Important insights. I'm going to give this some considered thought on behalf of my client's  and more importantly, the coach who works with me on serving them better.

I run a small air-conditioning company that I took over from my late husband, so I am learning the ropes at the moment about running the business and keeping the customers happy.  The technical side is well taken care of but the running of the business has all fallen on me.  So industry blogs like this one are really interesting and helpful. Thanks Steve

I don't understand this. I just don't get it at all. I LIKE being a good engineer and providing sound technical solutions that solve real engineering problems for clients.  I like my own behaviour and skill level because being an engineer is what I have always wanted to be.  This is the kind of person I choose to be.

I see no connection between being the engineer than I am and having to do with ruining my career.  I can think of hundreds and hundreds of good engineers who are successful in their careers, that solve technical problems, who are excellent at their jobs that don't exhibit any of the so called 'Fred Factors'.  We are specialist engineers and are paid by the quality of our technical expertise, not for us knowing our client's children's birthdays, or their wife's name.   My client's appreciate that I can fix their plant, quickly and efficiently.  That is all they want.  For me, the comparison with a post man just doesn't work. It is not multidimensional enough embrace the complex advanced engineering knowledge  and skills that we require to do our work well

Brett's  poor experience at his wholesaler sounds all too familiar. Our noses are too often buried in electronic media and our ear buds plugged into it. We miss so many opportunities to be plugged into people instead. 

I don't know of any service engineers that can ever be accused of acting this way. But strangely enough,  I have yet to see my own postman without headphones in.

Interesting Article Steve. Very thought provoking

I am a service engineer. I believe I am friendly to others inside of work and outside of work

I am not a brown noser that's just not me. But all of the work I do is always away from the office as it is on customer's sites.  I think we all just want and need to be appreciated for the hard work we do daily. I think when one feels appreciated by their boss or superior in a  working environment it makes a HUGE impact on an individual. To be appreciated for daily hard work will drive an individual to work even harder, simply for being appreciated.

I get on with my job and the customers are happy, but do I ever get a word of thanks from the office? No. I just get hassle about paper work, or worse, pulled up when a customer moans. 

But never a word of thanks. What a difference that would make to remote workers.

Agreed, this is an excellent New Year lunch time read.  It outlines the effectiveness of politeness, professionalism, humility, and modesty, whilst exhibiting your technical prowess.

Let your virtues, and skills speak for themselves, and hope that someone with appreciate them

Fantastic idea to make an award for this in the ACR industry

This short article draws you in very quickly  and Steve quickly has you under his spell.  Such a powerful and seductive blog. It is easy to see why it is so popular.    The HVACR industry has received a lot of bad press recently due to its environmental impact so it is great to see new initiatives coming through to raise its profile in a positive light.
 Who would have ever assocaiated excellence in customer service with the HVACR industry? Well....Steve did, and now we all recognize that it has been there right under our noses the whole time

Fantastic use of a blog. Being a champion for the industry rather than selling ones own product or service.  Thank you  Steve

Totally know were you are coming from with that comment Sharon. That is my experience too. 

I work in a service department of a large refrigeration contractor and I have to say that generally service engineers are the most negative bunch of unappreciative people I have ever had the misfortune to work with.  They so naturally find the negatives in anything the company does.  It is a cliche but "who sold you this?" really does come out of their mouths when they first attend a new project that the company has just completed.  Someone in the comment thread said that engineers are by nature problem solvers.  Well that may be true, but the spend their lives looking for problems in the first place.   One of the comments asked why there have been no service engineers as winners yet? The person asking that question obviously hasn't worked closely with them for the past 15 years or they wouldn't have needed to ask why. Although Steve seems to have found two that have the Fred Factor in his opinion, I have yet to meet any.
 That said, I agree that there are people in this industry, particularly in a support role who are wonderful.   Exceptional Customer Service is alive and well in the ACR industry, but don't look to frontline service engineers for it.

Thoughtful important storytelling. Great article Steve

Wish I seen these wise words when they first appeared back in 2013.

Better late than never.

Thanks for sharing this Pam

Perfectly stated, beautifully writing and inspiring Steve, I agree with your thoughts 120%

The HVACR industry has many leader who care passionately about the nuts and bolts.  Steve, you are an industry leader who cares about the people working within the industry. That is what makes you special

Steve, happy new year, You write beautifully well. Your gentle persuasive manner makes it difficult for anyone to disagree. Certainly don't and I don't know anyone that does?  What is more, yours leave one feeling motivated and inspired, to both better for oneself, and one's company, but also inspired and proud to work in the air conditioning and refrigeration industry. 

Perfect read to start the New Year.

Happy New Year! 

A well known pizza chain had people with sandwich boards in my local area. One of them danced all day and cheered up the traffic so much he was mentioned on Facebook all day and people asked the company to give him a raise. May be not an example relevant to the HVACR industry but it did make me think that you can make a difference in anything you do, just like Steve says.

What a wonder piece of writing. So thoughtful, so beautiful.

I loved the little story from Katherine Oste.  It is so easy to not see what is around us when we are busy working. I do think that is one of the points of this article; to wake up and smell the flowers as someone else put it.

It is also about making people feel special. I would like to share a story from my childhood:

When I was little, I upset myself with a thought of the garbage truck driver never hearing a 'Thank you". I must have been taught how important it is to always say thank you by my parents.  This played  on my young mind as the driver drove up to our house every week, emptied the bin and drove away. I felt awful for him 0 his job was the one thing that kept our yard non-smelly, and we never bothered to even say thank you to him.

So one day I decided to thank him. I was too shy to go and greet him face to face, so I left a post-it on the bin. I knew approximately when he was due to arrive so I waited by the kitchen window to see how he reacted.

And then he arrived.  At first I thought he just emptied the bin as always and left. It looked as if he's not seen the note at all. I was so disappointed. Maybe the note had fallen off when he emptied the bin? If only I'd had the courage to go and talk to him!

But then I decided to go and have a look. May be the note was still there, I could try again next week?

It turned out that he had seen it. Instead of it just saying 'Thank you' in my hand writing, the note now said "you're welcome ;-)"  Guess how awesome that made me feel? :-)

The point of the story is that it sometimes isn't very difficult to make all the difference to another person's day. A simple smile and a thank you can often make a big difference.  Sometimes good customer service is as simple as that, making a difference to a person's busy day.

I loved this blog, it is amazing and as for the many comments, wow, many are so thought provoking. If I dare to have one criticism, it is that Steve doesn't appear to have replied to many of the comments. I haven't checked far back so it may be that this blog is simply so old and Steve has now left ACR News. That is sad if that is the case. I did see some recent comments from Lynn Sencicle, so at least someone from there is still seeing them.

This is my note to Steve to say thank you.  I wonder if I will get a 'you're welcome' back :-) That would make my day

Rachel

"The 'Fred' philosophy is built on timeless values like responsibility, authentic  relationships, and respect for others."  Absolutely right!  We are all human and all deserve to be valued and respected in the work place.  Customers are human too (that may be hard to believe at times but it is true) and will respond to being respected.

I also agree that the ACR industry is actually a lot better at this customer service lark that we give ourselves credit for.  Well done Steve for reminding us of this. And Thank you ACR News for starting the Award

Great truth here Steve. Thanks for keeping it real!

Steve, I agree wholeheartedly with your sentiment and what you are trying to achieve here, yet despite pur best efforts, education, campaigns, etc the HVACR industry, and by that I mean those working within it, and those bodies representing it, still look down upon the hands-on technicians.  I really cannot envisage this changing in the foreseeable future. People always seem to value a persons worth based upon their job title rather than what they do for the company.  I applaud your efforts in this and previous blog posts stressing the importance and value of everyone one working in this industry, but the truth is, that whilst many will profess to agree with you, secretly, and often not so secretly, their actions and words reveal that they have very different thoughts.  All too often in engineering, unless one has a PhD or at the very least a degree, then you a second rate citizen

The award you proposed, and the one initiated by ACR News are great levellers in that it is open to everyone, and all have equal opportunity to win.  Small steps have been taken, well done. Keep up the good work, and don't be put off track by lack of progress. I feel that you may never reach what I think is your goal, but then great people rarely do, simply because they aim so high.

Society does tend to categorise people.  I wish I could say that I have never been guilty myself of misinformed 'labelling' of others on a number of occasions myself.  I won't go into details but I have been quick to form an opinion of someone based upon their job title, their age, and their sex. So all the obvious discrimination factors except race. But I say this, and I have been wrong in the first instance, and proven wrong by the individuals on every occasion.

Carla's comment made me think. Yes, I was one of those that didn't particularly want to be compared to a mail man.  I say this now, because, this blog, and the comments have given me the opportunity to reflect upon myself regarding much more than how I handle customers.  It has made me consider how I view others.

It is very difficult to tell from Steve's profile as he is obviously so successful and at the top of his game, but I would guess that he has walked a mile or two in someone else's shoes metaphorically speaking as his insight, empathy, wisdom , and sympathy for those working in dare I say it 'lower roles' is clear.   

Wonderful article.  My New Year's Resolution is to be a better person.  Thinking about this blog, and its wider meanings is a step on the way.

Great piece. A little off subject but a friend of mine says it always bothered her that her ex wasn't friendly or particularly kind to people in customer service and she believes it was a red flag.

Back on subject, it is so true: respect commitment rather than title.  Steve you are right to open this Award up to anyone in any position in the industry, be they the CEO, the accountant, or the service administrator or site technician.  That is truly far sighted.  You are a true industry statesman.

Interesting comment from Carla about Fred being a mail man. I think she was referring to some earlier comments but I couldn't find them myself (there are too many comments!)

Some time back, I was sat in a board room after fixing the AC unit, just waiting to check it was working okay.  A women came in and starting talking to me, and asked me if I wanted a drink or anything. She was very polite, nice and very helpful.  That was until she realized that I was not a member of the senior exec team, and then she changed her tune. I was suddenly just the guy that had come to fix the Air Con and she didn't want anything more to do with me.  All within the space of a 10 minute conversation.   I should add that I stayed professional and polite throughout. More than she did

Great post. I am always fond of people taking pride in their work regardless of the task. It reminds me of one of my favourite quotes from Martin Luther King Jr. :

"If a man is called to be a street sweeper, her should sweep streets even as Michelangelo painted, or Beethoven composed music or Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should sweep the street so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause to say , here lived a great street sweeper who did his job well."

So, we in the HVACR industry should be mightily proud of those that do their work well

Absolutely right Carla! Treat somebody by how they carry themselves as a person, not by what they do for a living.   I think you have picked out an aspect of this blog that others have missed.  It is totally in tune with what Steve has written about recognition for all who deserve it. Well spotted, and very well said

Darrell, also from Phoenix, by chance

I was training a junior staff member a few years back  and she told me she was confused. She asked "why do you treat every customer like they are our best customer"  ... I told her that every customer has the potential to become our best customer.  ....I take pride in making people feel good.

With that philosophy, my AC business has grown and grown, and that once junior staff member is now joint CEO

Insightful article! Very clever how you have seen the basic virtues of exceptional customer service through the lens of the ACR Industry, and at the same time, highlight another outstanding aspect of this industry.

Well worth sharing

Lovely article, and a reminder that these people do exist. Throughout my baby boomer life I've observed only a small percentage of the population have these attributes. Although some can be cultivated to a certain degree, I believe it's largely determined by one's nature. For instance, and these's no judgement intended when I say, not everyone feels, or requires, that deep sense of fulfilment from having made a difference.

We just have to accept that not everyone can take, or wants to take, the ordinary and make it extraordinary.  Some are just content doing the ordinary and leaving it at that.

Simply loved this article.

The story of Fred really touched my heart. It brought to mind a very small number of humble people who act in naturally helpful way.  I can't honestly say that any of them were from the ACR industry so I am delighted that the new Award has been able to find of these hidden marvels.

Wonderful blog Steve, thank you

Agreed. Seen these Fred qualities in the simplest of people. They standout for being the way they are.