Wisler Plumbing and Air

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The Purpose of Our Satisfaction Guarantee

HVAC

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Sometimes companies can be fearful of talking about a topic like satisfaction guarantees for a couple of reasons. One is because if someone is not satisfied, we have to take ownership of our mistake, and that doesn’t always feel very good. Another reason is because we can be fearful of people taking advantage of a company’s guarantee.

Our satisfaction guarantee is there to remove the risk of people doing business with us. If we offer a 100% satisfaction guarantee, there’s zero risk in choosing us. We’re a team of humans, so we’re imperfect and we do mess up sometimes. As we’ve always learned, the main thing isn’t the adversity itself—it’s how you respond to it that really matters. We’ll do what we need to in order to resolve any concerns.

In my experience, I’ve found that people don’t want to take advantage of you. It turns out that clients are truly concerned that we’ve done something wrong and we need to take ownership of it. For example, we deal with excavation and sometimes rainstorms will cause mud to run somewhere it’s not supposed to be. We try to answer those concerns and get them resolved promptly, but it can be very difficult when working with Mother Nature. Because the client’s satisfaction is very important to us, we try do do whatever we can to resolve the situation.

Not too long ago, we had a job where we were busting up the concrete in a home. We have a process to keep the dust level down, but unfortunately, we dropped the ball in that area and there was a dust issue in the home. We fielded the customer’s concern, addressed the issue, and got the area cleaned up. We did what we needed to do in order to leave the customer satisfied.

I’m working on a situation right now because we subcontracted a pipe lining company from eastern Virginia to line a sewer 12 years ago. We applied the appropriate warranty to the lining, which was 50 years. Unfortunately, the subcontractor isn’t standing behind the work they did. So we are standing behind it. The bottom line is, when I look at the quote that was given to the customer, it clearly and simply states the work done and the warranty we provided. It’s costing us a great deal of money now, but I was personally in that client’s home and I said we would do the right thing to resolve her concern.

The customer agreed to work with us because they had confidence that the problem would be resolved and wouldn’t come up again in the future. Even 12 years later we’re still making sure our commitment is being honored. Sometimes an issue isn’t really resolved and we have to do extra work at our own expense. We must make the choice to do the right thing, even though it might not always be very fun.

If you have any questions, contact us today or give us a call at 540-483-9382.

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One of the most frustrating things for a homeowner is setting up an appointment for a service person to come to their home and they don’t show up, show up late, or don’t follow directions. We focus on being on time, and we give a two hour window in which we will arrive. We also try to notify people when we’re on our way. I really think meeting our client’s needs comes down to dispatching correctly. It’s important that the people fielding the customers’ requests are well-trained in asking the right questions so we best understand the issue you’re dealing with, how serious it is, and exactly what we need to do. Asking the right questions is vital to making sure someone’s needs are properly met.

Next, we need to make sure we send the right person to your home. We’re very much aware of how the technician we send could make or break the customer’s experience. (Nobody likes it when a technician seems incompetent or when it’s the first time they’ve ever seen the issue.) We assess the task that needs to be done and assign it a skill level. We also assign a skill level to every technician (because everyone is slightly different). Then we try to match up the right technician with the right task to make sure we’re sending a competent person to every home.

A lot of times people think that a company will dispatch its technicians to cover a certain radius. A technician in South Roanoke would just run all the calls in that area for the day, right? Well, not exactly. We do not focus primarily on the location of the call as much as we do the skill level necessary to do the job correctly and meet the customer’s needs. So we may have technicians passing each other by on the way to calls. This is all about making sure the customer has a satisfactory experience.

We make these choices when coordinating our technicians because our time is valuable and our homeowner’s time is valuable. We want to make sure that we’re doing our absolute best. Sometimes we do have to make multiple visits, and sometimes we don’t get everything quite right over the phone. But I’d like to think that the vast majority of the time we’re able to do it well and make sure that the customer’s problem is solved.

If you have any issues with your plumbing or HVAC systems, you can always reach out to the team at Wisler Plumbing. Just contact us today or give us a call at 540-483-9382.

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I don’t think anybody likes negative surprises. Unfortunately, businesses often surprise people by sneaking in fine print with extra fees. So many of us are wary of fine print that it’s not surprising to hear someone say they’ll wait around and see how much higher the invoice will be after all the extra fees are added in. We try to do business differently than that. The price we tell you it’s going to be is the price that you’re going to pay. We trademarked the term Straightforward Pricing because it signifies our strategy of being upfront with clients.

Sometimes companies justify misleading their clients by saying it’s just an expected way of doing business. They view a service charge as something everyone should already know about, and they won’t even mention explicitly. Well, maybe a homeowner doesn’t know they’re going to be charged a service fee because they’ve never had service personnel in their home.

Most of the time it’s already not a good day when you have to call the plumber. There’s a lot of anxiety involved when dealing with an unexpected situation in your home, like a flood, water leak, or even a complete lack of water. Do I have the money to pay for this? Can it get fixed? How long is it going to take? Are they going to do the right job? Am I going to be taken advantage of? So many questions cross a homeowner’s mind during a time like this. Being straightforward with something as important as pricing helps to lower anxiety. When you have a lower anxiety level about your current situation, I think you can make better decisions.

I also think that you can make the right choice when all the options are presented to you, especially when you know you can trust the bottom line. (We believe in giving options to empower the customer to make a decision.) That ties along with another part of what we do with our pricing structure: Straightforward Pricing is a form of task pricing, so we don’t charge by the hour. Instead, we charge by the task or job. Another way to set prices is by using time & material pricing. One of the downfalls of time & material pricing is that homeowners can be penalized if the technician isn’t very good. If the tech wasn’t prepared with the right parts, the homeowner would end up paying extra because the job took longer than necessary. That’s why I think task pricing is much more of a fair approach.

Without Straightforward Pricing or some other form of task pricing, there is no consistency. I think it’s very important for homeowners to feel like they’re not getting charged differently just because of their status, what their home looks like, or because of whichever technician they got on a particular day. I believe in consistency, and all the things we do with Straightforward Pricing helps to build the trust level of the people we serve.

In the trades that we’re in, we strongly believe in the fact that we shouldn’t give a ballpark price over the phone only to go to your home and find out it’s going to be double what we thought. Instead, just reach out to us by calling 540-483-9382 or requesting an appointment online. We can have one of our technicians or reps come to your home, evaluate the situation, and explain exactly what needs to be done. Then we’ll give you options with a Straightforward Price so you can select the best fit for you.

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Our heating systems and furnaces start to break down more often when it’s colder outside. When that happens, the first question on your mind might be, what exactly constitutes a repair? A repair is basically anything outside of maintenance and a complete system replacement. First and foremost, maintenance isn’t a repair. (Maintenance is keeping a system in good working order.) Then there’s a complete system replacement. An HVAC system is often made up of an outside unit, an inside unit, and any other components that are part of the system. You might think that a major repair constitutes a replacement, but that’s not exactly the case because the whole system didn’t get replaced.

The next question you might have is how much it’s going to cost to get back in working order. Repairs vary in size, but I can give an average range: a heating repair is going to average between $300 and $500. (There may be some repairs that are well over that, and some that are well under.) A furnace, for instance, is fairly simple. Overall, there isn’t much complexity to how it functions, so repairs tend to be somewhat straightforward. It has a heat exchanger and uses some sort of fuel to provide heat. There might be a gas valve that needs to be changed, and cleaning would be a maintenance item. Heat pumps are somewhat more complicated, though. Maybe the whole internal coil needs to be replaced, which can be much more expensive.

The important thing to remember is that you can prevent HVAC repairs from being necessary by simply doing your maintenance. Once the age of the system gets to a certain point, you’ll start to see recurring repairs that seem to happen practically every six months. In that case, it may be time to consider a complete system replacement so that you’re not wasting money putting repairs into an old system.

If something does go wrong with your heating system this winter, we answer our phones 24 hours a day with a live person (unless the call takers are already on another line). We might make a visit to someone’s home in the middle of the night, depending on whether it’s a Diamond Club family member and/or there’s a true emergency. We do prioritize those kinds of situations because nobody really wins if it isn’t a true emergency.

It might be a good idea to keep the contact information for a qualified professional handy just in case you need it. You can reach out to Wisler Plumbing online or by giving us a call at 540-483-9382.

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All the Players Involved

There are quite a few influencers who have really left their mark on Wisler Plumbing & Air. I think we have to just start at the beginning, and that means looking at the Wisler Family. My father founded the company and I grew up along with my siblings in the family business. Whether it’s my mom, father, or even my brothers and myself, all of us have definitely left our own unique mark. I sometimes think of Wisler Plumbing & Air as a living organization—it kind of has a personality of its own. Anyone who’s been around long enough for the whole ride can see which areas of the organization have been influenced by the Wisler Family. Of course, I would be foolish not to also give credit to the key players who have been employed here. (Some have moved on to other opportunities and some are still with us.) They’ve definitely had an important influence as well.

Success Group International

In 2001, We joined the Contractor Success Group, which is now commonly known as Success Group International (SGI). SGI has been an influencer in this organization for a very long time. We’ve subscribed to their system and way of thinking, which is really about operational excellence and making sure we serve our customers in the best way our industry has to offer. Members of the group are company owners, and a handful of them have directly influenced Wisler Plumbing & Air. We’ve attached to the ones with common values or a common philosophy and gleaned off of their experiences (and they’ve done the same with us). Success Group International and its associated companies from around the country have influenced us greatly over the last 20 years.

Mentors Throughout Time

Both me and my father have also had several mentors and consulting firms over the years. We were part of an organization called C12, which was led by John Netzel at the time. The group has dissolved, but it has left an influence on our company and guided us through four or five years of business. Carl Nielsen from Nielsen Group in Texas has helped us with our people management and impacted the culture in a special way. He’s worked with us for over 15 years. Wisler Plumbing & Air has a story, and the Wizard of Ads team has helped us to tell that story to the public. They’ve definitely influenced this organization and impacted our growth. More people have become aware of us and appreciate what we stand for and the value we offer our community.

Do You Want to Be Part of the Team?

Quite a few people have been a significant part of who and what we are today. If you have any questions or want to learn more about working with the team at Wisler Plumbing & Air, contact us online or give us a call at 540-483-9382.

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Plasma Generators

When it comes to saving money, one of the coolest heating & air innovations we have is a piece of equipment called a plasma generator. It improves the air quality in your home and it’s actually capable of doing everything a UV light can do. Plasma generators can kill viruses (which is even more relevant now that we’re in a coronavirus pandemic). The cool thing about it is you don’t have to worry about the cost involved with replacing bulbs like you would with a UV light. It doesn’t really have a limited lifespan because it uses the oxygen that’s already in your home to create the plasma that kills any bacteria or viruses. It’s just a phenomenal product.

We just tend to assume that the air quality in our house is good, but that actually might not be the case. We should pay careful consideration to areas like the ductwork, where mold can start to grow and then blow all over the house. The ideal use case for a plasma generator is anyone who’s concerned about the quality of air they are breathing. People with respiratory issues, asthma, or allergies would especially benefit from getting one.

Whole Home Air Filters

I’ve mentioned the differences between air filters and how some of them can be more effective at removing small particles, catching dust, and helping reduce allergies. But the filters you buy are only about 3/4” thick and don’t last very long. Whole home air filters, on the other hand, are about 4” or 5” thick and go directly inside the ductwork. They are made from a much denser filter media which can catch more particles, but they also last much longer than a regular air filter because of the higher surface area.

Efficient Equipment

Another area of innovation that leads to saving money is the SEER ratings, or the efficiency ratings, of HVAC equipment. As we’ve mentioned before, our HVAC equipment is such a big user of energy in our homes that we want to make sure we’re not overpaying for an old, outdated system. I will say, though, just installing a high-efficiency unit doesn’t necessarily mean that you now have a high-efficiency HVAC system because the ductwork is also part of the equation. If you put in a high-efficiency unit but you have major ductwork issues (like leaks or improper sizing), you’re really just spending extra money on a piece of equipment. Make sure you have a professional check out the whole system so that the higher SEER (or higher efficiency) that you gained with new HVAC equipment is actually going to net you a proper return.

Smart Homes & Thermostats

When it comes to controlling an HVAC system, there’s nothing cooler than being able to make adjustments right from your phone. Maybe you’re on vacation or you just left for work and forgot to set the thermostat. You’ll be able to see the current temperature and make adjustments using a smart thermostat from Nest or Ecobee. We have them on our trucks and can install them during a visit without any advance notice.

Dual Fuel Systems

As we’ve talked about in the past, electric isn’t as efficient as gas. Let’s say you have a heat pump, but you also have gas availability. You could get a dual fuel system consisting of a heat pump with gas backup. Whenever it gets below a specific temperature (e.g., 40 degrees), the gas backup will kick in and be much more efficient at heating the home than just the regular heat pump.

To learn more about any of these products, request an appointment, contact us, or give us a call at 540-483-9382.

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