what pays our wages not customers ringing up to say how happy their are with the service.

Graham Flynn

17 January 2016 22:15:22

I am a Brit who has been living in the US (LA) for the last few years so I'm a bit out of touch with the UK market, and also the Awards there.

I don't know Steve Gill either, at least not from my time in the UK, but of course, I have heard of him now. He is well know all over the globe I think due to his refrigeration industry poster campaign which received millions of view, likes and copies. This blog is also well know, but I first heard of Steve when he won the Customer service award here in Las Vegas. Here in the US, they pride themselves upon being the best in the world when it comes to customer service, so Steve's win certainly was noticed. It raised the profile of the ACR industry, and of the UK ACR industry, and of customer service in the ACR industry all in one hit. Well done Steve!

As I say, I am ,ore than a little out of touch with the UK industry but from what my friends tell me in the UK, Steve is what we call here an influencer. I don't recall using that word in the UK, I think I would have said leader when I was there

Regarding this blog, and the Award. I think the blog is unique and very well written. I also understand that the Awards in the UK have become a little stale and perhaps sameish. But this award stands out as being different. In an award overload calendar it requires something different. But more than that, it is a really good award, for a great category. Individuals who make a difference to their customers. Fantastic.

I wish all the finalists well. Sorry, I don't know anyone you so didn't vote. May be next time

Oh, and the reason for leaving this comment is actually none of the above, but to say that this blog was shared with me this week by a colleague. They think it is great here. It has travelled well and even two years after it was written is still being read in LA. That is some achievement Steve. Congratulations on writing the industry's most unique and widely read blog anywhere in the world.

Linda Cambridge

17 January 2016 20:37:37

I think the difficult part is knowing when you offer too much help to a customer. There is a line where help, passes through being extraordinarily helpful to being down right creepy and over the top. I know I have experienced some customer service where a literarily had to ask the guy to stop pestering me. I told him enough was enough.

I don't think that situation will ever arise in the refrigeration industry, but there have been instances where over eager sales people have been asked to stop phoning me AFTER I had placed the order and received the product. They kept phoning for 'customer feed-back' and 'how can we improve our service next time'. I told them the product was good, the service had been fine but cut down on the after sales customer service.

Not to have received a call would have been okay, but to receive one follow-up call would have been enough and probably appreciated, but to receive 4 calls was too much.

So, there is a ine somewhere with this

Regarding the award. I understand that there have been two past winners and there will be a new winner in February. Can more be made of these and perhaps their stories told somewhere that we can find them. I looked and I couldn't find out what made them 'special'. As Steve said, we have many fine examples ourselves in this industry, so lets hear more about them

Pat

17 January 2016 19:49:45

The problem I see here is that the customer facing staff - in whatever role - works hard tp provide a service which is extraordinary for the customer, and then the manager uses it to self benefit for either success or to cover his ass. It is a shame that the best at customer service are those in lower levels of the organization. The bosses at the top stink at it, but they are the ones with the fat bonus and the ones who blame the worker as soon as something goes wrong or the customer complains.

Gary Jackson

17 January 2016 11:38:07

Hi, snowed in Edinburgh, so thought I would read this blog.

The article itself is very good, and multi-layered as many have fathomed out. In fact all of Steve's are, and I would recommend reading them all. Personally, I would say a couple of his others are even better. But what really makes this one really standout is the proposal of an award, and the response in terms on comments. The number of comments and the rich quality and diversity of them makes this particular blog awesome. I saw that some called it iconic and i wouldn't disagree with that. There is nothing else like it that I am aware of in the ACR industry anywhere in the world. It is truly special and remarkable.

All that aside, it is so easy to lose sight of what this blog is about, and to get lost in praising it. The message is very simple, as simple in fact as Fred the postman appears to be; we can all make a difference, and we can all take the ordinary and turn it into something extraordinary. That is what Steve has done. Don't lose sight of that.

Great, truly great message.

Saira Clarke

16 January 2016 20:01:50

There are lessons here for all of us, from helping customers, to making a difference and being extraordinary. There is also the lesson that we all really do need to learn: that this industry is great, and is great because of the wonderful people working within it.

I spent the morning reading this one, and Steve's other blog post. He articulates this industry from the inside but with an outsiders view.

Wonderful article Steve, highly creative but practical

Becky Beamount

15 January 2016 23:36:43

A pleasure to read such an informative and motivational article. An inspiration for the ACR industry

Totally refreshing! Thanks Steve

Cate Buckley

15 January 2016 20:42:50

My two favorite customer service quotes:

"The goal as a company is to have customer service that is not just the best but legendary" ~ Sam Walton

"Spend a lot of time talking to customers face to face. You'd be amazed how many companies don't listen to their customers" ~ Ross Perot

Great article Steve

Bonni Trammell

15 January 2016 18:49:31

Outstanding article for so many reasons. Good one Steve! Thanks for sharing

Jeanne Wilamo

15 January 2016 18:21:55

Great article. True actions with real results. Thank you for sharing

Inspirational idea for an award

Irin Green

15 January 2016 18:09:42

Nice article. I think that most customer facing people naturally have most of the qualities that you describe, but all of us should work to develop all of them, particularly engineers who often forget that they are customer facing at all

Sally Jenkins

15 January 2016 18:00:46

Susan - I don't think that saying 'Bright girls threw in the towel' is particularly helpful. I would have put t another way: perhaps they're bright enough to realize when something is not worth their personal investment, and they's rather invest their energy in other things.

Thankfully, bright girls these days have a great career in engineering, and in the ACR industry as a whole.

When is the 2016 ACR Women in Engineering Day? Is there a website for this?

Anjelique Lorenz

15 January 2016 17:36:16

What 2016 ACR Women in Engineering Day? What date is that? Is it a UK only thing?

Adam Haynes

15 January 2016 13:44:58

I think the award is a great idea and fully support that, but having teams and individuals in the same category this year is a mistake. However wins, individual or team, is it not comparing like with like, not apples with apples. Have two categories!

Lynne

15 January 2016 09:28:45

What a wonderful source of inspiration and motivation for individuals working in support roles. I know it is not aimed at any one level or role, but those in support roles, such as service administration are overlooked by....well just about everyone. I never thought I would ever see an award that even these people can win.

This article is so wonderful. It embraces every individual in the ACR industry, even support staff.

Steve....good one. And good on you for writing it

Mike Dooley

15 January 2016 08:41:50

Great to read something genuinely positive about the ACR industry for a change.

Glen Wlison

15 January 2016 08:27:30

Excellent article with so many take-aways in terms of things to think about

And so many positives for the industry.

Customer service is not something that this industry is known for in the wider world so I see this as an opportunity to raise our profile. There are so many positive stories and examples from the ACR industry to replace the Fred one, can we hear more about the winners and finalists? perhaps a follow-up on what has happened to them?,

Jonathan Foster

15 January 2016 00:03:33

What a fabulous article. Steve educates with such a light touch that one hardly notices.

I can only marvel at the success of this. Not only has it attracted readers from across the web, it has resulted in an Award for Customer Service at the ACR News Awards. This is powerful, and whilst I agree that some may have got carried away with their praise, it is still highly remarkable and worthy of the highest praise.

What next from Steve I wonder? I look forward to his next one

Sam Chatterton

14 January 2016 23:45:35

Was listening to my Bowie Albums today. When a line from this blog came to mind:

'you can reinvent yourself whenever you want' ......suddenly Steve, I realised what you meant and the whole blog took on fresh meaning and significance.

This is far more insightful than I first gave it credit for. I can only assume that many miss the mark with this and read it superficially,

What an artist with words you are.

Wonderful!

Mike Kendall

14 January 2016 23:37:23

This blog article has sparked some interesting debates.Some of which I have to say appear to have strayed far off the original target. But then again, I when I consider it carefully, customer service within the ACR industry, or any other industry perhaps can mean anyway from how you handle external customers through to how you relate to other staff, both senior or junior.
It all depends how one defines 'customer'.

Steve writes in such strong terms that it is impossible not to feel inspired by his description of our industry and the amazing work that we do within it, and the individuals (and teams) doing it

The comments thread here has a life of its own as others have said. That makes it all the more fascinating as to what the next comment will throw into the mix

it has also gone global for sure, if not exactly viral by modern standards. Someone said that his poster campaign received over a million views or likes or comments or something like that. Some huge number anyway. I can well believe that, as I have seen them here in Atlanta. If only he had charge a dollar for each one!

Thank you Steve. Nice to see you active on so many fronts these days. Hope to see you back blogging soon.

Mike......from Atlanta, Georgia

Jim Eastwood

14 January 2016 22:58:37

Definitely a great article and really makes you think about the way you look at things and the way we work with customers.

Working in air conditioning all my life and must say that I still have a lot to learn it seems

Thanks Steve. See you in Houston one day perhaps

Arijit Rothe

14 January 2016 22:48:54

Excellent article for people who wants to change behaviour or culture in their working life. Mindset is very important with objective to achieve desires ambitions and outcomes

Wonderful article Mr Gill and perfect to promote the ACR industry with Award

Arijit Rothe

14 January 2016 22:48:47

Excellent article for people who wants to change behaviour or culture in their working life. Mindset is very important with objective to achieve desires ambitions and outcomes

Wonderful article Mr Gill and perfect to promote the ACR industry with Award

Syeda Khan

14 January 2016 22:44:32

Wow!! I need to say this because i honestly was reading this i was like okay ehmmmmm really!?! (a little bit of sarcasm late at night) coz I have to read this by the morning coz my boss told me to read it like last week and then i could not stop reading and felt this jolt of energy and self reflection and I was like how does he write so well and understand about what I do and then i started doubting where i was and then i was like dude!!! This guy knows stuff and recognising what is happening away from the bosses eyes and you get bored when you are not challenged to push yourself to the limit and you feed off the inspiration and buzz you get from people who give back to society...no brainer and if in doubt push harder !!! (gym rat talking Need to get back to my emails but thank you very much for this inspiring read. can tell the boss i have read it now and that you know what I do and how I do it. Push to improve and be better with customers and any body really. I don't do that for the money I do it because i can. No gongs for me but I get my rewards every day when I help the customers. straight

Edward Vrondissis

14 January 2016 22:18:38

This article hit home. Thanks for sharing

Made me think about everything we do as a company and how we do it

赵正 (IVY)

14 January 2016 22:11:21

I don't know if I count as successful or if customers think I am good at job but this is definitely my approach to my work

Natalie Bartlett

14 January 2016 21:57:43

Inspirational read reminding me of REAL customer service. Thank you!

Great that this award took off and is so successful

There will be a new winner in February. How exciting. :-)

Poonam Agarwal

14 January 2016 21:53:11

Must read article. #iconic

Louise Webb

14 January 2016 21:50:27

Wow Steve, awesome article. I REALLY enjoyed reading it. Managers with trainees or new comers into a business should read this as it will help that train them with the right mindset from the beginning.

Christina Owino

14 January 2016 18:46:46

Fascinating post. Excellently written.

With customer service, it is more about what others (customers) think of our efforts than the other way around. Quite opposite to the conventional 'it is not what others think of our efforts, it is what we think that counts'.

Susan

14 January 2016 17:38:34

Very interesting comment from Bonnie Lass that stirred my interest, and also my emotions. I can relate to what you say.

Back in my day, bright girls more often than not 'threw in the towel' because expressing an interesting in engineering and catching on quickly, and even being ahead caused them to be subjected to jeering and bullying, sometimes from those closest to them. Sometimes even from family. Giving up was self-protective, enabling them to keep what they managed to salvage in terms of self-esteem.

Others didn't dare to lose and, as you say, somehow lost something along the way.

This all seems in the past now, and the engineering environment that caused it long since buried with a stake through its heart. There are so many fine examples of successful women in engineering these days, although certainly not enough.

It is great to Steve and many others like him promoting women in engineering.

And yes, this will appear very dated now, but I also feel that I lost something on the way, that humility that you rightly identified.

What has this to do with a blog about customer service? Nothing and everything. This industry employs both men and women, and as you said, we can all make a difference.

Thank you Bonnie Lass for the comment. And thank you Steve for all your great work in so many areas. You truly are a modern day polymath

And Steve, I'm looking forward to the 2016 ACR Women in Engineering Day that you promised.

Bryan D'Amico

14 January 2016 17:20:37

I spoke to my boss about this blog. I told him that I thought it wrong to compare us in the refrigeration industry to a mailman. We just have too much going on in our heads. We have more to think about. We are under more pressure. How can you compare a mailman to all the chaos that I have in my head each day. I said all this and more

You know what he said?

"read it again. but think like the duck on the pond. Calm on the surface, legs working frantically below. Then it will make sense"

Wow, I said, where did you get that analogy from I asked?

"From another of Steve's blogs" was his reply!!!!!

Hi to all the others that have also left comments from Denver. We are home to Fred, and honory home to Steve if he is ever passing.

Lynden Mather

14 January 2016 17:10:51

My advice to all my customer facing staff is that they should always have a positive attitude. It works for us.

Lynden - from LA

Rose

14 January 2016 17:04:39

I know what you mean Pete, some of the comments being left are totally cringe worthy. But there are also some genuinely interesting ones too.

Overall, I think this blog and comments thread is awesome, and a credit to the industry. Even if some make feel ill with their overly gushing praise.

Praise is due, don't get me wrong because it is good, but it doesn't make me want to start having anyone's babies or anything.

Leticia Hombach

14 January 2016 16:56:17

Hello from Berlin.

I enjoyed reading this very much. I was particularly inspired by the part '..it is a mind-set that seizes opportunities to turn the ordinary into the extraordinary'.

I hope I can develop that mind-set. I am inspired to try and look for opportunities to be extraordinary. These are probably the very ordinary things that are all around me every day

Inspirational read. Extraordinary!

Rupali Chaudhry

14 January 2016 16:29:53

The Fred Factor story has been around for a long while but you have summed it up very well. What you have done very well is draw a link to, and a parallel to what is occurring so successfully but unnoticed in the ACR industry. You are right, we are better then we know ourselves.

I now see the ACR industry in a whole new light

Mick Richardson

14 January 2016 16:19:53

I often wonder who benefits most from reading a blog or a book, the author or the reader. In the case of a book, assuming that they have sold it in the first place, it is author. With a blog, the author is usually selling something, or advertising themselves in someway. As you are a fridge consultant I don't see how you benefit from this. But if you tell me that both benefit, I won't believe you either. So the only one that I can see having benefited from this blog (a part from Mark Sanborn who must have sold more books off the back of it) is the reader. So why did you write it I wonder?

Tony Williams

14 January 2016 16:12:56

Steve, I really like this blog article. You are so clever and careful with words. You have avoided saying that Fred, had a talent, or that customer service is a talent. Unlike some of those leaving comments here who have said that described it as a talent.

I have seen similar with artists. Often people look at others and say, 'they have talent, so I can never acheive what they have, no matter how hard I try", or "I have talent, so I don't need to work harder". In both cases it is demotivating and an excuse. To misquote a very famous artist: "Talent is an excuse invented by people who don't want to work harder".

Customer service is all about trying to please the customer and thinking about what you are doing, and then working harder. Simple as that

Clever the way you wove an award into your motovational blog. Very clever

Liz Lovitt

14 January 2016 14:54:30

Great Post! That I almost didn't read! The link for this has been sat in my inbox since before Xmas. I couldn't bring myself to read what I thought would be a dull blog about cooling stuff. What a surprise it has turned out to be.

And I will keep coming back to read the comments. They are also amazing.

ACR rocks!