Would you trust your doctor to treat you if they never learned about any new treatments? How about an auto mechanic that can rebuild a carburetor with his eyes closed but doesn't know much about these new fuel injection motors? Odds are you might try to find a second opinion in either circumstance. Your customers size you up the same way. You may be a wizard on old belt drive washers, but if you scratch your head every time you come across a machine with a control board, you are potentially losing your customers trust. The good news is that you can prevent this scenario from happening.
United Servicers Association (USA) is a group created by and for service techs in the appliance industry to help them build strong businesses in a competitive environment. One of the ways that USA helps its members and can help you be more confident with your customers is by facilitating factory training for its members. The big event of the USA calendar year is held each spring when they hold their annual Appliance Service Technical Institute or ASTI.
The ASTI is basically a convention where servicers from across the United States and Canada gather for several days and attend training on a variety of subjects. Training is offered on various brands for basic to more advanced skill levels. In addition the ASTI offers training on many aspects of running a service company. Everything from marketing, to business management to strategies for dealing with warranty providers are covered in various sessions through the week. These sessions are sometimes in the form of a presentation, and sometimes they are round table discussions. It truly is a a great opportunity to gain more knowledge about the appliance repair trade and to meet and share ideas with other servicers who you are not in direct competition with. Registration to the ASTI also gives you a years membership in USA. This allows you access to their technician chat and service library. Both of which are already helping servicers on a daily basis. Its a great organization, and that is why it has the support of W.L. May Company.
If this sounds like something that could benefit you, this is a wonderful year to consider attending. The ASTI is held on the West Coast just once every three years and this year it is being held in sunny San Diego, California from February 26-March 1. This location means a lot less travel for most of our clients than most years. There are special room rates available for attendees at the host hotel and W.L.May Company has a promo code that can save you fifty dollars off of the cost of registration. Ask your account manager for details. Brad and Todd will be there as usual and the both would like to meet some new folks this year. If you decide to spend an extra day or two as a vacation in San Diego, you will find a lot to enjoy in the area.
You will find more info and a link to register on the USA website
HERE. Even if you can't make the trip, we still recommend membership for the chat program and service library. These are resources that are simply not available from other sources.
Every year we hear back from people who finally decided to attend. Every year they say the same thing. They tell us that they come out of the week with a fresh enthusiasm for their business. They tell us that they have new skills. They tell us that if they implement just ONE idea from the ASTI it would more than offset the cost of attendance. They tell us they had fun and enjoyed meeting fellow servicers. Don't miss this chance to get ahead, register now!
For more from education and entertainment from W.L. May Company click...HERE
