AI With a Soul: How Michael Wheelock Helps Contractors Stay Personal in a Tech-Driven World
0:00 Introduction to AI with Soul
2:28 Meet Michael: Communications Expert
4:38 Using AI to Support, Not Replace
6:45 Identifying Customer Red Flags
11:55 Improving Technician-Customer Interactions
15:20 Personalized Service Wins Deals
17:13 Growth Without Losing Brand Identity
21:13 Episode Wrap-Up and Contact Info
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Speaker 1: 0:00
What's up, lemonheads? Welcome to another episode of From the Yellow Chair. I am Crystal and today I am really excited to talk about something that, I'll be honest, I have a love-hate relationship with. But I today am going to be talking about AI with a soul, how contractors can really stay personal in a tech-driven world. I know that we are reshaping how home service companies are connecting with customers using artificial intelligence, but, before you roll your eyes, this isn't really about replacing your people with robots, necessarily. This is really more about.
Speaker 1: 0:36
Today's call is specifically more about protecting your voice, your values and everything that makes your business and your brand uniquely you. So joining me is going to be the head of customer interactions for Affiliated Tech, which I got to meet them when I was helping them set up with my pest families pest control company called Voice for Pest is the program that they had that particularly, I engaged with, and once I got to listening to what they were doing, I was like man, this is super cool. So we're going to talk through how they are helping contractors use AI to listen better, respond better and stay true to their brand, all while growing smarter and faster. So listen, grab your lemonade, get your chip off your shoulder about AI and let's talk about how the right tech can make your brand much more human, not less. Let's sip some lemonade, all right, perfect. So, michael Wheelock, welcome to From the Yellow Chair.
Speaker 2: 1:40
Hi guys, great to be here so excited.
Speaker 1: 1:43
Oh yeah, and we've been chatting already before the recording started. So I know that you are the head of sales for Affiliated Tech. You're a seasoned communication expert. That home service is no, you're no stranger to that. Love your AI driven like customer analytics things that you guys have going on. So why should any one of my listeners, michael, care kind of what you have to say? Tell us a little bit about yourself.
Speaker 2: 2:07
Absolutely so. First off, I was born and bred in the communications industry. I spent 23 years growing up in there, from college to now. I started out even working on the copper out in the field back when we had old dial tone phones, and then I became very high up in the communications for the phone company running contact centers and call centers for them, helping with customer experience. From Affiliated Technologies perspective, we've been in the industry for 30 years. We are the industry's first communications provider that focuses on home services. So we find most of our customers don't go out and use a sales force for running their whole business. They use an industry specialized software to run that business, things that control routes, things that are made for you. We are the communications company that is made for you. You'll find, as we talk through, a lot of the solutions today they actually came from customer input. So our customers have a big voice in how we support them and how we grow their business.
Speaker 1: 3:21
Man, I can tell you, you know, when we talk to vendors, that we know are listening to the contractor, because you know I'm a contractor at heart.
Speaker 1: 3:28
My heart goes to watching my dad, brother, my grandpa and me being in that, and so you know, really listening to your people is where I think vendors can really miss the boat. Like, what are people looking for? And so you know, michael, you know I, as a brand person, this idea that AI is coming in and replacing everybody and you know brands can be whipped up in 20 minutes, you can buy them off of a shelf and things like that those are super concerning to people like me. So what I really want to know is how can I use AI as a supplement, as a resource, as an efficiency tool, but yet still have that people first mentality, efficiency tool but yet still have that people first mentality. And so you know how did you guys really decide that needed to be a direction that you guys went for voice for pest or voice for turf, or you know all the little cool voice fours that you're doing. So how are you using tech to help keep brands feel still personal, yet all the cool things that come along with AI?
Speaker 2: 4:26
Absolutely so. You'll find in the industry there's been a progression to use AI to talk to your customers. The challenge with that has been you lose that personal touch that you were talking about. We have stepped back and taken a much different approach using AI to make you more efficient by analyzing phone calls and conversations to tell you which customers are getting ready to leave your service, which ones need your special attention, which ones are viable sales opportunities that you should be pursuing, and automating all that without you having to lift a finger.
Speaker 1: 5:04
Well, I mean, you know contractors another thing I know contractors are like, man, I don't need one more thing on my plate, or or trying to micromanage one more thing, like, yes, I can hand it off, but you know, really this comes down to having a tool that works for me and makes us more efficient and definitely supports everything that good tech should support. Right, but it can't replace personality, but it can support it. So, you know, it can help us be I know it can help us be more consistent, hopefully more authentic and even maybe more in tune. You mentioned, like when customers are getting ready to leave. I love the thought process behind that because, you know, sometimes tone is hard to measure when you're just like quickly listening to things or if you're just kind of in an environmental sound of what's going on in your own office, and so I love the idea that AI is in there picking up on tone and, just again, all we're looking for are red flags, right.
Speaker 2: 6:03
Sometimes, people.
Speaker 1: 6:04
just my customer had a bad day right, but at least you knew we even talk about that here at Lemon Seed. You know we are always trying to run customer satisfaction Like are we hitting all the points. I do not know a vendor or a contractor out there who doesn't want to serve their clients well.
Speaker 2: 6:21
Oh, absolutely.
Speaker 1: 6:26
I think those great little red flags are super cool things that we can definitely be up to. So, when you know, I've shared this with you before like, it's not just about auto. You know automation. While that is the cool piece of this, it's about staying on message, and so can AI actually like correct off-brand moments or inconsistencies and like all those tone and empathy and authenticity pieces that were taught to include in our CSR. Like, can AI really help us with that?
Speaker 2: 6:54
You know, I just had a flashback because you know, as I said, I grew up running call centers and doing other things for the phone company and back in the day we used to have to record calls as a supervisor with a physical tape deck call recorder. Remember the days back in a tape deck. But what we would do is we would have a sheet of paper. I'm just going to show a blank sheet of paper here, but that had all the criteria that we wanted our employees to talk about Did they greet the customer, did they express empathy, did they do things like overcome objections? Now, with AI, you don't have to invest in the call center manager because the call center manager or the customer service manager they're so busy as it is they don't have time to listen to those calls. Well, with our model of AI, we actually run all those through the AI engine to analyze is the customer service rep hitting those key metrics that you're looking for? I'll give you a great example.
Speaker 2: 7:59
I had a customer just yesterday talk to me about we were reviewing their calls. Just yesterday talked to me about we were reviewing their calls and we identified a trend where their lead sales agent was not even getting an address of prospects before they were going in and talking about pricing. Well, there's two things about that. One, is the company serving a market that are a prospect that's in their market. And then number two how do we follow up and make sure that that customer is getting the support they need?
Speaker 2: 8:29
If we don't have any information about that customer, just getting on the phone and giving that prospect a price is costing you hundreds of dollars as a company in marketing spend and you're not getting a return on investment because the prospect is then going out and shopping you around and just price shopping you. The other key metric around that is we're in an industry of value. Both from my perspective and our clients' perspective, the biggest thing that we can offer to our clients is value. If we are not defining that value to a prospect, how are we ever able to close a deal other than offering the cheapest price? The days of racing to a zero dollar price should be over for our customers.
Speaker 1: 9:17
Yes, and you know I we had a client the other day and I was looking through their, their information and I was like why it? It's costing us money to run these calls and we're not building any value on the front side of things. So you know again, you have to build value in your business through the entire customer experience.
Speaker 1: 9:36
So I preach this a lot too. Like you're right If I showed up to your house to work on your unit or spray for pest control or whatever you've got going on and I smell like a cigarette, my shirt's untucked, I got stains all in the pants, trash fell out of my car and then I'm like well, it looks like it's going to be a $5,000 termite treatment. They're like kick rocks Exactly Number one. You look like I could buy you with meth. So you know Exactly.
Speaker 2: 10:02
And as somebody who signed up for termite treatment this month, I wouldn't have paid $5,000 for that interaction either.
Speaker 1: 10:09
Well, and so you know it's your customer service reps. You know I say this a lot too. You know you really are contractors. All contractors, all industries, tend to undervalue the CSR. They're like they spend a lot of money training the technician, they spend a lot of money getting the great, these great installs or applications, but then they're like, well, this CSR, we're going to pay him eight bucks an hour, stick them in there, answer the phone.
Speaker 1: 10:31
How hard is it to answer the phone? It's not hard to answer the phone, but it is hard to protect a complete customer journey and to dispatch for profit and to build out profitable routes. And it is hard to navigate the all of the personalities of all these field technicians along with customers. And so you, we need to be investing in our csrs, and this is voice for pest and anything with the affiliated tech. You know kind of model is built to be a support tool, um, there to just take a lot of the guessing out and be able to identify a lot of the red flags sooner.
Speaker 1: 11:05
Um, because again, this is so beneficial, especially, let me talk to the contractors that are listening, that are intending to in make their customer journey a lot more engaging overall. So this means from the moment that they interact with your brand through marketing, to that first call with your CSR, to a dispatcher or whomever you know. Dispatching to the technician, to the application or install, to the followup call. You know those are a lot of hands and you've got to be monitoring all of that. You have to prioritize the customer's experience.
Speaker 2: 11:41
I agree wholeheartedly, the customer's experience.
Speaker 2: 11:47
I agree wholeheartedly. And the whole experience yeah, absolutely. And what I would say is our value does not stop in the office brick and mortar. We can also actually capture that live conversation between a technician and a customer and ensure that your technician is hitting the KPIs that you want to as well. That varies market by market, but the technician simply wears a little Bluetooth microphone on their collar. If you're in a market where we need to let or you want to let the customer know that they're being recorded, you simply walk up and say Mr Customer, I'm John, I'm your technician today, just want to let you know I've got a note taker running on my bridge here. If you need me to turn it off, no problem. Happy to turn it off for you, but it'll make sure that I don't miss any notes of what's important to you.
Speaker 1: 12:35
I love that. I love that and it kind of like, again, this is a part of your brand experience, this is a part of your you know, feeling of the transparency and letting them know you're taking notes and why. Why you're taking notes it's not to have a big brother, it's not to listen, it's not to judge Well, overly listen, so you know, I mean like invade their privacy. This truly is like hey, I'm transparent with you, I'm taking notes so that I don't miss anything. At the end of the day, that's the truth.
Speaker 1: 13:02
But I will say this it also is important that you, as the owner operator of that business, that you are teaching and coaching your team, your own internal team, on why you're listening and not using that as ammunition if you will, absolutely, but more as ammunition. If you will, absolutely, but more is like hey, I've been listening to some of your calls. This is what we need to do different. Remember, transparency is the key to solutions and so just not allowing hey, this was really an off-brand experience for this customer. Hey, you walked out of the house with out representing lots of options, whatever that looks like. So I love that. Again, ai, navigating the journey of just is your team making the best of every single interaction, so I definitely love that.
Speaker 2: 13:51
Our most successful customers are using this as a carrot with their employee. How do they incentivize their employees with this? Not just the stick on the back end, but let's celebrate the wins, because you may not know about all of those wins and those great customer experiences. We all know that customers are very quick to complain, but they're very slow to complement, and this will give you the visibility into both.
Speaker 1: 14:19
Absolutely, and I love visibility. So, hey, I know that listening to calls can also teach us a lot about culture and customer experience. You've probably listened to thousands upon thousands of calls and recordings and what they're telling us, and so what do you think you've discovered the most about the customer experience, or even company culture, through listening to some of those calls?
Speaker 2: 14:41
That personalized service wins deals. The reps that are most rushed and most anxious to get the customer off the phone are less likely to close the deal and build the relationship. In the end, it is all about relationships. We are in a relationship business.
Speaker 1: 14:59
Absolutely. We just happen to sell whatever pest control, roofing, hvac, whatever Exactly. So have you seen any like really big data, blind spots in customer service or team performance that maybe stick out to you that contractors could take and look for in their own business?
Speaker 2: 15:18
Absolutely so. There's a couple of things that I'd like to highlight, and we've talked about some of the solutions for our bigger customers and larger organizations, but we do start at just one employee, a guy in the truck. We bring a lot of value to him because he's driving down the road and he doesn't even have time to necessarily take notes on a conversation. With every call we will actually fully transcribe the call, summarize the call and most of the time we can push that summary straight into their industry-specific software that they're running. That's a major blind spot at the end of the day.
Speaker 2: 15:56
I know I need to call Ms Johnson back, but I don't remember what we were talking about. Number one, number two, as you've talked about, our tone detection and we call it sentiment internally being able to evaluate the sentiment. Turn around a lot of very upset clients that were getting ready to leave them a negative social media review on Google. Because we can actually take that call and send a member of management an email near real time, right after the call is processed, of that interaction or even a text message if they want to see that. That way they know something's going on right then and there they need to jump in get their hands on it and get that customer cared for.
Speaker 1: 16:43
I mean there's just nothing about being that nimble. I mean there's just something about being that nimble for sure, for sure. So you know, every phone call that we take is basically a mirror. You know how do we see themselves, how do we see ourselves when we're on those calls and how do we grow from there. So I know that AI can help you grow by efficiency, but how do we make sure that we grow the right way? How do we use this data to scale without losing our whole brand identity?
Speaker 2: 17:13
Yeah, absolutely so. One of the things you just said about a mirror boy, I love that. Yeah, absolutely so. One of the things you just said about a mirror boy, I love that and in fact, I encourage everyone, if you've got CSRs in the office, put up a mirror in their cube and encourage them to smile as they're on the call, because that really transitions and shows through a phone call. So I'm sorry, I apologize, I missed the question.
Speaker 1: 17:37
You're good, you're good. I just was saying, like, what are some of the data that maybe we could use, maybe like a KPI or or anything like that, that we can pull to improve and to grow?
Speaker 2: 17:50
Yeah, absolutely so. You know, one of the great things that I love working with CSRs because many times I do get engaged and almost work as a business consultant working on customer service experiences but is number one, showing them good scenarios and what we genuinely do expect out of them, versus just all the negativity. Again, it's very important to bring the positive side of things to our employees to keep them motivated and driving forward. And then second around, that is, our tool can actually define where a risk, a customer, a customer at risk of leaving your service or leaving a negative Google review. What was their issue? Was it communications? We're not doing a good job letting our customers know before we're heading out on an appointment. That's always a hot topic. The service manager only cares about things going out in the field. Our tool will give him the visibility of interactions that are just field-related that he needs to focus in on. So not only is our tool opening up doors for growth, but it is increasing retention levels at a level that I've never seen in the industry before.
Speaker 1: 19:14
Retention is an issue for sure. Client retention, employee retention, all the retentions are definitely pushing up. You know into the perks that we need to be monitoring better. So love those thoughts. So last little question here for us before we wrap up we do. Do you have a new little venture that you're doing with Highland Cows?
Speaker 2: 19:45
Yeah. So it's pretty exciting and nerve-wracking at the same time. We're very nervous. But if you get to talk to me in the near future, this may not be my office Short term. We're moving to a new homestead and we're going to get three acres north of Denton, Texas, in between Dallas and Oklahoma, if you're not from the area. And we have bought our first miniature Highland cow. So I tell my wife jokingly, boy, she should have been better off just getting diamonds for her birthday because it would have been half the cost of one of these cows. But very excited to to venture out, get our hands dirty and help the ag population grow as well.
Speaker 1: 20:30
I love that. I love that. Well, michael, thank you so much for hanging out with us. How can anyone, if they want to reach out to you and just get more information, just make sure, like I know, it's affiliated techcom, but also, like you do, all home services?
Speaker 2: 20:46
Absolutely.
Speaker 1: 20:47
Oh, perfect. And then what is the best way for them to reach out to you?
Speaker 2: 20:51
Yeah, so you can reach us at sales at affiliated techcom. A member of our team will reach out to you very quickly. Make sure that we get what you need. Understand your needs. Understand how we can make a difference and help you improve your business.
Speaker 1: 21:06
Fantastic, all right, all right. So I think you've totally reframed for me a little bit at least a different way to look at AI, making sure that we're not just running hard and forgetting brand, and it's more about how we're going to be able to keep brand and keep culture. So I loved our conversation today. Definitely not a threat. It's definitely a tool to protect. So it's absolutely a great talking to you. So, guys, if you're ready to grow your business with, maybe without losing your voice no pun intended make sure that you reach out to the team over at Affiliated Tech or Voice for Pest and things like that. So thanks for listening to another episode of From the Yellow Chair. If you enjoyed this episode, please go share our socials, leave us a review wherever you're listening to podcasts. Thanks for sipping some lemonade and we'll catch you next time. Bye, bye guys.
