Lessons From A Competitor, How To Provide Great Service

I wanted to share an experience I just had the day before the 4th of July.  It was Friday July 3rd the day that everything was closed because this year the 4th landed on a Saturday and all companies legally close up the work day before. There I was sitting on my couch watching Independence Day  a movie I watch every 4th of July, this time a day early. Right around 12:30 I started getting hot and noticed the AC was not on. I walked over and noticed the thermostat was at 82 degrees, wow I have never seen it that hot. As I lowered it down to 70 what usually happens didn't happen. In other words the AC was dead. I was in panic mode, the AC always breaks in the summer and always on a holiday.

The first thing that came to my mind was it's a holiday weekend and I'm going to live in hell for the next 3 days. Keep in mind this is a fairly new unit only 3 years old, what the heck could have happend? I noticed there was some water leaking from the unit so I placed a bucket under it to keep the floor dry. I picked up the phone and dialed my HVAC company only to get no answer, I tried again and again and finally after 10 rings someone picked up. After they did their normal phone introduction before I could say a word they apologized to me by saying "In case you have been trying to call we are a little backed up and short staffed for the holiday". They acknowledged that before I could say a word or even mention that I have been trying to call.

I explained my problem and they informed me that someone will be out today. Again because it's a holiday they are a little short staffed but someone will be out to fix my problem. I was expecting to get charged for an after hours call because it was a holiday but that was not the case.

As you can see so far the whole situation has been fairly pleasant but this is where the magic started. It took about 4 hours maybe 5 before they arrived which I think was pretty good considering it was a holiday and they were running with a light crew. Their office called me to let me know I was their next call before the service man arrived. Then called again to inform me that they were on their way.

When the service man arrived he was very professional and pleasant. He shook my hand at the door and began work. The whole time he was telling me what was wrong and why the unit cut off and explaining what he was going to do to fix it. What happen was the drain line was clogged and backing up the water, the unit is equipped with a flood switch so the switch detects the backup and cuts the unit off.

He flushed the line walked outside with me to show me all the blockage and gave me some tips for preventing future problems. He then inspected my coils and informed that they looked good and my unit was running cold again.

As he left he wished me a good day and a nice 4th of July holiday. I suspect he must be having a crazy busy day and all the while he was relaxed, professional and took his time to fix my problem and answer my questions. Then as quickly as he arrived he was gone on the road more than likely to amaze other customers in need of cool air.

As I sat down my telephone rang and the friendly women from the office was checking in with me to make sure I was satisfied and everything was ok.

Could my experience have been any better? Come Monday morning I received an email as a follow-up just to make sure everything was working ok. About the only thing they didn't do was ask me for a testimonial, but they didn't have to. My experience was so amazing with this company that I figured that one out on my own. For the first time in my life I was happy to write a check for a repair.

This is an example of an amazing experience I personally had with an HVAC company. I'm often asked by clients how do I get more testimonials or I'm asking for testimonials but no one wants to give them. Then of course we hear business is not good, it's slow, we need more calls on and on. The solution is very simple...Do amazing work, it's not hard to provide great service, in fact it's fairly easy, it's all about the little things.

If you are not getting positive testimonials or if you are getting some but they are saying your price is was to high or business is slow, there is a reason for this. It could be that you are just doing an ok job or worse yet maybe even a bad job. You are not providing any value. People want to find the gold nuggets, the company they know will be there for them and the company they can feel great about referring to their friends and family.

There is one other thing that this company  does that I have never seen before. The owner Tommy lists his cell phone on the website and mentions it on their on hold message. He clearly wants to hear from his customers and it works. You can learn a lot from this company.

Ok I'll reveal them. All Year Cooling in Ft. Lauderdale, FL. A little disclaimer they are not a customer of mine they just do amazing work. http://www.allyearcooling.com/

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Tagged as: 5 Star Service, Great Customer Service

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