We Sure Had Some Ideas!

Posted on March 9, 2010

It’s amazing the number of ideas that start flying around when Bobby Ring waves a bunch of cash around!

Building on years of successful "I’ve Got an Idea!" sessions, ACCA once again added the event to the Annual Conference line-up. It drew a big crowd here in Tampa, all of whom were ready to share and absorb ideas to make their businesses more efficient and profitable.

Led once again by Bobby Ring of Meyer & Depew Co., and sponsored for a third year by Jackson Systems, those who shared some of the best ideas were rewarded with cash. "We're here to share some ideas on how to make each of our businesses better," said Ring.

Here's a sampling of some of the ideas floating around in this year's session:

• Enter the local Better Business Bureau's Torch Award for Ethics contest to gain credibility in the marketplace.
• Send techs' "performance reports" home in the mail so spouses can see when employees have lost out on bonus money for being late to meetings or having on-the-job issues.
• Ask customers if they'd like their service appointments confirmed with an email. If so, capture these email addresses to use for company marketing pieces and electronic promotions.
• Encourage employees to do training on their own time by offering a cash bonus for logging four or more off-line training per month. Kick the program up a notch by awarding even more money to the techs who complete the most training in this manner.
• Host a trade show at your company for employees. Invite tool vendors, health insurance vendors, etc., to encourage staff to shop around for ways to make them more productive and healthy on the job.
• As a company grows, it may be hard to stay connected to the "rank and file" workers. Consider developing an advisory council of hourly workers so top management can maintain a solid, professional dialog with workers in the field.
• Rather than making monetary donations to non-profits and local charities, consider donating gift certificates for home auditing or maintenance services. This exposes the company to a new crop of potential customers.
• One contractor reported selling his run-down fleet truck to a local food bank for $1. This allowed the charity to make use of the service truck and kept the company's name and logo (already printed on the truck) out in the community.

Other workshops on a variety of HVACR business topics are continually presented this week in Tampa as part of ACCA’s 42nd Annual Conference and Indoor Air Expo. Read all of our blogs and news updates from the event at www.accaconference.com, or from your mobile phone at www.acca10.com.