When you’re working in a trade, there is always more room to improve the services that you offer. You should never settle for a satisfactory level of work, especially if you’re employed as an electrician.
If you constantly seek out chances to improve your skills, you may come to experience an overwhelming sense of pride in your work. Moreover, with the news that electricians were recently one of the most searched for apprenticeships in the UK, now could be an excellent time to learn the tricks of this particular trade. After all, if you refuse to make any progress, someone else will gladly take your place.
Keep reading for a few tips on how to become a better electrician.
Refine Your People Skills
Tradespeople must often interact with the customers and clients directly. Therefore, it should be a priority to keep building on your people skills.
As a qualified electrician, you should be a confident and interpersonal professional. Succeeding here can involve. Even maintaining eye contact, good posture, and firm handshakes can help your performance in subtle ways.
However, you should look beyond these basics. Consider adapting your ‘trader demeanour’ when in the following situations:
- Homeowners – A warm and friendly personality is best. Be prepared to engage in your fair share of small talk and to have a closer bond with any recurring customers in this category.
- Businesspeople – Try to adopt a straight-talking attitude here. Professionals are more likely to want to get straight to the point on account of being busy, so embrace a more direct approach.
- Estimators – Attempt to stay on topic with your needs when dealing with estimators. You’ll need to go over details like project timelines, company information, and payment terms for a productive dialogue. Do plenty of research beforehand too.
While it’s advisable to stay within the parameters of these conversational guidelines, exceptions may be found. Businesspersons and estimators may try to be friendly on occasion, and homeowners may be decidedly brief. So long as you match their social energy, you should be able to enjoy a bountiful working relationship more easily.
Take Any Complaints Seriously
It’s perhaps unreasonable to assume that you’ll provide a flawless service from the moment you become an electrician. Many learning curves will be presented along the way, and occasionally, it may be your customers and clients who provide them to you.
Try to be receptive to feedback. After all, today, people can easily complain about a service and seek out refunds, discounts, or further legal action if they’re unhappy with the work a tradesperson has done. Should you receive complaints, you should:
- Be contactable – Electricians who duck calls and ignore emails will likely draw the ire of disgruntled customers and clients.
- Remain calm – Stay true to your interpersonal skills and don’t engage in shouting matches or arguments with those you’re serving. The old phrase is accurate; the customer is always right.
- Make it right – Offer financial compensation and attempt to rectify any issues immediately.
Some of the most common grievances electricians cause is lateness and failing to resolve the issues they were called out for. Try to increase your understandings of these shortcomings, even if they aren’t present within your own performance just yet. The more you prepare, the more you can prevent these issues from ever occurring.
Outfit Yourself Appropriately
You might assume that you can get away with wearing anything as an electrician. However, it would help if you put more care into this side of things.
Snickers Direct has great stock on workwear, with work trousers available among other clothing like jackets and sweatshirts. All of these are also available in hi-vis variations too. Their products are affordable yet are also uniquely tailored to the needs of the workman. Additionally, wearing their gear will grant you a professional yet practical demeanour, using quality materials for optimum comfort and efficiency.
Electricians must look capable and professional to impress clients and secure work. While people should never judge others based on their appearances, trusting workers with sensitive and important work projects changes those rules considerably. Consequently, the more effort you put into your attire, the better you can influence prospective customers in your favour.
Your gear can even indicate how adaptable you are on the job. If you’re equipped with tool belts, vests, and snickers trousers with numerous pockets, you can demonstrate that you’re a flexible electrician without uttering a word. Try not to give any excuse for your customers to doubt you, and outfit yourself with your ambitions in mind.
Work with a Talent Building Firm
Electricians commonly freelance, favouring the self-starting nature of their work. They can control their schedules and use their network to source clients and work opportunities.
While an appealing prospect to consider, freelancing may not provide you with the chance to build your talent. You can better experience a surge in new skills under the wing of a dedicated employer who is willing to invest in you and your abilities.
Unfortunately, there are reported worker shortages when it comes to electricians and other trading professions in the UK. As more people become increasingly picky about what types of roles are ‘right for them’, it may be a good idea to align yourself with a firm that can help you flourish as an electrician first and foremost.
Even if you take a temporarily pay hit or live in an undesirable area, the few years you spend grafting could be essential for your career development. Embrace elements of compromise if it means getting on the ladder and building your skill set, and who knows where your achievements might lead over time?
Learn the Career Path
As you progress through your career, you may eventually be able to climb higher up the electrician’s career ladder. While promotions may seem far off, understanding what trajectory you’re on can help you enhance your skillset with focus.
Keep an eye out for openings in electrical design engineering, project management, and electrical contracts work. Understand the requirement and discipline factors that electricians require to excel in these roles, such as a better understanding of mathematics to understand complicated plans, alongside problem-solving and leadership skills.
Where possible, try to train your sights on internal advancement too. Many firms might favour an inside hire simply because your insights into the business will be unrivalled by any outside hire. You’ll already have an intrinsic understanding of how the firm operates, as well as excellent working relationships with the colleagues around you.
Still, if the opportunities aren’t there, then it may be time to look elsewhere. It’s not disloyal to pursue other career prospects if your current role is a dead end. Gauge what situation is most appropriate for you, but be prepared to pursue the development of your career with vigour in any event.
Conclusion
Becoming a better electrician requires an open mind. Try to engage with people more positively, and work on every little detail of your demeanour, no matter how trivial it might seem. Work on your attire and how it can reflect your character and capabilities as an electrician. Adopt a learner’s mindset and build your awareness of where your work can take you, as you will be better able to steer your career. After that, your patience, dedication, and hard work should pay off.
