How Human Connection Wins HVAC Purchase Decisions
Is your sales process getting more automated — but less effective? When HVAC decisions get reduced to scripts, software, and speed, contractors risk losing the one thing homeowners actually buy from, people. Homeowners call because life was disrupted and they want to feel taken care of.
In this week’s episode of Cracking the Code, Drew Cameron unpacks why human connection is what truly drives HVAC purchase decisions and why it’s important not to rely on technology too heavily. He breaks down how empathy, presence, and real conversations build trust faster than any tool ever could, and why in a market flooded with AI, humanity becomes the premium.
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00:00:00:00 – 00:00:17:06
We are people and we’re taking care of people. That’s the one thing that all this technology can’t do. It can’t be intuitive. It doesn’t read body language. It doesn’t sense facial expression. Right. You.
00:00:17:08 – 00:00:50:13
All right. Welcome back to cracking the code, drew. Let’s talk about humans. Sounds good to me. I always like to have a conversation about people. So you make a statement here that says AI is not the salvation for a better customer experience, man. Let’s unpack that little statement. Yeah. I, you know, I don’t want to get into a whole thing about artificial intelligence and robots and computers and technology, but I thought for purposes of this conversation, we’re going to be talking about humans at home.
00:00:50:15 – 00:01:16:14
We have to remember that, you know, and I think that’s getting lost in life and in business and in society to some extent. And I’m not going to go down and like Iå say, chastise any tool or technology or platform or app or software or anything. But I want, I want to call attention to our audience that that we are business people in contracting, not contractors in business number one.
00:01:16:16 – 00:01:36:06
Number two is we we took on a business that is, you know, now being known as home services, right? And really, at the end of the day, it’s human services. We we are taking care of people. We are people and we’re taking care of people. And when people reach out to us is because life was happening. Then something happened, right?
00:01:36:07 – 00:01:53:07
Life got interrupted. The way they knew it. And they need to do something, okay? They’re not sure what they need to do, but they pick up the phone. They fill out a web form, you know, for your company, and it shows up. And then one of your people basically interacts with the web form or calls out, you know, takes the call and interacts with the customer.
00:01:53:13 – 00:02:20:23
Right? It’s it’s two humans connecting at this point, right? In some cases, or you’re using AI, you know, to basically, you know, handle the web form of the chat or handle the phone calls, you know, and things like that. And while it may have its place, I think at the end of the day when we as consumers. Right, because we’re, we’re contractors, technicians and, you know, maybe we work in the contracting office or we work out in the contracting in the field or in sales or something like that.
00:02:21:01 – 00:02:51:18
But we’re consumers. We’re human beings as consumers. And we go out to the marketplace ourselves. How would we feel if we couldn’t connect with a human being and be, you know, listened to, heard, understood, believe and think that these other humans are going to come and take care of us, kind of get it that they, they, you know, they, they connected with us and that we have acknowledgment, right, that these humans get us and they’re going to take care of us in the way that we want to be taken care of.
00:02:51:20 – 00:03:14:00
Right. That’s the one thing that all this technology can’t do. It can’t be intuitive and it can’t, you know, doesn’t, you know, sense emotion. It doesn’t read body language, it doesn’t sense facial expression. Right? It doesn’t get the inflection in intention in my voice. Right. And I’m not saying that it might not get there at some point, but right now, today, I think humans want humans.
00:03:14:02 – 00:03:32:23
And in a world drowning with artificial content, I think humanity becomes the premium, right? Realness becomes your differentiator. Presence becomes your product. Right? And a personal story becomes your greatest asset. And when you can basically talk about how you’ve been able to help other people that are in a similar situation to what you’re experiencing, I know you.
00:03:33:04 – 00:03:47:19
You’ve never bought this thing before, but let me tell you what you need to know. What’s going on, and I can tell you about some other people who have been through the same thing that you’ve been through. So you’re not a pioneer, right? Other people have gone through this, and here’s what they’ve done. And so now you know what others have done.
00:03:47:21 – 00:04:10:06
And so I think at the end of the day, David, what I’m talking about here, humans at home, we as contractors have to realize this is a very human experience. And we are in human services, not home services, not Hvac or plumbing or electrical or things like that. And and we employ humans. And so we have to create a very great accumulative experience within our organization or organism, if you will.
00:04:10:08 – 00:04:39:14
Right. Because we’re a bunch of humans collectively operating in a space. So we’re an organism, not an organization. And then we realize that we’re taking care of humans. Our vocation might be the tools and technology and Hvac and plumbing and generators and things like that. Electrical stuff. Right. But you said that another, in another, programing code segment where, you know, we just happen to turn wrenches, but it’s humans taking care of humans.
00:04:39:16 – 00:04:45:13
Yeah, it really is. And, you know, you think about it, there’s been a lot of,
00:04:45:15 – 00:05:13:07
I think there’s a lot of dehumanization going on in the society in general. I mean, a lot of the a lot of the, really evil things that are going on in the world right now, basically. Well, I mean, we go back to the Holocaust. I mean, in essence, when the Jews were being persecuted over in Germany and being basically murdered, basically they were being murdered.
00:05:13:09 – 00:05:37:00
They were they were seen as less than human. Right. And that’s the way that the Nazis positioned them so that they could dispose of them, which is ridiculous, obviously. And in, in our society, it was just not right. But I see that happening more and more and more right now where people dehumanize people, they start calling them.
00:05:37:00 – 00:06:05:05
It’s something. Right? But the dehumanization is, is something that really is unattractive in society and the whole concept. And I never thought about it until you just said that. But the whole concept of home services dehumanizes. It takes the human out of the home. And I don’t know about you, but this never happened to me. I never showed up at a house, and the house signed an agreement to upgrade its Hvac system.
00:06:05:07 – 00:06:23:17
That never happened to me. Did that ever happened to, you know, any equipment? Didn’t call me and tell me I wanted to be replaced either. Yeah, yeah. It’s amazing how that works. It’s like the technology that. Now, to be sure, with all this diagnostic, you know, onboard diagnostics and stuff like that, that’s coming, it’s time to come replace me.
00:06:23:17 – 00:06:54:18
If I still have enough power to say that. Yeah. But it is it is interesting to think about how some of today’s trends seem to be moving more and more away from the human interaction, rather than more and more to it. And, you know, 2020, when we went through the Covid thing, really, I mean, it really kind of jumpstarted a lot of that jump started, but maybe amplified it to where it’s like, nope, you just stay in your box, I’ll stay in mine.
00:06:54:20 – 00:07:17:16
I don’t want to see anybody. I just want to talk to you over the phone. I don’t want to see you. And it’s like all of a sudden people didn’t want to gather anymore. And it’s like, dude, human. The human condition says, I need to speak to other humans. Yeah, I hate, I hate when I see my wife texting with our son or daughter or daughter in law or whatever.
00:07:17:16 – 00:07:35:17
It’s like, pick up the phone and talk to him. Talk to him right? Let’s be right anyway. Go ahead. Man, that’s a really interesting thought. You got my you got my wheels spinning now drew. Yeah I yeah I’m glad I, I say the same thing. So you know I hear from salespeople and technicians all the time. They go out and they see homeowners.
00:07:35:17 – 00:07:51:08
Right. It’s like, you know, what did the customer say? Well, you know, emailed me and he text me and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. I’m like, did you, you know, did you call him and call him? Yeah. Go ahead and call now. I have a conversation with him. Right. It’s like, pick up the phone. Right. You know. Yeah, I even had this conversation with my kids not too long ago.
00:07:51:08 – 00:08:08:01
I was like, yeah, well, my daughter, she basically said, yeah, I left a message for my, you know, for my doctor, and I haven’t heard back. And I’m like, when was that? Like three weeks ago. I’m like, don’t you think that your doctor would have gotten back to you had they remembered? And you have to realize you have to.
00:08:08:02 – 00:08:22:05
And that’s the other thing. You have to give grace and empathy to another human being who has a job, and their job is to take care of you. And as a professional, I think that person should have called me back. But guess what? They’re also human being. And and and they got a lot of patients. They got a business to run.
00:08:22:06 – 00:08:43:12
They’ve got a family. Maybe something went sideways. They forgot. Maybe the message never got to that person. Right. And so I we don’t we don’t we don’t see the people. Right. And we have more means by which to communicate today unless meaningful communication, unless and therefore if we have less meaningful communication, I think we have less connection. And that’s what I kind of said, right, is that people are thriving on connection.
00:08:43:12 – 00:09:07:22
They want they want connection. They want that connectivity. And, that humanity becomes the premium, you know, in a marketplace flooded where everybody is focused on selling product. And I really think if you see the people, right, that’s going to be unique. I just saw the Who in Concert, on their farewell tour. I’m a huge fan. My younger brother, before he passed away in 2006, I was his favorite band.
00:09:08:03 – 00:09:25:08
And we had seen him multiple times. And I’d seen obviously, then perform the rock opera Tommy multiple times, and that was written in 1960. I think 67 to 68 was released in 69, you know, by Pete Townsend and one of the top ten albums of all time. Obviously, whether you like him or not, it’s just recognized.
00:09:25:09 – 00:09:47:05
When I do, I’m good. Yeah. Yeah. Right. And and towards the end of the rock opera, there’s a song, it’s called See Me, Feel Me and the the, you know, the lyrics go on and say, see me, feel me, touch me, heal me. Right. And what the the story is about is, yes, it’s a deaf, dumb and blind boy who plays pinball.
00:09:47:05 – 00:10:29:14
Right. And and that’s the that’s the story. But that’s just a metaphor for, you know, people not feeling connected. Right. It is. It really is really Pete Townsend had of having worked with some spiritual guidance, guides in his life. That was helping him see something and connect with humanity on a different level. And so he used song in such a way to basically help people see that, you know, people all around us, maybe including ourselves, they feel invisible, they feel unheard, they feel unseen, they feel disconnected, and they’re seeking genuine connection and recognition and healing from whatever suffering they’re having.
00:10:29:16 – 00:10:51:07
And I think and we talked about this in another segment, but I think if you if we really took a look at those around us and realized that ourselves, including everyone around us at some level, is suffering from a a remembrance of who they are, right? And if we were created in the likeness and you touched on this a little bit earlier.
00:10:51:07 – 00:11:11:11
Right. So we’ll go there. You know, we’ll spiritual little political. Right. But, if we really realized who we are as human beings, we were created in the likeness of our creator, right? And therefore our creator. If our creator is perfect, right, then therefore we’re perfect. But we forget that as we grow up as a as a child, as a baby, no one.
00:11:11:11 – 00:11:30:18
Everybody thought you were perfect, right? But then the world got your way and people started pointing fingers at you. Tell you who you are, who you’re not. You’re not good enough. Your parents, teachers, peers. Right. It became a you became a teenager, right? Yeah. And and and people got you know, who did humanize to your point a little bit earlier.
00:11:30:18 – 00:11:51:16
Right. And therefore, you know, we’re all suffering. And so, I think if we realize that everybody around with the suffering is from level and the people who call us are really suffering, and it’s our job to end their suffering. But the way to do that is to really look at them with grace and empathy and say, I see you.
00:11:51:16 – 00:12:11:03
I know that life isn’t going the way that you want it to right now. Maybe you got other things going on too, but guess what? In this particular situation, I got you right. We can take care of you and I. And I think if we looked at ourselves in, that way, and then we looked at the people that we take care of and say, listen, my job is to end their suffering.
00:12:11:05 – 00:12:27:16
I would look at this differently. Like when we wake up in the morning, for example, we’re suffering maybe from a lack of caffeine, right? Whether that be, you know, your taste of coffee or that you need caffeine to get going. But it is a level of suffering right now. There are people suffering at a much greater level, right?
00:12:27:16 – 00:12:47:09
You can’t even get a meal. But see, it’s all on the spectrum. We’re all suffering at some level, and if we had a little grace and empathy for everybody on the spectrum of suffering and then say how can I help? And they’re suffering, what could I do? How can I serve? Yeah, how can I serve? And you also said, how can I serve beyond what they’re willing to pay me?
00:12:47:11 – 00:13:07:06
Is there something I could do for these people to make their life a little bit better, a little bit easier? Even though I’m not paying you, you’re not paying me. Could I clean out their gutters? I could I change out the batteries in the smoke detectors, but I change out the floodlights up on the higher side of the house because I have an extension ladder and they can get rid of that, that that appliance that’s been sitting in their garage for ten years because they don’t have a truck to take it to the dump.
00:13:07:08 – 00:13:22:23
Right. Just something extra I could do it. No additional charge while I’m here because I see a human being and, you know, a good deed that I can do for free, you know, and that’s the kind of thing that that is.
00:13:23:00 – 00:13:48:05
There’s some things you can’t teach. You can’t teach some things that their daddy and mama. This is the way I see. That’s right. But, there are some things you can teach, like being observant and seeing that opportunity, seeing that they got some crap in the gutter that needs to be taken care of, or when you’re in an attic looking at the duct system and you look up and you notice water stains on the roof and you realize, oh my gosh, they got a rotten roof right there they probably don’t know about.
00:13:48:05 – 00:14:01:22
Well, if you came to my mom’s house and you went to go to her in her attic, I promise you, she hadn’t been in the attic in at least five and a half years because she had a stroke five and a half years ago. So she doesn’t know if she’s got attic leaks or not. Roof leaks in her attic or not.
00:14:01:22 – 00:14:20:20
Sure. No, because she she can’t get up there to see. Right. She has nobody else to go see except for the people that are coming to serve her in whatever capacity. And so, you know, it’s a it is a we are all suffering servants, right? We’re we’re servants to something. Right? Might be to ourselves, might be to others.
00:14:20:20 – 00:14:56:16
When you have a servant to others attitude than you are in the service business, whether you like it or not. And some people don’t like the word servant, but I’m okay with it because it is what it is. We are servants. We are serving others. And, you know, it’s interesting when when you think about the importance of recognizing people where they are and appreciating them, having having not only empathy, for where they are in their situation, but also appreciating the fact that others that are serving you are actually being those people, right?
00:14:56:16 – 00:15:20:13
They’re serving you like, I love it, and I make this a common practice when I’m heading to the Atlanta airport and I’m crossing over the crosswalk there where they’re, you know, trying to keep worse, we got some traffic cops that are trying to keep us from getting run over us. We’re walking into the airport. I always tell the person who is stopping the traffic, thank you.
00:15:20:15 – 00:15:40:06
Thank you for your service. And they look at me like, what? You know, hundreds of thousands of people walk by them a day and don’t even see them as humans. And I stop and I say, hey, thank you for your service. Without you, I could be dead right now, right? And there’s this laugh and it’s like, man, you just made my day, you know?
00:15:40:06 – 00:16:00:12
Or the TSA agent or the, I love the guy. And the attendant in the bathroom was like, man, thanks for keeping the airport looking so good. You know, they’re just like, yeah, you know, and maybe drop them a $5 bill every once in a while. I mean, recognition and appreciation and things like that are are like a missing there are missing piece of society to a large degree.
00:16:00:12 – 00:16:18:10
And just helping people know that they matter. But even just looking them in the eye and speaking to them in a kind voice, you know, if you see their name, if they’re wearing a like last night, we took my mom out to dinner and we went to a local restaurant where the servers actually have their name on their shirt.
00:16:18:11 – 00:16:42:00
Right? It’s like, okay, that’s awesome. So we use their name, you know, it’s like you recognize people because they’re humans, right? Recognize them because they’re suffering too. They’re having to work their butt off to pay their bills, do what you can to make their day better. Man, that’s a just a great a great attitude and one that we can teach right to, to our employees, our coworkers, our teammates.
00:16:42:00 – 00:17:03:20
And, and we should we can and we do that mostly by demonstration. Right. If we’re going to be the leaders, we got to show them first that this is how I act. And this is what I’d love for you to learn how to do. Right. I’m going to help you with that. I’m going to I’m going to hold you accountable to being observant and being being appreciative of others.
00:17:03:22 – 00:17:22:07
I mean, another trainer that, that I’ve sat under in the past, he used to always say thank you for the food. Right? When you’re talking to us, you’re you’re trying to you sell a job and the customer says, yeah, to the to the offer. And they said he says, just just tell them thank you for the food.
00:17:22:08 – 00:17:40:22
Don’t be like, what say you just you’re helping to pay for the food on on my table at my house, you know, and it was just kind of a little jokey kind of thing. But it’s true, right? You should thank your customers for their for their contribution to your livelihood as well. Anyway, I’m on a rant there, but man, it’s it’s all about the human aspect, isn’t it?
00:17:41:03 – 00:18:03:17
It is. We don’t know. We don’t know what anybody else has been through. Number one, you know, we don’t what how they were raised. We don’t know what you know, turmoils and struggles that they had or or how they were. Maybe you had such an easy life, right. And and why they’re coming from where they’re coming from. But if we had a little bit of grace and empathy, you know, you know, I think if we just look back and say, listen, I don’t know who you are.
00:18:03:17 – 00:18:20:19
I don’t know where you’re coming from, but I want to listen. I want to help, and I want to help if I can. And you said that the servant leader, it’s just humans helping humans, right? And and that you know, the that who song see me, feel me goes into a another song called Listening to You and the, the opening lines that are listening to you.
00:18:20:19 – 00:18:39:12
I get the music gazing at you, I get the heat following you. I climb the mountain, I get excitement at your feet. And I think what what Pete is trying to say there is, you know, if I just if I just slow down enough to listen to another human being, you know, I can help. I can see how I can help you.
00:18:39:12 – 00:18:57:00
You’re giving me the gift of a converse, an opportunity of a conversation and what you’re telling me. What’s most important to you? What’s most concerning to you, what you want to share with me. And if I just. If I just tap into you, that’s music to me. If I see you. Okay, it heats me up, right? If I follow you into what?
00:18:57:05 – 00:19:12:00
What you got going on? You know, I elevate myself what I do for you, I do for myself. And I think if we basically just took a moment in the morning when we woke up and looked in the mirror and said, you know what, I got the gift of some heartbeats and breaths today. What can I do with them?
00:19:12:02 – 00:19:31:14
Because there’s a lot of people who didn’t get those today. And so I’m grateful, you know, I’m grateful for the heartbeats and breaths that I have. And what can I do them? What can I do with them for someone else? Because what I, what I do for someone else, I do for myself because we’re all part of this thing together called humanity.
00:19:31:16 – 00:19:58:21
Humanity is the collection of all the humans together, and we’re all as gashes, ball hurtling through space. And we’re one existed. And so what I do for you, I do for me that vibration, that residency that comes back and that energy cannot be created nor destroyed. It just exists. But I go out there with a bad attitude, you know, or a short change in the experience, or basically getting offended by somebody because they had a bad day or had a bad experience.
00:19:58:21 – 00:20:16:17
Last time they, they went out, they went to the restaurant last night. Their steak was undercooked. And so now they’re taking it out on me, you know, that that doesn’t define me. What they say, what they do, even they call me names, doesn’t define me. I define who I am. I’m sorry. That’s going on for you. What can I do to help?
00:20:16:17 – 00:20:33:07
I’m here to help. If I can’t, I don’t know if I can. I don’t know if you want me to, but let’s have a conversation. Let’s get to work. Let’s see what’s going on, and you’ll tell me what I can do for you, whether that be you as my. My homeowner, my customer, or you as my coworker, or you as my kid, or you as my significant other.
00:20:33:07 – 00:20:49:01
Right. And I think we just need this human or you as a human right. And so I just need to see you. I need to feel you. I need to touch you, I need to I need to heal you. Right. And and be careful. Don’t take those words literally right now. Go ahead. And seeing and feeling in touch with people that you shouldn’t.
00:20:49:01 – 00:21:14:11
Right. But but you get the idea, right? It’s just just connect, right? Being human and helping other humans. So sounds like you just gave us another opportunity for another podcast. We need to take, lyrics from awesome rock songs and and unpack those. So if you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice. Hey,
00:21:14:13 – 00:21:32:13
Drew, this has been fun, man. We, we’re going to do some more of this in the future, and I look forward to it. But the key here is we got humans at home. They’re going through stuff. We’re servants. We’re trying to serve them. Do the best you can at being the best you can be as a servant.
00:21:32:15 – 00:21:59:15
Closing thoughts. Yeah. And just and yeah I robots, computers, technology are not bad things. Use them to enhance the experience. Don’t use them to supplant the experience. Right. The human is the premium in this. Right. And that human experience, that customer experience as humans and that energy kind of coming together. And then we’ll use the technology to and enhance where we can streamline, make things easier, faster.
00:21:59:17 – 00:22:18:22
Yes. But so I don’t want to make technology a bad thing. Right. Because humans have to drive this. Humans are the ones creating the technology. Humans are the ones who should drive it. It shouldn’t be the other way around. That’s right. And so think about this, guys. Humans are the ones that sign checks, not AI bots. That’s cracking the code for the day.
00:22:18:22 – 00:22:29:11
Drew, thanks for being a part of it. We’ll look forward to seeing you on the next edition.
