Windshield Time

Chris Elmore
  • 4.7 (32)
  • Courses
  • Updated Semimonthly

Windshield Time, formerly known as The Service Contractor Radio Show is a podcast dedicated to home service technicians and salespeople. Your host, Chris Elmore will be there for you during your windshield time (or whenever you have time to listen!) to give advice on managing customer expectations, obliterating objections and connecting with your customers on a deeper level in the home.

  1. 2d ago

    Most Techs Ask the Wrong Questions

    Every tech has had this call. You found the problem. You showed them the fix. They said no. So you blame the price. But the price wasn't the issue. You asked questions to get answers, and that's all you got. You never gave them a reason to trust you. And you don't get a do-over. One visit. One house. A limited number of questions. Here's the rule: if a question only gets you an answer, it's the wrong question. Chris Elmore shows what he means with a game. Pick a number between 1 and 20, and you get three yes-or-no questions to find it. Easy to win. Then he takes away the yes-or-no, and it falls apart because now he doesn't want to give up the number. Nothing about the number changed. A person got involved. That's the difference between a system and a customer. A meter answers yes or no. A homeowner decides how much to tell you. Chris calls the mistake target fixation. When all you want is the problem or the yes, you stop seeing everything around the target. Including the person standing in the room. In this episode: -Why a question that only gets an answer is the wrong question -Target fixation, and how chasing the yes makes you miss the customer -Troubleshooting a system vs. talking to a person -Why open questions are harder, and why they work -The introduction at the door, question by question -Why asking about allergies at the thermostat backfires -How to split "too expensive" into the money or the thing Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5DlsGABopPu9Qq9NNhK4hu Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/windshield-time/id1386770507 Windshield Time playlist: https://www.servextra.com/episodes/ Join the next class: https://www.servextra.com/press-play-training-series Windshield Time is hosted by Chris Elmore. #WindshieldTime #Technicians #Trades #HomeServiceBusiness #ServiceExcellence

    Most Techs Ask the Wrong Questions

  2. Aug 19

    How to Get Through a Long Day of Service Calls Without Burning Out

    How do you get through a long day of service calls without burning out? Almost none of it is external. It's what's between your ears. Start with your morning ritual. A routine can be interrupted or thrown off. A ritual has enough meaning that you do it no matter what.  That's the three Ds: duty, discipline, devotion. Duty is because you have to. Discipline is because it's a habit. Devotion is because it means something. Then it's practical. How you fuel a day of hunger, dehydration, and physical effort. Why you work one call at a time instead of scanning the whole schedule. The five-minute reset between calls, not 30 minutes at the supply house. What you put in your ears during windshield time. Last point: take comfort in a predictable process. Follow it on every call, and your last call is as good as your first. In this episode: -Ritual vs. routine, and why a routine is the one that gets skipped -The three Ds: duty, discipline, devotion -How to prepare your body for hunger, dehydration, and heat -Why one call at a time beats seeing your whole schedule -The five-minute reset between calls -What to listen to during windshield time -How a predictable process protects your last call of the day Free downloads and past episodes:  https://www.servextra.com/resources/ Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5DlsGABopPu9Qq9NNhK4hu Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/windshield-time/id1386770507 Windshield Time is hosted by Chris Elmore.

    How to Get Through a Long Day of Service Calls Without Burning Out

  3. Aug 5

    The 3 Cs Every Technician Needs: Competence, Confidence, Control

    Most customers object for two reasons: lack of trust and lack of value. Someone who doesn't seem to know what they're doing because they can't communicate well is less valuable. So Chris walks the 3 Cs... competence, confidence, and control.  Competence is the minimum level of technical excellence for your trade and your company.  Confidence is knowing that you know.  Control is not manipulation of the customer, it means the outcome is more predictable because you are competent.  Together they let you step into being a professional expert authority. You can live at the best technical academy on the planet for three weeks and never get any customer communication training.  Chris's urging: spend as much time learning to communicate the work as you spend working on the thing. In this episode you'll learn: -The 3 Cs and why they work as a loop, not a one-time ladder -How to know a tech is competent... the line of minimum technical excellence -Why "my work speaks for itself" quietly costs you sales and trust -The two real reasons customers object, and how communication creates both -The doctor test, and how to close the authority gap with your customers -The fastest way to grow all three Cs: be a sponge, practice till you can't get it wrong Free downloads and past episodes:  https://www.servextra.com/episodes/ Listen on the go: Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5DlsGABopPu9Qq9NNhK4hu Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/windshield-time/id1386770507 Windshield Time is hosted by Chris Elmore. If this one hit home, send it to a tech who thinks the work speaks for itself. #WindshieldTime #HVACBusiness #PlumbingBusiness #TechnicianTraining #ServiceExcellence

    The 3 Cs Every Technician Needs: Competence, Confidence, Control

  4. Jul 22

    How to Stop "Too Expensive" From Killing the Sale

    Your tech hears "too expensive," packs up, and rolls to the next call. Another lost ticket... and he'll tell you the customer was just a cheapskate. But he didn't diagnose anything. He guessed. In this episode of Windshield Time, Chris Elmore breaks down the Anatomy of an Objection... how to diagnose a price objection instead of reacting to it. Here's the problem: "too expensive" has fifteen or twenty different reasons behind it, and they don't all get the same response. Is it a smokescreen or a true condition? Is the customer objecting to the price, or to the thing you recommended? You can't know until you ask. So you LEAP: Listen, Empathize, Ask questions, Problem solve. It's the same move a tech already makes on a service call. Walk in on a dead ceiling fan and the first question is "is there power?" The answer tells you which path to take. An objection works exactly the same way... ask the right question first, and it directs you to the real issue. Handle it right, and "too expensive" isn't the end of the call. It's the moment you separate the money from the recommendation and move the customer to the next step. 🎧 Listen on the go: Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5DlsGABopPu9Qq9NNhK4hu Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/windshield-time/id1386770507 All episodes: https://www.servextra.com/episodes/ #HVAC #Plumbing #Electrical #ServiceTech #WindshieldTime

    How to Stop "Too Expensive" From Killing the Sale

  5. Jul 8

    The 30 Minutes That Decide Every Service Call

    A typical service call runs two hours. But only about 30 minutes of it is spent face to face with the customer, and that small window is where trust gets built and decisions get made.  Most techs have never realized how little time they actually get, or how much rides on it. Chris Elmore walks through a simple paper exercise that changes how you see every call. Map PRESS PLAY across a two-hour timeline and the picture gets clear fast.  Most of your time goes to the diagnosis and the repair, the technical work that everything depends on, and a smaller slice, about a quarter, is your time with the customer.  Both matter.  But because that customer window is so short, you have to be just as sharp there as you are with your tools. You'll learn: -Why only about 30 minutes of a two-hour call is customer-facing time -How to map PRESS PLAY across the timeline of a service call -Why that short window is where trust and decisions happen -The NFL comparison that reframes how you see your time on every job -Why objections get handled in the first 15 minutes, before they come up -Why you should practice the customer conversation as hard as the craft 🎧 Listen on the go: Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5DlsGABopPu9Qq9NNhK4hu Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/windshield-time/id1386770507 All episodes: https://www.servextra.com/episodes/ Windshield Time is hosted by Chris Elmore. If this changed how you see your time on a call, share it with a tech who thinks the job ends at the repair.

    The 30 Minutes That Decide Every Service Call

  6. Jun 24

    How to Get Customers on Your Side in the First 15 Minutes

    A customer gets defensive the second you bring up money. It feels like it came out of nowhere. It didn't. You lost them the moment you walked up to the door and failed to set a single expectation. Chris Elmore breaks down setting and resetting expectations, the skill that decides whether the end of your call is a smooth yes or a standoff. Customers show up expecting the worst.  You show up with your own assumptions. Left unspoken, those expectations turn into resentment every time. The fix happens in the first 15 minutes, long before money ever comes up. You'll learn: -Why customers expect the worst before you even knock -The one sentence behind almost every bad reaction at the end of a call -Why the risk of offense is the price of clarity -How to use the red, yellow, green checklist to reset expectations -The money reset that puts the decision back in the customer's hands 🎧 Listen Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5DlsGABopPu9Qq9NNhK4hu Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/windshield-time/id1386770507 All episodes: http://servextra.com/episodes/ Windshield Time is hosted by Chris Elmore. If this changed how you start a call, share it with a tech who keeps getting blindsided at the end. #HVAC #Plumbing #Electrical #ServiceTech #WindshieldTime

    How to Get Customers on Your Side in the First 15 Minutes

  7. Jun 10

    Stop Diagnosing the Complaint. Diagnose the System.

    _*]:min-w-0 gap-3"> Most techs diagnose the one thing the customer called about, fix it, and leave. The best techs diagnose the whole system, because the thing they called about is never really on its own. That's the difference between a callback and a customer who buys the real fix. _*]:min-w-0 gap-3"> Chris Elmore breaks down what he calls common bonds: the things that tie every part of a home's system together. Age. Maintenance. Filtration. Construction. Two problems can look completely unrelated and still share the same water, the same age, the same install. Once you learn to see those bonds, you stop fixing isolated problems and start showing the customer the whole system, so they understand why the real fix matters instead of grabbing the cheapest band-aid. You'll learn: Why you start where the customer noticed the problem, not where you assume it is What common bonds are and how they connect problems that look unrelated How age, maintenance, filtration, and construction tie a whole system together How to set context and contrast in the first 15 minutes of a call Why technical excellence is the foundation under every communication skill Show notes and free resources: https://www.servextra.com/episodes/ Listen and subscribe: Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5DlsGABopPu9Qq9NNhK4hu Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/windshield-time/id1386770507 All episodes: https://www.servextra.com/episodes/

    Stop Diagnosing the Complaint. Diagnose the System.

  8. May 27

    The Real Reason You're Losing Sales as a Technician (It's Not Your Skills)

    You got 800 hours of technical training. You got 3 hours on customer service. You weren't trained for the moment a customer says "that's too expensive." That's why you freeze. Chris Elmore breaks down why handling objections is troubleshooting with a person instead of a machine. Same process. One difference: emotions. He walks through how LEAP works on real objections, why "that's too expensive" rarely means what you think, and the one question that splits the price from the work. You'll learn: Why problem-solving before asking questions is parts changing What real listening and empathy sound like on a call How to split the price from the work with one question Why LEAP out of order becomes PLEA Why "fix it" is only one-fifth of your job Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5DlsGABopPu9Qq9NNhK4hu Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/windshield-time/id1386770507

    The Real Reason You're Losing Sales as a Technician (It's Not Your Skills)
See All (100)

4.7
out of 5
32 Ratings

About

Windshield Time, formerly known as The Service Contractor Radio Show is a podcast dedicated to home service technicians and salespeople. Your host, Chris Elmore will be there for you during your windshield time (or whenever you have time to listen!) to give advice on managing customer expectations, obliterating objections and connecting with your customers on a deeper level in the home.

Information

  • Creator
    Chris Elmore
  • Years Active
    2018 - 2026
  • Episodes
    100
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Service Excellence Training
  • Show Website
    Windshield Time

You Might Also Like