Working in the HVAC industry is serious business, and it can often lead an HVAC technician into highly stressful situations, leaving little to do except come up with some funny ideas of HVAC humor. Let’s say that you have a client, and their cooling system breaks down during a long week complete with sunny skies and ninety-degree weather—oh, and let’s add that this client lives in the middle of the Nevada desert, for good measure. You can imagine your client will already be unhappy at best due to his or her misfortune.
Now, if you send one of your HVAC technicians to this particular client’s location, and said technician lacks the right parts on the truck –which means that he or she has to drive to one of your company’s warehouses, or back to headquarters, to procure the necessary materials to finish the job—your client will be even more unhappy.
“If you replace ‘cooling system’ with ‘heating system,’ ‘summer’ with ‘winter,’ and ‘Nevada desert’ with ‘Montana mountains,’ the same problem arises: a disgruntled customer who may or may not be tempted to throw something unattached at your guy in his or her Hulk-like fury.
What’s the best way to deal with this worst-case scenario? Believe it or not, there are two avenues you can take when faced with an upset customer.
Option #1:
Provide the highest quality of service possible within a reasonable time frame.
This option is essential to owning and operating an HVAC business. Delivering on your company’s standards for high performance is the essence of how you’ll grow your HVAC business. More on that in a few moments.
Option #2:
Hire HVAC techs who know how to diffuse a tough situation with humor because, let’s face it, who can resist a chuckle at a bad pun (or HVAC humor) when it’s delivered with conviction?
Not everyone chooses the second track when faced with an unhappy client because HVAC installations and repairs require serious thought and labor. However, a giggle is essential to life, so why not attempt to chill the pressure of dismal circumstances with some quality—or not-so-quality—HVAC humor?
In a recent Forbes study pertaining to stress at work, survey respondents rated their home-life stress at a five on a 1-10 scale. What are these same people’s amounts of perceived stress while at work? A whopping ‘6.4’ on the same 1-10 scale. That data leads us to believe that your HVAC tech will enter many stressful job-site situations, and a plan to implement some HVAC laughter when fieldwork gets tense is always a good strategy to cope with the occasional dissatisfied customer.
To help your technicians add some more HVAC jokes to their repertoires, we are offering you a few service business puns to try out the next time a job site repair goes awry and it seems there is nothing to fix the thermostat. Act as if you are from a club of comedians. Although HVAC puns aren’t always funny and willing to laugh at, which is most of the time, I digress—they can help diffuse a potentially stressful situation.
In this article, we will add your comic book to your backpack and offer amusement.
The “Going Out” HVAC Pun
Target audience: The fresh twenty-one-year-old crowd all the way through those in their mid-thirties.
Technician: “When did your air conditioning go out?”
Client: “Last night.”
Technician: “Well, I hope it had a good time.”
** clangs cymbals **
The “Ducts” Pun
Target audience: Those clients older than thirty or working in the finance or insurance industries.
“Well, you know,” a technician says to a client, “HVAC technicians are more effective because we always have all our ducts in a row.”
** going sound **
The “Invention” Pun
Target audience: Customers who are young enough to question your technician’s expertise.
Turn to a client and nonchalantly say, “We were working on AC before it was cool.”
** sad trumpet noise **
The “Flip Around” Pun
Target audience: Anyone and everyone who appears to understand sarcasm.
The technician tells the client, “Well, your furnace from your HVAC system has a few problems, but they could be worse.”
The client is relieved! “Oh, that’s good,” she says.
Technician: “Yeah! It could be my furnace instead of yours. That’d be worse!”
** Krusty the Clown screeching sound **
The “Three Little Pigs” HVAC Joke
Target audience: Customers in their forties who still understand the childhood story reference.
Setup: “Why did the Three Little Pigs buy an electric heating furnace instead of a gas one?”
Knock it down: “The neighbors didn’t want to be near swine flu.”
** car horn **
The Classic “Cross the Road” Technician Joke
Target audience: EVERYONE! Here’s an all-timer! Ready?
“Why did the AC repairer cross the road?”
(intense pause for dramatic effect)
“He opened the unit vent and found a wasp’s nest.”
** Ed McMahon yelling ‘Hey’ sound **
A Few Onsite Gags
A quick note of caution here: Never resort to this level of HVAC humor with your company’s newer customers. Only break out these tried-and-true onsite jokes on customers with whom you have experience and rapport. Here is a brief compilation of a few of our greatest gags:
Place a fake truck door that appears to fall off when you open it over the top of your vehicle’s real door.
Show up with singed eyebrows—you know, from that furnace repair that left you a little crispy earlier in the day.
Roll up to the block, and walk up to five other houses before knocking on your client’s door.
Let’s Get Back to the Serious Matters.
These HVAC jokes are wonderful ways to get some laughs from your customers and calm a potentially stressful situation. However the key to growing your HVAC business is ensuring your technicians complete onsite jobs efficiently and on time.
One of the easiest ways to help optimize your technicians’ job site success is to integrate your business with HVAC software, typically called FSM software. This field service management software is an investment worth considering when seeking ways to take your business to the next level.
