Episode 306. Mastering Supermarket Service Calls with Andrew Freeburg

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In this conversation, we chat with Andrew Freeburg about effective strategies for tackling supermarket refrigeration service calls. Andrew shares insights from his nearly 20 years of experience and thousands of calls, including technical advice and the value of building relationships with customers. We also dive into avoiding common pitfalls technicians often face and tips for technicians to build confidence and tackle supermarket service calls faster and more effectively. 

In this episode, we discuss:

-Tips for building confidence on service calls

-Importance of communication in service calls

-Effective pre-call preparation

-Common mistakes on service calls

-Building relationships with customers

-New customers and stores

-Fixing the customer's problem

-Professionalism on calls

-Building trust with customers

-Handling service calls efficiently

Helpful Links & Resources:

Supermarket Service Call Workshop - May 24th, 2025 (sign up here)

Episode 300. The Power of Training and Development in Refrigeration with Andrew Freeburg

Episode 250. Service Call Stories and Troubleshooting Tips with Andrew Freeburg

Episode 201. Removing the Fear of CO2 Refrigeration with Andrew Freeburg

Andrew Freeburg on LinkedIn

 

Episode Transcript

Trevor (00:00):
What's up everyone? Welcome to the Refrigeration Mentor podcast. Super happy that you're here joining us. I'm with my good friend Andrew Freeberg, and we know Andrew's been crushing it out there.

(00:01):
You gotta understand how to take a service call, which is so, so important. How to talk to that customer. How to really avoid common pitfalls. These are some of the things we're gonna be talking about. On this podcast because this is how you level up, it's understanding how to take a service call properly, how to solve the problem, and then how to really keep that customer for a long time.

Andrew (00:02):
I was a little quiet when I first started doing supermarket refrigeration confidence, young, I don't know, maybe the mixture of the two, right? A lot of the stuff that I would do is just go in, kind of sneak in, do what I need to do. Get a little signature out the door, right? Yeah. And that's not really the proper way of doing it.
So you just, you slide right in, you go fix the problem or you sign in, you just go to the sign in book and you sign in and you go to. Sign it and solve the problem. You call the manager, they come and they just sign it off. They're just, they're not even reading the paperwork sometimes, which is not a good way to go about it, because you wanna make sure that they understand the work you did there, because that's important.

Trevor (00:04):
Yeah, I, I think the big thing there is like that pre-call work or that pre-call prep, , when you're on call or you're taking the service call and you can't be there for a couple hours, you let that, that manager know, Hey, I can't, that's, that's pre-call prep.
And once you're on that service call, let 'em know exactly what's going on. I mean, now I, there is some customers that will say, , okay, is it, is it fixed? Well, yeah, it's fixed, but there's a lot of them who actually wanna sit and listen to what process it was. So, yeah, I, it just communication.
So it's always. Making sure that you're upfront and you're keeping that open communication. I love that. What are some of the things that you've seen over, over the years on like some common pitfalls for service technicians going to a service call? Because I think that's a big one too. Like for me, when I first started out.
And then as a lead tech, now I ask them, okay, what are your pressures? I don't know. Okay. What are, what's your amp draws? I don't know. Well, I need to know what you're working on and all these steps. So what I did as an apprentice is I got I was, I'm guilty of it too, right? 15 minutes. I don't know. I checked the most common things, contact or may, or pressure control.
I just nail it all, everything that, on that checklist. He is like, okay, it's this, or it's that. 90% of the time they were able to fix it over the phone within, , 10, 20 minutes at max. Yeah.
They're like Trevor. One of the biggest problems is when someone calls in, they don't have the pressures, they don't have the temperatures, they don't have the volts or the amps. They're making that phone call before they got any information. So I can't even help them. So if you're listening out there, you gotta get this information.
And it's like, okay, I know. Now I don't even need to go up to the machine room because they're saying there's something's rattling or something going on in the evaporator. So it's just like, that helps me just at least pinpoint it to figure out what the major issue is.
The humidity's too low. They, they know a lot about, they might not be refrigeration technicians, but they understand their product. And I'm not saying just go to that, that new person that's at the deli for a week is you gotta go to someone's that's been there for the produce manager that's been there for five years.
, So that's, that's all important stuff. And, and it's, it is. You are. It's you, you, that's your, that's part of you and not just the company. So you really need to stick out there and, and go for it. Yeah.
'cause they said, oh yeah, this one. 'cause they, they called you for. Most likely one certain thing. But if I'm going to just that, I'm actually looking at everything cases. It could be lights in the cases, it could be evaporators. You could see if it's in a walk-in checking the, the return on it, making sure that it's not dirty.
I even, there's something else that I do that I don't really say. I guess I just do it just habit. If I'm walking and I notice there's garbage on the ground. I pick it up for 'em too not to see if they're looking or whatever. It's just kind of a habit that I do going into the stores. Even if it's outside, I just pick it up and I don't know how many times where people actually comment on me and say, thank you for doing that.
You don't know that situation. 'cause I see this all the time as like, oh, this other contractor did, they weren't doing their job. They didn't do nothing. But come to find out what that that customer didn't pay them. Well, how are they? What I mean? They're not paying them to do maintenance, they're only paying them to fix.
Awesome posts. There was one there, the condensing unit. The wires were just gutted. It was just wires everywhere. The fuse is not even the system. Do you wanna talk about some of the things going above and beyond and what you do? Because I know when you first started out it wasn't like this, what I mean?
The fuse holders, half of 'em were gone. None of 'em had fuses on 'em. The control wiring was all. Mismatched gauged wires wire nuts everywhere. And I'm talking just a little two feet of extra water. I'm just like, oh no, I'm not leaving it like that. So what I ended up doing was the whole reason why I had that down is 'cause a fuse popped.
Got the wires in, zip tied it all nice and tidy. Yeah, look, got the correct fuses in there. Got rid of all the wire nuts. 'Cause , that's another connection that could pop off. So I'm always trying to think of what can I do to improve or help the situation, especially for the on call guy.
Because you always have, usually you always have some time, especially in the slow season. If you're there doing a maintenance, you can, you can definitely add some, and that, that's a follow up too, getting yourself business. And they'll be like, well, why? Why are you redoing this? Well, this is 20 years of really.
And then there, there's a quote that you could give to that customer. This is a service call that'll lead into extra work for you. So you're not in the slow season, you're still getting your 40, 50, 60 hours.
They were like, it was a great experience for that customer. And they just called and said to let me know, , they'll let us know, and they, they called and told me. That's such a great feeling. That's such a great feeling. And that's from taking pride in your work and having that communication with them.
'cause oil's difficult. Electrical's difficult controls is difficult if you don't study them. If you don't learn it. And this is where you step up your game just like Andrew does day in, day out. He's been in multiple trainings in the last month. , Does he need to go to, he doesn't have to go to these trainings.
What I mean? How do you say that? Because I remember I was really intimidated or timid or nervous to go talk to that customer when it was such a big bill. ? And it depends the customer as well. It could be a small mom and pop shop where that's gonna be, that's gonna cripple them for a bit, ?
Two years, three years down the road, I'm gonna invest my time and I'm gonna figure out what took that out and I'll have a, a. I'll tell you exactly what it is on AR system's different. You got, I mean, you can, there's probably tell tale tales of it going now. So especially a flood back. Maybe it's after a hot gas defrost or pool gas defrost.

(00:25):
Explain to them that you're working on it and you're doing your best, and then be detailed about it and that the words that they understand, , don't be diving into some complex. Well, the high pressure valve was running and then all of a sudden the receiver started to to overfill, and then the flash gas bypass valve started feeding liquid back to the compressor, and the compressor started to wash out.
You don't wanna say, this is my first service call, or this is my own my 10th service call. , Hey, I'm Trevor. I'm here from this company and I'm coming here to work on your equipment. What I mean? It's like you gotta have that confidence going in there. And sometimes it's, it's it, it can be tough, ?
But when you start to, as you get more experience, you understand how to talk to the customer a bit more. And I think that's really, really important. Like you said from the beginning, that communication portion.
'cause they're there to help you. That's what they're doing. They're help there and, and feed those technicians that don't know how to feed their own work. What I mean? So if you build a good relationship with your service manager and with your dispatch, it makes your life so much easier.

Andrew (00:29):
I've done that countless of times. Just getting on that phone call like what Trevor said and, and talking to him like, oh yeah, I've been there a couple times I worked on that system.
We're gonna, I'm always getting better talking to customers and, and it's just understanding them and understanding how you can help them. Because there are some days that it's, it's tough, , it's, you've been doing service call after service call after service call, and you've been doing on call and then, , and it, it's.
And I don't, I mean, this is a great opportunity. So I'm, I'm super excited to go after this and it's gonna, it's gonna be a good time. Lot of lot of stuff we're gonna talk about. Bring a notepad and pen.