AI That Builds Better Customer Journeys
Everyone’s talking about AI, but here’s the truth — it won’t replace people and it won’t replace critical thinking. The real competitive edge comes from using AI to inform and elevate your customer’s buying journey.
On this episode of Cracking the Code, David Holt sits down with Brigham Dickinson, President and Founder of Power Selling Pros., where he shares how contractors can use AI alongside coaching and accountability to create wow experiences, uncover hidden revenue, and build customer trust that lasts.
From smarter tech adoption to powerful customer touch points, you’ll discover how to integrate AI the right way, enhancing your team and customer experience instead of replacing them.
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00:00:00:00 – 00:00:19:00
Everyone’s talking about AI, but here’s what they’re not talking about. You definitely want to use technology, but from the perspective of the customer’s experience. If white collar workers start coming into the HPC industry, here’s what you do.
00:00:19:03 – 00:00:43:27
Welcome to Cracking the Code, where we make Hvac success clear, simple, and stress free. I’m your host, David Holt. Your contractor, University general manager. In today’s episode, we’re honored to speak with Brigham Dickinson. He’s the president and founder of Power Selling Prose and will be leading a breakout session at the epic 2026 conference on February 12th, hosted at the Bellagio in Las Vegas.
00:00:44:00 – 00:01:05:29
His workshop title is The Hidden Revenue Killer Stop quick fixes with technology coaching and team wide accountability. This is going to be fantastic. So let’s get cracking. All right, so Brigham hey man. You’ve been out there in the field working with contractors all over the place. You’ve been seeing all kind of missed conversations where people aren’t making the money they deserve.
00:01:06:00 – 00:01:36:03
They’ve been running into technology that’s going back and forth and all kind of different things, man. So take a few minutes and share some of your wisdom with us. What you’re seeing out there in the field as it relates to creating that wow experience, that power selling pros is so famous for? Yeah, I appreciate that. I would say that the first thing that I see a lot of is that contractors, for the sake of being in, I’ll quote for the sake of being honest.
00:01:36:06 – 00:01:54:27
You know, they want to be an honest contractor, right? They want to do a good job and they want to go home, and they want to feel good about what they’re doing. But the thing that I see is, is they they feel they have to make a choice between making money and being honest. That is not true. It’s just not true.
00:01:54:28 – 00:02:20:26
You see, if you’re doing a good job, you’re making money. And I’ll tell you why. Because what you’re doing is, is creating a buying experience for the customer. Many contractors, they have their, technicians go into a customer’s home and do the bare minimum to fix the system. Okay. Let’s say it needs a new blower motor. Great. You switch out the blower blower motor and you leave.
00:02:20:28 – 00:02:40:08
The problem with that is, is that we didn’t give the customer the opportunity to choose for themselves what they were going to do. Right. And so there’s a ton of options for the customer okay. They could do the bare minimum. It may not even be the blower motor. Let’s say that you switch out the blower motor. You get a call.
00:02:40:08 – 00:03:02:10
The next day saying, hey, you guys were just out to my home and my system still not working. As if it was your fault. Well, because you didn’t give them their options. All of them. That’s why they’re. That’s why they call them back. Yeah. You switch out a part. Everything else is older. Which means you cannot guarantee that will keep running the way that it should.
00:03:02:12 – 00:03:20:16
Right. So your goal here is to simply say, hey, look, first and foremost, especially when they you get to the front door and they say, hey, the condenser is over there. You simply say, hey, Mr. Jones, two thirds of your system is actually inside the home. I’d like to start there. And as you get inside the home, you’re going to build the relationship here, right?
00:03:20:16 – 00:03:37:02
You’re to create an environment of safety, comfort and fun while you’re inside that environment. And even if they say, oh, I’ve got this call, I’ve got to jump on or we got to do this, I got to do that. I said, you simply say, hey, look, if I notice anything, that isn’t up to par or doesn’t meet manufacturer specifications, do you mind if I bring it to your attention?
00:03:37:05 – 00:03:58:15
Simple. Easy. Straightforward. So now you have the ability to look at the entire system, and you have the opportunity to provide all the options. If it’s a blower motor, great. Give them that option. There might be other options as well to bring it back to manufacturer specifications. Again, our job is to do a good job. We want to do a good job.
00:03:58:15 – 00:04:20:03
This is what a good job looks like. And at the end of that conversation, it may be up to the cut. If it if it is up to a customer as opposed up to the technician that they may want to do system. And even if the system is five years old, I know that some technicians listening to this are going, oh my gosh, there’s this pit in my stomach.
00:04:20:03 – 00:04:38:24
I can’t believe that you would offer a new system if it was only five years old. You guys, if the homeowner wants the new system, they want it. Let’s say that in a specific room. I want to control the temperature in this room, as opposed to all the other rooms in my house and say, what are the. I’ve got zoning options.
00:04:38:24 – 00:04:55:15
I’ve got many splits. You’re not going to talk about any of those things. Why? Because you never get and you never give me the opportunity. So all these things that I’m talking about are what a good job looks like. And sometimes we get in the customer’s home, we do the bare minimum because we think that’s what the customer wants and we leave.
00:04:55:15 – 00:05:17:05
And that’s why we have callbacks. So we kick, we shoot ourselves in the foot because we’re not doing the job. We’re going in and we’re doing the bare minimum. So let’s not do that anymore. And so one of the things I’m obviously going to be talking about, I kind of let the cat out of the back, but that’s during during the breakout is exactly this.
00:05:17:07 – 00:05:40:23
We spend way too much time on quick fixes and we shoot ourselves in the foot, and we need to stop doing that. It’s hurting us individually. When I say us individually, I’m referring to the technicians income and I’m referring to business owners and companies in general. We need to give them all their options. We need to we need to create a buying environment where they feel safe, they feel comfortable, they’re having fun, and we give them all their options.
00:05:40:23 – 00:06:07:09
So they can decide what they want as opposed to us deciding for them. You know, I feel like that little dog in the back of the window, you know, doing this you know. Yeah. The whole time you’re talking about you’re thinking about my days at home service company, back when I was running my dad’s business and how we transitioned from being that fix it when it breaks kind of guy to let’s look at the whole house as a system and let’s really find out what’s important to the customer.
00:06:07:09 – 00:06:29:06
And you mentioned changing out a five year old piece of equipment. I actually had a lady say, what color is your outdoor unit that you recommend? I say, well, it’s gray. She says, good, can you get rid of this green one for me? I don’t like it. So customers make decisions based on their own decision, right? I mean, they make decisions based on what’s important to them, right?
00:06:29:08 – 00:07:01:11
And I’m 100% in agreement with the contractors. A lot of our employees stay focused on, you know, doing the bare minimum to get it back up and running without really understanding the true needs of the customer. So that’s powerful message, man. Yeah. Look, if at the end of the day, whatever our fix is, outweighs the value of the system itself, it is okay for us to say, hey, you know, you’ve gotten some great life out of this system.
00:07:01:14 – 00:07:22:05
If if you want to replace it, I’m happy to send out a comforter visor. Now, I’m a Fix-It guy. I love fixing things. I’m happy to fix this. I don’t care how old it is. I pride myself in fixing systems. I don’t care how old they are. But if at the end of the day you know you would feel better, more comfortable in a new system that’s back under warranty.
00:07:22:07 – 00:07:41:08
I’m happy to to bring out a comfort advisor. If you decide to move forward with that comfort advisor with the new system. Anything you invest in, in the in the service today will be put towards that replacement. This is what a good job looks like. This is what phenomenal customer service looks like. And this is the job that you should be doing.
00:07:41:11 – 00:08:12:03
Fantastic. So coaching our team is certainly one of the critical parts of this is like how do we how do we take advantage of the new technologies that are out there and combine that with coaching to help educate and also hold people accountable to our new way of thinking? Yeah, there are technologies out there today that make the job a whole lot easier.
00:08:12:06 – 00:08:42:00
I know that, there are some out there that manage 50 technicians. It is really hard, even with technology, to comb through it, comb through the data, and, provide feedback to those 50 technicians. Maybe it’s just 20. Well, that’s still four appointments a day. Even so, we are better off today with the technology than we were without it.
00:08:42:02 – 00:09:06:17
So if you’re asking yourself whether or not you should invest in technology, whether it’s, Cells Pro or rela, whether it’s field spark, all those are fantastic products that help you track, CSRs help you track, their performance, help you track a technician as well as comfort advisors if you want them to follow the process.
00:09:06:17 – 00:09:41:23
If you’re concerned about, the way they’re performing and there’s only one of you to go around, invest in the technology, I realize it’s going to be hard to comb through it, but you’re a step closer than having to go out in the truck with them, right? You’re step closer, with the CSRs as well. If you’re using the technology there where you can pick out specific parts of the call that you want to hear, that you want to see, they show me where the, the, CSR built value and you type it in and crazy thing the Da pulls it up the same thing with really they’ve got some very cool AI where
00:09:41:23 – 00:10:03:29
you will you type in the specific thing that you’re looking for, the specific thing that you want, and you have the ability to just pull it up. That specific part say you want to find out whether or not they asked for the cell, right? Whether they asked for it at the end. Right. If you if you or if if you were to move forward one of these day, which one would it be or what should we do?
00:10:04:00 – 00:10:30:03
Or something of that nature? Would you like to go with this one or that one? We want to hear those specific things, and we can save a whole lot of time if we use the technology. So definitely do research on the technology that’s available to you. Make time to, comb through the data. If you don’t have time, hire a company to do it for you.
00:10:30:05 – 00:10:48:03
I pros, we have, 70 coal monitors. We have 31 coaches, and we help a ton of contractors comb through the data. So if you find in your heart of hearts that you have time to do it, then find somebody like parsley Pros to do it for you. But either way, you want to invest in this technology.
00:10:48:06 – 00:11:09:14
Embrace the technology, embrace it. Whether it’s for technicians, whether it’s for CSRs, embrace it as quickly as possible because it’s never been easier to grow your business than it is today because of that technology. So, so true. And, you know, it’s kind of interesting. I mean, you bring up the point of it. The technology by itself doesn’t do anything for you.
00:11:09:14 – 00:11:34:16
It’s not until you actually, as an owner or leader, manager or even as an individual, that’s that’s recording your own stuff. If you go back and listen to it and then learn from it and act on it, then that technology can actually be a benefit to you. But if you’re just dumping data into the cloud basically, and never actually harvesting the data, not actually doing anything with it, it’s a big money pit.
00:11:34:17 – 00:11:55:08
Yeah, I don’t spend money on this. I spend money and that’s between this and there’s no margin left over. You’re absolutely right. Yes, you as you as you sign up for the data. Also make sure you have a plan to use that data to hold your team accountable. You’re absolutely right. Yep. And analyzing it is critically important. And then acting on it.
00:11:55:08 – 00:12:34:10
Yeah. Acting on what you learn. So I know you guys are seriously famous about creating that wow customer experience. And I know both internal customers you know, our teammates as well as our external customers, those that are paying the bills. So what what advice do you give people about really evaluating every customer touchpoint and turning to those, those touch points and opportunities for for building greater trust, owning a bigger ticket and and creating that long term loyalty that we all seek.
00:12:34:13 – 00:13:06:06
Yeah. You know, I was in Australia a few weeks ago and an event and a couple of contractors continue to ask me about what I will do in the future to the industry. And the fear was, is that white collar individuals, talented, well-educated individuals would be forced into the trades. And the question essentially was, what do we do?
00:13:06:09 – 00:13:12:17
And I said, offer them a job.
00:13:12:19 – 00:13:45:27
Pretty simply, well, what if they try to take our jobs? I said, look, your objective over this window of time, let’s say it’s true. Let’s say that over, over the next 2 to 3 years, people, talented, educated individuals, with white collar jobs, essentially lose those jobs and need a job in 2 or 3 years. Your objective in this 2 to 3 year, 2 to 3 year window is to grow as much as possible, to not stay where you are, right, to not stay at 5 million, but to but to be at 10 million, to be at 15 million.
00:13:45:27 – 00:14:16:05
20 million. The bigger you are in your community, the stronger hold you have on your marketplace, the better off you’re going to be. And you’ve and you can very realistically offer those talented white collar individuals employment. That’s number one. Number two is, is that when you, see, AI coming in to play, we’re noticing, contractors swing from one side of the pendulum to the other.
00:14:16:05 – 00:14:49:06
Here’s what I mean by that. And so we’ve have our own costs and we’ve got 60 agents. We work 93% of our phone calls. And over the summer, we’ve had about six companies completely leave our call center for, AI agents answering those phones. And, of the six that left us, all six have come back. Whether it’s because the AI is not ready yet or because they realize that switching completely over, to AI to answer all of their phones was a little bit hasty.
00:14:49:08 – 00:15:16:21
And that is exactly my point. Whether you’re concerned about white collar, talented individuals or whether it’s, hey, do I switch completely over to I don’t be hasty. Be smart game. Take a look at what other companies are doing. All right. Companies like McDonald’s. Yeah, they have this big screen. Now, when you go into McDonald’s, you can order things and that model is working for them.
00:15:16:21 – 00:15:44:06
In fact, they’re able to upsell, and get higher, higher, higher. Tickets per, per unit. Right, per individual using those flat screens. And it’s working pretty well for them. With those flat screens, however, chick fil A has doubled down on the people in their line. Why? Because they notice that the main reason why people, decide not to go to chick fil A is the line.
00:15:44:09 – 00:16:05:17
So what do they do now when you’ve got double the people ushering cars to the line, you can, let’s say you could be down the street and around the block waiting for chick fil A, but you’ll have an individual there taking your order and your payment. So now you’re locked in. You’ve paid. So you’re going to be waiting in that line.
00:16:05:20 – 00:16:32:13
And that’s what works for them. Now remember a chick fil A, you have a better experience than you do McDonald’s. And you’re going to pay more. Guess what? People will wait for a great experience and they’ll pay more for a good experience. So the question is, is what kind of experience do you want to create? Whether it’s a McDonald’s experience or a chick fil A experience, you decide you need to make sure that you have the AI integrate in to that experience.
00:16:32:15 – 00:16:53:15
You don’t replace your people with that experience. All right, so if all of your people are on the phone. Yeah. Have I pick it up, book that call. But make sure you have a human call afterwards and say, hey, how was your experience? Maybe take a look at when they were scheduled, because maybe things have shifted in your schedule since the I booked it, right?
00:16:53:15 – 00:17:07:25
The AI doesn’t look at any of that stuff. So if you look at it and you notice that somebody called in to reschedule, or a technician is called in early because they just got done with their last job, and you need to move that thing, that appointment up, then move it up. You see, humans need to be there.
00:17:07:25 – 00:17:29:08
Humans need to be involved so that we keep our technicians busy and our board and our boards full day in and day out. So be smart. Don’t be hasty. Be wise. Take a look at the customer experience. Decide how the technology could be integrated in so that you improve and enhance your experience, as opposed to completely taking away.
00:17:29:11 – 00:17:51:18
And and you do that from each of your touchpoints, no doubt about it. You know, and it’s those things that you know that do build that trust that we’re all seeking in business. Right? And, you know, it’s demonstrated in, in the Hvac industry by maintenance agreements. That’s how we build that trust, that long term loyalty. That’s how we get the average ticket up and so forth.
00:17:51:18 – 00:18:13:07
All those things are a part of, you know, that whole customer experience. So 100% agree with you, man. That’s, that’s killer. That’s three really powerful points. I know that your, your workshop that you’re going to be doing for us at the mega epic 2026 conference coming up, it’s probably going to be jam packed with even a few more things.
00:18:13:09 – 00:18:35:13
What do you guess? Absolutely. It’s going to be fun. Can’t wait to be there. Wow, thanks for that awesome discussion, Brigham. I know there will be much more detail in your workshop, and I know attendees will be glad they participated. Thanks for serving the industry with your knowledge that leads to more Wow experiences for both our internal and external customers.
00:18:35:15 – 00:18:58:11
For more about Brigham’s breakout session, visit the epic 2020 6.com website and check out the agenda for Thursday at one p pm. If you haven’t already registered for the conference, make sure you do so as it will surely sell out this year as it has in the past. Click Register Now at Epic 2020 6.com so you don’t get left out.
00:18:58:14 – 00:19:11:07
Thanks for watching. Cracking the code. Well, we make Hvac success clear, simple, and stress free. See you next time.
