The Home Service Expert Podcast
Navigating the Balance of AI and Human Interaction in Business with Brigham Dickinson
Mon, 02 Jun 2025
This conversation delves into the importance of enhancing communication skills within the home service industry, focusing on call conversions, customer service, and the balance between technology and human interaction. Brigham discusses the impact of private equity on training, the necessity of ongoing coaching, and the role of leadership in achieving business success. They emphasize the need for technicians to improve their performance and the importance of understanding customer needs. In this conversation, the speakers discuss the evolving landscape of call centers, the importance of technology in customer engagement, and the need for better communication skills among technicians. They explore investment trends in the home service industry, the significance of personal touch in customer experience, and strategies for staying ahead in the market. Additionally, they provide insights for aspiring speakers and outline the onboarding process for Power Selling Pros. Don’t forget to register for Tommy’s event, Freedom 2025! This is the event where Tommy’s billion-dollar network will break down exactly how to accelerate your business and dominate your market in 2025. For more details visit freedomevent.com 00:00 Enhancing Communication Skills in Home Services 02:23 Identifying Blind Spots in Call Conversions 04:46 The Impact of Private Equity on Training 08:31 Maximizing Technician Performance and Lead Generation 11:56 The Importance of Comprehensive Customer Service 15:15 Balancing Technology and Human Interaction 21:33 The Role of Leadership in Business Success 24:57 The Value of Ongoing Training and Accountability 29:11 Rising Awareness in Call Centers 30:45 Leveraging Technology for Customer Engagement 31:51 The Importance of Technological Adaptation 33:07 Investment Trends in Home Services 34:54 Enhancing Customer Experience through Personal Touch 35:59 Training Technicians for Better Communication 39:17 Transforming Service into Sales 44:19 Staying Ahead in the Home Service Industry 47:35 Advice for Aspiring Speakers 57:21 Onboarding and Next Steps for Power Selling Pros
Chapter 1: What are the key communication skills needed in home services?
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.
Welcome to the Home Service Expert, where each week, Tommy chats with world-class entrepreneurs and experts in various fields like marketing, sales, hiring, and leadership. to find out what's really behind their success in business. Now, your host, the home service millionaire, Tommy Mello.
Chapter 2: What blind spots exist in call conversions?
Before we get started, I wanted to share two important things with you. First, I want you to implement what you learned today. To do that, you'll have to take a lot of notes, but I also want you to fully concentrate on the interview. So I asked the team to take notes for you. Just text Note, N-O-T-E-S to 888-526-1299. That's 888-526-1299.
And you'll receive a link to download the notes from today's episode. Also, if you haven't got your copy of my newest book, Elevate, please go check it out. I'll share with you how I attracted and developed a winning team that helped me build a $200 million company in 22 states. Just go to elevateandwin.com forward slash podcast to get your copy. Now let's go back into the interview.
Chapter 3: How does private equity influence training in the home service industry?
Welcome back to the Home Service Expert. I'm here with a good buddy of mine that I like to keep in touch with, Brigham Dickinson. He is an expert in sales business, call monitoring, call coaching, technician coaching, pretty much everything you can think about in home service. He's the founder of Power Selling Pros and an author of several books, but Something to Give is one of them.
He's the owner and founder of Power Selling Pros, a company that powers your customer experience with call handling, training, and coaching for thousands of companies in the home service industry. He's also the owner of Booked, a night answering service for hundreds of companies in the home service industry. Also an owner of Athleticare, a sports recovery company for athletes.
Brigham continues to personally consult and train companies throughout the home service industry as long as they are within a reasonable driving distance from his home. I don't know why that's in here. Not really. I put it in there. But, yeah, no, that's great. So, dude, I'm excited to have you. You guys, you said you're 60% up this year. Just more companies reaching out.
A lot of people caring more about booking the calls.
Chapter 4: What strategies can maximize technician performance and lead generation?
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.
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.
And I think –
Chapter 5: Why is comprehensive customer service vital?
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
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?
Yeah. Now it's impressive, man. And I think I think you're getting more experience in there. I remember we talked in the last couple of years and you said private equity companies, the first thing they do. at a detriment to their own companies, has cut the training on the call center. They think we've got this. We hired somebody internally. I've been there.
I thought we had it figured out, and I've come back to you and said we're not giving it enough time and attention. And I think we've got some of the best call centers. You've personally trained the supervisors, and we've got some great people. But you guys are not one or the other. Like, you should have supervisors. You should have your own internal team, but you still need you.
Chapter 6: How can businesses balance technology with human interaction?
And I think a lot of people miss that. They're like, it's either we've hired all this internal team. And I think private equity companies probably look at it and go, well, why don't they just figure it out? And they try to cut their way to the top. What is your take on that? Since you've had such explosive growth, are some of these PE companies turning the corner?
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.
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.
Yeah, that's a big deal. Yeah. Cameron Herald, I got him training Luke right now. He's a great coach. COO Alliance. Wrote a couple of books. Meeting Suck is one of them. And we were on a call. I actually met with him this morning, but we were on a call a couple weeks ago, and he goes, hey. Why don't you – one of the things I do listen to is some of the call center.
He's like, when's the last time you listened to your product specialist? Because we sell over the phone on equipment. You're familiar with that program. And I go, I have not in a long time. And Luke goes, well, we've got a guy doing it full time. And he goes, dude, you've got to listen to 20 calls tonight, Luke. Tommy, this is not your job. Luke listened to it. And Luke threw up in his mouth.
He calls me up and goes, dude, it's so bad. I would imagine it's the same when you listen to your call center. I listen to a lot because of Lace. Like, I can go right into the call where they dropped it, and I feel a lot better knowing that they're not dispositioning their own calls because there used to be this gray area of, like, that was a parts call.
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Chapter 7: What role does leadership play in achieving business success?
Yeah. Yeah, that's not a call, and they put it into the abandoned call list exactly.
Yeah, it goes into this different bucket. So a lot of people are like, I don't need PowerSong, bros. Our booking rate's way up there, but they don't know that there's this hidden way that the people do it. And a lot of people feel like, you know, they're 15 hour an hour per people. I'm like, dude, the contact center is everything.
Like they make or break the success of the technician, the way in which they book the call, are they giving prices on the call? How quick are they promising the time? Are you getting that same day don't care about the price? And a great CSR slash dispatcher, depending on how you're structured,
Chapter 8: How can ongoing training and accountability improve performance?
well, they have a tough job because they got to call these jobs today and move them even though they were scheduled. You only do it once, though. That's what I've learned is you never reschedule more than once with a client. Yeah. But there's so much money being lost. Tons.
But I will say since we started working together again in this last year, I listened to the calls, and I promise you I did this for a whole week. I listened to all the non-booked calls, and I'm like, I'm glad we didn't book that call. Like we could have fought, fought, fought, fought, but at 91% – I was looking at Lace earlier. We're at 91%.
I'm like that 9%, I kind of don't know if I want to book because you're almost setting the technician up to fail. And you're going to get those kind of calls.
100%.
I don't know what you've heard out there. I'm hearing two different things, but I know the summer's not hitting like it should be for HVAC. I've heard just the economy, it's not bad, but it's not good.
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.
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.
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.
Right.
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Chapter 9: What are the latest trends in investment within home services?
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.
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.
Yeah, I mean, look, I guess what people are complaining about, there's always an ebbs and flow of leads versus hiring technicians, right? I think most people are in the camp of I need more leads. But they're probably not to the point where they should be top grading and they should be making the exact call you just made. But it's the people that just don't care.
They don't want more for their family. They're just comfortable at whatever they make. And they're not asking for more. They really don't like to get trained. That's very difficult for me.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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