Tonight's question I Know we do little segments if you've never joined us before. We also do little segments around our show. just you know little things here and there. One of the segments we have is called Josh's question for you and tonight's question is actually a a a play off of an event that I had happen today at my company.

My question to you is how important is it to you if you're a customer, If you're a consumer that your technician, how important is it to you that they keep a clean van I'd love to hear your thoughts on that. Does it affect your perception of that technician? Does it affect whether or not you want them even working in your home? Does it affect your perception of the company in general? It's one of the things we're dealing with at my company. So much so that I even told one of my employees that I'm going to take it on myself to clean one of these Vans to show them that you know Number one, it's not something I'm above, but number two, it's important. It's important to me.

Anyway, it's nothing worse than if I pull into a customer's driveway and they see you get out of the van and they see you go to get a part or a tool and things are falling out of the van as you're trying to open the door and it's just a mess in there. To me, perception is reality If they have the perception that you're sloppy and you don't care enough to take care of things whether it's true or not, they have that perception. and sometimes perception is reality. I Remember working at a company that they would audit our vans.

Well, I Think it was like once a month they would audit our vans and they would sometimes make changes. Sometimes fire people. Uh, based on that sometimes. I Remember one guy got demoted.

he had his own van and he was getting to take it home and they said, nope, no more. You don't get to take a van home anymore. You can't take care of it again. It's one of the things we're dealing with and my little company.

To me, it's a big deal. It really is. Steve says King of the trades Bob says most definitely so Bob wants a clean van Steve says I always try to keep a clean van I Think you know, especially when you get busy. Sometimes it's hard.

That's different if we're in the middle of. July I Have a guy that ran seven or eight service calls that day and he hasn't had a chance to go to the the dumpster and and throw some things away. I Expect that. That's not what we're talking about here.

The van I was cleaning today. we finding receipts from 2020. You know it's just crazy. Larry says it's an indication of their professionalism although I'm guessing many of the customers don't even look.

That's actually a really good point. So I think that's probably why some guys don't seem to care I think there is a level of unprofessionalism. There is a level of laziness to it, right? But it's also a level of well, nobody will know. I'm not gonna have the customer looking in my van is probably something that they're saying to themselves, so that's a good point.

Arch says inspires more confidence that they're professional. It's a good point. If they are keeping a clean van and they're being professional, there is a level of confidence that you have in them then right. You know it affects not just your perception of them, but your confidence in them.

so that's that's a good point too. Mark says absolutely and Gil says a clean van is important I Agree with you there, sir. I Used to work at a company that when they would audit our vans um, they actually at that particular company we had these little box trucks is what they actually were. They had a checklist that we would go through and if it said you were supposed to have three contactors on that truck and you had four for one reason or another, you were supposed to remove that fourth one off the truck and put it in the shop like they were very to the tea on a lot of this stuff.

good or bad, that's how they were. the other thing that they would do because of this auditing and because of how stringent they were on it. The other thing I liked about it was it didn't matter if you went on my van or I went on your van. We both could find a part because they were set up the same way.

We both had checklists. we were supposed to abide by. anybody and everybody could run out to a van and grab a part and it wasn't a big deal. You didn't have to move mountains and and turn over a million rocks to try to find something hiding in that van.

We all knew where everything was and were supposed to be kept. Gary says my H AC guys have clean four transits and yes I do check I had a carpet cleaner guy last year. man there was more papers piled up on the dash. not sure how he could see I Heard somebody tell me once that that's a pet peeve of theirs, that if they see somebody that uses the dash of the van as a storage space or as a place to throw papers or throw tools or wherever that that was a pet peeve of theirs, it might affect whether or not they would do business with them that it bothered them that much whether or not they used the dash of the vein as a as a place to keep things I'm not that guy as far as me and my employees.

I Think any of my employees would probably tell you that I don't micromanage, but they would say that I want them to again. it's perception is reality I Want them to, at least, if nothing else, have the perception that they're trying to do things right and they're trying to keep a clean van and they're trying to take care of the customer's house if the customer has that perception, even if you do fall short on something. if you got to that customer's house and you put booties on your feet and you are laying down drop cloths and you're doing absolutely everything you can to try to take care of their home, but then you still get a little smudge on the carpet. They might be less upset about it.

And in fact, I for personal experiences I can tell you they are less upset about it because they knew you tried. You know you tried everything you could to take care of their home. It's usually they get upset when they think you're not even trying to take that. You know you.

You just care less about their belongings and then that's when they get up. Steve says he throws his safety glasses and hats on the dash so he doesn't have that pet peeve.