How to Get Through a Long Day of Service Calls Without Burning Out
Windshield Time
How do you get through a long day of service calls without burning out? Almost none of it is external. It's what's between your ears. Start with your morning ritual. A routine can be interrupted or thrown off. A ritual has enough meaning that you do it no matter what. That's the three Ds: duty, discipline, devotion. Duty is because you have to. Discipline is because it's a habit. Devotion is because it means something. Then it's practical. How you fuel a day of hunger, dehydration, and physical effort. Why you work one call at a time instead of scanning the whole schedule. The...
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The 3 Cs Every Technician Needs: Competence, Confidence, Control
Windshield Time
Most customers object for two reasons: lack of trust and lack of value. Someone who doesn't seem to know what they're doing because they can't communicate well is less valuable. So Chris walks the 3 Cs... competence, confidence, and control. Competence is the minimum level of technical excellence for your trade and your company. Confidence is knowing that you know. Control is not manipulation of the customer, it means the outcome is more predictable because you are competent. Together they let you step into being a professional expert authority. You can live at the best...
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How to Stop "Too Expensive" From Killing the Sale
Windshield Time
Your tech hears "too expensive," packs up, and rolls to the next call. Another lost ticket... and he'll tell you the customer was just a cheapskate. But he didn't diagnose anything. He guessed. In this episode of Windshield Time, Chris Elmore breaks down the Anatomy of an Objection... how to diagnose a price objection instead of reacting to it. Here's the problem: "too expensive" has fifteen or twenty different reasons behind it, and they don't all get the same response. Is it a smokescreen or a true condition? Is the customer objecting to the price, or to the thing you recommended? You...
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The 30 Minutes That Decide Every Service Call
Windshield Time
A typical service call runs two hours. But only about 30 minutes of it is spent face to face with the customer, and that small window is where trust gets built and decisions get made. Most techs have never realized how little time they actually get, or how much rides on it. Chris Elmore walks through a simple paper exercise that changes how you see every call. Map PRESS PLAY across a two-hour timeline and the picture gets clear fast. Most of your time goes to the diagnosis and the repair, the technical work that everything depends on, and a smaller slice, about a quarter, is your...
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How to Get Customers on Your Side in the First 15 Minutes
Windshield Time
A customer gets defensive the second you bring up money. It feels like it came out of nowhere. It didn't. You lost them the moment you walked up to the door and failed to set a single expectation. Chris Elmore breaks down setting and resetting expectations, the skill that decides whether the end of your call is a smooth yes or a standoff. Customers show up expecting the worst. You show up with your own assumptions. Left unspoken, those expectations turn into resentment every time. The fix happens in the first 15 minutes, long before money ever comes up. You'll learn: -Why customers...
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Stop Diagnosing the Complaint. Diagnose the System.
Windshield Time
Most techs diagnose the one thing the customer called about, fix it, and leave. The best techs diagnose the whole system, because the thing they called about is never really on its own. That's the difference between a callback and a customer who buys the real fix. Chris Elmore breaks down what he calls common bonds: the things that tie every part of a home's system together. Age. Maintenance. Filtration. Construction. Two problems can look completely unrelated and still share the same water, the same age, the same install. Once you learn to see those bonds, you stop fixing isolated...
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The Real Reason You're Losing Sales as a Technician (It's Not Your Skills)
Windshield Time
You got 800 hours of technical training. You got 3 hours on customer service. You weren't trained for the moment a customer says "that's too expensive." That's why you freeze. Chris Elmore breaks down why handling objections is troubleshooting with a person instead of a machine. Same process. One difference: emotions. He walks through how LEAP works on real objections, why "that's too expensive" rarely means what you think, and the one question that splits the price from the work. You'll learn: Why problem-solving before asking questions is parts changing What real listening and empathy...
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You're Losing Money Before You Knock on the Door (Here's Why)
Windshield Time
You pull up to a house. You see the yard, the cars, the neighborhood. Before you knock on the door, you've already decided what this customer can afford. You don't know you're doing it. But it's costing you money. Chris Elmore walks through the five cognitive biases that affect every tech in the field — and shows how each one shows up on real service calls. The plumber who skips the shower and goes straight to the water heater. The tech who feels guilty about his own price because a customer asked for a ballpark. The moment you see someone just like you and suddenly they're getting a deal...
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How to Handle Any Customer Objection (Using Skills You Already Have)
Windshield Time
Every tech knows how to troubleshoot a system. But when a customer objects (I need to think about it, I need to talk to my spouse, that's more than I expected), most techs stop troubleshooting and start guessing. Chris Elmore shows you that troubleshooting an objection uses the exact same skill you use on every diagnostic call. The only difference is that there's a person on the other end instead of a machine. He names the five most common objections, breaks down the LEAP method, and shows you what happens when you skip the troubleshooting steps — LEAP becomes PLEA, and now you're...
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Stop Showing All 4 Options at Once (Here's Why You're Losing the Sale)
Windshield Time
You built four options. You laid them all on the table. The customer's eyes went straight to the cheapest one. This episode fixes that. Chris Elmore breaks down why presenting all four options at the same time costs you money on every call — and teaches the top-down method that uses the trust you've already built to guide the customer toward the best solution. He covers the psychology of forced buys, why four options is the right number, and exactly how to build them using the red, yellow, green diagnostic system. You'll also hear two stories you won't forget — a Hot Wheels toothbrush...
info_outlineIf you’re a technician who believes your job is to “just fix it,” this episode will challenge that mindset.
In this episode of Windshield Time, Chris Elmore sits down with Joe Bates, owner of Northern Air Plumbing & Heating, to break down what separates average service technicians from true professionals.
A technician’s job is to diagnose the entire system, tell the story of what’s happening, and explain what it takes to make it work the best, last the longest, and be the safest — even if that means replacement.
Inside this episode:
• Why “just fix it” keeps techs stuck at sixes and sevens
• How settling customer anxieties increases trust and closes jobs
• Why system diagnosis beats patchwork repairs
• How HVAC sales starts with clarity, not pressure
• Why professional technicians practice more than they perform
• How physical fitness impacts longevity in the trades
• Why learning outside the clock separates average techs from leaders
If you want to grow as an HVAC technician, plumbing technician, or electrical service professional, this episode lays out what owners actually notice and reward.
Because pros don’t just fix. They diagnose, communicate, and lead the conversation.
If this episode challenged how you show up in the home, follow the show, leave a review, and share it with another technician who wants to move beyond “just fixing it.”
Windshield Time is for home service professionals who want to master in-home service and sales.
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