Michael Caputa, Part 2: Your Success Is Up to You.

INTRODUCTION:
Michael Caputa is the Regional Vice President with Blackstone Elevator Consulting in Florida. Michael started his career with Thyssenkrupp elevator as an Account Manager in Atlanta and has grown in several different roles and companies. Michael is an endurance athlete and has proven over and over the power of the mind over matter. Michael believes the best bet you can make is on yourself. He likes to say; “Hard work beats talent. Stay humble, hustle, and never give up.”

SUMMARY:
0:00:00 Introduction – Matthew Allred introduces the podcast and guest Michael Caputa.
0:02:03 Transitioning to consulting – Matthew asks Michael about his motivation for transitioning from contracting to consulting.
0:04:53 Biggest value as consultant – Michael discusses bringing experience from the contractor side to help building owners.
0:07:02 Advocating for customers – Michael explains how consultants can educate customers and stand up for them when needed.
0:11:24 Contractor perspective on consultants – Michael shares how contractors may view consultants but the goal is mending relationships.
0:16:59 Improving communication – They discuss the importance of communication between all stakeholders to resolve issues.
0:20:23 Industry trends – Michael predicts a focus on training and customized service models to adapt to changing needs.
0:25:51 Words of wisdom – Michael shares parting words on believing in yourself and doing good work for success.

FULL TRANSCRIPT:
Michael Caputa 0:00
It’s really up to you on how successful you’re going to be. And we hear that a lot. But it’s true. And I think that because of the access of information now that we have, I think that I mean, think about this. In My Pocket is a computer that can tell me what’s going on in China at any moment. And 100 years ago, if somebody passed away in your family, and you weren’t near them, you wouldn’t hear about it until the mail got to you or somebody sent you a telegram, right? So not only do we have access to information, but we’ve processed so information, so much so much information that we get lost in that, we forget that we are in control of our own success. And so you know the words of wisdom are surround yourself with great people who believe in you, and they’re gonna tell you great things about you. And you’re gonna tell them great things about themselves. And then believe it and move in it. And the success will follow. You know, it’s interesting, when you do a good job, and you do the right thing. The success and the money always come.

Matthew Allred 1:09
Hello, and welcome to the elevator careers podcast sponsored by the Allred group. I am your host, Matt Allred. In this podcast, we talk to the people whose lives and careers are dedicated to the vertical transportation industry to inform and share lessons learned, building upon the foundation of those who have gone before to inspire the next generation of elevator careers. Today, our guest is Michael Caputa, Regional Vice President with Blackstone Elevator consulting in Florida. Michael started his career with Thyssen Krupp elevator, as an account manager in Atlanta and has grown in several different roles and companies. Michael is an endurance athlete, and has proven over and over the power of the mind over matter. Michael believes the best bet you can make is on yourself. He likes to say hard work, beats talent, stay humble, hustle, and never give up. This is part two.

So So for part two of this interview, I want to talk a little bit about business, you know, do some business mentoring, and specifically, I want to ask you about, you know, getting into the consulting business, because you’re you’re kind of new to that, from what I understand, and what was it that motivated you to, to get into consulting.

Michael Caputa 2:25
You know, being in the industry now, I guess, coming up on 16 years, I have seen and been I’ve experienced so much. And it’s come at a great cost. For me personally, you know, as a father as a husband first and the father of four kids. And recently now as a grandparent the price that we pay to get to where we get takes, it’s costing us personally. And so as I continued to go through my career, on the contracting side, I started to notice that that personal side of it starting to take a little bit of a hit, and I wasn’t willing, you know, ultimately at the end of the day to let that take a hit, you know, so right, it was more of a personal decision than it was a professional decision. But obviously, my experience in the industry helped make the professional make up a difference for the professional part. The other thing that I was starting to have a hard time, reconciling as a contractor is, you know, you can have all the desire and the intent in the world to want to do the best for the customer. And I think that the company does too, but there is now as a contractor, some red tape, just some things that can help that can hinder you from being able to actually do that, whether it could be things that are completely out of the contractors hands, I’m not saying that the contractors trying to not service the customer, but supply chain issues, lack of resources from labor, an industry that’s constantly evolving, there’s, you know, the turnover in the industry is quite high in certain positions. And so you’re, you know, constantly having to deal with that. So it just became harder for me to reconcile how am I going to be able to take care of the customer when I really don’t have the power to do it. Like I can only do so much and I’m counting on so many other people to get that done. And I said you know what, personally and professionally, I think it’s it’s time for a change, and quite frankly, at all good salespeople are consulted, you know, based salespeople. Yeah. And so now you’re just shifting gears from from being on the contractor side to being an advocate for the end user.

Matthew Allred 4:53
What would you say is the single biggest value you bring as a consultant?

Michael Caputa 4:58
You know, I think the biggest value that that I bring as a consultant is the fact that I’ve done it from the contractor side for so long. And I know the ins and outs of how the industry works from that perspective. I know, essentially, when you deal with a building, you have a set of priorities, then the contractor has a set of priorities. And so now I can bring that to the building, and we can make a plan based off of the client’s needs and expectations and budget, and try to get them the best value from bringing all of that experience that I have from the contractor side.

Matthew Allred 5:43
Right. Right. Well, and you’ve probably seen some times where you feel like, wow, that’s probably not totally fair to the customer. And so seeing that from the other side, you’ll pick up on that pretty quick.

Michael Caputa 5:56
But it goes both ways, too, right? You know, I think to be a successful consultant, you’ve got to be able to stand up the customer and tell them that they’re wrong, too. You know, so yeah, obviously, when you do the very best that you can, at all times, and sometimes it doesn’t go the way that you thought it was gonna go. And yes, I don’t want to say that on the contracting side that the customer was taken advantage of, but at the same time, you don’t know what you don’t know. And did you? Did you pay a little bit more than you should have? Maybe, you know, did was there a different solution that could have got the same result that didn’t cost as much? Maybe. Is there some terms within the contract that maybe a little bit more favorable for the contractor then then the end user? Maybe, and so yeah, but at the same time, I can stand in front of the customer and go, You know what? You’re wrong. So, ultimately, the contractor had no idea that this was going to happen until they got in and started doing the work. And so yes, it’s an additional charge to you. And it’s not wrong, you know

Matthew Allred 7:02
Right it’s yourequipment, it needs to be fixed. I mean, if your transmission fails, and you’re in there for an oil change, well, guess what you’re buying a new transmission too.

Michael Caputa 7:12
Absolutely, I mean, you think of a good attorney or an insurance adjuster, they’re able to know that the industry just different, you know, better than you, you know, as a building owner, how many other things do you have to deal with? Right? Property Management, HVAC, landscaping? I mean, I can’t even imagine. And so why not pay a small little premium to have somebody come in and advocate for you, that knows the industry? So I think that’s the biggest value that I bring.

Matthew Allred 7:42
Yeah, yeah. And so this just my perspective, but it seems like consulting is a growing sector. Do you? Do you agree with that? Or do you what do you see?

Michael Caputa 7:52
You know, it’s because I’m so new into consulting. I don’t necessarily know if it’s growing. What I can tell you, though, is that there are definitely opportunities as we continue to grow the industry, for people to come along and to educate the end user. That’s not a that’s not a contractor. So, I mean, you’re always going to battle though, at the end of the day. How do you make the the end user aware that there they can still open if needed? Right? So you know, is it growing? Probably, but I think more than more than anything, or just like everything else, maybe just awareness of it is known. As we look at LinkedIn, and other social media platforms, and then just experiences word of mouth customers, going to consultants to have a better experience, I think that that just people are becoming more aware.

Matthew Allred 8:55
Yeah. So let me let me ask this question, because I’ve always been a little intrigued. I mean, you obviously ran businesses, you’ve been on the small business side. And and what what kind of goes through my head is, I guess the relationship from contractor to consultant to building owner or manager or what does that look like from the, you know, maybe your branch manager or something like that? Or consultants, you know, are they your friend to the enemy? How have you received? You know?

Michael Caputa 9:28
That’s a great question. And the answer is both from a branch manager or from a contractor perspective, I think most times, it’s the same that it is with any other industry. If there is a situation where the customer is not satisfied, or is unhappy, and they bring in a consultant, majority of the time, it’s a misunderstanding or lack of communication.

Matthew Allred 9:57
Interesting.

Michael Caputa 9:58
And so from contractor side, you get a little bit anxious about a consultant coming on board, because we’ve all been as contractors, subjected to consultants that were just so pro customer that you, you really felt like you couldn’t win. And that’s not my objective or the objective of Blackstone is not that. Well, our objective is to mend relationships. As a contractor, and especially, we know that the major delivery companies now, account managers have hundreds, if not 1000s, of elevators, that they are responsible for sure. And to say that you’re getting out to see all of these customers, it’s just, it’s impossible. But when a consultant comes on board, if I’m a contractor, I’m a branch manager, now I’m starting to say, you know, what, we have an opportunity, let’s make the most of the opportunity, that’s meant a kinship, let’s fix what the problems are. And we can continue to keep that relationship moving forward. Right, the consultant can actually help with that process. So as a as a contractor, you know, I would just remind them that it’s not a bad thing, you know, ultimately to have somebody come in to help help the business. And the sooner that we all get in partnership, the smoother that that whole process is gonna go.

Matthew Allred 11:24
Right. Right. Well, it’s interesting to hear you say, you know, it’s a misunderstanding, or it’s, you know, there’s it, I guess, what are the? I don’t know, I guess it depends on the size of the business spends a lot of things how many customers you have, what are some things small businesses can do? And or branches can do those people in the branches to? I guess, to really keep those the communication? Smooth?

Michael Caputa 11:52
Yeah. There’s really no, I mean, that’s the biggest challenge for every organization is going to be communication, and there’s really no not at all. And I think ultimately, the best thing that you can do is just look for signs of, of frustration, or, you know, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to understand that, if an elevator has been shut down for more than a couple of days, and you haven’t made the phone call to let the customer know, that should be, you know, those are the things that

Matthew Allred 12:24
Bad news you need to give two days ago.

Michael Caputa 12:27
Yeah, exactly, exactly. And spending the effort to get the information, right. You know, we live in a, in an age or perception, we’re so used to the information coming to us, that it’s really hard for us or, you know, it’s difficult to get information, sometimes what we think it is, but spend the extra effort to figure out those different metrics that you your KPIs are for your company. And you could probably mitigate a vast majority of customer concerns by just putting in the extra effort to understand them, and find out what they are. Because like I said earlier, you know, it technology’s there.

Matthew Allred 13:09
And so let’s dig into that just a little bit. What would that look like? I mean, is that is that me? You know, maybe I’m the account rep. Driving driving across town and actually visiting the elevator visiting the customers are more about calling the mechanics are? Well, I’m just curious, what does that look like?

Michael Caputa 13:25
Yeah, I wish it was a cookie cutter, you know. But now, because of where we are. In the 21st century, I think that your plan is you start off the day saying, I’m going to take care of the customer, no matter what it takes. That’s my plan. And so how do you execute that plan? Well, yeah, I want to be in front of their face. But it may not always work out that way. And if it’s a very least a phone call, you know, emails are so impersonal, I would never suggest to deliver that news via email. But if you can’t get there face to face, you can make a phone call. But it doesn’t mean that you can’t rely on the mechanic. Right? If you have a great relationship with a mechanic, the mechanic usually has a great relationship with the customer. And if you can leverage that as an opportunity to have the mechanic assist, you heard that customer experience, then do it, then do it know your audience know your know this situation, because it’s so situational. And to say that I had the best advice to do all the time. It’s you just have to really be you gotta be mindful of what the situation is. And then what your what your resources are to, to engage you always. Yeah.

Matthew Allred 14:40
Right. Right. And it will be different every time it sounds like but if you’re, you know, no, you’re no, you’re what you have right, who’s on your team, because it’s very much a team effort, right? Maybe you have a great mechanic

Michael Caputa 14:53
You know your service superintendents got one of the most thankless jobs on the planet. You know, and so just about taking Five minutes a day, 15 minutes a day to check in with your superintendent, maybe not even make it about work. Hey, Bob, how’s the family doing? You know, what? hunting trip coming up, you know, just to where you can connect? Because guess what, when there’s that relationship internally with the mechanic, the superintendent, the admins, they’re going to be funneling information just because they know that you are on their team.

Matthew Allred 15:26
Right? You gotta you gotta prove you care, right care about them as individuals care about the team care about the customer. Hey, I want to know, right? If something’s broken, I want to be in it.

Michael Caputa 15:37
I want to be in it. And honestly, I think when you look at the most successful people in our industry, are the ones that love solving problems. Because that’s what we do, you know, when the elevators running is supposed to. Right? So you know, broken elevator means you have an opportunity to solve a problem. So embrace it, figure it out.

Matthew Allred 16:04
Yeah. And to your point, communicate with all the all the stakeholders, and it’ll go so much better than, you know, it’s not just, it’s not just a mechanical function that needs to be fixed or electrical. It’s, it’s the entire relationship. Really.

Michael Caputa 16:20
Yeah. And also to when you think about it, from a perspective, you put yourself in the customer shoes, I know, that’s kind of cliche. What I’ve realized is that unless you’re dealing with the building owner, and even with the building owner, but more times with the property manager or the chief engineer, they have bosses, and they have tenants. And they’re getting asked questions. And when we as a provider, don’t don’t get the answer, it goes back to, hey, no news is still. Right. Just give them answers so that they look like they’re doing what they’re supposed to do in front of the people that are counting on them.

Matthew Allred 16:59
That’s good point. I hadn’t hadn’t really thought of that. But yeah, if you got upset tenants, I mean, I’m, you know, doctor’s office on the second floor, hey, we’re out of business, because nobody can get up to our office. I mean, that’s intense. And yeah, if you’re the busy the building manager, and you’ve got no answers.

Michael Caputa 17:15
Yeah It’s a scary feeling, right? It’s a hopeless feeling. And, I mean, you don’t have it. And then the other thing, too, is a lot of times, I saw where people didn’t want to engage, because they didn’t have a really good answer, or they have all the answers. Right. I don’t think the customer wants you to have it solved immediately. I mean, they may want that, but they’ll do, they’ll, they’ll accept you’re giving them bits and pieces.

Matthew Allred 17:40
Sure what you have is better than then giving them nothing.

Michael Caputa 17:44
Exactly what you can’t do is manipulate it or stretch it or, you know, tell a white lie. Because those things always come out. You know

Matthew Allred 17:53
it’s gonna blow up in your face when you say, oh, yeah, tomorrow morning, we’ll be there. You know, we got two crews showing up and they’re gonna, and then they don’t show up. Great.

Michael Caputa 18:01
Yeah whatever that happened. Right. Or, or UPS lost the park. You know, it didn’t get ordered, you know? Okay, well, send me the tracking number. Oh, you know, yeah. So just, it’s a lot better to say, I didn’t order the part, but I’m gonna order overnight. We’ll have it tomorrow. It’s my fault. I’m sorry. Very, very sorry. So, you know, do I think that that’s the approach when you think about being successful?

Matthew Allred 18:32
Right. Yeah. And, yeah, it’s a lot to think about. But But obviously, you’ve, you’ve been at it long enough that you you see all those pieces and all those parts. So it’s very cool. So one of the things I wanted to well, I’m curious, you know, as you as you look at the industry, the changes, we’ve talked a little bit about that. What would you see? What are some of the trends you see over the next 5-10 years that that could change the some of the dynamics?

Michael Caputa 19:05
You know, I think that we still are trying to figure out our way out of the pandemic, we’re still trying to figure out how we’re going to find the resources that we need in order to take care of what’s coming down the pipe. And, you know, there’s no labor tree, you know, you can’t just go out and get mechanics. And so, I’m really expecting that you’re going to see a focus on training, you know, apprentice mechanics and really going after getting more employees because I think what, what really whacked us in the pandemic is we had an aging mechanic base, and then we had the pandemic and So we kind of get a hit on both ends of the spectrum. And, you know, I think it’s important for us to make sure that we invest in the new generation of mechanics that are going to be coming up. And then also to, I think that the strategy of, you know, pivoting a little bit to being more of a concierge boutique service

Matthew Allred 20:23
Define that a little bit for me, I like what you’re saying, but but help me.

Michael Caputa 20:27
You know a lot of times, we just slapped down a maintenance contract in front of a customer. And it’s the same contract that we would give a to stop hydro as opposed to 350 and stuff, elevators in a residential building. And if you can get them to sign it great. But you really didn’t define anything that they’re going to get, you didn’t differentiate yourself, you didn’t really provide any value into you know, because a to stop hydro is a lot different than a building with three elevators in 15. storeys. And so I think that, you know, we need to be sensitive to that. Now I get it, you know, a lot of times we want to make it the McDonald’s model, right, we want to learn a franchise this thing

Matthew Allred 21:10
right through and boom

Michael Caputa 21:12
But it but it doesn’t, doesn’t translate well in our industry. And I’ll tell you why. Because, you know, if you order a Big Mac in California, in order a Big Mac in Miami, and you’re a Big Mac in Atlanta, you’re gonna get the same Big Mac, right. But if I’m selling elevators, or elevator service to somebody in California, somebody in Miami, somebody in Atlanta, somebody in Birmingham, it’s all different, you have a different customer base, a different set of needs. And so it can’t be as cookie cutter as we’d like it to be. And so it has to be centered around the needs of that market. That customer, that building, the way they use the equipment, you know, you know, a church is going to be a little bit different than a hospital, and the way they use their equipment. And so we’ve got to be able to, to cater to that. And I think that we will see that shift, I think we’ll see companies that will start to pay attention to, Hey, how can I make this work this customer?

Matthew Allred 22:11
Right, Right Well to your point , I mean, I’m sure that, yeah, some some buildings don’t use their elevators very much at all, maybe maybe one or two days a week, and then you got a hospital? That’s, it never stops. I mean, it’s 24/7. So I’m sure there are some out there. But I guess what I hear you say is is? So in other words, some people out there are are seeing that, but I see you saying it’s gonna happen more needs to that we’ll see more of that.

Michael Caputa 22:42
Yeah I think I mean, what you’re seeing is, you know, in certain markets, you have these independent companies that come in, and they have that niche, right, they have a niche market, where they’re just really good at one aspect of the business. And when I was coming up through the industry, we were seeing that with, with the majors, you know, I mean, it was just when I, this tells me, but when I first got in the industry, we were seeing monthly visits with the majors was still part of the standard offering. And as continuing, you know, cost started to increase, they had to reduce visits. But we also know that elevators that are newly installed, don’t need as much maintenance. And so it was a balance, you know, it’s a balance, and then it goes back to Okay, well, if we’re going to do this service delivery model, as an as a major, we locked into it, are we locked into the service builder model? Are we going to allow our team to pivot? Because the only way that we’re going to continue to increase profits is by taking care of the customer, and having the residual income of our maintenance contracts not being cancelled? Because we couldn’t. And so I do see a shift, I do see a shift of that point back to the, to the industry.

Matthew Allred 23:59
Yeah, yeah. And thank you for talking to that little bit. So we’re about out of time. But as we as we wrap up, just curious. And, you know, maybe you’ve already answered it, but what what are some words of wisdom that you could share with the industry? And I’d say that may have been what you just answered, but what…

Michael Caputa 24:21
I am so humbled and even think that we’ll be able to have an opportunity that somebody would ask me to give words of wisdom. You know, I think that ultimately just go and kind of piggybacking on some of the ideas that I had shared before. It’s really up to you on how successful you’re going to be. And we hear that a lot. But it’s true. And I think that because of the access of information now that we have, I think that I mean, think about this in my pocket is a computer that can tell me that of what’s going on in China at any moment. And 100 years ago, if somebody passed away in your family, and you weren’t near them, you wouldn’t hear about it until the mail got to you or somebody sent you a telegram, right? So not only do we have access to information, but we’ve processed so information, so much so much information that we get lost in that, we forget that we are in control of our own success. And so you know the words of wisdom or surround yourself with great people who believe in you, and they’re going to tell you great things about you. And you’re going to tell them great things about themselves. And then believe it and move in it. And the success will follow. You know, it’s interesting. When you do a good job and you do the right thing. The success and the money always come. So, thank you. Thank you. Humble,

Matthew Allred 25:51
Beautiful, beautiful, and well said so thank you, Michael, I appreciate you being on the show today. But a lot of fun, and I wish you the best in your new adventure.

Michael Caputa 26:01
Thank you very much.

Matthew Allred 26:03
Thank you. Thank you for listening to the elevator careers podcast sponsored by the Allred group, a leader in elevator industry recruiting. You can check us out online at elevatorcareers.net Please subscribe and until next time, stay safe

Transcribed by https://otter.ai