our opinions: ADVICE FROM AN EXPERT
In The
Comfort
Zone
Do you know who is on the other side of
the door? A cautionary tale - Part II
By BRETT HOBSON
CEO Comfort Experts
L
80
ast month, I talked about how hard we work to make sure
the service persons we send to your home would be ones
we would be comfortable with having in our own homes.
Our motto is to hire for attitude and train for aptitude. And
our training is, I and many contractors from across the coun-
ty believe, the very best in the business.
When you have extremely high standards it makes it
difficult to hire technicians. Although we were recruiting at
many of the HVAC training schools around the state and
the country, we weren’t finding truly proficient employees
that could provide the kind of service that we expect for
our customers. Because we couldn’t find enough to meet
customers’ needs, we decided to start training the employees
ourselves. We started by partnering with a local community
college, but we still weren’t having the level of expertise we
require for our technicians.
So, after much debate and consideration, we began the
Perfect Technician Academy in 2015 and we haven’t looked
back, only forward. Our training [program] is recognized
as one of the best in the country. Contractors from virtually
every state in the U.S., as well as contractors from Canada
and Grand Cayman, send their employees to us to train to
a level that is not available anywhere else. We are the only
contractor in the U.S. that has a school that is approved by
the State of Texas, The Department of Veteran Affairs, and
the U.S. Department of Labor.
The Mineral Wells campus will allow us to educate
and house the students who come to our school from all
over Texas and the U.S., and some from as far away as the
Cayman Islands. It will be a true campus facility where our
students can live and study. My brother, Brian Hobson, who
runs the Perfect Technician Academy, describes the educa-
tion that our technicians receive as a “fire hose of informa-
tion.” Students have homework every night during the six
weeks of classroom instruction as well as a test at the end of
each unit.
Wh ile our Mineral Wells campus is still on the horizon,
we are currently doing everything we can to introduce new
students to our business. Our recent work with the U.S.
Brett Hobson
Department of Veterans Affairs certifies us to accept GI Bill
Funds for training. The GI Bill is a program for any veteran
who has at least 90 days of aggregate active duty service
after Sept. 10, 2001, and is still on active duty. An honor-
ably discharged veteran or one discharged with a service-
connected disability after 30 days may be eligible for this
VA-administered program. According to the VA, the GI Bill
can pay for training in areas such as HVAC repair, truck
driving, emergency medical training and barber/beautician
school.
As with any business endeavor, it’s impossible to foresee
some of the things that will happen. For example, we were
not expecting for other HVAC contractors to send us their
employees with over 10 years in the field to train in our
academy. It is amazing how many technicians are in homes
every day [and they] don’t understand or know how an air-
conditioning system really works. I think it shows how some
contractors are really trying to make their business better,
but who would have thought that a technician with 10 years
experience would have so little knowledge of the key parts
and of an air-conditioning unit’s operation?
What does all this mean to you as a homeowner if you
honor us by allowing Comfort Experts to be the company
that helps keep you comfortable in your home? The techni-
cian that comes to your home is one of the best-trained in
the industry that will diagnose your problem quickly and
accurately, and has all the parts on his truck that he needs to
fix your unit on the first trip 96 percent of the time.
It’s an exciting time to be in the HVAC business and jobs
are plentiful for those who are willing. According to The
News, an HVAC industry publication, the current shortage
of HVAC technicians in the United States is at 20,000 and
is only expected to increase. Finding good people who want
to practice a trade has been a problem for companies like
ours for years. If you know someone who has a great work
effort, is honest, likes to help people, is reliable, does not do
drugs, is a nonsmoker, is not afraid of work, has a business-
like appearance, or is looking for a great career, please have
them give us a call. We are always hiring good people. And
we will train them on the technical stuff.