“Contractors need to get involved,” says ACCA’s new chair

As the industry navigates significant changes — from a new class of refrigerants to tariffs — ACCA last month announced a new board of directors at its annual conference in Texas.

To get a fresh take on what’s ahead for the association, I caught up with its new chair, Eddie McFarlane, who simultaneously doubles as a ServiceTitan advisor and Sila Services exec. Below is our conversation, lightly edited for clarity. 

Congrats on the new gig. What’s going through your head?

Yeah, first off, it’s great to serve. I’m humbled. If you look at the history of ACCA, we were the engineering group that wrote all the standards — how to size an air conditioner, etcetera.
 
But I think the question is always, “Is ACCA’s mission relevant?” Our mission is to elevate tradespeople and contractors, and that’s still something we need. ACCA exists to serve its members, and as members’ needs change, we need to evolve with them. So that’s what we’ve been focusing on. 

Do you have a ‘main message’ for this year?

It’s that contractors need to get involved. I liken what’s happened in the industry to the Thanksgiving table. We’ve let the “adults” — distributors and manufacturers — make decisions, and we weren’t necessarily involved. We didn’t engage at the political, association, or even at the state level when codes would get passed. 

But now more than ever, we need to — it’s no longer a choice. We’re seeing decisions being made with contractors less and less at the center. We share an ever-changing ecosystem with distributors, manufacturers, and customers, and those who sit back and complain about things will get left behind. If something sucks, great. What are you doing to fix it?

Is there an example that helps you communicate the importance of that?

Yeah, there was a township that was going to ban all commercial vehicles from parking within the town limits. And they were thinking about semi trucks, but it would have also meant that every tech who takes their truck home wouldn’t be able to park. 

And we’re just sort of sitting back and hoping somebody else says something. But it takes contractors being involved. So it can be as little as reading, attending something other than a technical event, networking with other contractors to find out what’s happening, etcetera. 

Can you share a little bit about how you plan on executing that in the near to medium-term?

We have “codes and coffee” meetings, for example, where you can literally show up for 30 minutes or an hour and learn about potential code changes and what’s being discussed. Whether it’s at the state or local level, that’s where this gets done — and the increase in frequency and scope of changes is what makes all of this important. 

We’re also planning a “Fly-in” to D.C. in September to allow our members to engage with folks in Washington directly. We’re actively encouraging and training contractors to feel equipped at the local level in preparation, and we stood up a whole committee to focus on this kind of stuff. 

What about long-term?

One challenge I gave everybody at the conference this year was to bring a competitor to a future conference. Like, I’d rather compete with an educated contractor. But more than that, I’d rather make another ally so that as these forces act against us, we can stand together, raise our voices, and control our own destinies. So those are two simple action items: Get involved in meetings where these things are being discussed, and bring another person. 

It’s really simple. It’s very grassroots. There’s no sex appeal or sizzle. It just takes people prioritizing it. It’s work. It’s connecting with people. It’s showing up at your HOA meetings. It’s finding opportunities wherever you can to educate and inform.

How else do you think about the timing component of all of this?

I think one of the bad habits we’ve had is being sort of adversarial with our stakeholders — our distributors and manufacturers. But the reality is that distributors are facing challenges from e-commerce, for instance, just as much as we are, right?

And labor problems impact manufacturers, too. They won’t move many boxes if I don’t have people to put them in. So I think, historically, we’ve conditioned ourselves to be on different sides of the table, but the reality is we’re all on the same side. We need to unite in this ever-changing environment.

Speaking of changes, technology has clearly impacted the industry over the past decade, but it still seems — to some degree — kind of polarizing. What’s your take on that?

The disruption’s here — it’s already happening. Look at call centers, for example. AI answering services are getting really good; I listened to one the other day. I have an accent, and I’m used to correcting the spelling of my name five times, but it had no problem. I threw curveballs at it. No problem. It didn’t get emotional. It’s gonna be as fresh on the first call of a heat wave as it is on the 700th. So, you can think it’s good or bad, but it’s here. 

My hot take is that I think people keep that at arm’s length, because “What about my people? Betty’s been in my office for 20 years and makes cookies every Monday for the installers.” But I don’t believe this is necessarily going to lead to an elimination of many things. I think it looks at low-value versus high-value tasks. 

Can you elaborate?

We literally used to have people in our office who would call customers and say, “Hey, are you home? We’d like to send someone.” And then we all got used to texting. We didn’t get rid of dispatchers. We just pivoted the tasks. So, where can I deploy human beings to help other human beings?

Technology can help us capture more opportunities, and then we can use people to differentiate on human connection. If we’re all using the same software, pricing tools, and website companies, it’s the customer service that differentiates. What we do is incredibly intimate, and it’s a privilege to help our friends and neighbors. So I think people will always be involved in this industry.

Not only did A2L kick off this year, which brings its own challenges, but there’s talk about another transition down the line. What’s ACCA’s take on that?

We want it to be safe, and we want enough lead time to educate and train people.

New refrigerants will come, but I don’t think we can rush it, because all of those decisions go down to some contractor who now will have to have four refrigerants on their truck, plus four reclaim jugs (because we get beat up if it’s mixed) and these are already in trucks that are too small.

So if we add another one, I just hope it’s a unified approach. I’m all for manufacturers differentiating themselves through unique technology, but they do need to bear in mind the end user. That’s a rambling answer, but we need to have these conversations now so that in three or four years, we have a unified position as an industry.