It’s a hyper-competitive world out there for HVAC companies, and the pressure to succeed can be overwhelming at times, especially when everyone on social media is boasting about how they are “killing it.”

The challenge is compounded by our tendency to increase pressure on ourselves and others, as we are desperate to succeed in our businesses. That kind of pressure can lead to inconsistency and lackluster results.

Pressure is a part of every aspect of life: work, hobbies, relationships — it’s always around. What I have found through experience and research over the years is that consistency is the key to maintaining ourselves. Look at the situations where you have found yourself making mistakes or bad decisions or unfairly adding more stress to yourself or others. I guarantee you will find a spike — something that broke your routine so much that it caused a drastic change in the pressure you were feeling.

These spikes force us out of our comfort zones, spike our adrenaline, and can cause us to react without clearly thinking through our actions. So, what can you do about it? Be consistent.

Consistency in Service

If you explode every time you find a mistake and take it out on your employees or yourself, you are not only raising negative pressure on everyone, you are most likely not solving the problem. Service in a business is a culture, the way the owner expects the business to operate. That means that you, as the owner, need to ensure that your employees have consistency.

In their interactions with each other, with your customers, and with you, as well as in their training and expectations, consistency will ensure that problems for your team will often be prevented in the first place. But, when they do occur, they’ll be resolved quickly and efficiently.

Your employees are helping you make money — don’t you want them working at their best capacity? Provide them with the best service possible, as their boss, by supporting them and ensuring they have a consistent culture to fall back on in moments of high stress and high pressure.

If you have a consistent culture in your workplace, an emphasis on service, and a model from the top for them to follow, you will see your team perform at their best every time. Not only that, but they will want to perform their best because they know they have the consistency they need to succeed.

Consistency Under Pressure

We’re all only human, as I know all too well, so you have to understand that you are going to make mistakes. And, so are your employees; it happens. What you do next is what matters.

High-pressure situations will always occur so long as we are dealing with humans. Everyone is different, so conflicts and disagreements are going to happen. A customer is going to become upset, trucks are going to break down, the power is going to go out, or the internet is going to go down. Sooner or later, you’ll have to deal with these sorts of things in business.

Are you prepared for these things? Or do you just react when they occur?

One of the things I hear a lot from people is that they are facing “unexpected delays or difficulties” at their business. That’s the wrong terminology — they should be saying they are facing “temporary” delays or difficulties. To say that these sorts of events are unexpected is like sticking your head in the sand and pretending they don’t happen.

In order to be consistent in high-pressure situations, your employees need to be prepared for circumstances at your workplace in a way that is defined by you — the owner. You should have clear guidelines for what should be done in difficult situations, like an angry customer or a power outage. If you have your employees practice and learn them, you can reasonably expect these potential high-pressure situations to become high service.

Turning High Pressure Into High Service

The reality is that no matter how great your service or product is, no matter how wonderful your team is, you are going to eventually have a customer that cannot be consoled or saved. You can’t account for every single person in the world even with the best plans and preparation.

But you can account for high-pressure situations by creating a consistent environment where your customers and team can expect a certain outcome and by training your team to look for opportunities to serve your customers.

Having a procedure for when a customer comes in with a concern and ensuring your staff can follow that procedure is one part of consistency. But if your staff knows that following that procedure is what is expected of them, they can do so with confidence and the knowledge they are being supported. They feel safe, and that is going to help keep the pressure from exploding into an emotional outburst.

If you have a set expectation for a certain number of sales to be made, calls to be answered, or whatever you need from your team, that’s a start. But what happens if they don’t meet those goals? What is the procedure for making up the differences? Are you respecting their time, and are they respecting yours?

By being consistent, providing the solutions you expect, and empowering your team members, you can turn those potentially high pressure situations into an opportunity to demonstrate the service you expect your customers to have.