Ep 228 - Why We Don't Suggest AI For Your Phones

Hello, hello, hello and welcome back to yet another episode of Electric Prenuers Secrets. I'm your host, clay Newmire, with me, as always, my esteemed co-host, joseph Lucchani, and we're the Electric Prenuers, two master electricians with business addictions, here and ready to serve. Welcome to our freemium program in your daily coach. Call the cost for admission for this one. Sit back in the hot seat, take everything we give. Just promise to also take action as we help you master your sales, simplify your pricing and deliver premium level electrical service. Joseph, how are you doing this fine kind of post holiday pre-New Year Wednesday, brother, it's.

I don't really know how to even quantify it. I'm feeling abundantly blessed. I had a great holiday with I haven't seen my family in a very long time, so being able to connect with them and bottom them was wonderful. Had some time to really get your feet under you, recover, recharge springboard and to take it on the best 2024 we can have. I'm feeling really, really, really good man. What about?

you, would you use the word refreshed at all Feeling?

some vitality you feeling ready to rock. I would say I thought I did, but yeah, if nothing else, then I definitely would agree with that feeling.

Awesome man. That's how I'm feeling today. I'm ready to bring some energy In fact. First thing this morning, first class of the week as well. After we took yesterday off, I was pumped up man, literally. I was in the gym pumping iron, trying not to breathe heavy on the mic, but we got through it. Brother, today's episode why we Don't Suggest AI for your Phones was something that came out of that class Huge controversy, huge discussion and obviously, with the advancements in AI, I mean arguably sounds more human than ever before, maybe so human that we can get away with this phone answering service. And I've seen this kind of topic come up amongst other service groups and other service providers, marketers that are suggesting it. But, joe, I mean, why wouldn't we suggest that you put someone, or at least put something, ai on your phones, even for direct outreach back to your clients?

It's a hard conversation to get into, but I think it's worthwhile, because there's two separations we have. One is when you look at things logically P&L numbers strictly that and the other is an emotional. What experience are we giving? What is really being taken away from all our interactions with our clients? And I feel if we look at it from that economy, it becomes very abundantly what we should do. So, as business owners, we're tempted to say what can we do to increase efficiency and create consistency in all of our experiences? Right, so it would make sense for someone to say well, I have a CSR that I'm paying $40,000 to $50,000 a year. I could invest $20,000 to an AI software that pays itself over and over and over over time, requires no days off, no upkeep, no, nothing can be automated for all hours of the day and, as a result, I make money. Great, $30,000 made. The downside, though, is when you look at the emotional experience that it's providing. The biggest detriment is when you remove people from the equation. How often have you even you said it yourself people don't know how much you care. They don't care how much you know until they know how much you care, and what in your personal experience, would make you feel that an AI gives you the same personal experience as someone on the other line.

Yeah, it just doesn't. For me it feels like a shortcut. You went as far as, even in the class, you took a call from an AI software of some sort that is meant for these calls, but did you still recognize that it wasn't a human? And how far into the call?

So I recognized it within the first five seconds and the best reference is this A man, do you remember back in the 90s, when we first started having our voicemails set up? Like you know, whether it was your home phone or whether it was like early 2000s, your first cell phone came out and we started creating these voicemails to prank our friends. Like oh hey, yeah, I'm doing good. How are you doing? And like you create and they go. I got you, don't worry. You got my voicemail. Leave a message. Yeah Right, that's exactly how it felt. It was the first statement of hi, this is blank from blank. How are you doing? Today? And it felt so real that I'm like how's it going? Great, I'm glad to hear you're doing good here at blank. And I was like, oh okay, that's what's happening here.

So a little bit of like spidey sense was tangling and just the feeling like some things just not quite right here.

It was too short of a reaction time. I didn't even finish the full sentence of I'm doing great and it was like great, I'm so glad to hear you're doing good. What would happen if I said I was doing bad? I don't know, maybe you could have pivoted. It could have maybe, but the fact that I was able to pick up on it, it means that I had this immediate temptation to say I want to hang up this phone call Right. If they couldn't take the time to call me, it must not be important, or it's the same thing why the politicians do it Like have you ever gotten those contacts? Or like Hi, my name is X and I'm going to be campaigning in your local area for this. And let me tell you why I'm in the best fit for this area. I never actually got through one of those conversations. I always hang up.

It feels like a shortcut. I agree with that and I want to acknowledge from a business owner standpoint. I mean we too could benefit from having AI make a bunch of calls for us and try to land the 1%. But it feels a lot like going back in time to sending out 100,000 faxes to try to put bums and seats or something, and I just don't really want to play the 1% game because it's not a great qualifier, because there's another qualifying factor happening and that is hey, you're not even a human. Why do I give a shit? Every business owner that feels that pull to this. It's only for one of two reasons that that I can imagine at this point. A, it is hard to find good people it is, but on the phones that's not actually as true as looking for a certified technician to put out there. A journeyman electrician that's hard. A master electrician that's hard to find those, granted, but AI is not quite to the place of, like, replacing your electricians just yet with robots, right? If that happens, man, we're talking about someone like a CSR role, right? Customer satisfaction, doesn't that in itself negate the savings that you might have or the consistency that you're looking for by investing in this? Because that's the other reason, and I have to go back and draw on this word you used, which is experience, the experience people are having, and I saw your finger up. But I just want to introduce one last concept to this that will roll the carpet out, for is like a three dimensional rapport that I'm looking for when I'm working with a company, because, personally, I don't just want to identify the one tech that I like, that I want to work with forever and phone him and only him, or her and only her, and deal with the company through them. I want a three dimensional experience that leaves me feeling great and again highlighting that big experience word. I agree with you on all that.

And I want to also tie in something that I personally had gone through that I really feel would point to this Perfect. So we had our main office manager. Her name was Lauren. I love Lauren. She's a wonderful person that thinks she did a great job and what she did. But the reason why I say that is because of the experience that our clients would tell us where we had one moment where we had hired someone new to help Lauren with her position. And when she made a call out, she goes is this new Lauren or is this old Lauren? And the fact was is that she already? The client knew who the person was that was probably going to call them and when they recognize it wasn't them, they just assumed you must be a Lauren Because you work with your work with this team. So I know for a fact that our clients would not have gotten that experience if we had automated the service and, additionally, there are parts of our process where are known as empathy moments and I do not feel that that could be properly generated. Like to give a quick description of what that might be. It came up in conversation today. Well, what happens if an installer notices something that was offered on the options. That wasn't properly communicated. Should we offer this? Should the CSR be trying to offer those things? And I'm like not if it's automated, because could you imagine the difference of? Hey, clay, I know that when John was at your home last, when we were doing the CSR, we were trying to offer those things when we were doing the hot water heater and getting it all wired up. We know we shouldn't have a water filtration system yet. Is there a reason you chose not to have that? That inflection needs to be perfect, because if it's anything other than perfect, it's going to sound like hey, I want to sell you something, you're interested in buying it, and that will turn people off real fast.

That's the same feeling I get when I discover that I'm talking to a computer, a program, something that was programmed to respond and react to what I'm saying. I just don't feel that's worth my time, and I think you highlighted this earlier. I'm much more inclined to hang up on that program than I am a person, and that's huge because we go back to this concept of the 1% and just playing for that qualification factor. Isn't it important still to really find our perfect customers?

That is everything right there.

If we disqualify ourselves because our perfect customers looking for a premium experience and they recognize that you've got them talking to someone who's in place of a human. And, honestly, I think something that came from class this morning that I wanted to give you props for and I couldn't In the middle of my gym routine, was the fact that you said you had said that this could be really useful for like an after hours line. But the importance being placed on actually addressing the fact that, hey, you're reaching our automated system it's so important to have your integrity here and hold that because now I may actually listen and understand that, oh, this is an after hours automated service. I get that as a person. I get that Right. They're going to be able to help me. I'm calling because I'm in need. It's automated. Hey, we're checking both boxes. I'm happy to stay on the line here right now because I need help and I trust that this is going to do something for me. Still, that makes sense, whereas the last thing you'd want to do is have someone talking to AI in the belief that it's a person, only to find out five, seven, eight minutes into the call oh wait, what that didn't add up. Wait, are you even a person? And I wonder what the AI responses to that question.

I honestly don't know, and the danger is that in that statement in that we don't know because a person you have an understanding of this level of predictability that comes with it and you'd think that the predictability actually comes from the automation. But the one thing that I can predict about an automation is that people will see through it. You cannot fake authentic human connection. And if you're saying it's such a hard time getting them operational, what we should be focusing on is why are we not training them better? If it's so difficult for you to get people in chairs, to have a proper experience and talk to people over the phone, that doesn't seem like replacement with technology would work. It's the same reason why some people, when they go on let's say you go home depot or go to Walmart, wherever you go there are some people who will always go to a person, even if the self-checkout is shorter, specifically because they say you know what? The moment I stop going to the cashier is the moment they replace the cashier with another self-checkout desk. People want to work with people and if you're tricking them yeah, if you're tricking them to thinking this is a person, is you saying you think you're smarter than they are or, even worse, that you're just the same as everyone else, and I love that we cover this in class this morning, which was in a world where everyone is looking to automate. We're looking to enhance experience. We're trying to make the experience so substantial that, in the absence of it, everywhere else in the industry, people will say, all right, I want to work with this company. Yeah, you know what? Yeah, you're right, there are more than Johns down the street, but I do know that when I call, lauren will be there and answer with me, I'll get a technician that's going to come out and it'll be a good experience across the board.

And that's kind of status quo for us. At a time when everyone is moving in a certain direction, typically when you see that, hey, you're already experiencing the rise, the popular vote, right, like like pop culture in this industry, everyone's flocking to it and I'm always going to be an advocate for not necessarily standing against it every time as a rule, but in questioning why are we rushing that way? Why would I do this? Because I personally feel much more in control in having real people answer the phones, develop relationships and create this idea of three dimensional rapport where our clients build a relationship when the first time they call with the person answering the phone, that office manager, CSR, dispatcher, whoever they're engaging with creates an experience at a certain level, right then and there. Then, when they, finally, when we dispatch our salesperson or service tech to go to their house and assess that situation or opportunity, again developing rapport. If there's an apprentice with them, the apprentice has some customer service training and also is building rapport by acting as a respectful person in a developmental stage of their career which everyone, anyone out there, can relate to, can't we? And then, even if it's an installer on an opportunity call, they're coming back and they're you guessed it developing rapport, running the play, and when the whole team does that consistently and congruently, the idea that you'll ever be forgotten is long in the past. 100% Because of, again, that experience you've created. And there's actually some science to this too, to say that far, far less shopping happens just that type of experience than the place with just a single good exchange, or, you know, dare we say it, dare we address it a place where they went for service and didn't end up with a great experience at all. And that's what we challenge here today, joe. Anything else to add to this argument today, man? Or should we just hop into some action items? See how we can help some electric printers out?

I feel like this could just keep going and going, and going, so I'm going to break it, because otherwise I'm going to go myself into a circle but I would love to go into the action items.

All right, you want basic or all-star today.

I think I have the basic one because it's top of tongue. Do you mind if I jump into it?

Yeah, man Hit it Okay.

What's easy to do is easy not to do. We love that expression right. But where it applies to this is when you say why would I even go for automation in the first place? It's because it's easier, right, you can program it to say anything without CSR resistance. You could have it call at all hours of the night, it could save you money on X, y and Z. I get that and I hear it. But isn't that the same justification why everyone else would go to it? It's easy. So taking that extra stand, just saying I'm going to do what's a little bit harder to provide that little bit more, has such a compounding effect to it that I don't even see going automation saving you money. I see going automation costing you money, nice. So my basic action for you guys is this If you were going to cut something, just anything, if you're going to cut at the end of the year, is experience ever a line item that you'd be willing to cut? If you're not willing to cut it there, why are we cutting it here?

Nicely said. Nicely said, all-star action. Here's something you could cut Something that doesn't act in correspondence with your values and what you should be valuing for a premium service experience would be a value of someone to give that first engagement with your company. Have that be a fun, bubbly, happy expression of who you are, what you stand for, because it's likely that the person on the other side is actually calling with fear on their mind Fear of the unknown with their experience in their house, and fear of the unknown with the experience with you. So why don't we just settle that right off the bat and make sure the person to answer those calls truly wants to be answering those calls, and you'll already be light years ahead. Hire for attitude, train for skill when it comes to answering the calls and dealing with customers. That has never been more important, and I urge you to go out there and look for that, and I believe that you will find it, because there are a lot of people that still choose the personal cashier at the grocery store. As Joe said earlier, this has been another episode of Electricpreneurs Secrets, the Electricians podcast, episode 228,. Why we don't suggest AI for your phones? There may be some other purposes that you can make use of, like content, emails, etc. But please keep answering your phones, keep training that and keep finding happy people to help you there and develop this 3D report experience. I'm Clay Neumeyer. This is Joseph Lucani. We are the Electricpreneurs and we're going to see you again live tomorrow. Can't wait to see you then.