Brigham Dickinson
Appearances
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Navigating the Balance of AI and Human Interaction in Business with Brigham Dickinson
We're not talking about turning your technicians into sales guys. We're talking about improving their communication skills to the point where they provide a service that a homeowner will appreciate. That's what great customer service looks like.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Navigating the Balance of AI and Human Interaction in Business with Brigham Dickinson
You just got to decide which one you want to work with. In my opinion, in the home service industry, the reason why PE groups are so excited about this industry is because we follow that Chick-fil-A model. The minute we start switching everything over to AI, everything over to robots, what we're doing is we're accepting the sameness that comes with it.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Navigating the Balance of AI and Human Interaction in Business with Brigham Dickinson
I was at a, I don't know, Service World Expo last year, and there was five different AI companies. Funny thing, I'd go into their little phone booth, and I'd hear the same thing from every one of them. It was the same experience. The problem with that is we can't justify our price. You guys, if we become the same as everybody else, how do we justify our price? We don't. We lower our price.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Navigating the Balance of AI and Human Interaction in Business with Brigham Dickinson
We go the McDonald's model. If we want to do that, it's fine. It works for McDonald's, but it may not work for you.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Navigating the Balance of AI and Human Interaction in Business with Brigham Dickinson
They're our friends.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Navigating the Balance of AI and Human Interaction in Business with Brigham Dickinson
I totally agree. Yeah, I was test driving a Cybertruck the other day, and I was amazed. Yeah? I was amazed. Yeah. Now, look. In the home service industry, because we're dealing inside the customer's home, the more face-to-face time, the better. You have the ability to create a unique experience over the phone as well as in the home.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Navigating the Balance of AI and Human Interaction in Business with Brigham Dickinson
In my opinion, I'd hold on to that as long as I possibly can, while at the same time testing out the AI. It's okay to dip our toe in the water. I mean, I've got my own call center. We've got over 60 agents. We book 93% of our phone calls. And if we're on the phone, we absolutely use AI to capture that lead so that we can call them back afterwards and make sure that their experience was good.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Navigating the Balance of AI and Human Interaction in Business with Brigham Dickinson
So there's a place for it. There's a place for it, and it's important to use it.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Navigating the Balance of AI and Human Interaction in Business with Brigham Dickinson
Yeah. The robots might replace the install crew and that would be awesome. Hey, that's less wear and tear on our humans, right? Our technicians, our employees. So that's a win for them. So once again, let that support the experience you're trying to create for the customer. as opposed to replace it.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Navigating the Balance of AI and Human Interaction in Business with Brigham Dickinson
Yeah, it's pretty cool. Talked about our operations manager, Lindsay Wood, able to take her entire family to Maui for the first time ever. It's really cool. Tasha just got back from a trip. She manages our entire sales team. We're in a really good spot right now. Very, very exciting place. And again, a lot of it has to do with the spotlight being shown on the call center, call conversions.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Navigating the Balance of AI and Human Interaction in Business with Brigham Dickinson
What was that thing you said about, look, if I can increase, if you could increase your call conversion by 1%, how much would that
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Navigating the Balance of AI and Human Interaction in Business with Brigham Dickinson
1%.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Navigating the Balance of AI and Human Interaction in Business with Brigham Dickinson
So the question is, is how do we go about doing that consistently over time? The way that we do it is, is that we do one-on-one coaching twice a month using your own phone calls. All right. So every individual is getting that attention on a regular basis and they're being held accountable to perform at a high level.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Navigating the Balance of AI and Human Interaction in Business with Brigham Dickinson
And I would say that's the difference between us and any other training company that's out there. Other companies provide training and then they leave. We don't tell you what to do. We do that initial training for you, and then we start coaching them and holding them accountable for you. We just know business owners have time to do it themselves.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Navigating the Balance of AI and Human Interaction in Business with Brigham Dickinson
Not even the managers have time to do it themselves, right? We go in, we do that specific part for them, holding their team accountable, getting the results that you need to get. And I think that's...
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Navigating the Balance of AI and Human Interaction in Business with Brigham Dickinson
So between the spotlight with all the technology coming out, showing people what's happening inside your call center, plus the solution that we bring to the table, ongoing one-on-one coaching accountability is what sets us apart.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Navigating the Balance of AI and Human Interaction in Business with Brigham Dickinson
Yeah. Last year you were talking a lot about blind spots. And one of the major blind spots in the home service industry or in a home service company is that they don't know where their call conversion's at. And even if they do, they really don't spend time on it. Most business owners, they spend time on technicians.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Navigating the Balance of AI and Human Interaction in Business with Brigham Dickinson
It depends on where your call coefficient is at. So if you're below 60, you're going to see an immediate difference. Yeah. Immediate. It's easy for us to get up to 70. Yeah. 85, we could absolutely do that in 60, 90 days. Sure. Above 90, we need some time. We need some time. Six months, year. And to do it consistently, I mean, again, we have our own call center that books at 93% of their calls.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Navigating the Balance of AI and Human Interaction in Business with Brigham Dickinson
Yeah. So we know how to do it. We do it ourselves. We're not going to teach you to do something we don't do ourselves.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Navigating the Balance of AI and Human Interaction in Business with Brigham Dickinson
And it just takes time. It takes time to do it. It just depends on where you're at, where your call conversion is currently at.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Navigating the Balance of AI and Human Interaction in Business with Brigham Dickinson
You know, this is a saying at Power Sling Pros that I wish I could change. And the saying is, is everybody comes back, right? We, we have, we've had some companies come back to us four times. Yep. That's silly, right? It takes you four go-arounds to realize that this is something that you should always do. And it's because you don't have time to do it yourself.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Navigating the Balance of AI and Human Interaction in Business with Brigham Dickinson
One of our good clients, Chad Simpson at Simpson Salute, he used us in 2017. I know this because he just sent me a picture of the first brochure that he got from PowerSelling Pros. He said, this is when I first signed up. And then of course, when he got his call center where it needed to be, he let us go. Well, then three years later, he calls us up and he says, hey, I need to train my team. Cool.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Navigating the Balance of AI and Human Interaction in Business with Brigham Dickinson
Who's still there that we were working with before? None of them.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Navigating the Balance of AI and Human Interaction in Business with Brigham Dickinson
Exactly. Wow. Exactly. So here's the thing. If you want them to stay longer, you pay them based on their performance and you give them training. You give them ongoing one-on-one attention over time. So you give them the incentive, number one. And number two, you give them tons and tons of coaching and training. If you don't have time to do it, get us to do it for you.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Navigating the Balance of AI and Human Interaction in Business with Brigham Dickinson
We're not going to tell you to do one more thing. Let us take this off your plate. Right. Let us do it for you. Yeah, everybody comes back. Everybody comes back. Sadly, they should never have left.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Navigating the Balance of AI and Human Interaction in Business with Brigham Dickinson
Yeah. So look, as good as 2021 was for the home service industry, it was tough for us. I mean, we probably had 25 companies that year sign up with PE groups and say, man, you've been great, Power Selling Pros. You've been fantastic. You got us where we are. But we've got to let you go because the PE group is trying to cut costs.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Navigating the Balance of AI and Human Interaction in Business with Brigham Dickinson
So to see that come around even then, even them come back, Tommy, it's gratifying. I mean, it's cool. Oh, it is. Yeah. And what's happening is the owners who are now managers in most cases are saying, hey, they finally allowed me to get you back on board. Let's go. Let's get it going. Hey, I want to have you keynote at our speaking event, our PE speaking event.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Navigating the Balance of AI and Human Interaction in Business with Brigham Dickinson
I ask them all the time, hey, guys, how much time do you spend with your technicians and your supervisors? Oh, I train them every day. Every day, cool. And how much time do you train – how much time do you take to train your CSRs? And it's crickets, right? They spend zero time. It could be a lack of passion. It could be a lack of time. Regardless of the reason, they don't have time to do it.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Navigating the Balance of AI and Human Interaction in Business with Brigham Dickinson
Hey, we're going to do this and that. We're going to make it really easy for each of our managers to do it, and we'll co-op it. That's great. So it's awesome. It's great. It just took a little while for them to come around.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Navigating the Balance of AI and Human Interaction in Business with Brigham Dickinson
100%.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Navigating the Balance of AI and Human Interaction in Business with Brigham Dickinson
They have a whole lot more awareness of what's going on inside the call center and that it needs to change.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Navigating the Balance of AI and Human Interaction in Business with Brigham Dickinson
It's funny that you bring that up because Ryan and I have been talking at Chirp. He's got a ton of clients that use it, but they don't have time to call those customers back. And so we've approached them and said, hey, we've got a call center. Let us call them back. Let us book those calls. And he's like, holy cow, that's amazing.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Navigating the Balance of AI and Human Interaction in Business with Brigham Dickinson
So I don't even know if I should let that cat out of the bag, but that's definitely something that we're working on. Tom Howard came to me six months ago and he said, hey, we have this amazing second chance lead opportunity at Service Titan that we're offering now. Nobody's taking advantage of it. And I said, I'll tell you why, Tom.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Navigating the Balance of AI and Human Interaction in Business with Brigham Dickinson
It's because nobody has time to call those customers back, even if they sign up for the service. Get us... To call that customer back, we'll go right on to your CRM. We'll book it for you. And that way you can take advantage of that type of technology. So basically finishing the loop here, right? Chirp can only do so much, right? They'll deliver the lead to you, but you've still got to call them.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Navigating the Balance of AI and Human Interaction in Business with Brigham Dickinson
And I think –
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Navigating the Balance of AI and Human Interaction in Business with Brigham Dickinson
You've got to book it. Same thing's true with the second chance leads at Service Titan. And of course, that wasn't the only thing Tom talked to me about six months ago, but we can talk about that in a second.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Navigating the Balance of AI and Human Interaction in Business with Brigham Dickinson
that them recognizing that blind spot and a lot of it has to do with technology the technology today um that's available to us is showing us and kind of putting a spotlight on what was a blind spot before yeah and so this time last year about 900 trainees in our program and we train them one-on-one twice a month using their own phone calls so it's it's performance coaching it's not just the training that we do and then we leave
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Navigating the Balance of AI and Human Interaction in Business with Brigham Dickinson
Oh, yeah.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Navigating the Balance of AI and Human Interaction in Business with Brigham Dickinson
Any Hour?
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Navigating the Balance of AI and Human Interaction in Business with Brigham Dickinson
Well. Stay tuned. There's some really great things going on for Any Hour. Here's the interesting thing about Any Hour is that they have a solid group of leaders on their team. And you may not get the kind of – I don't know. You might not get a – When Any Hour wants to buy you, they might not have the highest bid, right?
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Navigating the Balance of AI and Human Interaction in Business with Brigham Dickinson
But the support that they provide more than makes up for that, especially if you plan on staying inside your organization. Right. So that's been my experience with them. And, of course, Dustin is one of the main guys I know there.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Navigating the Balance of AI and Human Interaction in Business with Brigham Dickinson
He's extremely talented. And talk about connected. Oh, that guy. He's incredibly connected.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Navigating the Balance of AI and Human Interaction in Business with Brigham Dickinson
Yeah.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Navigating the Balance of AI and Human Interaction in Business with Brigham Dickinson
Yeah, but, yeah, they're doing great. Any Hour is a great PE group.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Navigating the Balance of AI and Human Interaction in Business with Brigham Dickinson
Yeah, they need it. They need it. In many cases, I call it cheap therapy. They need that one-on-one attention. They need to be able to share with somebody. And, you know, the Power Selling Pros team, our culture is phenomenal. We have a phenomenal team. That will take great care of your people and help them feel extremely, extremely special.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Navigating the Balance of AI and Human Interaction in Business with Brigham Dickinson
In fact, if we've got a few more minutes, I'll tell you one more story. Yeah, no, we've got plenty of time. So Tom Howard – approached me last year at Pantheon, since we were talking about him a minute ago.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Navigating the Balance of AI and Human Interaction in Business with Brigham Dickinson
And he said, hey, Brigham, you know all this technology that's coming out for technician recording? I said, yeah. And he said, what are you going to do with that? And I said, well, what should I do with that? I asked him the right questions, right? And he said, look, everything that you've been doing for CSRs with their communication skills, the technicians can use. Yeah.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Navigating the Balance of AI and Human Interaction in Business with Brigham Dickinson
So with all this technology coming out, it'd be smart if you were to come out with technician coaching as well. So we've been working on that ever since.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Navigating the Balance of AI and Human Interaction in Business with Brigham Dickinson
Yeah. Right. It's it's a training where they're held accountable over time. So we're at 900 trainees this time last year. And right now we're pushing almost 1400 trainees in our program. So insane. Yeah. It's insane growth. It's insane growth. It's fun. It's exciting. Sometimes I look at my team and go, how did we do this?
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Navigating the Balance of AI and Human Interaction in Business with Brigham Dickinson
Yeah, so I've been doing a ton of ride-alongs with techs over the last three years. But with this technology coming out, I mean, I have a ton of clients that say, hey, Brigham, you've done a phenomenal job teaching soft skills for my CSRs, dispatchers, and lead coordinators. I would love if you could do the same for our techs.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Navigating the Balance of AI and Human Interaction in Business with Brigham Dickinson
The only problem has been is that we can't hold technicians accountable with their own performance like we have been able to do for the last 16 years with CSRs, dispatchers, and lead coordinators up until recently, right? So now that we've got all this amazing technology that's coming out,
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Navigating the Balance of AI and Human Interaction in Business with Brigham Dickinson
I'm really paying attention to what's going on inside the customer's home while my team is taking care of, you know, exactly. And there is a ton of opportunity with technicians, right? If you're training just the comfort advisors, that's great. You might see a 10% bump in sales, maybe even a 20% bump. But if you want to see real gains, you basically – have a gold mind with your technicians.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Navigating the Balance of AI and Human Interaction in Business with Brigham Dickinson
All they need to do is learn how to communicate with their customer and give them all their options. Instead of, hey, I'm just going to fix this part and leave and I'll see you in a month, right? Because all the other parts are going to fail as well. Look, if it's outside of warranty, you should be telling them all of their, you should be giving them all of their options.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Navigating the Balance of AI and Human Interaction in Business with Brigham Dickinson
And it comes down to just a little bit better soft skills, a little bit more courage, and explaining all of their options, maybe even having a comfort advisor come while you're there. Hey, you know what? Let me get him on speaker. And I started doing this with technicians, and it works amazingly well, where I just get them on – I get the comfort advisor on speaker.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Navigating the Balance of AI and Human Interaction in Business with Brigham Dickinson
I let the homeowner and the comfort advisor talk while I'm there. There might be some times where I put the phone on mute and I say, hey, that's a good idea. Why don't we go ahead and do that? Now, I've gotten to the point where I'm a trusted advisor. They think I'm the tech, right, as I'm sitting there with the other technician.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Navigating the Balance of AI and Human Interaction in Business with Brigham Dickinson
Yeah.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Navigating the Balance of AI and Human Interaction in Business with Brigham Dickinson
They're not doing that.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Navigating the Balance of AI and Human Interaction in Business with Brigham Dickinson
Okay. So one of the main things I've been doing – is approaching it from that direction. Because the thing is, it is not good customer service for you to fix one part, leave, and then come back in a month. That ruins trust. That ruins credibility. Now, you may know everything that's going on inside that system. The customer doesn't.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Navigating the Balance of AI and Human Interaction in Business with Brigham Dickinson
So what that means is if you have to come back out in a month, it doesn't work. To the homeowner, it doesn't work. It doesn't work, and you were supposed to fix it.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Navigating the Balance of AI and Human Interaction in Business with Brigham Dickinson
So the way we go about it with the technician is we help them realize this is what a good job looks like. It's not a good job to go in, fix the part, and leave. The whole thing is out of warranty. That means the next part that goes out, you're going to get called back and you're going to have to tell them the bad news that they're going to have to pay for that part plus the labor.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Navigating the Balance of AI and Human Interaction in Business with Brigham Dickinson
Instead, give them all their options. Hey, you know what? This part has gone bad today. This part, this part, and this part are probably going to go bad in the near future. It's not under warranty. Right? Let's give them at least give them the option. That's what great customer service looks like. It's not about sales. We're not talking about turning your technicians into sales guys.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Navigating the Balance of AI and Human Interaction in Business with Brigham Dickinson
We're talking about improving their communication skills to the point where they provide a service that a homeowner will appreciate.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Navigating the Balance of AI and Human Interaction in Business with Brigham Dickinson
Yeah.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Navigating the Balance of AI and Human Interaction in Business with Brigham Dickinson
No, I love it. Keep going.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Navigating the Balance of AI and Human Interaction in Business with Brigham Dickinson
Yeah.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Navigating the Balance of AI and Human Interaction in Business with Brigham Dickinson
So let's talk about that real quick, since you opened up that door. I had a company that went under in 2009. I didn't have any more money. I didn't officially go bankrupt, but I ran out of cash. I lived off of a home equity line of credit. It was a $30,000 equity line of credit that I lived on for a year and a half.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Navigating the Balance of AI and Human Interaction in Business with Brigham Dickinson
And I had a few clients that I was working with, and I was a broker for a couple of ad agencies. When I made the sell, they'd give me money. So I was living off of... I'd say for a year, about $1,000 of income in 2009. And I paid tithing every month. Now, my rent alone was $1,000. And I paid tithing 10% month in and month out. How did I make that work? I don't know.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Navigating the Balance of AI and Human Interaction in Business with Brigham Dickinson
The math didn't make sense to me, Tommy. But I was able to put food on my table every month. Every month. And since that experience, I've never questioned it. No. Never.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Navigating the Balance of AI and Human Interaction in Business with Brigham Dickinson
Well, our upbringing is similar. My parents were divorced when they were young, and my mom raised six kids by herself. She got a four-year degree in two and a half years. So yeah, we've been through it. We've been through it. And I've learned by example and by experience that if you put God first in your life, he will take care of you.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Navigating the Balance of AI and Human Interaction in Business with Brigham Dickinson
And to the point where sometimes the math just doesn't make sense and it still works out. So because of what I've been given, I've been given much. And I know that where much is given, much is required. And I too must give.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Navigating the Balance of AI and Human Interaction in Business with Brigham Dickinson
When you stay out of the curve, what do you mean?
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Navigating the Balance of AI and Human Interaction in Business with Brigham Dickinson
Oh, stay ahead of the curve.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Navigating the Balance of AI and Human Interaction in Business with Brigham Dickinson
Yeah. If they're looking at the lowest hanging fruit, Okay, let's start with call conversion. It's the easiest one for us to solve. We can solve it. We can solve it right now. You asked whether or not we can increase call conversion in a short period of time. Absolutely. We can do it after the first initial training. You can see a bump immediately.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Navigating the Balance of AI and Human Interaction in Business with Brigham Dickinson
If calls are coming in, that means that's your lead. Capture it. Capture it. Secure it. Once you've done that, it'll make all the difference for your company. Now, from there, we can start talking about working with different departments. But for now, look, you can stay ahead of the curve by fixing that one problem.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Navigating the Balance of AI and Human Interaction in Business with Brigham Dickinson
Yeah. Nights and weekends overflow. We handle all those calls. You know what else? If you can train and incentivize your CSR to sell service agreements for the phone, many times in our industry, or at least the heating and cooling industry, is they leave it to the technician to sell a service agreement. That's a bad idea for so many reasons. Number one –
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Navigating the Balance of AI and Human Interaction in Business with Brigham Dickinson
When they're feeling the emotional angst, that's over the phone. That's not inside the customer's home after you fix the problem. Guess what? The minute the technician fixes the problem, there's no more emotional angst. But if you can talk about that home service agreement over the phone, man, that will make all the difference in the world.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Navigating the Balance of AI and Human Interaction in Business with Brigham Dickinson
They're still feeling emotional angst and you simply say, hey, Mr. Jones, I'm looking at your notes. I notice you don't have a membership with us. I'm wondering why not. You do it over the phone, it's going to be easier to sell. Plus, when the technician gets out there, they don't have to sell the agreement. They don't have to trip over the agreement. They can actually talk about airflow.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Navigating the Balance of AI and Human Interaction in Business with Brigham Dickinson
They can talk about other services that we provide. And it'll make all the difference in the world if that is already sold over the phone. And if you can do that with your CSRs, guess what? They'll get comfortable selling other things over the phone. Like turning service calls into replacement calls? Why not? The technicians do it all the time.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Navigating the Balance of AI and Human Interaction in Business with Brigham Dickinson
How about turning a heating and cooling call into a plumbing call as well? Why not? If we offer plumbing, why aren't we talking about it? Renewals, service agreement renewals. If you can get your CSRs to the point where they are proactively promoting your services over the phone, that will make all the difference for you and for your organization.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Navigating the Balance of AI and Human Interaction in Business with Brigham Dickinson
Well, the first thing that comes to my mind is make it a win for your people, not just for you. Um, one of the things I've had to learn the hard way is that my team's got to win, right? Yes. The customer needs to win, but my team needs to win. like they need to individually win.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Navigating the Balance of AI and Human Interaction in Business with Brigham Dickinson
Yes, we've probably signed four in the last 60 days, and they're all saying the same thing. Brigham, we are losing calls like crazy, some of which, and I won't name names, but they're at 3% calls versus set appointments. That's outrageous. You just cannot have that. And there are other companies that are really big. They don't plan to sell. They're a cause-driven business.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Navigating the Balance of AI and Human Interaction in Business with Brigham Dickinson
And as they win, it's interesting how much more gratifying business is for me than it used to be as I focus in on not just my customer, not just the contractor, but also my inside customers. They are as much, if not more, my customers than anybody else. And so the more I learn about that, the more successful I become.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Navigating the Balance of AI and Human Interaction in Business with Brigham Dickinson
Yeah, you'll be taking a step back for sure. There's no money in it. It's a long-term strategy to grow a business. I speak. I write books. I don't write books to make money off of the books. No. I write books for two reasons. Number one, I want my kids to know where I stand after I'm gone. Okay, and let me get into that really quickly. So I had a mentor, his name's Paul Rogers.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Navigating the Balance of AI and Human Interaction in Business with Brigham Dickinson
He was a national internet sales trainer for Toyota. Phenomenal speaker, phenomenal trainer. He died when he was 56. He died very young and it wasn't great, right? It was hard for everybody who knew him. But when he passed away, I called his place of work and I said, hey, Send me everything. Send me all of his videos. Send me all of his trainings. I want to see everything.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Navigating the Balance of AI and Human Interaction in Business with Brigham Dickinson
In fact, when I think about Paul, just give me something that I can just pull it up and remember him and think about what he taught. They had nothing, Tommy. They had nothing. Wow. Nothing, no recordings, nothing. Everything he taught, everything he did was gone. It was in the ether. It wasn't in the ether, it was gone. It disappeared.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Navigating the Balance of AI and Human Interaction in Business with Brigham Dickinson
And so what's interesting about that is as I spoke to his kids over time, some of their stories changed a little bit about him and about what he taught and how he taught it. And that bothered me. And so I started writing. I started writing, one of the many reasons why I started writing, but I started writing so that after I'm gone,
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Navigating the Balance of AI and Human Interaction in Business with Brigham Dickinson
If my kids, my grandkids, my great-grandkids want to know where I stand, they can pull up a book and they can find out. They can go onto YouTube, type in Brigham Dickinson, and they'll find a plethora of videos, and they will know where I stand. That's number one. Number two, look, I want to give. You know, my last book, right? I do have something to give. You know, for a long time –
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Navigating the Balance of AI and Human Interaction in Business with Brigham Dickinson
I spent it proving myself, right? I always felt like I needed to prove myself. Like I belong here, I belong here, I belong there. Well, it got to the point where I realized that getting there was never gonna make me happy. Never. And so when I was able to change my mindset from wanting to prove myself to actually wanting to give, I became a whole lot more successful. Zig Ziglar says it his way.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Navigating the Balance of AI and Human Interaction in Business with Brigham Dickinson
But they're stuck around 70, 75. And even in those cases, we can get up to 85, 90, and 95 calls versus set appointments. And so, yeah, there's definitely a lot of PE groups, but there's also a lot of companies that have been around for a second generation, third generation that are realizing that this needs to be fixed.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Navigating the Balance of AI and Human Interaction in Business with Brigham Dickinson
He says, hey, in order to get what you want, you've got to help enough other people get what they want. So that's my way of realizing, man, that learning how to give is a whole lot more fulfilling than anything else. And so that's the reason why I do it. So here's what I'd say to your team that wants to speak. Look, you've got to realize that we don't speak to make money.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Navigating the Balance of AI and Human Interaction in Business with Brigham Dickinson
We don't write books to make money. Now, there are some who do that, right? There are some who absolutely do that.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Navigating the Balance of AI and Human Interaction in Business with Brigham Dickinson
It takes time. Yeah. It takes time for you to get to the, look, here's what you need to do. You know what? Let's just tell them what they need to do. You take advantage of every speaking opportunity that you possibly can. If it's in a neighborhood, speak, right? If it's at a local event, say you can speak and you'll do it for free, right? Yeah. Say that it's at your church. Say that you can do it.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Navigating the Balance of AI and Human Interaction in Business with Brigham Dickinson
And you get as much practice in as you possibly can. You get involved in training as much as you possibly can. But you'll get to the point where people will pay you a little bit of money to do it and then a little bit more to do it and then a little bit more to do it. But then you'll realize, I mean, at least for me, I figured out a way to make money through coaching.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Navigating the Balance of AI and Human Interaction in Business with Brigham Dickinson
So it's easy for me to do the speaking because it promotes my coaching on the back end.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Navigating the Balance of AI and Human Interaction in Business with Brigham Dickinson
Let me add one more thing there. Yeah. I went to a speaker organization. where people are trying to make it big as speakers. When I went there, I got introduced twice by two very successful speakers, one who was like speaker of the year twice in a row, whatever. But the way he introduced me was, hey, yeah, Brigham is a speaker, but he does something really unique, really cool.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Navigating the Balance of AI and Human Interaction in Business with Brigham Dickinson
What he does is he's got a team that monitors calls and provides coaching to people who need to increase their call conversion. It's really cool. In the back of my head, I'm going, dude, I have this really cool thing that I should continue to monetize, right? As opposed to getting distracted with, hey, a speaking engagement for 50 grand or whatever, right? And here was the kicker.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Navigating the Balance of AI and Human Interaction in Business with Brigham Dickinson
He then began, as he was introducing me, he began to describe how much money I was making doing what I was already doing. And then it was a whole lot more than what they were talking about making. So the back of my head, I was like, what am I doing? So here's what you do. You find a problem that nobody else can fix. You fix that problem.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Navigating the Balance of AI and Human Interaction in Business with Brigham Dickinson
And then you go to the industry where you fix that problem and you start talking about it on stage. And then guess what? You'll fulfill your dreams and make money too.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Navigating the Balance of AI and Human Interaction in Business with Brigham Dickinson
We'll do an initial training to set the expectation for what we're looking to hear over the phones. Before you start monitoring calls and providing feedback, it's not fair unless you set that initial expectation first. And so we either do that initial training in person or we do it via webinar. So you get to choose. As a business owner, you get to choose.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Navigating the Balance of AI and Human Interaction in Business with Brigham Dickinson
If you've got a couple of CSRs, let's do the webinar. It's a four-hour webinar. We'll set the expectation via Zoom, right? Easy. If you've got more CSRs than that, let's have somebody go out. on site, we'll do a half day in the morning for half your CSRs, and then we'll do another half day in the afternoon, and that way you can cover the phones and still get everybody trained.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Navigating the Balance of AI and Human Interaction in Business with Brigham Dickinson
So we do that first, and then we start coaching. We start monitoring calls, saving certain calls for coaching purposes, and then we coach one-on-one twice a month for about a half hour per coaching session. We take them through four levels of certification. Usually takes about a year and a half to complete, and most businesses that we work with, they like
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Navigating the Balance of AI and Human Interaction in Business with Brigham Dickinson
well, the ones that have realized that they shouldn't leave and come back, right?
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Navigating the Balance of AI and Human Interaction in Business with Brigham Dickinson
They just keep going. They just keep going. And we've got a nice, strong group of individuals or companies that just keep going with those CSRs, and that's what we like to do is just keep working with them day in and day out or at least twice a month, month in and month out.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Navigating the Balance of AI and Human Interaction in Business with Brigham Dickinson
So, yeah. So with technicians, we coach them once a month. And it's a monthly over-the-phone check-in and then four customized videos. So we're monitoring the calls. We're saving certain calls for coaching purposes. And we'll do a video customized just for them four times a month.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Navigating the Balance of AI and Human Interaction in Business with Brigham Dickinson
Getting them on the phone is very difficult, right? So the check-ins are important because we want to be on the same page with the technician as far as where we're going with the training and how we want to help them make more money for them and their families. So that check-in is very important just for the relationship.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Navigating the Balance of AI and Human Interaction in Business with Brigham Dickinson
But the videos make it easier for them to receive the information on their own time.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Navigating the Balance of AI and Human Interaction in Business with Brigham Dickinson
So whatever, you know what, Tommy, I think, I think we hit everything. Um, It is the lowest hanging fruit. Call conversion is absolutely the lowest hanging fruit inside your business. If you know you've got something that you've got to fix there and you know you don't have time to do it yourself, just get us to do it for you. Just go to PowerSellingPros.com.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Navigating the Balance of AI and Human Interaction in Business with Brigham Dickinson
That's P-O-W-E-R-S-E-L-L-I-N-G-P-R-O-S.com. There's a link right on the front page that you can click for a demo. Talk to us. Let's see if we can custom build a plan for your CSRs, dispatchers. lead coordinators, as well as techs and even comfort advisors at this time. I love it.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Navigating the Balance of AI and Human Interaction in Business with Brigham Dickinson
Yeah, and it was awesome.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Navigating the Balance of AI and Human Interaction in Business with Brigham Dickinson
My pleasure.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Navigating the Balance of AI and Human Interaction in Business with Brigham Dickinson
Yeah. Yeah, that's not a call, and they put it into the abandoned call list exactly.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Navigating the Balance of AI and Human Interaction in Business with Brigham Dickinson
100%.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Navigating the Balance of AI and Human Interaction in Business with Brigham Dickinson
I would challenge those who are saying, hey, it's not as good as it used to be, compared to what? Compared to 2021? Yeah, when it was the heyday. Exactly. Even the technicians got secondhand bagels because all the comfort advisors were rolling in it, right? They were the money men. Well, it was because it was easy.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Navigating the Balance of AI and Human Interaction in Business with Brigham Dickinson
But if we have a strong strategy now, say, for example, if we have a group of technicians that are turning over more leads than they currently are right now, if they're talking about more products than just the specific part that's broken, I mean, there's a ton of opportunity there. In my mind, there's another blind spot with the technician.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Navigating the Balance of AI and Human Interaction in Business with Brigham Dickinson
But if they're rolling, if they're setting things up in a way for comfort advisors, chances are you can have just as good a year this summer, if not better. I've only seen this over the last 60 days when I've been in companies like Woodfin and Simpson Salute, where they're turning to their technicians left and right to set up those leads properly so the comfort advisor stays more than busy.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Navigating the Balance of AI and Human Interaction in Business with Brigham Dickinson
They're doing the same thing with their comfort advisors. 14 comfort advisors. I'll tell you another company that had 14 comfort advisors. They cut it down to seven. The reason why they did that is because half of them were about average and the other seven were above average. And so they thought, you know what? Let's give all of our leads to the above average comfort advisors. Yeah. It was scary.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Navigating the Balance of AI and Human Interaction in Business with Brigham Dickinson
It was shaky for everybody involved. But by the time I got there – We were able to focus in on the fact that you guys, you made it, you stayed, you're here. Let's do something with this opportunity. Essentially, it's a way for you to make more money right now. Let's go. So there's a lot of ways to approach this and have an awesome summer regardless.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Navigating the Balance of AI and Human Interaction in Business with Brigham Dickinson
Yeah. Look, they may be comfortable with the way that they do it, but if they can get a little bit more uncomfortable with the way they do it inside the customer's home – because here's what a technician generally does, a typical technician. They'll go into a home, and they'll just look at the situation. They'll fix the immediate problem, and they'll leave.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Navigating the Balance of AI and Human Interaction in Business with Brigham Dickinson
Now, let me tell you the problem I have with this. I once called an appliance company, and my fridge outside wasn't working. He comes. He fixes whatever was wrong with it. He leaves. Well, a month later, the fridge doesn't work again. So what am I thinking? Oh, dude, you didn't do your job. Right. Now, when I called them, they said, oh. You called for this.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Navigating the Balance of AI and Human Interaction in Business with Brigham Dickinson
It sounds like you've got something else going on, so we're still going to have to charge you another dispatch fee. Okay, fine. Great. I got to pay another dispatch fee. Guy comes out. He fixes that different part. In the back of my head, I'm going, dude, he probably could have looked at the entire fridge, maybe even told me to replace it.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Navigating the Balance of AI and Human Interaction in Business with Brigham Dickinson
In the back of my head, I'm going, why don't appliance companies offer to replace? Why don't they start selling Sub-Zero and Wolf? Why not? Yeah. Well, in the heating coin industry, we can do that. We can offer to replace it. We can offer to fix it, so on and so forth.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Navigating the Balance of AI and Human Interaction in Business with Brigham Dickinson
So, look, if we can teach technicians like we teach CSRs to just communicate a little bit better inside the customer's home, they're going to be a whole lot more successful. They're going to make more money. So, you know, perhaps the goal is to help them become comfortable being uncomfortable.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Navigating the Balance of AI and Human Interaction in Business with Brigham Dickinson
Yeah.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Navigating the Balance of AI and Human Interaction in Business with Brigham Dickinson
Give them the option. People love to shop. But if you only give them one option, that's not shopping. That's you trying to sell something. But if you give them several different options, then now they can choose one, right? They feel safe. They feel comfortable. They're having just a little bit of fun. And they can decide which way they want to go. That's what shopping is all about.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Navigating the Balance of AI and Human Interaction in Business with Brigham Dickinson
And if you can make it easy for me, guess what? I'm going to do it. I don't care. I'm going to do it. Most of the time, people want convenience. And the problem is we have a tendency to assume. Whether it's over the phone, whether it's in the home, we assume that this is what the customer wants because that's what I would want. Well, now look, you are a customer, but you're not your customer.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Navigating the Balance of AI and Human Interaction in Business with Brigham Dickinson
So you've got to give them the time and the space to feel like they're shopping.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Navigating the Balance of AI and Human Interaction in Business with Brigham Dickinson
Yeah, absolutely. Look, there's two different models out there in my opinion. There's a ton of models, but for the sake of time, let's just narrow it down to two. You've got the McDonald's model where you can go in and you can go to that screen that they have, those two big screens, and you can kind of click on the thing that you want.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Navigating the Balance of AI and Human Interaction in Business with Brigham Dickinson
And they've actually been able to show that they can increase their conversion that way. That works for McDonald's, right? No human communication or very little is possible.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Navigating the Balance of AI and Human Interaction in Business with Brigham Dickinson
Whereas you've got this Chick-fil-A model where they've doubled down on the amount of people that are helping you through the line because that's the one thing that holds people up from going to Chick-fil-A is they don't want to wait in the line. So they double down on the people in that line and they keep ushering people through and making that process a whole lot quicker, a whole lot faster.
The Home Service Expert Podcast
Navigating the Balance of AI and Human Interaction in Business with Brigham Dickinson
And so they've doubled down on those humans. So the question is, is what kind of model do you want? Now, we both know that with the Chick-fil-A model, price is going to be a little bit higher and you're going to wait a little bit longer. But you like the experience, you're willing to wait, and you're willing to pay more over McDonald's. But hey, both models work.