Here’s the thing: if you’re not hiring people you can trust, you’re doing it wrong.

hiring trustworthy people doesn't mean you don't need to verify

And yet, at the same time, “what gets measured gets done.”

Even good people will prioritize their behavior to match performance metrics.

Great business owners strike the balance between hiring trustworthy people and providing sufficient oversight to ensure that things get done the right way.

In other words, they take it from Reagan: “Trust but verify”

In practical terms for home service businesses, this would come down to:

  1. How often are you reviewing recordings of in-bound calls to ensure your people are using your brandable chunks and handling calls with empathy and salesmanship?
  2. How often do you go on ride alongs with your techs?
  3. Are you requiring your people to take pictures of their work and to document their procedures?
  4. How often are you making happy calls to customers after the job’s complete?
  5. How often are you going to an install job and giving the workmanship a QA-style once over?

If your answer is either never or once a year, you’re in trouble.

Now, you could be trusting your managers to do this for you, and that’s fine, but I think you’ll find that your managers are significantly more diligent on these tasks if you also do them at least on a monthly basis.

A Chance to Verify Is a Chance to Celebrate

Unfortunately, the tendency is for “verification” to feel intrusive and negative.

As if you’re trying to catch someone doing it wrong.

But it doesn’t have to be that way. In fact, it shouldn’t be that way.

And the best method for ensuring a positive feeling to this is to celebrate successful verification.

Is a call handled exactly the way you want?

Make sure to give that employee an attaboy, and feature that call as a model during your next training session.

Does the tech on your ride along absolutely nail it? Mention it to his supervisor and praise him during an all hands meeting.

Is someone praised to the moon and back by a customer during a happy call? Send a recording of that call directly to the tech.

A chance to verify is a chance to celebrate.

You can SAY that quality of workmanship and customer service are important to you, or you can SHOW your people that it’s important by verifying it and celebrating it.

Which do you think is more powerful?
So don’t be paranoid, but do verify and motivate your trusted people to prioritize what you want prioritized.

Latest posts by Jeff Sexton (see all)