Staffing Power Archives - The 7-Power Contractor

Can I Just Have Ai Create My SOPs? You Can, but Here’s What You Need to Know!

By Al Levi | August 23, 2024September 11, 2024

You’re probably asking, “Can I use Ai to create my SOPs?” In short, yes, you can. But, there’s a catch that you need to be aware of.

Ever since artificial intelligence (Ai) ChatGPT burst onto the scene in November 2022, I’ve been fielding questions about whether it can be used to create SOPs and operating manuals.

“Generative” Ai models (like ChatGPT) base their responses on what its large language model has learned from a huge repository of information. The better questions you ask, the better output you will get—though sometimes it takes a few rounds.

That said, with the right prompts, absolutely Ai can generate a list of Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs). An SOP is a list of to-dos or a checklist—very useful!

However, if your goal is to establish uniform operating procedures, keep them in the culture, integrate them, etc., achieving this takes more time effort and money than you might think—which is why I created a program with 90% done for you operating manuals you just have to tweak.

Here are just 7 reasons why you should buy proven, integrated operating manual templates and tweak them instead of using an Ai model like ChatGPT.

The Dirty Secrets about Side Work

By Al Levi | September 5, 2023September 5, 2023

The Dirty Secret about Side Work is that it has been around forever in the contracting business. What this means for those who are unfamiliar with the term “Side Work,” it refers to a Tech who also has their own business to bring in extra money and they’re potentially taking your calls for themselves or just not being available to you and your company.

To better understand this dynamic, I wanted to share an exchange I had with a contractor about this all-too-common employee-employer issue. (The names have been changed to protect the innocent and the not so innocent.)

Why YOU Should Become a Better Trainer

By Al Levi | July 4, 2023July 3, 2023

I had a lot of goals when I worked in my family’s plumbing, heating, cooling, and electrical business, but I guarantee you becoming a great trainer was not one of them.

Until one day I’d just had enough. I was so tired of feeling like a hostage to our existing employees who were doing things whatever way was convenient for them. I wanted to be able to take Willing Apprentices with No Skills and turn them into Willing Techs with Great Skills who would do things our way.

How I was going to get us there was a little hazy, but I was determined to figure it out.

What does this have to do with “Why YOU Should Become a Better Trainer”? Everything!

Operating Manuals: Ai (ChatGPT) or AL (Al Levi)?

By Al Levi | June 6, 2023June 5, 2023

Ever since artificial intelligence chatbot ChatGPT hit the mainstream in the spring of 2023, I’ve been fielding questions about whether it can be used to create operating manuals (aka Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs)).

The short answer is absolutely. It can generate text that tells you how to do a toilet reset or replace an electrical box.

There are, however, some issues you should be aware of. To understand these issues, you need to know a little bit about what is behind ChatGPT and other “generative” Ai models.

If you’re thinking that it can be used to generate all your procedures from scratch with zero human intervention, let me explain why you might want to think that through.

The Trend of Contractors Not Providing 24/7/365 Services to Customers

By Al Levi | October 4, 2022October 11, 2022

“We’re a 24/7/365 business because we made a promise to our customers to treat them like family, and that means we’re there when they need us,” my dad said to my brothers and me as young boys.

We ran calls with my dad as little boys in the middle of the night. We loved it!! My dad not so much as he had finally gotten to bed after an exhausting day of work.

As we grew up and took our place working in our family’s plumbing, heating, cooling and electrical business, that message was always at the forefront of our culture.

One illustration… my brothers and I were at my dad’s 70th birthday party. The Tech on one of the late shifts reached out to me that he was stuck and couldn’t get the heat working at one of the nursing homes we served. Keep in mind that heat isn’t a nice idea but a life critical thing, especially in this case. So, my brother and I told my dad we were headed out to go help and he just smiled.

It’s a cultural thing.

Lessons Learned from Two Years as a Contractor in a COVID World

By Al Levi | August 1, 2022August 1, 2022

When COVID first hit in March of 2020, many of my 1-1 contractor clients had to adjust the way they worked—and fast.

The good news is that because they had operating manuals and staffing programs in place, it was just a matter of some tweaking of procedures and training which enabled their businesses to continue on pretty well, especially compared to their competitors who were lacking systems to lean on.

Yes, even though it was far from business as usual they actually continued to grow their business in those crazy times and they were able to switch to remote work as seamlessly as possible.

Harder to Get Great or to Stay Great?

By Al Levi | April 5, 2022March 31, 2022

The original location of my family’s plumbing, heating, cooling and electrical company was in Rockaway, Queens. My dad, Irving, and my uncle, Morty, started it out of my grandfather’s gas station.

When my two older brothers and I showed up full-time in the business, it was in the 1970s, and crime in the area was rampant. Why did we stay there so long? Inertia.

Well, the decision to move came down and my brothers and I knew we had one chance to get this right, and so when we finally found a place that would be more centrally located to where our client base had moved from the wreckage of where we had been. We also heeded the great advice from our industry guru and great friend, Dan Holohan, when he suggested we use our building to showcase what we do and make it a destination other companies wanted to visit.

The place was spotless and bright and the envy of the industry. I stood in the doorway with Dan admiring our great work when he said, “Al, remember it’s easy to be great one day. The trick is to continue to stay great, day after day.”

Ouch!

What Dan meant was that I had to make maintaining that high standard a priority or it would deteriorate over time. And if it did, I’d have to have a way to get myself back on track, and that way for me was leveraging my systems and checklists. I’ve always remembered this conversation and have seen it play out over and over with my clients during the past 20 years.

Mastering the Dispatcher Role from Beginning to End

By Al Levi | March 1, 2022February 25, 2022

One of the questions I get asked all the time by clients and customers is, “Why can’t my CSR also be the Dispatcher?”

Answer: They can and often do especially if you’re a small company. But if I ask more questions, usually I discover they’re struggling to be really good with one or the other. Maybe even struggling just to be okay.

The reason for this is that being a customer service rep and being able to do dispatching are two totally different skills sets, and the best people to fill each of those roles have different personalities. In fact, every time I’ve separated the CSR and Dispatcher roles, clients always report there is more money and more profit coming in.

Why is that?

Here’s why…

Systems Freed Me Up to Help My Daughter

By Al Levi | February 1, 2022February 1, 2022

Every winter, my daughter, Pam, her husband and my grand dogs come to visit my wife and me in Phoenix. Now I’d like to think it’s because she misses us… and… she does, but it does help that she lives on the east coast where it gets just a LITTLE colder than here.

While she and her husband are RVing across the great USA (she wasn’t new to the club as she’s been RVing for years now), they still have to work. Her work is at a summer camp in the Poconos in Pennsylvania. For those who don’t live in the northeast, there are summer camps that kids go to for 7 weeks! That’s right 7 weeks!

So, when I say to people when they ask what she does and I tell them she’s a camp director at a summer camp, the next thing they ask is, “What does she do the rest of the year?” I reply, “She works full time, and she has navigated the globe to find staff.”

Hmmm… finding staff… sound familiar to you?

Anyway, when she was here in January 2021, she was working from my home and said that she’s never had so much of a problem recruiting and hiring people like college kids, staff for the kitchen, people for the pool and lake and more.

My wife, Natalie, Pam and her husband were at the dinner table one night, and she looked at us across the table and said solemnly: “If I call you, will you come and help?” To which I said, “You want me to come and be a camp counselor again for the first time in 50 years?” She replied, “Yes… Possibly.”

Two weeks into the start of camp, I hadn’t heard anything from Pam, that is until I got “the” phone call. It was Pam. She said, “I don’t want your advice. I don’t want your opinion. I want you on an airplane to come here to help me and I need you… now.”

5 Signs Your Business is Growing Too Fast

By Al Levi | December 7, 2021December 21, 2021

Can a contracting business really grow too fast? You bet it can.

I remember waking up at 6 a.m. for the second day in a row after working until 2 a.m. the night before at my family’s 70-person plumbing, heating, cooling and now electrical company only to face another day of massive stress and thinking, “At this growth pace, something’s got to change, or I’ll be a rich dead guy.”

That was not my goal and I bet it’s not yours either!

You were handling it—somehow—until you one day you just couldn’t and that’s when the wheels started to fall off or at the very least began to wobble. It’s like you’re in a batting cage and the pitches you used to be able to hit are now coming so fast you can’t even get the bat off your shoulder. That’s how it feels when you’re growing out of control and can’t keep up anymore. Sound familiar?

Here are five clear signs your business is growing too fast and you need to act—now.

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