Episode Transcript
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The CEO you should know, broughtto you by Roby Foster Miller Eric Insurance.
This week's CEO, Gary Eberts,owner of Eberts Heating and Cooling.
Good morning, Good morning, Aaron. Great to be here. Yeah,
great to see you. Thanks forcoming in today. I've heard the name
of you, and I haven't hada chance to meet face to face.
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So let's begin. Somebody's new tothe area. They don't know about you,
guys. Tell us about your greatcompany. Okay, I've been around
since nineteen sixty five. Mom anddad started. We actually did TV and
appliances, what they started out withso seventies and that we got into heat
and air conditioning more and geothermal,and so we kind of switched over.
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Kind of hard to compete with thebig box stores, so that's why we
started out with the heat and airconditioning and that's been a great for us
ever since then. So talk aboutspecialty. You know what do you guys
specialize and they hear heating and cooling. Talk about that a little bit.
We sell train equipment for our unitaryproducts, regular resident central furnaces, air
conditioners, we got Geo thermal.We sell the water furnace brand name.
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And what's really been great in thepast five years is big growth was with
the mini split units Mitsubishi. Weoffer that product and that's just for certain
areas of the house or whole house, and but service working that on them
all the equipment that we sell installWe're chatting with the owner of Efferts Heating
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and Cooling, that is Gary Eberts, this week's CEO. You should know.
All right, So you mentioned startedback in what the mid sixties you
said, right, sixty five?Yes, okay, all right, and
talk about the area you serve.I mean, how big is the coverage
area for the company. Well,go about a thirty mile radius. With
our twelve employees that we have,that's a pretty big area for us,
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keeping busy all year long, youknow, Richland, Knox, Morrow,
Wayne County. We go up northto Plymouth and Willard area and West Hork
Crawford County. Besirius, all right, terrific. So I heard you say
a dozen employees. But you toldme before we turned down the microphones,
you're always looking for good people.Correct. Years ago they told us there'd
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be shortage and technicians and all that, and I didn't believe in. It's
like, yeah, you're crazy.But now you could ask anybody in any
of these service areas that they're havingissues trying to find qualified people to do
service in that So we're pretty stillparticular about who we hire. So they're
always looking for that good employee,knowledgeable employee that wants to work. So
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let let's go there next. Didyou hear the voice this morning of the
owner of Eberts Heating and Cooling,Gary Eberts, this week's CEO. You
should know how do they reach out? Hey, you know they're specialized in
this field, they want to workfor you. How do they get in
contact? What what's the best place? Just call it the shop there at
four one, nine, five,eight nine, two thousand. They can
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reach us on the web and atResponse and there we get a lot of
applications through that. Personally, Ilike to have them come talk to me.
And most of the people that Ihave hired over the years has come
from our vocational school, so that'sbeen a big thing. And you know,
there's hey, we need a job, we're looking for a job,
and we give them an opportunity.All right, Well, the next question
would be where are you located atthe area right eight ninety six Ashton Road
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and Mansoll there be the east endof it on forty two there right on
the corner Michigan Avenue in forty two. All right, and again the website
Eberts Heating and Cooling dot com.So let's go next to the name Eberts.
You've had that mispronounced many times overthe year, as right. Oh
well, I've customers told me no, it's Eberts. I said, no,
it's Eberts. But that's all right. You know, you pay your
bill. I want to argue withyou, but I had a teacher one
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year tell me that the S atthe end of our name makes it Eberts.
It's a soft E and without theS, it's Ebert. There's a
lot of people over national area thatEbert, and we're the Eberts in the
Manslat area. All right, Yes, it's a cool story, as you
mentioned, to learn about your companythe area to serve all the great people.
Again, the voyage this morning isGary Eberts. He is the owner
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of Eberts he and Cooling. He'sthis week CEO. You should know.
My next thing I wanted to bringup was in terms of here we are
warm weather, summertime. Even beforethis time arrives, it would be a
good time to call you guys,come out, you know, maybe check
things over. Maybe they're in theneed for you know, a brand new
unit, you know, you know, cool the house for the summer,
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that kind of thing. Right,I'm sure preventative maintenance, right, that's
got to be a big thing.Call you guys ahead of the time.
Right. We have pobby over sixhundred customers with our preventive maintenance program that
just keeps growing every year. Gotfour service guys. We keep busy all
the time. I actually have afifth in reserve that helps install service.
But yeah, now's the time toget it checked. That hot weather comes,
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you know, we get a weekor two behind, especially with installs
in that we could be a coupleof two, three four weeks behind.
And you know that's without cooling.It's people sometimes need more cooling than do
heating. I can get by itwithout the heat, but with the cooling.
Hey, the things have changed overthe years. It's amazing when you
have all that humidity in that warmthday after day, right, Yes,
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yes, you mentioned nothing better thanturning on that ac all right, So
while we talk about installation all thosekind of things, I'm sure there's not
a time. Friend. This justjumps into my mind right now to say,
hey, i mean, I'm sureevery project is different, right,
but if you have to install abrand new unit and all that kind of
stuff, that takes some time.Right, take about a day to putt
an air conditioner in and a furnaceand ad so furnace in air a couple
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of days to install it, butwhich usually the first day we try to
get everything up and running for thecustomer for the air conditioning part of it,
or if it's a furnace and airchange out, we'll try to get
the furnace on the first day andget them heat back up and running if
it's a you know, down system. And another question, Garret that jumped
into my mind. Is there abusier time of the year for you when
you think about you know, warmth, summer, cold, winter, or
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all the time busys so so timesusually March April this year, you know,
we had that warm January February westayed busy, but nothing really hammering
the doors down. But yeah,once we hit April and May, we
just go all year long until aboutthese you get through the holidays and that
it'll slow down a little bit,but you know we're usually busy all year
long. Well, it's great tolearn the story again. A great local
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company in Everts Heating and Cooling,their owner Gary Eberts, with us in
studio. He's this week's CEO.You should know. All right, Well,
let's find out more about you.Let's step back to the very beginning.
Everybody wants to know where was GaryEberts or Mansfield, Ohio back in
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nineteen fifty nine. I grew upin the little town of Pavonia, great
place to be, neighborhood kids.Went to Cresview, actually went to Pioneer
my junior and senior year. That'swhere I learned a lot of my trades
in that we worked on appliances thefirst year and the junior year, and
then the senior year we got intofurnaces and that. And I tried college
for a few months and said,Dad, save your money. I'm the
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kind of guy likes to be outin the field working on stuff and at
so he hired me and I startedinstalling and going strong ever since. Right,
Yes, all right, terrific.So It's kind of funny. You'll
hear people and tell their story.Did you know growing up because of you
know, your father, the business, that this was the line of work
you were always going to go into. I assume no, No, I
really had no clue what I wantedto do. I was a kid.
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I was an outdoor person, youknow, sports and nets. I really
didn't have a patient for anything,and so I needed money. Hey,
I need a job. So youknow, we're part time for dad.
When I was in school, mydad work saturdays, had delivered the TVs
and the appliances. He said,you got to get that done or you're
not playing your basketball game tonight.So I learned to work hard when I
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was a kid, and I stillI just love to work hard and take
care of the customer. Ain't terrific. That's what it's about, right though.
Customer satisfaction, customer service. Yes, yes, I have a patient
for that. Well, that's greatto hear about that. This morning,
Gary again Eberts is with us ownerEberts Heating and Cooling. This week's CEO.
You should know, all right,So we found out born in Mansfield,
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he was a Crassview Cougar and let'sfind out more. I don't know
if you're married kids, So tellus about Gary and the family. I
have a wife of thirty six yearsof be this year, four kids,
got eleven grandchildren, one great grandchild. But I like to work around the
house. Got twenty four acres,so I enjoy working outside. Got animals
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in that wife has a real patientfor the animals. I liked side by
side riding, golfing, fishing thereAgain, an outdoors person, I like
to go to the wy every morning, work out. Good group of people
there that we work out with andhave a good time playing racketball in that.
That's kind of my thing. Yeah, that's great. No, it's
great to learn about you the family. I want to circle back to work
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before I let you go. Andit's been again great to learn about Gary
Eberts this morning. He is thisweek's CEO. You should know, and
he's the owner of Eberts Heating andCooling. So I would love to hear
from you. We talked earlier aboutyou mentioned customer service. What sets you
guys apart your company? What kindof makes you guys special? Talk about
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that a little bit. What wedo offer twenty four emergency service. My
guys are great. They make surethey take care of the customer's house.
They treat it with respect. Alot of people give me compliments on that
because they say, wow, we'vehad people in here that just they don't
care. You know. My thingis, hey, take care of the
customer. You need to care aboutthem, and that is really a big,
a big thing for the customer nowadays. That's a great point to make
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now in terms of you know,we mentioned you guys do heat and cooling,
all those kind of things. Wetalked about, you know, preventative
maintenance. I'm sure you know whenyou think about somebody you know, may
call you guys because they need apart, right, and you guys come
out and handle that. But interms of that preventative maintenance, so just
you know what I mean, youhave the air conditioning checked, you know,
the furnace. That's very very important, right it is. Manufacturers actually
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recommend it so that way if youhave problems down the road and hey,
we've had that thing taking care ofevery year and I've actually had to manufacture
and say, you know what,we'll take care of that, get a
new unit, put it in forhim. Don't happen very often. Don't
really have that many issues. Butthat's a big eie is I've taken care
of it like you told me to. It's like changing oil in your car.
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You're supposed to do it, andthe ones that do it, they're
not the ones call me for twentyfour hour service in the middle of the
night and say, hey, when'sthe last time you change your fielder?
When's last time you had it checkedout? Now, in terms of that
twenty four hour service, that's abig deal for the customer. You know,
you guys are always there. Whenyou need somebody, you call Gary
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and Evarts. We provide it forour customers, new customers and that boy.
Our guys just would get burned outif we did it for everybody.
So I have respect from my employeesand the time they have at home and
that, but they understand that they'reon call and they need to take care
of our customer and they go outand do it. All right. Well,
it's great to learn about you guys. Is there anything I missed the
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Gary? The public should know aboutyou guys. We cover everything. I
think we covered everything. And justwhen Dad started this, he came home
one day to mom and said,hey, I bought some property and we're
going into business. Didn't ask hernothing. You know, this is back
in the sixties and they built abuilding there and I've been there ever since,
but I remember them building that building, and I would have never thought
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I would be the one there now. It's a great story. Great story
you mentioned started by your dad andyour mom and you continue on the business
the legacy. Let's circle back again. Voice this morning is Gary Eberts,
owner Everts Heating and Cooling. Let'sgive them the phone number and the website
if they need service, they wantyou guys to come out take a look,
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give us some of that. Orif somebody's looking for a great career
with you guys, so we'll giveus some of that information. Can always
contact us through the website Eberts Heatingand Cooling dot com. Phone numbers four,
one, nine, five, eight, nine, two thousand. We
have three people in the office,so it's pretty well answered in there.
Very rarely does it go to voicemail, but you do get those busy times,
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you'll get right back to them though. Yes we did. Absolutely,
it's terrific. Well, it's greatto learn your story. Gary, Thank
you. So much for coming inand we wish you continued success. Aaron,
thank you and enjoy talking to you. Gary Eberts, owner of Eberts
Heating and Cooling, the CEO youshould know. Read a bio, see
a photo, and here the extendedinterview at WMA n FM dot com.
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Leading means having a vision and sharingit with others. I'm John Roby of
RFI Insurance. We're excited to bringyou this program featuring CEOs from our area
who will share the thoughts and whatit means to work and live in north central Ohio