What the Military Can Teach Home Service Companies About Training Technicians
What the Military Can Teach Home Service Companies About Training Technicians
By Joe Crisara, Author of What Should We Do? and Co-Founder of Service MVP
Ask almost any home service business owner what’s holding back growth, and sooner or later you’ll hear the same thing:
“I can’t find good technicians.”
HVAC companies need them. Plumbing companies need them. Electrical companies need them. And everyone seems to be competing for the same small pool of experienced people.
But what if part of the problem is the assumption that technicians need to arrive already trained?
That question came up during my recent Home Service Heartbeat conversation with Troy Daland, owner of Air Zero, a veteran-owned HVAC company serving the Tampa Bay area.
Troy spent 24 years in the U.S. Air Force before eventually becoming a home service business owner. When he entered the trades, he noticed something familiar.
The military doesn't wait around hoping fully trained people will walk through the door.
It develops them.
And Troy believes home service companies can do much more of the same.
Stop Looking for the Finished Product
Troy describes Air Zero's approach to people in three stages:
Assess. Select. Train.
When someone comes into the organization, Troy isn't necessarily looking for a person who already knows everything about HVAC.
He's looking for what he calls attitude and aptitude.
Does this person show respect?
Can they communicate?
Are they willing to learn?
Can they hold a conversation with another person?
Do they demonstrate the character and work ethic the company wants representing its brand?
Technical ability matters, of course. But technical skills can be taught.
Character is considerably harder to install during a Tuesday morning training meeting.
That's one reason home service companies may need to reconsider the idea that the best hire is always the technician with the longest résumé.
The Military Doesn't Hire Soldiers With 10 Years of Experience
Think about how strange that would be.
Imagine if the military said:
We can't grow because we can't find enough fully trained people with ten years of military experience.
That's not the model.
People enter with varying levels of experience and ability. The organization then uses a structured process to train them for the work they'll be expected to perform.
Troy gave a great example during our conversation: military training can take someone who doesn't know how to jump from an airplane and, within a relatively short period, develop the skills necessary to do it.
His point wasn't that HVAC can be mastered in three weeks.
It was that people are trainable when you have a system for training them.
That distinction matters.
If your company's growth strategy depends entirely on finding experienced technicians that somebody else trained, you're allowing the labor market to determine how large your company can become.
Developing people gives you another option.
Technical Training Is Only Part of Technician Training
This may be the bigger lesson.
Troy estimates that technical ability represents only part of what a customer actually experiences when a technician enters the home.
A technician may know exactly how to diagnose a failed component.
But can they introduce themselves professionally?
Can they ask good questions?
Can they listen?
Can they explain what they found in language the homeowner understands?
Can they make the customer feel comfortable asking questions?
Can they communicate value without applying pressure?
Can they build trust?
We've written before about why technician training doesn't stick when companies treat training as an event instead of an ongoing system. Troy's experience reinforces another side of that issue:
A complete technician training system has to develop the person—not merely the mechanic.
That's especially important in residential home services.
The customer isn't hiring a machine to repair a machine.
They're inviting a human being into their home.
That’s why technicians need more than scripts or instructions. They need opportunities to practice these conversations until the skills become natural. As we explain in Why Knowing What to Say Isn’t Enough: Your Technicians Need to Practice It, knowing what to say and being able to deliver it confidently in a customer’s home are two very different things.
You Can Call for Technical Help. You Can't Call Someone Else to Build the Relationship.
This is something I've seen throughout my career.
A developing technician can encounter a technical problem and get assistance.
They can call a senior technician.
They can consult technical documentation.
They can use diagnostic technology.
They can ask a manager.
Increasingly, they can use digital and AI tools to help them find information.
But nobody sitting back at the office can build the relationship with the homeowner for them.
That happens in the home.
And that's why communication training deserves the same seriousness we give technical training.
It's also why we believe technicians need to practice those conversations before they're standing in front of a real customer.
Knowing what to say isn't the same as being able to say it naturally when the pressure is on.
Don't Rush the Person You're Trying to Develop
There's another part of Troy's operating philosophy that fits directly into this conversation.
Air Zero generally tries to keep technicians at approximately three to four calls per day.
That's intentional.
Troy wants his technicians to have enough time to do the technical work and communicate with the customer.
That's important because companies sometimes create two conflicting expectations:
“Slow down. Build relationships. Diagnose thoroughly. Explain everything.”
And then:
“Why are you still there? You've got another call.”
You can't train someone to deliver a thoughtful customer experience and simultaneously build an operating system that punishes them for taking the time to do it.
We've talked about this before in Why Rushing Technicians Between Calls Can Cost You Revenue.
Your dispatch strategy is part of your training strategy.
If the technician knows another call is already waiting, behavior changes.
Questions get shorter.
Investigations get narrower.
Explanations get rushed.
And eventually, “take care of the customer” quietly becomes “finish the call.”
Train Technicians to See More Than the Broken Part
Air Zero focuses its customer conversations around three broad areas:
Safety. Energy efficiency. Health.
That changes the technician's job.
Instead of walking into a home, finding the failed component, replacing it and leaving, the technician has a reason to look at the system more completely.
What's happening with indoor air quality?
What's happening with humidity?
Is the system operating efficiently?
Are there other observations the homeowner should know about?
That doesn't mean finding things to sell.
It means finding things the homeowner deserves to know.
There's an important difference.
It's closely related to something we teach at Service MVP: a technician can't present a meaningful solution for an opportunity they never discovered.
And discovery requires both technical skill and curiosity.
Transparency Becomes Part of the Training
Troy also described how Air Zero uses photos and videos to communicate with homeowners.
If a blower wheel is dirty, for example, the technician doesn't simply announce it.
They can show the homeowner.
Sometimes they'll text photos or a short video so the customer can see what's happening without having to follow the technician around the house.
That's a simple practice, but think about what it teaches the technician:
Don't ask the customer to blindly believe you. Help them understand what you understand.
That's transparency.
And transparency changes the conversation.
The technician doesn't have to manufacture urgency.
The evidence can do the talking.
Then the homeowner can decide what they want to do.
Training Has to Continue After Someone Gets the Truck Keys
One of the biggest mistakes home service companies make is treating training as something new technicians receive.
Training shouldn't have a graduation date.
Troy talked about using internal training, vendor training and outside resources to continually develop his people.
And importantly, Air Zero doesn't necessarily start everyone at the same place.
Someone with five years of experience shouldn't be treated exactly like someone entering HVAC for the first time.
Meet people where they are. Then develop them from there.
That's coaching.
The goal isn't merely getting someone qualified enough to put them in a truck.
The goal is continual improvement.
Your Next Great Technician May Not Be a Technician Yet
This may be the biggest opportunity in Troy's story.
The home service industry spends an enormous amount of energy talking about the skilled labor shortage.
That's a real challenge.
But companies still have choices about how they respond to it.
You can compete harder for the existing pool of experienced technicians.
Or you can improve your ability to create technicians.
That requires more work.
You need hiring standards.
You need technical training.
You need communication training.
You need role-play.
You need coaching.
You need leaders who observe behavior and provide feedback.
And you need enough patience to allow someone to develop.
But if the alternative is waiting indefinitely for the perfect technician to apply, building your own people starts looking much more attractive.
Build the Person, Then Keep Building the Technician
One of the reasons I enjoyed my conversation with Troy is that his military experience gives him a different perspective on something our industry often treats as unsolvable.
He doesn't assume someone has to arrive finished.
He looks for the raw ingredients.
Attitude. Aptitude. Character. Communication. Grit.
Then you train.
And train again.
That's how organizations develop people capable of doing difficult things.
Home service businesses shouldn't expect to be any different.
Watch the Full Conversation
Hear my complete conversation with Troy Daland of Air Zero on the Home Service Heartbeat Podcast, including his transition from 24 years in the Air Force to HVAC ownership, his approach to technician development, customer transparency, technology and the future of home service.
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Customer communication. Asking better questions. Identifying opportunities. Presenting meaningful options. Handling concerns. And doing it all with Pure Motive - helping the customer make the decision that's right for them without attachment to the outcome.
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