technician

commissioner

National Home Services

Working at National Home Services, I was responsible for coming in to the office at 730 in the morning and setting up the classroom for a positive training experience. My job was to prepare the sales representatives by setting the mood and adjusting their mindset to a goal oriented and motivated state. I was training sales reps to deal with communication skills and goal setting as well as training them in the products the company was selling (HVAC equipment: furnaces, water heaters, air-conditioners, gas and electricity). I became a team leader 4 weeks after joining the company due to a great understanding of the company and a quick advance in sales. This advancement made it possible to sell HVAC equipment door-to-door with one or two trainees, which got to experience my sales directly throughout the day. I enjoyed my job quite a bit because there was no ceiling on the amount of money I could make, it was fully dependent on my positive attitude and the effort I put into the day. 
Three months after being hired I also gained the opportunity to run my own team and take my workers on regular weekly road trips, around Ontario. This would take place Tuesday to Saturday, where we had the ability to stay in hotels and spend a bigger portion of the day doing sales. (9 am - 8 pm). I enjoyed the learning experience and management training, as well as the opportunity to travel to most major cities and many smaller towns within Ontario. 
The part of the job I was not too fond of was the objection people had about doing business with people who came to their door. People felt threatened at times due to the fact that the market in gas and electricity had been saturated for quite some time, and previous companies in the business were not trained properly to handle rejection by the consumers. National Home Services had a great program and a knowledgeable staff that had overcome many obstacles to create an outstanding company in a very competitive industry. Overall it was a great learning experience that taught me the value of setting goals, working hard with a great attitude, being positive and proper communication in a business setting.

For my first job ever, I answered an ad offering $18 per hour for a general labourer position. I went to an interview and then got called for the next day for 3 hour orientation which i went to.  They were very vague about what the job was and no more mention about pay. Flyers given about incentives like cash rewards and earning a trip for certain goals reached. Well, turns out there is no general labour.  it is door to door sales.  you meet every day for mandatory training at 11 am. lunch is at noon. at 1pm you go out with a team. they drop you off to go door to door attempting to rent water heaters to home owners until 9pm. back the next day.  they tried to say I had to work 6 days a week I thought i was earning a wage. for 1 week i showed up in freezing temperatures to work. they were supposed to keep us in pairs but the last time i worked, they had dropped me off miles from anyone else, left me there alone in the worst part of the city in the winter. when i texted my leader that i had to go to the washroom, he didn't come back and left me like that for a couple hours till i went home.  Large dogs throwing themselves at the door when I knocked and men  were yelling obscenities at me before i had a chance to speak.  my biggest fear was that someone would actually open the door. Then it got dark at about 4:30 which made it even colder and scarier. By 7:30, I was still alone without anyone coming so i called my dad and he came to get me. i had to walk to a corner and tell him the names of the streets because i didn't know where i was. My parents and i agreed that i would never go back, and that was when we thought i was earning money. Afterwards,  we found out it was a straight commission $18 was an estimate of what you could make.   i had earned nothing for my 45 hours of work and mandatory training.  my parents had bought me warm clothes and driven me into the city and picked me up every day.

It's very hard to make money when you first start, and the hours can be extremely long, so you should know what you're signing up for. 

Commissions only. This is hard when you're doing door to door sales for a lot of people but if you're good you can hit the early start bonuses for newcomers. Some people do have a lot of experience in the sales will have a much better time at this. 

However, when you do get rolling, you kind of get the hang of things, and it gets a lot less nerve-wracking, and you can start on some income, but it's still not guaranteed since you'll have good days and bad days. A lot of the people who stayed on for a year or more can do very well, but that really does depend on the person. 

Hours are long. You're rarely going to get to leave before dark, regardless of the season. Since it's a commission only. you don't have much to do other than to continuously work. There's good incentives at the start for you to work, but a lot of people fail at hitting the bonuses. They insist on a 6 day work week with sometimes long trips to places far away. There's not a lot of free-time afterwards

The training crew did a very good job providing the skills required for the job, and the management was pretty close to team. There were a lot of co-workers joining and leaving the team on a weekly basis so it was a bit hard. I can't say I got along with everyone but I learned a lot from the senior team.

Job culture is not incredibly unique, they do what a lot of good sales teams do to try and have people get along, but you work mostly by yourself. A lot of people there had really bad music playing really loudly in the car though.

• Prepare and distribute technicians’ daily schedules
•	Create schedules that result in optimal utilization of technician resources
•	Receive service requests from the customer service department and document service request details into a work order 
•	Assess and assign priority to service work order and customer request  
•	Review/assess service request requirements and assign work orders to the appropriate technician based on factors such as skill set, location, availability, etc. 
•	Monitor and follow up on work order progress to ensure timely completion 
•	Prepare reports to assist in monitoring work orders and resource planning
•	Tracked discrepancies and errors made by contractors to collect necessary data for management improvement
•	Took manager escalated calls to assist in resolving customer complaints or concerns
•	Corrected and tracked customer service representative errors on a daily basis
•	Full-confirmed/pulled-forward installation dates with customers as per department needs and sent daily technician pick lists (job schedules)

National Home Services  overall is a good place to work. 

My typical day would be to come in for 8:00am and open the office. I would turn on all lights, put away dishes that were in the dishwasher from the night before and then check emails and voice mails. 

I would then manage 40+ ads from kijiji, craigslist, career builder etc.  
Answer incoming calls and booking applicants in for interviews for specific positions. Also, I would call any resumes I would have who were eligible for the positions we were providing. 

I would email, scan, and make spreadsheets for head office on a daily basis. 

Greet applicants as they came in for their interviews, and get them to fill out an application. Once they were done and if we had a lot of applicants in for the day I would help HR on the interviewing process by interviewing the applicants myself and hiring the ones who I thought were eligible. 

Towards the end of the day I would clean up the office and kitchen, making sure everything was up to par. Once everything was done I would be the last one to leave and close office at 5:00pm.

Working at National Home Services was a great experience in part. Going door to door meeting different kinds of people was amazing, allowing me to gain a significant amount of knowledge on customer services. Also studying the product (water heaters) allowed me to understand the company and how to express National Home Services policy with the company itself. Management is great , Human Resources definitely knows how to keep track of everything and also who to hire so everyone gets along really well almost like a family, since we work in teams. Speaking with the possible consumers was always joyful regardless of their persona. My Co-Workers were great , extremely friendly but the major downfall of the job is commission with the hours of work , if you simply do not have a good day. All in all NHS is great but a major flaw is it's commission based especially with the amount of hours of work ,

A typical day at work was fun. You get to meet a lot of people door to door on a daily basis. You experience people who welcome you, and people who refuse you. 

I learned that sales can be a harsh environment and if you cannot handle rejections or criticism, then sales is not the job for you. However, I excelled at my job due to my friendly and approachable nature, and good vocal manners. 

The co-workers were fun and encouraging. Despite it being commission basis, they never really made it seem like a competition, but rather like a team effort.

The hardest part of the job were the weather, since it was door to door, and also convincing people to be let in to have a look at their hot water tanks in their furnace room.

The most enjoyable part of the job was the travelling to places I have never been to.

I have had a great time while employed by National Home Services, I have learned alot about the business and industry. The management is lacking in there relationships with there employees and there is a high turnover. My co-workers are great to work with and very helpful, which makes the job easy and fun. The hardest part of my job is retaining a customer that has made up there mind and wants to cancel there services with the company. The most enjoyable part of the job is knowing that you will be recognized for good work if not by management definetly by customers. I also enjoy helping people and keeping customers satisfied.

All of the people who worked in the office were all very nice and helpful to new employees. The type of position I was in was a very fast paced and needed people with excellent communication and time management skills. Unfortunately due to management not keeping the office as ergonomically correct and comfortable for the employees I was unable to continue to work for this company. If new chairs and desks were purchased to increase productivity and movement among employees I would gladly work for this company again.

On a day to day basis it is usually busy and fast paced. This kind of environment keeps you on your feet and is always thinking of new innovative ways to get your job done. The management staff is impeccable and is always there to guide and support it's staff. I find my job to be rewarding because of the challenges that we are faced with and the fact that I have the resources and tools to combat the challenges. Being able to meet and greet new customers, vendors and interact with my co-workers is profound.

Top Job Titles	Average salary
Technician 1 salary reported	$850 per week
Commissioner 1 salary reported	$850 per week

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