Welcome to The Scoop, where we write about business and construction

I get a chuckle when I hear the narrative around “can’t find people who want to be a diesel technician”. I’ve heard it since the day I started my career in 2004. The same message persists today. Nothing has changed. I find it counterproductive to try and blame individuals by questioning work ethic and calling generations lazy. Many topics aren’t that complicated–people respond to incentive structures. The main reason why the technician labor pool has been lagging behind is purely economical.

I’ve wanted to write something on this topic for a while and Tom Brady’s retirement presented the perfect opportunity. I’m not surprised at many sports stats, but this graphic highlighting Brady’s excellence in his 40s compared to his 20s blew me away. More TD passes from the age of 40–46 than in his 20s? Ridiculous.

Every marketplace founder yearns for the ‘Magic Moment’, when your marketplace works just as intended. Fortunately for us at Heave, we’ve had a few magic moments in January that reminded me of the inherent advantages of independent technicians.

When you’re the ‘small guy’ you can think differently. Everyone knows the words ‘disruptor’ and ‘innovator’. Building an independent technician network in the heavy equipment space is pretty innovative, but it’s not crazy. What’s crazy is opening up our service marketplace for construction companies to farm out their own technicians to other contractors!

Independent technicians are the backbone of the Heave service app. Some customers have experience with independent techs, but they are largely invisible to the overall market. Independent technicians consist of formerly OEM/dealer trained mechanics who’ve gone out on their own or ones that learned the trade and never wanted to go work for a dealer. Every independent technician on the Heave marketplace has the current software needed to access the major brand’s computer systems and the majority have their own truck with a crane. Companies such as Diesel Laptops broke the software barrier for these individuals to exist as an alternative to traditional dealer service.

Ask construction customers about equipment dealer service. The answers won’t be pretty. In my opinion there are four reasons why dealer service is poor: company culture, economics, labor pool shortage, and a lack of competition.

I’m a rookie at social media. While it’s never been that appealing personally to me, I do recognize how it can be beneficial for companies to build awareness, brands, and interest. Companies can share their successes and promote key customer relationships in an informal way that resonates much differently than the email marketing blasts. For whatever reason, there is also a steady diet of inspirational/motivational cliché posts. Every time I log on, I’m hit with posts from people telling the world to “get better every day,” “get 1% better today,” “crush it today.” But these comments are empty statements. For those of us who actually want to improve, how does one get better?

Customer surveys are all the rage these days. I wouldn’t be surprised if the kid’s lemonade stands down the street started texting a survey after each purchase made. I had a recent positive experience that caught my attention though and is the purpose of this blog. It isn’t necessarily about the frequency of surveys, its more about the employees’ communication to customers. It seems like in almost every instance, the consumer is told what scores are acceptable.