Wisler Plumbing and Air

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The Purpose of Our Satisfaction Guarantee

client satisfaction

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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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You know the old adage, there’s more than one way to skin a cat? Everyone has their own way of doing things. When I talk about the Wisler way, I’m not saying it with arrogance, but as a way to describe our approach to getting things done. There are definitely many different perspectives and other successful ways for a business to function. The Wisler way is how I label what I’m about to share—these are some of the main things we’ve found to be helpful to our success.

First of all, we’re selective, meaning we focus on hiring the right people and making sure they’re a really good fit for our organization. More specifically, our organization is shaped by our customers’ needs. Customer feedback is what guides who we are and how we build our culture. Nobody likes the service personnel visiting their home to be rude, unknowledgeable, unable to get the job done right, disrespectful of their property, unable to be upfront, unfriendly, or unpleasant. We key in on these kinds of attributes because we know our customers need personnel who provide a high level of service. We fulfill those needs by by putting a strong focus on who we hire and how we hire. People’s homes are extremely precious—they hold the things that we find most dear, like our children and our parents. Anybody who steps foot in that environment needs to communicate safety, care, and respect. It takes a special person to be able to do that.

Next, we’ve found that people have to be trained, whether it’s from a technical standpoint or a professional standpoint. As we hire someone, we may find that they need training to improve specific skills (e.g., communication or service). Our organization is very much about growth and development, whether it pertains to the overall business or the individual. Someone may have the basic skills necessary to be a service technician or an administrative person within the business, but they can always develop various skills to become even better. That’s a big part of who we are.

Finally, because we fail a good bit, I think we need to focus on getting our work done right. (Perfectionism probably makes me a much harsher critic than most other people.) I do think there is a right and a wrong, and doing the right thing is important. It takes discipline and organization to get a clear view of the work you’ve done and then do the right thing, even if it’s not the easiest or most fun thing to do.

In summary, we focus on hiring the right people with the correct fit, we believe in personal growth and training people to obtain new skills, and we’re about being disciplined to do the right thing no matter what type of task it may be. If you have any questions, contact us today or give us a call at 540-483-9382.

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Homeowners have drastically different needs from a business owner. Commercial businesses really view their problems as just an expense that needs to be taken care of. Homeowners, on the other hand, usually don’t have the resources that a business does from a financial standpoint. So why do we choose to only work with residential customers? We want to be an expert, not a jack-of-all-trades.

It’s important for us to be very good at preventing issues from happening. We choose to build value in our services by making sure that costly damage doesn’t occur to our clients. Commercial business owners would often rather get the least expensive patch. If the item breaks again a few months down the line, they’ll just take care of it then. Homeowners have a different mindset—they want the issue fixed the first time. They don’t have the resources to go through multiple visits, repairs, or replacements throughout the year.

Being a value-based provider means that we recognize the homeowner’s need for safety, peace of mind, and the ability to sit back and relax knowing that everything is taken care of. Business owners are more about whoever is available at that particular time. They aren’t focused as much on quality and safety. Since it’s a public place of business, background checks and drug tests of our employees might not be as much of a priority for them.

They also don’t prioritize property protection the same way. Putting floor savers, mats, and shoe covers is important to residential customers, whereas it might not be as important to a commercial business. If we were to try to serve both commercial and residential customers, we’d find ourselves trying to cater to two drastically different mindsets. Instead, we want to be great at what we do. We do this by maintaining consistency across the service that we offer.

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Imagine what would happen if a homeowner hired a company that does both commercial and residential plumbing. The technician might have just come from a commercial call when they go to visit the homeowner. Damage prevention might not be at the top of their mind. That isn’t necessarily right or wrong—it’s just a consequence of two types of clients with drastically different needs.

Commercial plumbing systems are also very different from residential homes. They have different types of toilets than what you’d find at someone’s home. If we have someone who’s very good at commercial plumbing equipment, they might not be as much of an expert in residential plumbing. That’s why we’ve niched ourselves to become experts in the items we’d find at residential homes. We find that it serves us much better.

When you work with us, you can be sure that we focus on meeting homeowners’ expectations. If you’d like to learn more, contact us online or give us a call at (540) 483-9382.

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We decided at Wisler Plumbing and Air that we were going to charge by the task instead of based on materials and time. We feel that this is simply the superior option for our clients. One really important aspect of task pricing is the ability to provide a clear price to clients in advance, before any work has been done.

The problem with time and material pricing is the anxiety that builds up once the plumber shows up to the home. For each hour that the technician is there, anxiety will continue to increase for the homeowner. They would be uncertain of the job’s total cost until it is done, since it is calculated based upon the amount of time the job took. With task pricing, we look at the situation and provide the total price in practically no time. At most, it typically takes around half an hour for us to determine the scope of work that must be completed. From then on, the homeowner’s anxiety is greatly reduced in almost every case.

This is especially true because clients are not penalized if the technician were to take more time to complete the job. Once we determine the task’s price, you wouldn’t have to be concerned if the technician needed to make a trip to the vendor and pick up a part. It is the responsibility of the company and the technician to make sure they are prepared to do the job you hired them for. With time and material charges, technicians driving a small truck that needed to pick up a part would ultimately increase their time on the job (and thus increase the amount they are paid).

We feel it is simply inexcusable to take advantage of clients by charging them more for an extra trip to the vendor for parts. (Heaven forbid if the technician had to make more than one trip.) The homeowner should not have to be preoccupied with how long it is taking the technician to get the job done. Instead, they can sit back and relax—at the same time, the technician is not pressured to take any shortcuts in order to get the job completed in less time. They can focus on doing the best job they can without being preoccupied with how long it is taking. The end result is a superior experience for the client, who is less likely to call for support. The technician can take as much time as needed to make sure they did an outstanding job.

If you have any questions about how task pricing is the best option for you, give us a call today at (540) 352-4262 or contact us here.

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At Wisler Plumbing and Air, we want to make the payment process as easy as possible for our clients. One of the ways our service department does this is by always collecting payment upon completion of the job.

One of the options we offer is payment by credit card over the phone if clients will be unavailable. If the homeowner had to go out of town, this creates an easy payment option after authorization has been given to the technician for work to be done. Of course, we also accept cash and checks, along with several financing options.

For large projects, we have FHA Title 1 government lending available. The requirements for this program have very few restrictions, and it has a very low payment option to meet anybody’s budget. Additionally, the most frequent financing option our clients choose is zero percent with payment deferred interest. For any project over $1,000, we will extend anywhere from 12 to 24 months zero percent interest with minimum payment.

These financing options allow clients to take on jobs that would otherwise be cost prohibitive as a lump sum. The financing process is quick and easy—after filling out a simple application (or a quick phone call when we are on location), we can give instant approval and the relevant documents can be signed online.

Thanks to rapidly improving technology, the financing process is easier than ever. As an example, I visited a client recently one evening and made a proposal for the work on the main sewer line that needed to be done. Within ten minutes, I had obtained the approval, and within five more minutes the client signed the documents. I then sent in the signed work order, and we had permission to begin the work later that night.

Financing is a very easy process that gives the customer more options and flexibility when it comes to complete urgent repairs or replacements. We’ve talked before about plumbing emergencies that require immediate action. On top of the stress of a plumbing emergency, clients should not have to worry about having the funds at the moment to get the problem fixed. These things come up at the most inopportune times, and that is usually when funds are already tight. That’s why we care about providing our clients with a flexible array of payment options.

If you would like to learn more about the payment options offered at Wisler Plumbing and Air, give us a call today at  (540) 352-4262 or contact us here.

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