Plumbing

A. O. Smith, a leader in water heating and water treatment solutions, announces the launch of its newly updated website, hotwater.com. The fully redesigned website offers an immersive and user-friendly experience with a focus on meeting the diverse needs of today’s trade professionals and homeowners.

Key improvements to the website include a mobile-friendly design, a reorganized navigation system and enhanced search functionality. These upgrades, made possible by the new Salesforce Commerce Cloud platform, provide users with a seamless browsing experience and quick and easy access to the information that’s important to them. As consumers are researching new water heaters they can quickly navigate to the Contractor Locator Tool, which will connect them to an A. O. Smith installer who can help them select the best-fit water heater for their installation needs.

The new Hotwater.com features a range of additional enhancements designed to benefit trade professionals:

• Trade Partner Support: A dedicated Professionals experience has been created to better serve the needs of trade partners, with unique content specifically tailored to each of the following fields of professionals:
  • Plumbing Contractors
  • Wholesalers
  • Specifying Engineers
  • Builders
  • Utilities
• Robust Product Literature & Videos Search: O. Smith has made it easier than ever to find spec sheets, manuals, videos and more with a comprehensive search function in the new Product Literature, Videos & Images section.

All users will also benefit from:

• Rebates Center: The improved Rebates Center makes it easier for customers to find rebates and incentives for installing A. O. Smith high efficiency products.
• Educational Content: The enhanced Info Center educates customers on frequently asked topics like Water Heater Sizing, Water Heater Venting and more.
• Accessibility: The website is now equipped with an ADA-compliant tool, ensuring a more inclusive experience for all users.

“A. O. Smith’s updated website is the result of a year-long endeavor aimed at enhancing our online customer experience. Before starting the overhaul, our team surveyed customers to find out what resources were most important to them. We then used this feedback to guide our efforts to diligently craft a digital experience that seamlessly aligns with their evolving needs, delivering unparalleled value and convenience,” said Jeff Storie, A. O. Smith marketing director.

Experience the enhanced A. O. Smith website today by visiting www.hotwater.com.

Ontario, Calif. — Using the International Association of Plumbing and Mechanical Officials’ (IAPMO) Water Demand Calculator™ as an alternative to sizing methods in traditional plumbing codes can result in energy, carbon and water savings with no change to how residents use plumbing fixtures in their homes every day, an analysis by Arup, a global collective of designers, consultants and experts dedicated to sustainable development, has found.

IAPMO commissioned Arup to analyze and better understand the Water Demand Calculator’s potential for sustainability savings. Arup compared the Water Demand Calculator with the Hunter’s Curve method found standard in both the Uniform Plumbing Code (UPC^®) and the International Plumbing Code (IPC^®) for sizing domestic hot water systems in four residential-use cases. The analysis included a single-family home, and six-unit, 45-unit and high-rise multifamily residences.

Arup’s study found that when the Water Demand Calculator is used for domestic water design for residential buildings instead of the Hunter’s Curve sizing methods, there are resulting operational energy and embodied carbon savings in all four of the use cases, as well as water savings in the non-circulating units. Water savings were demonstrated through minimized time to tap using the Water Demand Calculator sizing and range from 450 gallons to 71,000 gallons annually depending on the building size.

A single-family unit prototype showed annual water savings of 450 gallons, while high-rise residential buildings show savings in operational carbon between 73 and 84% for booster pumps and embodied carbon savings ranging from 20% to 41%. Using the Water Demand Calculator instead of the Hunter’s Curve method to size domestic water systems in high-rise residential buildings shows savings of operational carbon ranging from 2,000 to nearly 24,000 pounds of carbon dioxide per high-rise residential building, depending on grid emissions at the project site. Additionally, a reduction in pipe sizing allows for reduced heat loss through pipes.

”The Water Demand Calculator is a tool for its age,” IAPMO Vice President of Technical Services and Research Christoph Lohr, P.E., said. “With concerns of energy reduction and water savings being top of mind for many regions in the United States and the world, having the latest methodology to meet goals is vital. We greatly appreciate Arup providing IAPMO with a third-party evaluation of the potential for the Water Demand Calculator to help meet sustainability goals.”

The Water Demand Calculator is the first significant update for water pipe sizing in buildings since Hunter’s Curve was developed more than 80 years ago. The Water Demand Calculator predicts peak water demand for single- and multifamily dwellings and removes the need for assigning fixture units to plumbing fixtures and corresponding to Hunter’s probability curve. Instead, it directly calculates peak demand using algorithms based on the building size.

Contained within Appendix M of the 2021 and 2024 Uniform Plumbing Code (UPC^®) and free to download, version 2.1 of the Water Demand Calculator addresses water quality issues attributed to lower flows in oversized premise plumbing while simultaneously using less water and energy, representing the most impactful innovation in pipe sizing in nearly a century. It is the result of a multiyear effort to develop a new statistically based pipe sizing method stemming from a need to address profound water safety and wasted water and energy concerns resulting from oversized water supply pipes in homes and buildings.

The entire Arup report may be viewed at https://iapmo.org/media/31469/iapmo_energy_savings_arup_report.pdf.

Contest recognizes outstanding customer service; Winner receives $500 cash! 

Malco Products, one of the nation’s leading solution developers and manufacturers of a variety of high-quality tools for the building trades, today announced the launch of its brand-new Counterperson of the Year Contest. 

Malco is looking to recognize and celebrate outstanding counter staff at its U.S. wholesale distribution locations who demonstrate the same values that make Malco great: dedication to superior customer service and going above & beyond to ensure contractors have the Malco tools they need to get the job done.

There are great prizes lined up not just for the winner, but for the contractors and distributors who nominate as well:

• The winner will receive $500 cash.
• If the winner is nominated by a contractor, the contractor receives $100 in Malco tools of their choosing, plus the distributor/contractor team will receive lunch!
• All qualifying nominees and nominators will receive a Malco golf shirt, hat and product catalog.

Malco is also making it easy for contractors to nominate counter staff, with 3 options to enter:

• Grab a printed form at your local distributor location and mail it in (PO Box 400, Annandale, MN, 55302)
• Enter online at www.malcoproducts.com/counterperson-of-the-year
• Submit a brief video, which can be emailed or texted to Malco’s marketing department at 612-325-1502 or marketing@malcotools.com.

All entries must be received by Thursday, August 31, and the winner will be announced in October. Please note, this contest is only open to nominees in the United States.

For more information about Malco Products and to enter the contest, visit www.malcoproducts.com/counterperson-of-the-year

Keep your technical knowledge close in the tool bag; emotional intelligence is a highly valued personal trait that can help you run a more successful business.

We’ve all heard the expression before, “You’re thinking with you heart and not your head.” But what if both were true? On a recent Thursday night Plumbing Perspective (@plumbing_perspective) Instagram Live, guest Shreya Nagwani (@_shreymvp), sales/service expert and coach for Service MVP, discussed an interesting aspect of Service MVP’s training that translates to running a successful business. It’s called Emotional Intelligence or EQ. Almost counterintuitive—because of the opposite nature of how people can think one way and act another—the term actually makes an abundant amount of sense.

According to Harvard Business School, Emotional intelligence is defined as the ability to understand and manage your own emotions, as well as recognize and influence the emotions of those around you. The term was first coined in 1990 by researchers John Mayer and Peter Salovey, but was later popularized by psychologist Daniel Goleman. (Goleman lists five components of EQ below.)

In the realm of home service sales, emotional intelligence (EQ) often takes a backseat to technical expertise. However, it is a critical component that should not be overlooked. EQ refers to the ability to understand and manage emotions effectively, enabling individuals to relieve stress, communicate well, empathize, overcome challenges, and defuse conflicts. In the sales process, where emotions heavily influence buying decisions, focusing on logical reasoning alone can leave clients hesitant.

But how does it translate into plumbing and HVAC business? While plumbing and HVAC techs have a high IQ, and what they communicate is overly technical, a non-technician, i.e., customer, doesn’t understand what that means, says Nagwani. “All they want is safety, comfort and health for their family and their home.”

Home service technicians, typically analytical and left-brained, tend to prioritize the logical aspects of their work, inadvertently neglecting the emotional side of the sales process. The gap lies in the lack of training on communicating solutions in an emotionally intelligent manner. To successfully bridge this gap, technicians must be equipped with the skills to connect with customers on a deeper level, understand their unique needs, and present solutions that resonate emotionally.

“It’s a very emotional job,” says Nagwani, but there is a gap. “To bridge the gap would be learning emotional intelligence. How do I communicate this job, which is just a plumbing job, to something like, ‘What is the effect of this system for their family? If they have chlorine in their water and their son has eczema.’ That’s how you connect emotional intelligence to a plumbing job,” says Nagwani.

And, not only that, people buy things when they have high self-esteem, when they feel like they deserve it. “People who have a high self-esteem buy premium,” says Nagwani.

How do to techs learn how to communicate that? “What we teach—in part—in our Service MVP offerings is, how do you raise someone’s self-esteem during a visit that by the end of the appointment the client feels better about themselves as a person? What happens is they’ll pick an option,” says Nagwani. “‘I deserve endless hot water,’ for example, connecting a technician’s job over to emotional intelligence.”

Moreover, sometimes it can be difficult exude confidence, stability, empathy on a tremendously busy schedule. “It’s confidence. Even if it’s not a lack of confidence, it comes off that way. This also goes to managers and owners. If your’re giving your guys six or seven calls on the board, they would see all of the calls stacked up and it would really affect the way they ran those calls and they would burn through all of them. They are just thinking of getting in and out. That is going to affect the service to the client, the job, the revenue and the happiness of the technician.

“We have a rule where a technician can see only one call at a time and they get a long time on that call. They have all the time they need; it’s quality over quanitity. What starts to happen is, there are less upset clients, there are more 5-star reviews, they triple their revenue, literally. The confidence of the technician is really important. How is somebody going to be confident when they don’t have communications training?” says Nagwani.

By incorporating emotionally intelligent communication techniques, technicians can establish a stronger connection with customers. Understanding and addressing customers’ emotions not only builds rapport but also allows for customized solutions that meet their specific needs. Training programs, such as those offered by Service MVP, specialize in teaching teams to utilize emotionally intelligent approaches. Implementing these techniques can lead to a significant increase in revenue per technician, averaging at 297%. This approach enhances customer satisfaction, improves conversion rates, and fosters long-term customer loyalty.

Goleman’s 5 Components of EQ

1. Self-Awareness: Recognizing and understanding your own strengths and weaknesses, your emotions and moods, and the effects these things have on other people. A self-aware person is not easily offended by criticism, but rather learns and adapts.
2. Self-Regulation: To think before doing and to express your feelings maturely with restraint. Rather than being controlled by emotions and impulses, an emotionally intelligent person can control impulses and emotional responses. 
3. Internal Motivation: High EQ people are self-motivated, pursuing personal goals for reasons of self-development and self-gratification, rather than money, titles, external praise or esteem.
4. Empathy: Empathy involves recognizing, understanding and feeling the emotions of others. Unlike sympathy, empathy involves actually sharing the emotional experience another person is having. Empathetic people genuinely understand and respond to the needs of others.
5. People Skills: Emotionally intelligent people easily build trust and respect with others. They are good at managing relationships and building networks, and they avoid power struggles and deceitfulness. Their high levels of the first four components of EQ make for deep bonds and genuine, non-competitive friendships.
   Source: Forbes.com

Service MVP is an e-learning website featuring video-based micro-learning content designed to revolutionize your office, service, sales and install teams. It is the ultimate service sales training resource, where high performers increase the value of their solutions to create higher revenue and profit.