In this video, I share part 2 of a conversation I had with Jeff Novotny of Field Nation. He is their Director of Marketplace Provider Operations. Jeff and I discuss how Field Nation techs can level up their skills, how soft skills help technicians stand out, and Jeff’s Three “C’s” to success, and how to take measured risks on the Field Nation platform.
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🎥 Video Transcript:
Hello, this is Michael with Field Tech Academy.
Today I’m sharing video two of a conversation that I had with Jeff Novotny,
the director of marketplace provider operations at Field Nation.
In this video, we discuss how tech can level up their skills in the job types that they can receive.
We talk about Jeff’s three C’s
for success on the Field Nation platform.
How soft skills impact your success on Field Nation.
Why human touch and relationships matter with the buyers and the providers.
Doing whatever it takes to get the job done right.
And being willing to take reasonable risks and to fail safely.
Be sure to stay tuned for video three.
Let’s get into today’s conversation with Jeff Novotny.
Once you do get a job, though,
I think that there’s
some things that techs need,
if they’re technically sound,
in addition to their technical skill sets,
that actually win over buyers in the long run and can start to build that network of buyers.
So to your point,
they start with
the less lucrative jobs,
but they
if they attack those,
they provide the greatest quality
that they can at those jobs. Those jobs will grow.
But what is what does that quality mean? And I kind of look at it from,
kind of what the techs need to know, I think I call it kind of my three “C’s”.
They have to be great communicators
number one.
Updating the buyer, or actually marketing right up front, updating the buyer on the
along the way,
and then closing out strong with the buyer
for sure.
You know, in the closing notes.
Commitment
is the second “C”. And that is
being on time.
Committed to delivering all the asked deliverables.
Making sure you’re accurate on your deliverables and then commitment to quality.
Do it right the first time.
But the biggest one is kind of that customer service piece.
And I feel like you may have heard this one before, and that is the soft skills of
professionalism
and building and marketing yourself and your business.
That your appearance is right.
Your language
and the way you speak
on site to customers is great.
Knowing who you’re representing on the job.
And then just leveraging that communication and commitment throughout your professional,
your customer service
drive.
Do you see techs
as that being a good skill that techs have
or a common skill? Rather, not a good skill, but a common skill that techs have?
And are they more successful than others
that don’t have that?
I think the soft skills are critical.
And what’s really sad is a lot of times, and especially in real life,
a lot of people don’t give you that feedback to tell you when your soft skills are lacking because they don’t want to hurt your feelings.
So a lot of guys don’t
get it because they just don’t know that they are lacking those soft skills.
They don’t know how to communicate
to a buyer in a way that presents professionalism.
Some guys will show up on a job site, and they will be wearing shorts and
ball caps, and things like that. And yes, they might have the skill set to do the job and be able to do it right.
But there’s
an element of showing up looking professional
that
passes through
from
the site
to the buyer.
But sometimes guys don’t listen
and they don’t realize how just these little things, it”s the death of a thousand cuts.
Like you said, they’re not reading through
the instructions to say, okay, I need all these deliverables.
So I need to make sure I’ve got this photo,
you know, the before photos,
the after photos, and that they’re the photos that the buyer wants.
You know, and like you said, the communication factor is huge. Being able to
respond to them, you know, when they make a phone call to you to check status. Guys get annoyed
when these buyers call and say, hey, it’s been an hour and a half.
Just checking in to see how you’re doing.
That annoyance comes through in your voice.
You can’t let that happen because, again,
these are humans on the other end of the phone. And I think we lose track of that as techs
working on a marketplace like this is
we forget that there’s humans involved.
That this isn’t just some program,
that
there’s a buyer on the other end that’s a human being, and they’re going to remember
and they’re going to see how you treated them.
And that’s going to play into whether you get a job from them or not.
I love it. The I totally agree. And so as the new tech comes on board,
they established themselves as great communicators,
you know, have great commitment. They build great quality.
They establish themselves as a customer service,
you know, guru, if you will.
Some additional soft skills might be just managing their schedule appropriately.
We talked about the communication, but really good written, oral, written and oral communication on both sides.
And I think all that’s important because it builds trust.
And as we build trust, as providers build trust with the buyers, as buyers build trust from the
providers.
Can you maybe
walk me through or talk about
some examples you’ve seen because you’ve managed techs,
you’ve done jobs yourself, and then you’ve talked to other providers.
I’m curious,
what are some of the best ways for technicians to then,
once they get their foot in the door,
to grow and build stronger relationships with some of those clients?
Well, I would hope that when you do a job for the buyer,
that you do a good enough job that they’re going to add you to their preferred list.
You know, and that’s that’s a big thing.
I get a lot of repeat business from buyers that will call me first,
because I did a job for them six months ago or 12 months ago,
and I did it well. And they know that I’m going to do the job right. So they call me first and give me a first shot at it.
So if you burn that bridge right up front,
you’re never going to hear from that buyer again.
That’s a first step.
Second step is obviously
completing the job doing it right.
And then I always tell people, make sure that you’re leaving a review for the buyer.
In my opinion, it’s a reciprocal thing.
I’m reaching out. I’m giving you a review. So I feel like hopefully that makes it more likely that the buyer will then leave me a review.
And there’s also times, if I was a new tech,
I’m established,
I’ve been doing this for 25 years.
It’s easy for me. So I have to stop and kind of go back and think, okay, if I was a new guy,
what would I be doing?
And one of the things I would be doing is I would make sure that my buyers are leaving me reviews.
Obviously doing the job right up front.
And if they’re not just automatically leaving, leaving a review, I mean, reach out to them. There’s nothing wrong with picking up the phone and saying, hey, I’m a new tech.
I’m trying to get established. Would you mind leaving a review for me?
Sending them a message about it.
Like you said, making sure your profile looks professional.
And to me,
the buyers that I’ve had the
best relationship with, obviously you’re conversational with them when they’re on the phone,
You know, you’re not a robot.
You’re also resourceful. I think the buyers that have liked me the most
are the ones that know that I’ll do whatever it takes to get this job done right.
If that means
I gotta run to the store and go grab something that we didn’t expect to need,
because we discovered something new, it’s like, oh, you know,
we didn’t know the rack was falling off the wall.
Pointing things out like that or, you know, observing potential problems
or finding solutions. Just being able to push it across the finish line because you get a lot of guys that,
they just can’t get the call across the finish line
and you got to be able to do that.
And if a buyer knows that you’re going to do what it takes to get that site up and running
and get it done right,
then they’re going to come back to you.
And just to be clear, before a tech just leaves site to go pick up additional parts or do additional things. They would of course need to talk to the buyer, document things in the ticket, make sure the buyer’s approving those additional parts, and the fact that the tech is leaving site.
Have you ever seen where techs maybe over extend and take jobs they shouldn’t have because they were desperate to try and get their foot in the door,
and would you suggest that that’s
a good risk or a bad risk?
Well, that’s a good question.
I’m a person. I’m mostly self-taught.
I didn’t go to a trade school to learn tech.
I didn’t go to college to learn tech. I went and I got a business degree.
You know, so that gives me soft skills, that gives me, you know, understanding of how to run a business.
I grew up out in the country.
I worked on cars,
My dad taught me how to problem solve and critically think.
And that is a skill set that I think you have to have to be a tech.
So then the question is,
how far do you push that when you’re taking service calls?
You can obviously get yourself
in over your head and not be able to do the job.
So there’s a balancing act in there. To me, what I feel like you need to have is you need to have the right tools. So you need to understand what tools you’re going to need for that task. You know, if it’s a network rack and stack, you know you’re going to have to have a laptop. You can have to have a console cable, you’re going to have to have putty software, you’re going to have to have a hotspot.
And maybe that’s something that
Field Nation, or even, and I try to do this on my channel, is to do videos on tool setups to say, hey,
you know, if you’re doing a rack and
stack, you need these tools. If you’re doing cabling, you need these tools. If you’re doing point of sale, you need these tools.
because if you at least have the right tools,
that’s a big step towards doing it.
Because you don’t have the right tools, you’re not gonna be able to do it even if you know how to do it.
Most of the buyers provide really excellent tech support.
So for most of your issues, your tech support can walk you through it. But you got to be willing to call them and say, hey,
I’m hitting something here that I don’t really quite understand, you know, how would you suggest we handle that?
And I would always take a little bit of a risk.
And even now I’ve done this for 25 years, I’ll still go out and do service calls to where I’ll see a piece of equipment that I’ve never seen in my life.
I’ll see terminology that I’ve never seen. I’ll get buyers that ask me to do something that I’ve never seen,
and most of the time, because I’ve got that foundational knowledge and the tech support,
it’s not a big deal.
To me, something like cabling is probably one of those things, to where that’s the hardest to bluff on.
You know, if I’m doing a rack and stack, tech support can probably walk me through getting that switch into the rack,
walking me through the connections, walking me through my laptop setup.
I think tech support can do that,
but when it comes to something like cabling.
That’s not something they can guide you on because they can’t see the building, they can’t see the ceiling.
You know, you’ve got to at least have some
construction knowledge, electrical knowledge,
or past history doing some cabling so you know how to get the cable from point A to point B in that building safely
and make it look nice.
So yes, in answer to your question, I think you do have to take risks to a point.
You just have to be careful not to overextend yourself and take on things where you know you don’t have the tools for it, or,
you know there’s just no chance you’re gonna be able to pull it off.
I think it’s interesting your comments earlier about
being
a problem solver.
Right.
And your technicians should be generally be problem solvers.
And then combining that with the idea around risk
and new equipment, which, by the way, technology is always evolving.
And so for any technician to say they know it all
we know is is a false statement.
Because technology every day
something new is out. So we’re always in this industry learning
and that’s okay.
Managing that risk,
at the same time,
you’re problem solving, is the delicate balance.
I appreciate you taking the time to watch this video with Jeff Novotny and I.
If you’re interested in signing up with Field Nation,
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As always, let’s get you out in the field making money. I’ll see you in the next video.