|
A dozen points
about inviting someone into your home to fix your home
comfort system:
1 - Referred by a friend or relative?
The best complement a person can pay a business
is to refer a friend or relative. We've serviced thousands
of homes in the Okaloosa/Walton counties and the bulk of our
business comes from referrals or repeat business.
2 - Physical address for the company?
Even a small start-up company will list a home
address. People that are moonlighting or unsure if they can
stay in business will use a cell phone. Should something go
wrong with your service or installation, it's hard to go to
their office or even lodge a complaint if all you have is a
cell number.
On the other
extreme are these large companies coming in from out state.
There are several companies that rely on management from the
Atlanta area. In fact, one company actually has the number
forwarded to a Georgia office and no local office even
established in Florida!
At Gordon
Air Conditioning, we work from a 4500 square foot facility
in east Crestview where we've been since 1988.
3 - Clean and lettered vehicles?
Do the vehicles make you feel comfortable? The
condition of the vehicle is a likely reflection of how the
technician will respect your home. Be leery of unmarked
service vehicles as they may not be vehicles the company
actually owns and lack proper insurance coverage. And
especially be leery of a "one man show" that comes to your
home with a personal vehicle. Will he be here tomorrow to
take care of your needs? All the service and installation
vehicles at Gordon Air are clearly marked.
4 - Technicians in uniform and
presentable? Now there's no arguing that
sometimes technicians find themselves in some pretty rough
conditions under homes or in attics and the home before
yours may have been a bit challenging. However, as a
general rule, the technician coming into your home should be
clean cut and in a clean uniform. Many of the moonlighters
or fly by night type companies issue their employees
t-shirts to wear with their jeans instead of issuing
uniforms and insist on a certain level of grooming and
personal hygiene.
5 - Is the phone answered
professionally? When you call for service, does
the phone just ring or go to an answering machine? Or maybe
it rings on the hip of the service man? When you call
someone's (supposed) office, you should expect to be greeted
by a personable CSR (Customer Service Representative) that
is knowable enough to be able to help you determine if you
need service or an estimate. Everyone starts somewhere and
a person can't just open their doors in a brand new modern
facility with a fleet of professional technicians and
service vehicles. In 1978-79, Brady Gordon had a small
7x12ish office in the back of his home that had a phone,
desk, and filing cabinet. But the customers calling never
talked to a child or heard children in the background. A
certain level of professionalism is to be expected.
6 - Trained personnel? We
have weekly meetings to go over the latest technologies an
best ways to make our customers get the best possible
experience possible. Our technicians are factory trained. An ad we ran with the
influx of companies getting into the geothermal business.
7 - Upfront pricing? Will
the technician give the price before starting work? Time
and material means you're at the mercy of the technician's
competence and honesty. With flat rate pricing, you know
the price before work begins.
8 - Yellow Pages the best place to
find a repair/replacement company? Every year we
get our new phone book and see the new start-up companies,
those that have changed their name, and a few who shut their
doors. Let's face it, this is a very tough business to be
in and the failure rate is not surprising. We've survived
the energy crunch of the 80's, the building slow down of the
90's, the boom & crash in 2005-2007 so we'll be here to
serve you today....and tomorrow.
On the flip
side, some of these companies buy huge, huge ads. As of
2007, a full page, full color ad costs about $38,000 a
year. Two full pages (called "double truck") costs about
$65,000. Those ads with a tab costs even more. With
multiple headings (air conditioning, heating, heat pumps,
etc) and with 4-5 phone books to advertise in, it wouldn't
be real hard to get a $100-180K worth of yellow page ads.
That overhead is passed on directly to you the consumer. A
company must advertise but within reason.
9 - Unbelievable deals!? Does
it sound too good to be true? I've always heard that
there's a sucker born every minute - don't be the sucker.
If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. You'll
never get what you don't pay for - and truthfully, in
today's world, you're lucky if you get what you do
pay for. Call a company with a track record of honest and
reliable service.
A free
furnace if you buy an air conditioner? Come on, think about
it - is that possible? He overstocked? Again?! Heck,
seems I read that same advertisement for the past ten
years....
Free service
call? So they'll come to your home, find a clogged drain
and clear it for $15-25 without charging the
diagnostic/service/trip fee? Does it sound logical that a
company could afford to send someone to your home driving 30
minutes and spend 30 minutes at your home for $15-25? These
are typically the guys that get caught-up in those news
channel stings. The news channel has a legitimate
technician pull a wire off and then call these guys out.
One by one they all got caught trying to fabricate repairs
and inflating the invoices.
On time or
no charge for service call? Yeah, if you consider hitting a
4-5 hour window as being "on time." There's a reason
Domino's Pizza quit guaranteeing 30 minute delivery.
"Sell us your heating and air
conditioning system" and then offer $350ish for it.
Comeon folks, do you REALLY believe your old wore out crappy
system has a scrap metal value of $350?!? I read this
letter and just shook my head seeing $3400ish worth of
"incentives." Bottom line, cut the smoke & mirrors and
compare the bottom line and then compare years in business,
brand, & reputation. Not sure what's worse, the
wording of the advertisement being so cautious as to barely
skirt being honest and certainly not within what I would
consider ethical business practices. Or that people
actually believe it!
How many
advertise "serving the area for XX years" failing to mention
they haven't necessarily been in this industry or
been in business for themselves. Just recently I saw an
invoice from a person advertising they'd been in the
industry since 1933. They failed to mention the had moved
from several areas all over US and had a few business
failures along the way. Guaranteed response in 24 hours
means just that, a response which to my surprise
really meant they'll call you within 24 hours...not be at
your home. A few companies have changed their name several
times. Why? Bottom line, there's no dealer warranty when
you buy from ABC company and they go out of business and
reopen as BCD company. And yet they'll typically advertise
"serving the area for XX years" as if they haven't missed a
beat.
10
- What brands and products are offered. The way
a product is installed is more important than the actual
product. You'd be better off having the biggest piece of
junk available installed by a competent service company than
the most efficient system installed by someone that was
inept. With that said, the advantage to using a company
selling a quality brand is because these manufactures are
more selective about who sells their product. The quality
brands won't sell to someone that doesn't have an office.
A second
part to this is the push for "market share" and some
manufactures are putting out over a dozen names on their
products. For the most part, there doesn't seem to be a lot
of difference in the products. Sometimes there isn't even a
cosmetic difference! Just recently we were approached about
a Maytag product. Since it's a newer brand in our industry,
we didn't know much about it. Doing some research and we
realized it was built by Nordyne and they apparently build
Frigidaire, Tappan, Gibson, Kelvinator, Philco,
Westinghouse, Grandaire, Maytag, Intertherm, and Miller. And
some of the "private labels" use this manufacture meaning,
they aren't so private. Not sure what the difference
is - if any. They appear the same with minor cosmetic
differences. And on occasion we sell some Nordyne products
under the Intertherm name when doing work on mobile homes.
Other than that, we stick to Lennox for conventional
heating/cooling systems. Bottom line, a fly by night
service man can't go to the local warehouse and get the
lettering kit for his truck with Lennox or WaterFurnace.
These are top self products and picky about their
dealers. It's something we've worked hard for and proud
to offer.
11 - Is the company a part of
the community?
2005 and
2006 have been very good to the panhandle of Florida.
Building boom had everyone with more work than they could
do. And with that, we started seeing people coming from
outside areas trying to jump in. These guys have out of
town interests and when things started slowing down, they
started bailing like rats on a sinking ship. The Gordon
family has lived in north Okaloosa County area for many,
many generations.....even before Okaloosa County existed. We
went to school here, work here, live here, raise our family
here, and give back here. Gordon Air Conditioning
participates in local organizations that helps our community
grow and prosper.
12 - Licensed and insured?
If the service man isn't
insured (or properly insured) and gets hurt on your
property, you may be held responsible. Being fully insured
and licensed protects you, the service man, and the service
company.
It is
absolutely critical that you do some research before having
someone into your home. Ultimately, all of this ties
together. A legitimate company offering a quality service
will answer your call professionally and send out a clean
cut, uniformed, trained technician in a marked vehicle.
They'll give you upfront pricing and be able to offer
quality products and services without gimmicks. Contact us
for an estimate or service call at the numbers below or by
contacting us via
email. |
