In this episode, we sit down with Joshua Vanderplate, CEO of Vertex Mechanical, a trusted name in heating, cooling, electrical, and plumbing services for over 40 years. Serving Lancaster, Berks, and Lebanon counties, Vertex Mechanical has built a reputation for quality craftsmanship, community-focused service, and their enduring motto: Here For Your Comfort™. Joshua shares the company’s journey, insights on leading in the trades industry, and what it takes to maintain trust and excellence across decades of service. Whether you're a homeowner, aspiring entrepreneur, or simply curious about what goes into running a successful service business, this episode offers valuable takeaways.
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Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
Good afternoon, Lancaster. Welcome to Lancaster Connects. My name is Ben McClure,
your host for the next hour.
Lancaster Connects, maybe this is your first time watching, maybe this is your
10th or 100th time watching. I think this is episode 197.
Lancaster Connects is a show where we have conversations with great people in
(00:21):
the Lancaster community doing amazing things in their community.
Today's guest is no exception. His name is Josh Vander Plait,
and he's representing Vertex Mechanical.
So we're going to bring Josh on in a little bit here.
Hey, it's starting to feel like summer this week.
It's June 2nd. I can't believe we're already in the sixth month of the year.
(00:44):
Incredible. This year is just flying by.
We had a rainy May. Goodness. I think it was a rainiest May on history or in
history here in Lancaster.
So it's nice that this week is sunshine and warmth all week, which is great.
I think we may even talk about the heat a little bit with our guest.
(01:06):
Again, he's representing a company that does HVAC service and they need heat
to maintain air conditioning units.
So anyway, we're going to bring Josh on in a little bit. But this show,
again, Lancaster Connects, is sponsored by Gardner's Mattress and More.
That's the business that I co-own with my partner in business here, Jeff Janakavo.
Not able to be on the show today, but he's working his way back into shows.
(01:29):
He was on the last two episodes, and he'll definitely be on future episodes.
Just couldn't make it today.
But LancasterConnects.com is where you can find all the Lancaster Connects information.
You can see past episodes on there. There's a button at the top for past episodes. to be a guest.
If you'd like to tell your story, maybe you represent an organization or a small
(01:49):
business that gives back to the community or a community benefit organization
that obviously gives back to the community.
We'd love for you to come on the show and tell your story.
Just go to LancasterConnects.com slash guest, fill out the simple guest form
there and we'll set up a time to have you on the show.
We are booking guests into the summer, which is awesome.
We'd love to tell your story as well. We're on YouTube, we're on Facebook,
(02:13):
both Gardener's Mattress and More and Lancaster Connect's YouTube and Facebook
channels. We'd love for you to give us a like and a subscribe in YouTube and a like on Facebook.
Share the show. Share it for the purpose of more people being aware of our guests
and hearing their stories.
(02:33):
The more people that will watch Lancaster Connects, the more impact these organizations
have within their community, which is what this show is all about.
Making connections, obviously, to organizations and community to the organizations
and organizations to the community.
And again, making a bigger impact here in Lancaster County.
(02:56):
So just a couple quick things.
I mentioned Gardner's Mattress and More. That's the business that I'm sitting
within. It's the four walls that Jeff and I co-own together here.
All the mattresses, you can see a couple behind us here.
Of course, we wake, we don't wake up, we wake up happy, but we help our community wake up happy.
(03:17):
That is our mission here at Gardeners, to change the way you feel about mattress stores.
And I just wanted to mention, maybe toot our horn a little bit,
we just wrapped up our busiest month in our 35-year history this past May.
There was one other month that maybe beat it in sales numbers,
(03:37):
but we also did a home show during that month, which was a whole level of effort and expense.
But it was the single biggest month we've ever had here.
And I don't say that to tout how great we are or anything like that.
Of course, I think we're very good and our reputation, I think, speaks for itself.
(03:58):
But the point is people are trusting their sleep to us for them to wake up happy.
The more people we can help improve their sleep, the happier Lancaster County
is and the more impact these better sleepers, these happy sleepers are having
within their own four walls, their own family, and again, their own community.
(04:19):
So we're helping people sleep better, which hopefully in turn is helping the Lancaster community.
So again, Gardner's Mattress and More, if we can help you with your sleep needs, give us a shot.
Visit Gardner'sMattressandmore.com. stop by anytime we're a no pressure sort
of place we listen to your sleep needs and make recommendations based on those
(04:39):
sleep needs in a no pressure relaxed environment here doing a lot of cool things here,
and of course Lancaster Connects is one of the ways that we like to give back and um.
I think it's time to bring our guest on to have that conversation.
We're happy to welcome Josh Vander Plait, who is the CEO of Vertex Mechanical.
(05:02):
Josh, welcome to the show.
Man, thanks for having us here, Ben. I am really honored to connect with you again.
Yeah, yeah. So the first connection was made at the, was it a month ago, maybe?
It feels like last week.
But the North Lancaster Chamber of Commerce Business Expo.
(05:22):
Uh, you were there, gardeners was there and, uh,
a mutual friend of ours, or at least somebody who, who knew of you and that you were doing,
you were broadcasting or recording a podcast right there on the,
and you know, the funny thing was you guys were all all the way kind of in the
back of the, the, the room.
(05:42):
Correct. And we were literally the first, we were literally the first booth
as you walk into the place and I had done my rounds, but I just,
I just didn't see you. And there you are with Nathan, I think,
right? Yeah, that's correct. You got it.
Yep. Yep. So Valanda Banks, who is a past Lancaster Connect guest and probably
(06:03):
will be a future guest here in the summer.
She's like, you've got to see these guys back here. They're doing a podcast. You do a podcast.
You got to come see these guys and be on the show. And I'm like,
all right, let's go. So she walked me back and introduced.
And we had a, you know, maybe five or ten minute conversation.
And you were like, you've got to be on our show. And we like,
yeah, you do mattresses.
(06:23):
That's part of the home, right? The homology podcast.
I'm like, Josh, you've got to be on Lancaster Connects. Tell you,
tell your story. So it was a fun chance meeting, I guess, if you will.
Yeah and it was it was a really great evening obviously we're huge fans
of the northern lancaster chamber of commerce and awesome
what's interesting about those yeah they are an amazing organization
and the way the businesses really serve one another
(06:46):
is really extraordinary but for
us we're like you know there's only so much you can talk about in
an evening related to air filters um or
heating systems and as i think as we mentioned to you
it's like nobody's hunting on pinterest for the coolest new
heat pump you know so we don't have anything exciting i
mean there's probably like one person out there that there might be
(07:07):
actually i'm gonna guess that that one person is
on reddit not on pinterest you know right right
right right because they're hunting that but i was like oh ben
you guys got something cool to talk about you have mattresses and
i was like that's people are looking for that and uh
we're we are the grudge purchase right it was like oh i
guess we got to make the call yeah so for that
(07:28):
evening we're like can we try something different here that would
be a little more enjoyable and so we just thought let's set up like a podcast
whether or not we even can use all of it it might be something that would um
invite story and you mentioned that at the start of your broadcast like hey
we love hearing stories from micaster i think that was the highlight of the
night for us was all the different stories that we got to hear.
(07:50):
That was everything from, you know, tea, hot tea, cold tea, to some of the insurance
groups that were there, and pediatric dentistry.
Like, you're hearing all those little different stories about our region.
And so it was a highlight to engage that way, not necessarily for,
you know, the benefit of the podcast as much as to kind of celebrate other businesses
(08:11):
that were with us that night, including yours.
Yeah. Well, and that's, that's what, you know, being in business or doing business
in the community is all about.
Knowing your customers, knowing who you're purchasing from, you know,
letting people tell stories. Stories is what it's all about.
I mean, you're buying from people you trust, you know, doing business with people you trust.
And, and yeah, I mean, a lot of times these expos, it's like,
(08:33):
they all kind of look the same.
Everybody's got a pop-up banner and business cards and a couple pamphlets.
And, you know, maybe there's some, you know, free pens or free,
you know, toys, whatever. You said it was like an official tip clip exchange night.
Yeah. That's what it was. That's good. Or trick, trick, adult trick or treating.
You know, I've often heard it.
Exposed, referred to as old trick or treating.
(08:56):
But, you know, being, allowing people to tell their stories on camera,
that, that, that was a great idea. Great idea. Very fun.
Well, let's, let's learn about Vertex Mechanical and, and, you know,
have this conversation about what you guys do.
How you're different, that sort of thing. So you're the CEO of Vertex Mechanical.
(09:18):
Is that correct? Yeah, that's correct. Yep.
Yeah, I've been here for a few years. Go ahead. Yeah, I've been here for a few
years, but Vertex has been around actually for a long time.
And I think that's one of the beautiful parts about Lancaster County is you
do have multi-generational businesses.
And that's one that's special about Vertex is although in this name,
(09:41):
It's only been around since 2002 as Vertex Mechanical.
Our owner Vince and his dad Ray have been doing this for over 40 years.
And so they started it together.
It was in 2002 when Vince was like, Hey, I think I want to like,
I want to go after this a little more.
And so he launched Vertex at that point. So it's really been over four decades.
(10:02):
That's amazing. I mean, Gardeners has been around for 35 years.
So I've been involved since 2000. So I've got maybe 25 years of Gardeners under
my belt. But that's amazing.
So when you're doing business with Vertex, no matter what section of the business
it is, there's 40 plus years of experience behind the name. That's amazing. Yeah.
(10:28):
And one of the things that I would say about that, too, sorry to jump in,
is that I think Vertex is often thought of as like an arrival,
like you've made it, you are the pinnacle of something.
And I think our mindset is it's not really an achievement as much as it's an
orientation. We want to orient ourselves around pursuing the Vertex,
(10:51):
and that's in every part of the business.
That's customer care and communication and the technology piece and the equipment piece.
But it's not something that we feel like we've made it. It's not like,
well, we arrived and we're there.
And all accolades aside, we're just trying to stay oriented around that because
of changing dynamics, changing consumer needs.
(11:11):
And let's just see what we can do to maintain that trajectory long term.
Gotcha. Gotcha. So as a CEO, what do you find yourself mostly doing there at Vertex?
I know a CEO kind of covers a lot of different roles and responsibilities and
probably wear a lot of different hats, both physical and otherwise.
(11:31):
Yeah, go ahead. What do you find your responsibilities are there?
It sounds more big than it is, I promise you. That's the name.
But it's really my joy is to serve the organization any way that I can,
whether that's helping to administer some new technology parts within our service platforms,
(11:53):
helping to develop a better way of communicating some of our memberships to
customers, which was a big thing that we did about two years ago,
completely revamped that.
Right now, day-to-day, I'm helping with a lot of onboarding of new employees,
which is a big part of the industry need right now.
And then customer objections. You know, we're talking through,
hey, here's a need they have. Here's what they're confused about.
(12:15):
How do we reconcile some of that?
But I love when I get the opportunity to just kind of serve other team members
and whatever sphere they're in, whether that's in the warehouse or,
you know, accounting or the HR piece of things.
Really, if I can help strengthen what they're doing, then I'm a happy guy.
The part that is probably the most exciting and the part that I love the most
(12:40):
is the getting to serve the community, which I know we're going to touch on a little bit later.
And that's a gift, I think, for my role, is getting to celebrate community and
invest in the community and build amazing relationships with the community from
the specific role that I'm in.
That's awesome. That's awesome. Yeah, Yeah, we'll definitely touch on that community bit later on here.
So what are some of the services Vertex Mechanical offers? I mean,
(13:03):
Chris has had some images and whatnot on the screen, some shots of your website.
But, you know, in your words, what...
What do you do? Yeah, so real simply, we provide heating, cooling,
plumbing, and electrical solutions for both homeowners and small businesses.
And we like to say that we're here for your comfort. And that's a pretty broad phrase, right?
(13:26):
Because everyone's definition of comfort is unique.
But we'll provide heating and cooling services, which includes really innovative comfort solutions.
And I do think that's something that sets us apart in that we'll provide some
solutions uniquely tailored to
both your budget and your home that others might not be able to provide.
(13:47):
I think our 40-plus years of experience have enabled us to, you know,
kind of curate some innovative solutions.
So that's the day-to-day. It's heating, cooling, electrical, plumbing.
And we serve primarily Lancaster County and then into Reading and Lebanon.
Okay. You know, it's interesting to hear you use the word comfort because that's
(14:08):
a huge word in our industry.
You know, support, mattress, you know, support for your body and comfort.
It's got to be comfortable, you know, mattress has to shape and mold your body,
reduce pressure points, all that. So comfort is like a big deal.
And it sounds like your selling process is a lot like the selling process we
have for, you know, finding the right mattress for each individual unique sleeper,
(14:33):
right? Because the needs are vast.
We see all kinds of people with all kinds of sleep needs and you're the same way.
Not one solution is going to work for every single person that you deal with.
Yeah, that's really one of the unique identifiers, I think, of who we are as an organization.
Because really, Lancaster has got, oh, I mean, I would guess hundreds of mechanical
(14:57):
contractors in this region. It's full of them.
And they range from the really large companies that probably have 200 technicians
down to the individual, the sole prop. And so there's so much available,
accessible to the consumer.
But for Vertex, you know, when we go into a home and we're hearing,
(15:17):
we're starting to listen to what the needs are.
What's interesting is the easiest solution is not always the best solution for the consumer.
What I mean by easy is technology, I think is interesting.
Technology has enabled some things that require a lower barrier to entry,
which means you don't have to know as much to provide a service.
(15:38):
You know, that was kind of that prosumer movement that kind of shifted into
the 90s and 2000s, prosumer.
But so since that technology has lowered the barrier to entry,
you can throw out a solution to a homeowner that's easiest for the contractor,
but not necessarily best for the homeowner.
And so Vertex has really made it a core commitment that let's invest in what's
(15:59):
going to create the most effective, most efficient solution.
Even if that's harder on us as installers or as service technicians,
because ultimately we're not looking just for what's the fastest way to flip
this job and grab the money from the consumer.
I know that sounds a little brash, but that is part of the industry stigma, right?
(16:19):
Is what can we throw in as fast as possible and get out the door with our check?
And so Vertex, I think, is taking a similar posture to you guys,
Ben, where it's, man, the investment and listening to the consumer's needs and
then looking for a solution that is uniquely fit to them. Yeah, that's our sweet spot.
Yeah, you're taking time to educate the consumer, which is time, which is also money.
(16:44):
But it's important to make sure that the solutions provided meet the customer's
needs because that leads to positive word of mouth. Yeah.
Testimonials, referrals, the Google reviews. Chris had your,
you know, flash of your Google page up there.
4.9 is fantastic in any business.
Um yeah so take taking
(17:05):
the time to educate is is uh what it's all about uh
what what are what are some of the core values and principles that vertex is
based on that's a great question i mean i think that there are there are some
core values that we have that are probably written on a lot of business walls
somewhere they're on a whiteboard that you know and um you know pat lencioni from the table group,
(17:29):
he talks about the difference between a core value and an aspirational one.
And aspirational ones, they're the things that you hope that one day you're
doing regularly, and the core ones are a part of your DNA now.
It's what you do in and out. And for us, I think two things that stand out for
me are transparency, like customer transparency around what we're doing,
why we're doing it, how we're doing it, and then the ethics around owning our mistakes.
(17:53):
And those probably don't, they don't make it like on a nice business card,
but the truth is 4.9 is an accurate reflection of we still make mistakes.
And part of that, which we could talk about for the next couple of hours, is the skills gap.
And the next season is going to be enormous.
What does that mean? We're training and developing technicians,
(18:15):
and they make mistakes. It's on the job. It's all the time.
And so I love seeing, yeah, the five stars. That's awesome.
But then you'll get one, and it's like, oh, wow, we really, we swung hard.
We missed hard. you know,
but the the joy is then engaging with the con the consumer with the homeowner and saying,
(18:35):
man thank you for your patience with us can we walk this
out all the way to the end and ensure that we we satisfied the expectation even
if along the way there were some speed bumps and so i think that ethical um
norm is so a part of who we are and um the guys hear it a lot on our team,
you know, we call it our workmanship guarantee.
(18:57):
It's not that we're not going to make mistakes. It's that we're going to guarantee
the continued follow-up.
And along with that, it's like, it's the care and the compassion.
Because I think what I said earlier was the only time we get phone calls is when there's distress.
And so like every customer starts from that place, right, of help.
Something's not good here. I don't have heating. I don't have cooling.
(19:19):
And so you're already starting that kind of mediating their anxiety and trying to deescalate it.
And so if you start that process, but then along the way you hit an obstacle,
you know, then the anxiety comes way back up again. And now you have to work through that.
So again, I think that just points to the fact that at the end of each job,
(19:40):
at the end of each project, hopefully we've invested in communication and the education piece of it.
And we've met the expectations, but most importantly, that we held on tightly
through that process so that they feel like we're still trustworthy and noble
in our intent. Is that good?
Yeah, absolutely. It's very clear.
(20:01):
You know, it's interesting. Like, you know, the mark of a truly great business
is not in doing everything perfect because that's not possible.
I mean, you strive for that maybe, and to do everything to the best of the ability.
But really, the mark of a truly great business and one that customers can trust
(20:22):
is what happens when things go wrong.
What happens when that phone rings and, hey, your guys were here and this happened.
And like you said, in that follow-up and follow-through. So it shines through
the reputation you guys have and it aligns very much with our philosophy here at Gardner's as well.
So this is a cool connection to make here.
(20:47):
To further that, and you kind of mentioned your team there,
you can't successfully, as a business owner or CEO of a company,
you can't successfully carry out the mission or what you're contracted to do
without good people, without great people, fantastic people.
And it seems like team culture and your employees there at Vertex are kind of
(21:10):
the number one priority.
Yeah, that is the right segue to have. I was just about to say,
oh man, we can talk these lofty and grand hopes of communicating and caring
well for the customers, but then it really boils down to those individuals that
are face-to-face with them.
And so our team is like our number one priority.
(21:30):
And I just so admire the technicians that are in the field, installers.
Service techs, plumbers, you know, because once again, they step into concern
and they step into uncomfortable situations every day.
And so our commitment, you know, we talked about it's okay to make mistakes.
We're going to walk through that with the homeowner. the bigger
(21:51):
question is how do we create a space where our
technicians have margin to create those mistakes and then
they're not penalized or punished for that
but they're nurtured and encouraged and then
strengthened and so i remember it was just the other
week you know we had a technician that did something and one
of the older members of our team was like he let him do
(22:11):
it like he let him do it what he knew was going
to require a fix immediately because he
knew that okay i'm going a great space for this because if he when
he does this wrong this time he'll never do it wrong the next time
and so right so so creating like team leads that understand the beauty and the
blessing of those teachable moments i think is a real um core part of who we
(22:35):
are creating space for the misses and um then nurturing them along the way to
become a stronger technician for the future.
Yeah, yeah. Do you do anything as an organization for your team members,
company outings, anything like that that you, you know, retain good employees?
(22:57):
What's that culture look like? Yeah, it's a great question.
We do do some team things. I would say probably we're weaker than some organizations
on creating lots of like outside of the space work environments.
Although this past Friday night was a good example of some of the things that
we do do, which we can touch on then, which was the Reddingfield community night.
(23:19):
But I think the retention piece comes, one, in the confidence that each technician
has, that each team member has in the grace space for making mistakes, right?
And so they hear that often enough. We talk about it enough.
But then we also invest a lot in their continued education. There's a couple ways that we do that.
(23:40):
But they also, every team member in our organization has a personal improvement
plan. And that's helping to kind of show what's their long-term trajectory within
the organization, both at a skill
level, at a here's some next steps educationally that we want to pursue.
But sometimes it's soft skills or sometimes it's just like there's some of those
intrinsic things that we want to develop.
And so I think because we help to create a long-term plan, it's not just rooted
(24:05):
in, you know, what's my hourly, you know, take home or, you know,
what's the bonus going to be?
It's how are we investing in your career path, even if that means someday we're
going to help you transition out of our organization into another one.
And so if we set that expectation early, then they know we're here for them,
whether that's for a short season or a long term, the entire length.
(24:28):
We're there to make sure that they continue to achieve their own personal maximum potential.
That's awesome. I love it. I love it. So obviously your team is important.
Customers are important. We talked about that a little bit. Maybe you can talk
a little bit about what maybe the customer journey looks like when they,
you know, they, they make that call, they're in a panic and your team is probably, you know.
(24:53):
Kind of like therapy in a way, like calm down, you know, here's how we can handle it.
We can, we can be out there this afternoon, you know, that sort of thing.
So maybe you can walk a little through what that customer journey looks like.
I know it's different for every customer, different situations,
but maybe just a little glimpse into what that looks like.
Yeah, it is like therapy. It really is.
(25:14):
And if you've had the opportunity at any point to hear some of our radio commercials,
either on IOV in particular, Riley is one of our team members who answers the phones.
And she's also on the commercials. Hey, it's Riley from Vertex Mechanical.
Like you can hear her smile come through the radio
and so it's
(25:36):
really hard to stay frustrated when you're
talking to a contagious smile yeah and riley's only yeah riley's just one of
those team members that does that and so initially a phone call comes in and
there's some initial empathy which is like man we're so sorry you're experiencing
x um what can we do to help make that a little bit better for you.
(25:58):
Of course, we're just about hopefully into cooling season this week.
We're the 2nd of June. Yesterday, I was still wearing a sweatshirt because it
was chilly out. It's crazy.
It is. It's amazing. But hopefully, for us, heat is just around the corner.
Well, what's interesting in our industry, people get way more uncomfortable
in the summer than they do in the winter.
(26:19):
They'll endure lots of extra layers in the winter. Ah, yeah, yeah.
That's true it is on yeah that's when the
emergency calls come and people are like wow yesterday get
here now and so what are you trying to do you're trying to
help them um first like okay help us
understand what you're experiencing what's the discomfort if we
(26:40):
can we we love when it's as simple as well maybe
you need to switch your thermostat like we love it when it's that simple it
rarely is um but then we start to talk through okay are you looking to have
someone come out and maybe look at a new system or you're looking to have someone's
going to come out and begin to try to repair something in the summertime uh
here's your kind of little um.
(27:01):
What do you call it like peek into um the back
door of the hvac world like over the next couple weeks that first um heat wave
probably i mean more than half of the calls are going to be resolved by one
thing and that's a capacitor on the outside unit that uh that failed and that's
about a 15 minute fix. It's not a big deal.
(27:23):
And just like that, the problem is, if that would have been cared for like during
a maintenance, a preventative maintenance,
the cost of it would have been, you know, a third or a fourth of what the emergency
is when it happens. But that's about to happen.
And so, you know, we then will get the technician scheduled to go out and hopefully
(27:44):
it's something simple like that. It isn't always that simple.
Um, we do, we do a lot of verbal communication with our customers as things
are going on because, um, you know, you know, when someone's for one in your home,
you want a lot of transparency, like they're in your sacred space,
they're in your safe space.
And so we just have a lot of, a lot of conversation as things are going on,
(28:07):
you know, Mrs. Homeowner, let's just talk about what we found at this point.
Here's some things that we can do next? How would you like us to proceed?
And that isn't always black and white because when you have aging equipment,
you might be saying like, do you want to invest in the repair?
Or are we at a threshold where we want to talk about replacing because efficiency has changed so much.
So once again, there's not a like a checklist necessary for each team member.
(28:30):
But it's entering transparently into the conversation, communicating a lot so
that they can make an educated decision.
I'm glad you brought up the preventative maintenance part of it.
That's something I'm guessing you recommend that everybody should have.
And it's probably likely that most people don't have something like that in
(28:53):
place and only use a service like you provide there when it is an emergency.
And of course, when it's like a major heat wave and there's an emergency,
Now you're talking about a potential risk for, you know, bodily harm to themselves.
Yeah. Well, you know, too warm house, maybe an older individual, whatever.
(29:17):
Can you talk a little bit about the preventative maintenance,
what you guys do and why it's recommended?
Yeah. And there's a lot of debate out there, I suppose, about this.
And many people would be like, you know, I'll just deal with it when the collision happens.
Yeah. And we deal with it all the time. The preventative maintenance has kind
of two key elements to it.
(29:37):
One is nowadays, if you install a new system, the manufacturers actually require
a preventative maintenance annually to maintain your warranty.
And they're getting a little bit more rigid about that. And they're saying,
listen, and if you want the whole big story, it's that as things get more efficient
in our industry, metals get thinner, the equipment gets lighter.
(29:57):
And so it's more susceptible to damage. It's more susceptible to wearing out
faster. and they're like, man, putting on these eight-year, ten-year warranties.
The problem is if it's not maintained, like it's for sure going to have issues.
And so the preventative maintenance secures that warranty. It keeps it active.
And then secondarily, things like the air filter. Okay, everybody knows that
(30:18):
there's one in there like somewhere.
Okay, and a lot of the talk is typically like, hey, get this big MERV rating
because we want it to be cleaner air that we breathe.
That's only a tiny part of this system.
What it's really intended to do is keep the air clean that's going over the
coil in the inside of your air handler.
(30:39):
Because as dirt and dust builds up on that coil, it becomes less and less efficient
until it starts to then take more air pressure and is putting more strain.
And now there's more amp draw on motors.
And it's like this snowball effect of things within the system that are trying to shut down.
Think of it as asphyxiation, right? Is something as simple as that air filter
(31:02):
is like starting to asphyxiate the system.
And there's been times that like we'll be called out for an emergency service.
And it was because the air filter is just like, it's thick with,
you know, debris. It hasn't been changed in years.
And it's real simple. Air can't do its job over the coils, et cetera.
So, pre-end and maintenance is one of the ways that you help to ensure that doesn't happen.
(31:23):
And that includes some of those other components like the capacitors and the contactors.
We'll check refrigerant levels and pressures.
The systems today are really dialed in to be as efficient as they are.
So, we're looking at ounces of refrigerant and pounds of pressure.
And you're looking at subcooling and superheat and all these really finite measurements
that I am not really smart enough to talk about.
(31:46):
The other team members are. But the point is, they'll come out and evaluate
all of that and look at it really carefully to ensure that, yeah, you know, Mrs.
Homeowner, your system is healthy, ready to roll in this season.
And so it's about the long-term preventative care, which I think most people
understand, like on a vehicle, the same thing is true with your HVAC system.
(32:07):
Yeah. So you probably have like a monthly charge or like a membership of some
kind that the consumer pays and then you come out once annually, something like that.
Yeah, we can we really tailor that to the homeowner. Sometimes it's biannually.
We'll do like a heating visit and a cooling visit.
We do not have a monthly charge per se.
(32:27):
We kind of took the approach of, hey, we're like Costco.
You know, you buy a membership and as often as you use us, you get a discount.
And so, the membership for us is pretty simple in that you pay an annual fee,
and that fee waives all of your dispatch fees.
So, if you have an emergency, you don't pay a dispatch fee for us to come out.
You get 10% off of all your services, and that can save a bundle over time.
(32:53):
That includes the maintenances.
So, it felt awkward, honestly, Ben. Like, most HVAC companies have,
like, this package where you buy the membership. But it's almost like saying,
okay, Ben, you'd like to be a member at our Costco?
How many times do you think you're going to come and how much do you plan on
spending? Because we're going to build that into a package. I'm like,
that doesn't make sense to me as a homeowner.
So a couple of years ago, we just flipped it. We're like, yeah,
(33:15):
you know, let's just make it real simple.
So it's a little bit of a newer model. We've been doing it for a couple of years. It seems to make sense.
Customers seem to be really happy with it. And we're happy to sign them up for
it, even if they do make an emergency call.
We're like, hey, we'll get you onto the program now. You can save 10% today.
And then be able to service you for the future? It was a great question.
(33:35):
That's awesome. That's awesome. Great that you have that. And I'm sure information
about that membership and all your services is on your website.
Vertex-mechanical.com.
Chris has probably had it on the screen a couple times here. Yeah.
There it is. So I want to know, and again, it's how we met, what is the Homology podcast?
(33:59):
Am I saying that right? Homology? You said it right.
Yeah, that's right. Homology podcast. What is it?
So a couple of years ago, some of our team members were like,
hey, we should really start a podcast and let's just talk about some of the
questions that we get asked all the time. And that could be questions about air filters.
It could be questions about refrigerant. It could be questions about the different
types of systems that are out there.
(34:21):
And so we started that a couple years ago.
And I laughed with you because this is so professional, the way you guys do this. This is awesome.
It's all Chris, by the way. Chris is amazing because I'm like,
wow, you guys do it so awesome. And it's live.
And we just go in these spurts of enthusiasm. I'm like, hey,
(34:44):
does anybody have anything I want to talk about? I'm like, oh,
yeah, we got a bunch of things. and then we'll get on a whole bunch of episodes.
The one that you're seeing there right now is from some friends of ours from
Alternate Heating Solutions, which is a couple hours away, actually.
And they do wood boilers. So it's wood-burning boilers. It's fascinating.
And quite an interesting market that they're in, both outdoor boilers as well
(35:07):
as indoor boilers. And so it's a hydronic system.
So the podcast for us, Homology, it covers all types of random things,
Even just, again, community-oriented things.
But sometimes we'll grab some antique equipment that we have.
I have some over my shelf here, like antique thermostats, which are enormous.
It looks like you have to be able to hand wire things.
(35:29):
Or we'll talk about some of the concerns, even environmentally,
or the new refrigerant standards that just came out this year. So it's pretty broad.
And we try to keep it small because, again, I think I get bored listening to
myself talk about HVAC. So I'm like, I can't make somebody else listen to it for a while.
Right. Right. But yeah, we've been doing it for a couple of years now.
(35:50):
That's cool. And are your episodes on your website or on YouTube?
Where can we watch or even listen?
Really, YouTube and Facebook are the best places to get it because they're the
ones that get updated the soonest and the most frequently.
So there's a YouTube channel, then they go up on Facebook, and we find that
(36:11):
most of our customers are there on the Facebook world most of the time. Sure.
Yep. Do you get consumers interacting or do you get maybe them asking questions
like, hey, can you do a show about XYZ?
Do you have that happen? we do yeah i think what's interesting is that we hear
(36:31):
a lot of people say we watched your podcast,
and i'm like that's funny like because i can't tell that anybody watches
our podcast right i'm like oh this
is amazing um people will come up to us like oh yeah we just heard about xyz
and like it's a shocker um and so yeah people will ask us questions and then
we can either like refer them back to a previous episode um for a while there
(36:53):
we also did something that was called stump the young which so vince yunt our
owner's last name yunt okay we would grab we would grab.
Questions from homeowners it would be like hey we need your best question
to ask vince like whatever it is we got to the
point where it's like it doesn't even need to be about ageback anything just
to put them on the spot so we would do a stump the young throw out a question
um and that could be it could have been industry related um but yeah you know
(37:16):
that was just kind of a fun segment and we would draw that from customers as
well and try to like yeah so that episode there was kind of like, what's going to happen?
Because, hey man, this winter was a good winter.
It was an, and we were getting questions coming in left and right.
People were like, hey, what's going to happen? What, you know, what do I expect?
And everybody was concerned about their systems. We're like,
let's jump into it and talk about it. So that was some of the things that we
(37:38):
enjoyed doing when those unique questions came in.
That's really cool. I love that it's interactive in that way.
And you're addressing things that are completely relevant to that moment in
time and exactly what customers have in their head.
And you're having fun with it too. Like it's not, you know, we do, you know, whatever.
(38:01):
You're, you know, out in nature, playing in the snow.
I told him like we're doing this thing like one take only.
I don't, we don't have time to edit. This is just go for it,
which makes it all the more comedic because we launch in and we're like,
who knows where this is going, folks, but let's have a good time.
And we do, So, because actually, what do they call that, you know,
like when you have like collective, all the brains are together,
(38:22):
that kind of community knowledge.
And I'm like, when we sit together, like all of that different knowledge is
coming from each one of the guys with its friends or Nate or one of the team members.
And we sit there and talk about it. It's like, whoa, there are years and years
of experience that's really rich when you guys get an opportunity to share.
And this just happened to be a format. I think it comes across really well and
(38:44):
really lighthearted and just a lot of fun.
Well, and it shows your customers that you not only care, you're investing time
and putting this together because you're giving educational information that
can benefit them in some way, shape or form.
But it immediately gets them to know and like you and trust you and the business.
(39:04):
And I think it's a genius thing for you guys to do.
Yeah, I think that actually is kind of one of the big deals in that,
again, not to run our own industry under the bus or anything.
But it's not like mechanical technicians have the most noble,
I don't know what you call it.
They're not considered the most trust-reliable individuals. Because there's
(39:26):
been a lot of just sleazy tactics in the past.
There's this fear of the red tag, for example. Somebody comes in,
looks at the equipment, puts a red tag on it.
Mr. Showman, don't ever use this because if you do, you're probably going to
die within the next 48 hours. So that type of stuff exists.
And we actually get out on the job sites and we're like, well,
ma'am, what's written on here?
(39:48):
You don't even have that in your system. You're perfectly safe.
Let's talk through that.
And so because there is kind of a bad rap for some of our history historically,
doing the podcast is one of the ways that we can kind of just kind of open up our hearts a little bit.
Hey, here's who we really are. Here's why we care about you and our community.
Yep you know and again it's it's neat
(40:09):
to hear how uniquely aligned we are
as as companies we've always tried to be you
know at gardeners the kind of the anti-mattress store and the same thing like
mattress nobody likes mattress shopping nobody wants to do it kind of the same
thing with with the buying a new age fact system you know people want to be
cool and they want to be you know warmer in in the in the winter but like they
(40:30):
don't want to pay for it they don't want to,
And it's the same thing with mattresses. You know, most people have bad,
you know, poor mattress buying experiences or they've had mattress after mattress
after mattress that didn't meet the need.
And, you know, the industry in general doesn't have a good reputation.
(40:51):
It's always high pressure. It's buy it because it's on sale. It's this and that.
But so it's just neat to hear how your thought process, again,
aligns with the way we think about our customer service, about our reputation,
about, you know, just treating people the way they should be treated.
Yeah, I got to say, some of those, I so appreciate that you mentioned,
(41:13):
like, buy when it's on sale type of gimmicks, for lack of better words,
because there are some that were running over the last couple of years in our
area, which they're my favorites because they were as, as.
Unauthentic and as untrue as possible.
And it was, you know, buy an AC, get a free furnace or the other way around.
And I'm like, okay, I hope nobody believes that's true. Like they can't honestly
(41:35):
believe it, but that was the gimmick.
Buy an AC today, you'll get a free furnace along with it. And I'm like,
you know, that's not how this works. Right.
And yet those were, that's just what's been used for so long.
Um, and, uh, or, or you'll get something in the mail. that's like,
your furnace is about ready to expire and like that type of tactic.
And so I think there has been a long time a need to shift that attitude and
(41:58):
that posture from our industry.
I think it is taking place. I think it's getting more transparent.
And if Vertex can help to be that in our region, I know of a couple other companies
that are equally as aligned with that core value. I really respect them highly.
And I think they are trying to make a shift in the way people see the trades
and the way they see mechanical companies.
And we're not all out there just to take advantage of you. Yeah, that's awesome.
(42:22):
Way to be a light in the community from that standpoint. That's awesome.
So what other ways is Vertex Mechanical involved in the community?
We talked a little bit about the Reading Phillies event, the Calico Night,
I think. Yeah. It was just this past weekend, right? Yeah.
Yeah, just Friday evening. It's one of the things that we love doing.
(42:44):
It's probably my favorite community night of the year that we're involved in.
And we do do a number of different community activities throughout the year.
This past Friday was our annual Cocalico Community Night.
For probably almost a decade now, Vertex has sponsored a fireworks night up
at the Reading Fightin' Philz, which was initially really for little league
(43:04):
teams in the Cocalico region. but it's just kind of grown over time.
And we've kind of developed a beautiful partnership with the school district.
And so both the Reading Phillies invest and we invest and we create a whole
evening just to celebrate the school district.
And so Friday night, we had our annual meeting. We had 135 of the students that
sang in like the choir for the national anthem.
(43:26):
Wow, that's cool. It was so awesome.
Of course, the Little League teams are out there before the game throwing ball
and that was really great.
We honored some of the retirees from the school district. Some of the existing
faculty did like slingshot competitions against some of our staff.
We genuinely believe that we're better together in the community.
(43:47):
And so the Cocalica district has been one of those really, I would call it a
divine partnership because we found a way to really serve them and their district
through internships and through unique sponsorships.
I told them a couple years ago, listen, we can just like send checks.
But what we'd really love is, you know, you guys have a fixed budget.
And so if there's a teacher, there's a department that has a unique need,
(44:11):
give us a call. And sometimes that's the theater department.
They'll call and be like, we don't have money for costumes for the theater.
Or like, let us sponsor that.
Because the unique impact on a couple kids in particular for just that thing
that they're invested in is really significant.
So that's one of the things that we love. We sponsor another,
a number of organizations within our region here.
(44:32):
Real Life Community Services is another one that we love to sponsor a number of their events.
Shout out to Rod Redkay. That's exactly right. Yes. Mayor Rod.
We just, we've had, he's, he's a two-timer on, on Lancaster Connect.
So yeah. Nice. Yeah. Yeah.
Rod's a great friend. And again, someone that's.
(44:53):
It is an amazing organization. And then you get like the Gokaliko Ed Foundation as well.
And actually, I think that over the last couple of years, even as a business,
maybe it's unwise business practice, but we've actually tried to constrict our
service area a little bit,
even though we go all the way to Mechanicsburg and all the way to Philly and
all the way down to Corrieville, which feels like the other side of,
(45:14):
well, it is the other side of the county for us. It is.
But we've tried to constrict it a little bit because we want our investment
in the community to be deep, like deep roots.
And so any opportunity that we have to serve teachers, families.
So this year for the for the game we we handed out 3 000 t-shirts
for um students and families and just
(45:36):
a sea of blue cocalico was there so yeah we
love getting to serve the community and um the
language that i you know use around it there's there's two of the teachers that
retired um just this year they got to throw out the first pitch actually teacher
in a custodian but yeah um and so yeah any opportunity that we have again to
um to build that that mutually beneficial you know thriving as a community, we love it.
(46:01):
Yeah, that's awesome. I really wish Jeff was able to be on the show. He went to Cacalico.
Awesome. So, you know, he's got roots there and, you know, this would,
I'm sure he'd have some comments to make during that. No doubt.
I'll have to have him watch this segment here.
Yeah, make sure he does. So, I can't believe it's like 45 minutes has kind of
(46:25):
gone like that. Yeah, I know. Oh my goodness.
Yeah, right. Goodness. So what's next? What's on the horizon for Vertex Mechanical
or even the Homology podcast?
You know, looking ahead, maybe the rest of 2025 or beyond. What's on the horizon?
On the Homology horizon, we're about to enter what is conventionally our really
(46:48):
busy season as a business.
And so our margin for that kind of shrinks.
So we've prerecorded a couple that we'll prepare to put out here in the coming weeks.
And then really we just buckle down for the
next couple months because again kind of serving customers is
at its peak demand over the next couple months we're a
small organization so i would say we're like a medium
(47:10):
small business right we're not just two guys or
three guys we're also not 200 technicians so the
entire team really rallies pretty hardcore in this
season to serve the customers and and
actually serve one another because it gets pretty um pretty emotionally
exhausting sometimes physically exhausting but that's
that's kind of what's what's next um you won't you
(47:32):
won't see us doing as many of the um extracurricular activities
until we get into like august september um but then when we engage like in things
like the denver fair um you know we help sponsor the fireworks night at the
denver fair and like that's another big event that's coming up so we'll we'll
have that kind of fun activity in the future but for the next two or three months
is pretty singular in purpose.
(47:55):
And so let's say somebody's in the Lancaster community, has an emergency,
AC goes down, the phone number was there on the screen, maybe you could say
the phone number to contact.
717-335-2633 is the number to call, and that gets you right in touch with our team.
(48:15):
If you call in the after hours, you'll still get a real life human being that'll talk to you,
And even if that's 1 a.m., we might not be able to get there at 1.30 a.m.,
but you'll talk to a real human being and help to be able to get a job prepped
so we can come and serve you right away.
That's awesome. That's awesome. And of course, the website again,
vertex-mechanical.com. It's right there on the screen.
(48:39):
And of course, the Homology podcast. I'm sure there's, you just pull up YouTube,
search Homology podcast.
There it is. And then, oh, right there it is. YouTube at vertexmechanicalinc3693.
If somebody's got to type it all in there. Yeah, the address that must have
(49:00):
been assigned at one point.
What's the significance of the numbers there? None. None that I'm aware of at all.
Or, of course, Facebook, Vertex Mechanical on Facebook, and you can watch the
Homology podcast right there as well. Yeah, for sure.
Awesome. Josh, is there anything we missed talking about that you'd like to
(49:21):
mention about Vertex, about Vince, about what you guys do, about the podcast?
Yeah, no, we hit a lot of things, Ben. This has been a blast to talk.
Thank you so much for hosting me here. It's been a real honor.
Thanks for letting us share a little bit about who we are. I do think that Vertex
is unique in our region at a core level.
(49:42):
What we can do is similar to what a lot of other companies can do,
but who we are, I think, is unique.
That's awesome. And we can feel that through this conversation. So thanks for being on.
Thanks for sharing. Not done with you quite yet. If you've got a few more minutes,
we've got our Connection cocktail here.
It's a few questions to get to know our guest a little bit better here.
(50:04):
So we're going to jump right in.
Favorite book, podcast, or TV show you're crushing on right now?
Favorite book. So I'm a sucker for biographies.
I love biographies. And partly because I'm intrigued by human story.
And so I just love biographies.
(50:26):
Probably the favorite one I ever read was a couple of years ago.
Ron Chernow wrote a book on a biography on Grant. It was like enormous.
I was like, I don't know, 800 pages or something. I just devoured it. I was fascinated by it.
I'm not naturally a reader, but I was like, this was a fascinating man.
So I do love biographies of all types. That's cool.
(50:47):
Disclaimer is that I'm halfway through my PhD program right now.
And so I have forced readings and so like the pleasure reading has like the
balance there has gone pleasure readings going down required readings going
up so I'm reading a lot on leadership theories etc but then,
you said favorite TV show I don't know if I have one but I did just see that
(51:08):
last night was the first episode of a revived Duck Dynasty that just came out
brand new yeah so like I guess like second generation so I know my kids I didn't
get there yet I thought, well, that could be an interesting one to watch,
especially since the patriarch, Phil, had just passed away, I think, last week.
So maybe that will be coming up on my list.
(51:31):
Well there you go there you go yeah well focus on the phd and
then it's even i know i did be i do there you
go good question all right uh we're kind of coming into like
peak vacation season i know it's your busy season at vertex mechanical but let's
say you could go anywhere dream vacation money wasn't a problem whatever where
(51:53):
are you going i think next on that bucket list for my wife and I is probably
Alaska. I think it's somewhere wild.
We just got to hit a bucket list last year and we spent some time in Italy.
And that was like, I never thought in my wildest dreams I'd go there.
That was remarkable. But I think somewhere wild in Alaska.
(52:16):
I'm also, if I didn't mention this, I'm a massive introvert.
So I love the thought of how many people are in Alaska.
I'm like, let's go there. That's my favorite amount of people.
Yeah, you could probably find a spot and not see a single person for days or
weeks. I'll see more bear than I will people.
That's my situation. There you go. Yeah. So that's the formula.
(52:38):
Bear to ratio or bear to person ratio has to be. Excellent ratio.
Yeah, per square mile. Well, I'm in favor of the bear. We're bear, less people.
There you go. That's awesome. All right. Now we're bringing it back home.
Favorite spot in Lancaster. It could be coffee shop, restaurant,
park, hidden gem, whatever.
Wow. So I'm, I'm an outdoors guy. So I like, I like, I like parks.
(53:01):
I mean, I, I like going everywhere from up here. It's middle Greek,
which is, you know, the Northern end or even all the way South,
which would be like Susquehannock state park is all the way,
way, way down there. I love the outdoors.
Um, so those would be some of my favorite places, a hidden gem.
Um, I call it a hidden gem just because it's a part of our little community
up here. Now, when I lived in Manor Township, the little hidden gem was the Central Manor Mart.
(53:25):
Officially, it was the bakery. It was called the Bakery and Grill,
but everybody from there knew it was just the Mart.
So, when we moved up here, it was like, well, what's that place?
And we've discovered that up on the northern end here, that place is called
the Country Corner, the KK.
And it is a tiny little place up here in Reinholds.
And they got maybe seating for 20. I don't know, like not much.
(53:49):
But the best soft serve ice cream I mean just the best soft serve and I tell
you there's nights that we'll kind of look across, like it might be 7 o'clock
still and we look across everybody at home and we're like, are you going to the KK?
I was like, let's go to the KK we're going right now, we'll hop in there and
you get soft serves that are this big and like, oh my goodness it is so good
(54:13):
so yeah, that's like my little hidden gem.
So, awesome. Thanks for sharing. What is so special about the soft serve?
I mean, it's this big. That's awesome in itself.
But like soft serve is usually vanilla, chocolate, twist.
Do they have special flavors? Can you load it up with like… Oh,
they do. That's an excellent question.
Yeah, you can load it. And the flavors, I mean, they might have like raspberry or mint.
(54:35):
Okay. They have tea berry, which I think is particularly intriguing. Do you know tea berry?
I've had it once or twice, yeah. I mean, I'm not going to turn away almost any ice cream flavor.
Right. But T-Berry is particularly unique up there.
It is like, I don't know, just like from a quality standpoint,
I know what product they use and everything. And it's just exceptionally creamy, delicious.
(54:58):
And you're always like, I'll just take a medium today. And like halfway through,
you're like, I should have gone with a kid's cone. I should have gone with a kid's cone.
It's so much but it's just it's just that delicious and I think it's the nostalgia
you know of a small place there's lights out of the trees outside,
and so maybe it's not that it's the best I think it is but I think it's really
(55:20):
actually about having having that place in your backyard that you build memories
with your family and that's what that's what makes it a hidden gem and like
I said that's why it was the mart back in the day but now it's the KK yep yep the country corner,
yes but with a K With a K. Country corner with a K. That's awesome. Love it.
Thanks for sharing. I mean, ice cream is near and dear to my heart as well.
(55:43):
Yeah, well, and there's top ice cream, because we have Fox Meadows that start
just around the corner from us as well.
So top tier ice cream there, and then you go north and you got the K.
I mean, it's just all around.
It's a beautiful thing. We're super blessed. And of course, right now it's strawberry
season, so strawberry everything around here. Yep.
Very good. Awesome. Well, thanks for playing along with Connection Cocktail
(56:06):
here on Lancaster Connection. Thanks for being on the show.
Again, it's Josh Vander Plait, CEO of Vertex Mechanical.
Thanks for sharing about all the great things you're doing in business and with
the community and with your podcast, the Homology Podcast.
It was great taking a deeper dive with you on those subjects.
So thanks again for being on the show.
My pleasure. Thanks for all your great questions. It was an honor.
(56:28):
Yep. Yep. Have a great afternoon, Josh. Take care. Thank you. Take care. Yep.
All right, man, we are almost out of time.
Again, thank you to Josh for being on the show, for sharing about Vertex Mechanical.
Really, really cool organization. If you have HVAC, electrical,
plumbing, any of those kind of home trade needs, Vertex Mechanical is your place.
(56:55):
Again, vertex-mechanical.com is their website, doing things the right way,
treating customers the way we treat customers here at Gardner's.
And it's cool to see how our businesses are aligned in that way.
So just testimonial time, quickly here at the end of the show.
(57:15):
Testimonial here for Gardner's Mattress and more.
What's unique about some of our testimonials, of course, Josh and I talked about
Google reviews. and the positive feedback that people put online,
whether that's some of these community groups or Facebook or, of course, Google.
But people still go old school and write handwritten testimonials back to us,
(57:38):
which is always fun to receive in the mail.
People put a stamp on an envelope and send it in, right?
Old school. So this person, Mary,
There's a recent customer, and she worked with Drew, one of our excellent salespeople
here at Gardner's. She just said Drew was wonderful.
He is very tuned in to all of her concerns, very knowledgeable and patient.
(58:00):
The process to assess the sleep needs and make mattress recommendations was
very thorough, and there was no doubt that Drew knew the products and was not
at all there just to make a sale.
We talked about that with Josh. Some HVAC companies are.
Unfortunately, make the customer feel like it's just a very transactional,
I need this replaced, and it's kind of in and out sort of service job.
(58:25):
And that's not the way Vertex does business. It's not the way Gardner's does business.
And Gardner's was not the first store I checked in my quest to replace my current
mattress, but I soon knew I was in the right place and right place is all in CAP.
So that was cool to get that. in this morning's mail from Mary,
one of our recent customers. So thank you, Mary.
(58:46):
Thank you to all of our great customers here at Gardner's.
If we can help you with your sleep needs, if you're watching and you woke up
a little grumpy or you woke up a little sore, you tossed and turned,
flipped and flopped all night, give Gardner's a shot. Just give us a visit.
Check out our website. See what we're all about. See how we can help.
Stop by. Come take a nap. You can rest in peace.
(59:08):
Well, actually, that was pretty morbid. You can shop in peace here at Gardner's.
We're not going to be a high-pressure sales organization here ever.
So we can help. Let us know.
All right. That about wraps up today's show. Thank you for watching.
Thank you again to my guest, Josh, from Vertex Mechanical.
(59:31):
We're back here next Monday at 2 o'clock with another great guest here on Lancaster
Connects, making connections in our community.
Again, letting people tell stories Great people with great stories Of how they're
helping the Lancaster community That's what we do every week here at Lancaster
Connects Thanks for tuning in And we'll see you on the next Connection.
Music.
Good afternoon, Lancaster. Welcome to Lancaster Connects. My name is Ben McClure,
your host for the next hour.
Lancaster Connects, maybe this is your first time watching, maybe this is your
10th or 100th time watching. I think this is episode 197.
Lancaster Connects is a show where we have conversations with great people in
(00:21):
the Lancaster community doing amazing things in their community.
Today's guest is no exception. His name is Josh Vander Plait,
and he's representing Vertex Mechanical.
So we're going to bring Josh on in a little bit here.
Hey, it's starting to feel like summer this week.
It's June 2nd. I can't believe we're already in the sixth month of the year.
(00:44):
Incredible. This year is just flying by.
We had a rainy May. Goodness. I think it was a rainiest May on history or in
history here in Lancaster.
So it's nice that this week is sunshine and warmth all week, which is great.
I think we may even talk about the heat a little bit with our guest.
(01:06):
Again, he's representing a company that does HVAC service and they need heat
to maintain air conditioning units.
So anyway, we're going to bring Josh on in a little bit. But this show,
again, Lancaster Connects, is sponsored by Gardner's Mattress and More.
That's the business that I co-own with my partner in business here, Jeff Janakavo.
Not able to be on the show today, but he's working his way back into shows.
(01:29):
He was on the last two episodes, and he'll definitely be on future episodes.
Just couldn't make it today.
But LancasterConnects.com is where you can find all the Lancaster Connects information.
You can see past episodes on there. There's a button at the top for past episodes. to be a guest.
If you'd like to tell your story, maybe you represent an organization or a small
(01:49):
business that gives back to the community or a community benefit organization
that obviously gives back to the community.
We'd love for you to come on the show and tell your story.
Just go to LancasterConnects.com slash guest, fill out the simple guest form
there and we'll set up a time to have you on the show.
We are booking guests into the summer, which is awesome.
We'd love to tell your story as well. We're on YouTube, we're on Facebook,
(02:13):
both Gardener's Mattress and More and Lancaster Connect's YouTube and Facebook
channels. We'd love for you to give us a like and a subscribe in YouTube and a like on Facebook.
Share the show. Share it for the purpose of more people being aware of our guests
and hearing their stories.
(02:33):
The more people that will watch Lancaster Connects, the more impact these organizations
have within their community, which is what this show is all about.
Making connections, obviously, to organizations and community to the organizations
and organizations to the community.
And again, making a bigger impact here in Lancaster County.
(02:56):
So just a couple quick things.
I mentioned Gardner's Mattress and More. That's the business that I'm sitting
within. It's the four walls that Jeff and I co-own together here.
All the mattresses, you can see a couple behind us here.
Of course, we wake, we don't wake up, we wake up happy, but we help our community wake up happy.
(03:17):
That is our mission here at Gardeners, to change the way you feel about mattress stores.
And I just wanted to mention, maybe toot our horn a little bit,
we just wrapped up our busiest month in our 35-year history this past May.
There was one other month that maybe beat it in sales numbers,
(03:37):
but we also did a home show during that month, which was a whole level of effort and expense.
But it was the single biggest month we've ever had here.
And I don't say that to tout how great we are or anything like that.
Of course, I think we're very good and our reputation, I think, speaks for itself.
(03:58):
But the point is people are trusting their sleep to us for them to wake up happy.
The more people we can help improve their sleep, the happier Lancaster County
is and the more impact these better sleepers, these happy sleepers are having
within their own four walls, their own family, and again, their own community.
(04:19):
So we're helping people sleep better, which hopefully in turn is helping the Lancaster community.
So again, Gardner's Mattress and More, if we can help you with your sleep needs, give us a shot.
Visit Gardner'sMattressandmore.com. stop by anytime we're a no pressure sort
of place we listen to your sleep needs and make recommendations based on those
(04:39):
sleep needs in a no pressure relaxed environment here doing a lot of cool things here,
and of course Lancaster Connects is one of the ways that we like to give back and um.
I think it's time to bring our guest on to have that conversation.
We're happy to welcome Josh Vander Plait, who is the CEO of Vertex Mechanical.
(05:02):
Josh, welcome to the show.
Man, thanks for having us here, Ben. I am really honored to connect with you again.
Yeah, yeah. So the first connection was made at the, was it a month ago, maybe?
It feels like last week.
But the North Lancaster Chamber of Commerce Business Expo.
(05:22):
Uh, you were there, gardeners was there and, uh,
a mutual friend of ours, or at least somebody who, who knew of you and that you were doing,
you were broadcasting or recording a podcast right there on the,
and you know, the funny thing was you guys were all all the way kind of in the
back of the, the, the room.
(05:42):
Correct. And we were literally the first, we were literally the first booth
as you walk into the place and I had done my rounds, but I just,
I just didn't see you. And there you are with Nathan, I think,
right? Yeah, that's correct. You got it.
Yep. Yep. So Valanda Banks, who is a past Lancaster Connect guest and probably
(06:03):
will be a future guest here in the summer.
She's like, you've got to see these guys back here. They're doing a podcast. You do a podcast.
You got to come see these guys and be on the show. And I'm like,
all right, let's go. So she walked me back and introduced.
And we had a, you know, maybe five or ten minute conversation.
And you were like, you've got to be on our show. And we like,
yeah, you do mattresses.
(06:23):
That's part of the home, right? The homology podcast.
I'm like, Josh, you've got to be on Lancaster Connects. Tell you,
tell your story. So it was a fun chance meeting, I guess, if you will.
Yeah and it was it was a really great evening obviously we're huge fans
of the northern lancaster chamber of commerce and awesome
what's interesting about those yeah they are an amazing organization
and the way the businesses really serve one another
(06:46):
is really extraordinary but for
us we're like you know there's only so much you can talk about in
an evening related to air filters um or
heating systems and as i think as we mentioned to you
it's like nobody's hunting on pinterest for the coolest new
heat pump you know so we don't have anything exciting i
mean there's probably like one person out there that there might be
(07:07):
actually i'm gonna guess that that one person is
on reddit not on pinterest you know right right
right right because they're hunting that but i was like oh ben
you guys got something cool to talk about you have mattresses and
i was like that's people are looking for that and uh
we're we are the grudge purchase right it was like oh i
guess we got to make the call yeah so for that
(07:28):
evening we're like can we try something different here that would
be a little more enjoyable and so we just thought let's set up like a podcast
whether or not we even can use all of it it might be something that would um
invite story and you mentioned that at the start of your broadcast like hey
we love hearing stories from micaster i think that was the highlight of the
night for us was all the different stories that we got to hear.
(07:50):
That was everything from, you know, tea, hot tea, cold tea, to some of the insurance
groups that were there, and pediatric dentistry.
Like, you're hearing all those little different stories about our region.
And so it was a highlight to engage that way, not necessarily for,
you know, the benefit of the podcast as much as to kind of celebrate other businesses
(08:11):
that were with us that night, including yours.
Yeah. Well, and that's, that's what, you know, being in business or doing business
in the community is all about.
Knowing your customers, knowing who you're purchasing from, you know,
letting people tell stories. Stories is what it's all about.
I mean, you're buying from people you trust, you know, doing business with people you trust.
And, and yeah, I mean, a lot of times these expos, it's like,
(08:33):
they all kind of look the same.
Everybody's got a pop-up banner and business cards and a couple pamphlets.
And, you know, maybe there's some, you know, free pens or free,
you know, toys, whatever. You said it was like an official tip clip exchange night.
Yeah. That's what it was. That's good. Or trick, trick, adult trick or treating.
You know, I've often heard it.
Exposed, referred to as old trick or treating.
(08:56):
But, you know, being, allowing people to tell their stories on camera,
that, that, that was a great idea. Great idea. Very fun.
Well, let's, let's learn about Vertex Mechanical and, and, you know,
have this conversation about what you guys do.
How you're different, that sort of thing. So you're the CEO of Vertex Mechanical.
(09:18):
Is that correct? Yeah, that's correct. Yep.
Yeah, I've been here for a few years. Go ahead. Yeah, I've been here for a few
years, but Vertex has been around actually for a long time.
And I think that's one of the beautiful parts about Lancaster County is you
do have multi-generational businesses.
And that's one that's special about Vertex is although in this name,
(09:41):
It's only been around since 2002 as Vertex Mechanical.
Our owner Vince and his dad Ray have been doing this for over 40 years.
And so they started it together.
It was in 2002 when Vince was like, Hey, I think I want to like,
I want to go after this a little more.
And so he launched Vertex at that point. So it's really been over four decades.
(10:02):
That's amazing. I mean, Gardeners has been around for 35 years.
So I've been involved since 2000. So I've got maybe 25 years of Gardeners under
my belt. But that's amazing.
So when you're doing business with Vertex, no matter what section of the business
it is, there's 40 plus years of experience behind the name. That's amazing. Yeah.
(10:28):
And one of the things that I would say about that, too, sorry to jump in,
is that I think Vertex is often thought of as like an arrival,
like you've made it, you are the pinnacle of something.
And I think our mindset is it's not really an achievement as much as it's an
orientation. We want to orient ourselves around pursuing the Vertex,
(10:51):
and that's in every part of the business.
That's customer care and communication and the technology piece and the equipment piece.
But it's not something that we feel like we've made it. It's not like,
well, we arrived and we're there.
And all accolades aside, we're just trying to stay oriented around that because
of changing dynamics, changing consumer needs.
(11:11):
And let's just see what we can do to maintain that trajectory long term.
Gotcha. Gotcha. So as a CEO, what do you find yourself mostly doing there at Vertex?
I know a CEO kind of covers a lot of different roles and responsibilities and
probably wear a lot of different hats, both physical and otherwise.
(11:31):
Yeah, go ahead. What do you find your responsibilities are there?
It sounds more big than it is, I promise you. That's the name.
But it's really my joy is to serve the organization any way that I can,
whether that's helping to administer some new technology parts within our service platforms,
(11:53):
helping to develop a better way of communicating some of our memberships to
customers, which was a big thing that we did about two years ago,
completely revamped that.
Right now, day-to-day, I'm helping with a lot of onboarding of new employees,
which is a big part of the industry need right now.
And then customer objections. You know, we're talking through,
hey, here's a need they have. Here's what they're confused about.
(12:15):
How do we reconcile some of that?
But I love when I get the opportunity to just kind of serve other team members
and whatever sphere they're in, whether that's in the warehouse or,
you know, accounting or the HR piece of things.
Really, if I can help strengthen what they're doing, then I'm a happy guy.
The part that is probably the most exciting and the part that I love the most
(12:40):
is the getting to serve the community, which I know we're going to touch on a little bit later.
And that's a gift, I think, for my role, is getting to celebrate community and
invest in the community and build amazing relationships with the community from
the specific role that I'm in.
That's awesome. That's awesome. Yeah, Yeah, we'll definitely touch on that community bit later on here.
So what are some of the services Vertex Mechanical offers? I mean,
(13:03):
Chris has had some images and whatnot on the screen, some shots of your website.
But, you know, in your words, what...
What do you do? Yeah, so real simply, we provide heating, cooling,
plumbing, and electrical solutions for both homeowners and small businesses.
And we like to say that we're here for your comfort. And that's a pretty broad phrase, right?
(13:26):
Because everyone's definition of comfort is unique.
But we'll provide heating and cooling services, which includes really innovative comfort solutions.
And I do think that's something that sets us apart in that we'll provide some
solutions uniquely tailored to
both your budget and your home that others might not be able to provide.
(13:47):
I think our 40-plus years of experience have enabled us to, you know,
kind of curate some innovative solutions.
So that's the day-to-day. It's heating, cooling, electrical, plumbing.
And we serve primarily Lancaster County and then into Reading and Lebanon.
Okay. You know, it's interesting to hear you use the word comfort because that's
(14:08):
a huge word in our industry.
You know, support, mattress, you know, support for your body and comfort.
It's got to be comfortable, you know, mattress has to shape and mold your body,
reduce pressure points, all that. So comfort is like a big deal.
And it sounds like your selling process is a lot like the selling process we
have for, you know, finding the right mattress for each individual unique sleeper,
(14:33):
right? Because the needs are vast.
We see all kinds of people with all kinds of sleep needs and you're the same way.
Not one solution is going to work for every single person that you deal with.
Yeah, that's really one of the unique identifiers, I think, of who we are as an organization.
Because really, Lancaster has got, oh, I mean, I would guess hundreds of mechanical
(14:57):
contractors in this region. It's full of them.
And they range from the really large companies that probably have 200 technicians
down to the individual, the sole prop. And so there's so much available,
accessible to the consumer.
But for Vertex, you know, when we go into a home and we're hearing,
(15:17):
we're starting to listen to what the needs are.
What's interesting is the easiest solution is not always the best solution for the consumer.
What I mean by easy is technology, I think is interesting.
Technology has enabled some things that require a lower barrier to entry,
which means you don't have to know as much to provide a service.
(15:38):
You know, that was kind of that prosumer movement that kind of shifted into
the 90s and 2000s, prosumer.
But so since that technology has lowered the barrier to entry,
you can throw out a solution to a homeowner that's easiest for the contractor,
but not necessarily best for the homeowner.
And so Vertex has really made it a core commitment that let's invest in what's
(15:59):
going to create the most effective, most efficient solution.
Even if that's harder on us as installers or as service technicians,
because ultimately we're not looking just for what's the fastest way to flip
this job and grab the money from the consumer.
I know that sounds a little brash, but that is part of the industry stigma, right?
(16:19):
Is what can we throw in as fast as possible and get out the door with our check?
And so Vertex, I think, is taking a similar posture to you guys,
Ben, where it's, man, the investment and listening to the consumer's needs and
then looking for a solution that is uniquely fit to them. Yeah, that's our sweet spot.
Yeah, you're taking time to educate the consumer, which is time, which is also money.
(16:44):
But it's important to make sure that the solutions provided meet the customer's
needs because that leads to positive word of mouth. Yeah.
Testimonials, referrals, the Google reviews. Chris had your,
you know, flash of your Google page up there.
4.9 is fantastic in any business.
Um yeah so take taking
(17:05):
the time to educate is is uh what it's all about uh
what what are what are some of the core values and principles that vertex is
based on that's a great question i mean i think that there are there are some
core values that we have that are probably written on a lot of business walls
somewhere they're on a whiteboard that you know and um you know pat lencioni from the table group,
(17:29):
he talks about the difference between a core value and an aspirational one.
And aspirational ones, they're the things that you hope that one day you're
doing regularly, and the core ones are a part of your DNA now.
It's what you do in and out. And for us, I think two things that stand out for
me are transparency, like customer transparency around what we're doing,
why we're doing it, how we're doing it, and then the ethics around owning our mistakes.
(17:53):
And those probably don't, they don't make it like on a nice business card,
but the truth is 4.9 is an accurate reflection of we still make mistakes.
And part of that, which we could talk about for the next couple of hours, is the skills gap.
And the next season is going to be enormous.
What does that mean? We're training and developing technicians,
(18:15):
and they make mistakes. It's on the job. It's all the time.
And so I love seeing, yeah, the five stars. That's awesome.
But then you'll get one, and it's like, oh, wow, we really, we swung hard.
We missed hard. you know,
but the the joy is then engaging with the con the consumer with the homeowner and saying,
(18:35):
man thank you for your patience with us can we walk this
out all the way to the end and ensure that we we satisfied the expectation even
if along the way there were some speed bumps and so i think that ethical um
norm is so a part of who we are and um the guys hear it a lot on our team,
you know, we call it our workmanship guarantee.
(18:57):
It's not that we're not going to make mistakes. It's that we're going to guarantee
the continued follow-up.
And along with that, it's like, it's the care and the compassion.
Because I think what I said earlier was the only time we get phone calls is when there's distress.
And so like every customer starts from that place, right, of help.
Something's not good here. I don't have heating. I don't have cooling.
(19:19):
And so you're already starting that kind of mediating their anxiety and trying to deescalate it.
And so if you start that process, but then along the way you hit an obstacle,
you know, then the anxiety comes way back up again. And now you have to work through that.
So again, I think that just points to the fact that at the end of each job,
(19:40):
at the end of each project, hopefully we've invested in communication and the education piece of it.
And we've met the expectations, but most importantly, that we held on tightly
through that process so that they feel like we're still trustworthy and noble
in our intent. Is that good?
Yeah, absolutely. It's very clear.
(20:01):
You know, it's interesting. Like, you know, the mark of a truly great business
is not in doing everything perfect because that's not possible.
I mean, you strive for that maybe, and to do everything to the best of the ability.
But really, the mark of a truly great business and one that customers can trust
(20:22):
is what happens when things go wrong.
What happens when that phone rings and, hey, your guys were here and this happened.
And like you said, in that follow-up and follow-through. So it shines through
the reputation you guys have and it aligns very much with our philosophy here at Gardner's as well.
So this is a cool connection to make here.
(20:47):
To further that, and you kind of mentioned your team there,
you can't successfully, as a business owner or CEO of a company,
you can't successfully carry out the mission or what you're contracted to do
without good people, without great people, fantastic people.
And it seems like team culture and your employees there at Vertex are kind of
(21:10):
the number one priority.
Yeah, that is the right segue to have. I was just about to say,
oh man, we can talk these lofty and grand hopes of communicating and caring
well for the customers, but then it really boils down to those individuals that
are face-to-face with them.
And so our team is like our number one priority.
(21:30):
And I just so admire the technicians that are in the field, installers.
Service techs, plumbers, you know, because once again, they step into concern
and they step into uncomfortable situations every day.
And so our commitment, you know, we talked about it's okay to make mistakes.
We're going to walk through that with the homeowner. the bigger
(21:51):
question is how do we create a space where our
technicians have margin to create those mistakes and then
they're not penalized or punished for that
but they're nurtured and encouraged and then
strengthened and so i remember it was just the other
week you know we had a technician that did something and one
of the older members of our team was like he let him do
(22:11):
it like he let him do it what he knew was going
to require a fix immediately because he
knew that okay i'm going a great space for this because if he when
he does this wrong this time he'll never do it wrong the next time
and so right so so creating like team leads that understand the beauty and the
blessing of those teachable moments i think is a real um core part of who we
(22:35):
are creating space for the misses and um then nurturing them along the way to
become a stronger technician for the future.
Yeah, yeah. Do you do anything as an organization for your team members,
company outings, anything like that that you, you know, retain good employees?
(22:57):
What's that culture look like? Yeah, it's a great question.
We do do some team things. I would say probably we're weaker than some organizations
on creating lots of like outside of the space work environments.
Although this past Friday night was a good example of some of the things that
we do do, which we can touch on then, which was the Reddingfield community night.
(23:19):
But I think the retention piece comes, one, in the confidence that each technician
has, that each team member has in the grace space for making mistakes, right?
And so they hear that often enough. We talk about it enough.
But then we also invest a lot in their continued education. There's a couple ways that we do that.
(23:40):
But they also, every team member in our organization has a personal improvement
plan. And that's helping to kind of show what's their long-term trajectory within
the organization, both at a skill
level, at a here's some next steps educationally that we want to pursue.
But sometimes it's soft skills or sometimes it's just like there's some of those
intrinsic things that we want to develop.
And so I think because we help to create a long-term plan, it's not just rooted
(24:05):
in, you know, what's my hourly, you know, take home or, you know,
what's the bonus going to be?
It's how are we investing in your career path, even if that means someday we're
going to help you transition out of our organization into another one.
And so if we set that expectation early, then they know we're here for them,
whether that's for a short season or a long term, the entire length.
(24:28):
We're there to make sure that they continue to achieve their own personal maximum potential.
That's awesome. I love it. I love it. So obviously your team is important.
Customers are important. We talked about that a little bit. Maybe you can talk
a little bit about what maybe the customer journey looks like when they,
you know, they, they make that call, they're in a panic and your team is probably, you know.
(24:53):
Kind of like therapy in a way, like calm down, you know, here's how we can handle it.
We can, we can be out there this afternoon, you know, that sort of thing.
So maybe you can walk a little through what that customer journey looks like.
I know it's different for every customer, different situations,
but maybe just a little glimpse into what that looks like.
Yeah, it is like therapy. It really is.
(25:14):
And if you've had the opportunity at any point to hear some of our radio commercials,
either on IOV in particular, Riley is one of our team members who answers the phones.
And she's also on the commercials. Hey, it's Riley from Vertex Mechanical.
Like you can hear her smile come through the radio
and so it's
(25:36):
really hard to stay frustrated when you're
talking to a contagious smile yeah and riley's only yeah riley's just one of
those team members that does that and so initially a phone call comes in and
there's some initial empathy which is like man we're so sorry you're experiencing
x um what can we do to help make that a little bit better for you.
(25:58):
Of course, we're just about hopefully into cooling season this week.
We're the 2nd of June. Yesterday, I was still wearing a sweatshirt because it
was chilly out. It's crazy.
It is. It's amazing. But hopefully, for us, heat is just around the corner.
Well, what's interesting in our industry, people get way more uncomfortable
in the summer than they do in the winter.
(26:19):
They'll endure lots of extra layers in the winter. Ah, yeah, yeah.
That's true it is on yeah that's when the
emergency calls come and people are like wow yesterday get
here now and so what are you trying to do you're trying to
help them um first like okay help us
understand what you're experiencing what's the discomfort if we
(26:40):
can we we love when it's as simple as well maybe
you need to switch your thermostat like we love it when it's that simple it
rarely is um but then we start to talk through okay are you looking to have
someone come out and maybe look at a new system or you're looking to have someone's
going to come out and begin to try to repair something in the summertime uh
here's your kind of little um.
(27:01):
What do you call it like peek into um the back
door of the hvac world like over the next couple weeks that first um heat wave
probably i mean more than half of the calls are going to be resolved by one
thing and that's a capacitor on the outside unit that uh that failed and that's
about a 15 minute fix. It's not a big deal.
(27:23):
And just like that, the problem is, if that would have been cared for like during
a maintenance, a preventative maintenance,
the cost of it would have been, you know, a third or a fourth of what the emergency
is when it happens. But that's about to happen.
And so, you know, we then will get the technician scheduled to go out and hopefully
(27:44):
it's something simple like that. It isn't always that simple.
Um, we do, we do a lot of verbal communication with our customers as things
are going on because, um, you know, you know, when someone's for one in your home,
you want a lot of transparency, like they're in your sacred space,
they're in your safe space.
And so we just have a lot of, a lot of conversation as things are going on,
(28:07):
you know, Mrs. Homeowner, let's just talk about what we found at this point.
Here's some things that we can do next? How would you like us to proceed?
And that isn't always black and white because when you have aging equipment,
you might be saying like, do you want to invest in the repair?
Or are we at a threshold where we want to talk about replacing because efficiency has changed so much.
So once again, there's not a like a checklist necessary for each team member.
(28:30):
But it's entering transparently into the conversation, communicating a lot so
that they can make an educated decision.
I'm glad you brought up the preventative maintenance part of it.
That's something I'm guessing you recommend that everybody should have.
And it's probably likely that most people don't have something like that in
(28:53):
place and only use a service like you provide there when it is an emergency.
And of course, when it's like a major heat wave and there's an emergency,
Now you're talking about a potential risk for, you know, bodily harm to themselves.
Yeah. Well, you know, too warm house, maybe an older individual, whatever.
(29:17):
Can you talk a little bit about the preventative maintenance,
what you guys do and why it's recommended?
Yeah. And there's a lot of debate out there, I suppose, about this.
And many people would be like, you know, I'll just deal with it when the collision happens.
Yeah. And we deal with it all the time. The preventative maintenance has kind
of two key elements to it.
(29:37):
One is nowadays, if you install a new system, the manufacturers actually require
a preventative maintenance annually to maintain your warranty.
And they're getting a little bit more rigid about that. And they're saying,
listen, and if you want the whole big story, it's that as things get more efficient
in our industry, metals get thinner, the equipment gets lighter.
(29:57):
And so it's more susceptible to damage. It's more susceptible to wearing out
faster. and they're like, man, putting on these eight-year, ten-year warranties.
The problem is if it's not maintained, like it's for sure going to have issues.
And so the preventative maintenance secures that warranty. It keeps it active.
And then secondarily, things like the air filter. Okay, everybody knows that
(30:18):
there's one in there like somewhere.
Okay, and a lot of the talk is typically like, hey, get this big MERV rating
because we want it to be cleaner air that we breathe.
That's only a tiny part of this system.
What it's really intended to do is keep the air clean that's going over the
coil in the inside of your air handler.
(30:39):
Because as dirt and dust builds up on that coil, it becomes less and less efficient
until it starts to then take more air pressure and is putting more strain.
And now there's more amp draw on motors.
And it's like this snowball effect of things within the system that are trying to shut down.
Think of it as asphyxiation, right? Is something as simple as that air filter
(31:02):
is like starting to asphyxiate the system.
And there's been times that like we'll be called out for an emergency service.
And it was because the air filter is just like, it's thick with,
you know, debris. It hasn't been changed in years.
And it's real simple. Air can't do its job over the coils, et cetera.
So, pre-end and maintenance is one of the ways that you help to ensure that doesn't happen.
(31:23):
And that includes some of those other components like the capacitors and the contactors.
We'll check refrigerant levels and pressures.
The systems today are really dialed in to be as efficient as they are.
So, we're looking at ounces of refrigerant and pounds of pressure.
And you're looking at subcooling and superheat and all these really finite measurements
that I am not really smart enough to talk about.
(31:46):
The other team members are. But the point is, they'll come out and evaluate
all of that and look at it really carefully to ensure that, yeah, you know, Mrs.
Homeowner, your system is healthy, ready to roll in this season.
And so it's about the long-term preventative care, which I think most people
understand, like on a vehicle, the same thing is true with your HVAC system.
(32:07):
Yeah. So you probably have like a monthly charge or like a membership of some
kind that the consumer pays and then you come out once annually, something like that.
Yeah, we can we really tailor that to the homeowner. Sometimes it's biannually.
We'll do like a heating visit and a cooling visit.
We do not have a monthly charge per se.
(32:27):
We kind of took the approach of, hey, we're like Costco.
You know, you buy a membership and as often as you use us, you get a discount.
And so, the membership for us is pretty simple in that you pay an annual fee,
and that fee waives all of your dispatch fees.
So, if you have an emergency, you don't pay a dispatch fee for us to come out.
You get 10% off of all your services, and that can save a bundle over time.
(32:53):
That includes the maintenances.
So, it felt awkward, honestly, Ben. Like, most HVAC companies have,
like, this package where you buy the membership. But it's almost like saying,
okay, Ben, you'd like to be a member at our Costco?
How many times do you think you're going to come and how much do you plan on
spending? Because we're going to build that into a package. I'm like,
that doesn't make sense to me as a homeowner.
So a couple of years ago, we just flipped it. We're like, yeah,
(33:15):
you know, let's just make it real simple.
So it's a little bit of a newer model. We've been doing it for a couple of years. It seems to make sense.
Customers seem to be really happy with it. And we're happy to sign them up for
it, even if they do make an emergency call.
We're like, hey, we'll get you onto the program now. You can save 10% today.
And then be able to service you for the future? It was a great question.
(33:35):
That's awesome. That's awesome. Great that you have that. And I'm sure information
about that membership and all your services is on your website.
Vertex-mechanical.com.
Chris has probably had it on the screen a couple times here. Yeah.
There it is. So I want to know, and again, it's how we met, what is the Homology podcast?
(33:59):
Am I saying that right? Homology? You said it right.
Yeah, that's right. Homology podcast. What is it?
So a couple of years ago, some of our team members were like,
hey, we should really start a podcast and let's just talk about some of the
questions that we get asked all the time. And that could be questions about air filters.
It could be questions about refrigerant. It could be questions about the different
types of systems that are out there.
(34:21):
And so we started that a couple years ago.
And I laughed with you because this is so professional, the way you guys do this. This is awesome.
It's all Chris, by the way. Chris is amazing because I'm like,
wow, you guys do it so awesome. And it's live.
And we just go in these spurts of enthusiasm. I'm like, hey,
(34:44):
does anybody have anything I want to talk about? I'm like, oh,
yeah, we got a bunch of things. and then we'll get on a whole bunch of episodes.
The one that you're seeing there right now is from some friends of ours from
Alternate Heating Solutions, which is a couple hours away, actually.
And they do wood boilers. So it's wood-burning boilers. It's fascinating.
And quite an interesting market that they're in, both outdoor boilers as well
(35:07):
as indoor boilers. And so it's a hydronic system.
So the podcast for us, Homology, it covers all types of random things,
Even just, again, community-oriented things.
But sometimes we'll grab some antique equipment that we have.
I have some over my shelf here, like antique thermostats, which are enormous.
It looks like you have to be able to hand wire things.
(35:29):
Or we'll talk about some of the concerns, even environmentally,
or the new refrigerant standards that just came out this year. So it's pretty broad.
And we try to keep it small because, again, I think I get bored listening to
myself talk about HVAC. So I'm like, I can't make somebody else listen to it for a while.
Right. Right. But yeah, we've been doing it for a couple of years now.
(35:50):
That's cool. And are your episodes on your website or on YouTube?
Where can we watch or even listen?
Really, YouTube and Facebook are the best places to get it because they're the
ones that get updated the soonest and the most frequently.
So there's a YouTube channel, then they go up on Facebook, and we find that
(36:11):
most of our customers are there on the Facebook world most of the time. Sure.
Yep. Do you get consumers interacting or do you get maybe them asking questions
like, hey, can you do a show about XYZ?
Do you have that happen? we do yeah i think what's interesting is that we hear
(36:31):
a lot of people say we watched your podcast,
and i'm like that's funny like because i can't tell that anybody watches
our podcast right i'm like oh this
is amazing um people will come up to us like oh yeah we just heard about xyz
and like it's a shocker um and so yeah people will ask us questions and then
we can either like refer them back to a previous episode um for a while there
(36:53):
we also did something that was called stump the young which so vince yunt our
owner's last name yunt okay we would grab we would grab.
Questions from homeowners it would be like hey we need your best question
to ask vince like whatever it is we got to the
point where it's like it doesn't even need to be about ageback anything just
to put them on the spot so we would do a stump the young throw out a question
um and that could be it could have been industry related um but yeah you know
(37:16):
that was just kind of a fun segment and we would draw that from customers as
well and try to like yeah so that episode there was kind of like, what's going to happen?
Because, hey man, this winter was a good winter.
It was an, and we were getting questions coming in left and right.
People were like, hey, what's going to happen? What, you know, what do I expect?
And everybody was concerned about their systems. We're like,
let's jump into it and talk about it. So that was some of the things that we
(37:38):
enjoyed doing when those unique questions came in.
That's really cool. I love that it's interactive in that way.
And you're addressing things that are completely relevant to that moment in
time and exactly what customers have in their head.
And you're having fun with it too. Like it's not, you know, we do, you know, whatever.
(38:01):
You're, you know, out in nature, playing in the snow.
I told him like we're doing this thing like one take only.
I don't, we don't have time to edit. This is just go for it,
which makes it all the more comedic because we launch in and we're like,
who knows where this is going, folks, but let's have a good time.
And we do, So, because actually, what do they call that, you know,
like when you have like collective, all the brains are together,
(38:22):
that kind of community knowledge.
And I'm like, when we sit together, like all of that different knowledge is
coming from each one of the guys with its friends or Nate or one of the team members.
And we sit there and talk about it. It's like, whoa, there are years and years
of experience that's really rich when you guys get an opportunity to share.
And this just happened to be a format. I think it comes across really well and
(38:44):
really lighthearted and just a lot of fun.
Well, and it shows your customers that you not only care, you're investing time
and putting this together because you're giving educational information that
can benefit them in some way, shape or form.
But it immediately gets them to know and like you and trust you and the business.
(39:04):
And I think it's a genius thing for you guys to do.
Yeah, I think that actually is kind of one of the big deals in that,
again, not to run our own industry under the bus or anything.
But it's not like mechanical technicians have the most noble,
I don't know what you call it.
They're not considered the most trust-reliable individuals. Because there's
(39:26):
been a lot of just sleazy tactics in the past.
There's this fear of the red tag, for example. Somebody comes in,
looks at the equipment, puts a red tag on it.
Mr. Showman, don't ever use this because if you do, you're probably going to
die within the next 48 hours. So that type of stuff exists.
And we actually get out on the job sites and we're like, well,
ma'am, what's written on here?
(39:48):
You don't even have that in your system. You're perfectly safe.
Let's talk through that.
And so because there is kind of a bad rap for some of our history historically,
doing the podcast is one of the ways that we can kind of just kind of open up our hearts a little bit.
Hey, here's who we really are. Here's why we care about you and our community.
Yep you know and again it's it's neat
(40:09):
to hear how uniquely aligned we are
as as companies we've always tried to be you
know at gardeners the kind of the anti-mattress store and the same thing like
mattress nobody likes mattress shopping nobody wants to do it kind of the same
thing with with the buying a new age fact system you know people want to be
cool and they want to be you know warmer in in the in the winter but like they
(40:30):
don't want to pay for it they don't want to,
And it's the same thing with mattresses. You know, most people have bad,
you know, poor mattress buying experiences or they've had mattress after mattress
after mattress that didn't meet the need.
And, you know, the industry in general doesn't have a good reputation.
(40:51):
It's always high pressure. It's buy it because it's on sale. It's this and that.
But so it's just neat to hear how your thought process, again,
aligns with the way we think about our customer service, about our reputation,
about, you know, just treating people the way they should be treated.
Yeah, I got to say, some of those, I so appreciate that you mentioned,
(41:13):
like, buy when it's on sale type of gimmicks, for lack of better words,
because there are some that were running over the last couple of years in our
area, which they're my favorites because they were as, as.
Unauthentic and as untrue as possible.
And it was, you know, buy an AC, get a free furnace or the other way around.
And I'm like, okay, I hope nobody believes that's true. Like they can't honestly
(41:35):
believe it, but that was the gimmick.
Buy an AC today, you'll get a free furnace along with it. And I'm like,
you know, that's not how this works. Right.
And yet those were, that's just what's been used for so long.
Um, and, uh, or, or you'll get something in the mail. that's like,
your furnace is about ready to expire and like that type of tactic.
And so I think there has been a long time a need to shift that attitude and
(41:58):
that posture from our industry.
I think it is taking place. I think it's getting more transparent.
And if Vertex can help to be that in our region, I know of a couple other companies
that are equally as aligned with that core value. I really respect them highly.
And I think they are trying to make a shift in the way people see the trades
and the way they see mechanical companies.
And we're not all out there just to take advantage of you. Yeah, that's awesome.
(42:22):
Way to be a light in the community from that standpoint. That's awesome.
So what other ways is Vertex Mechanical involved in the community?
We talked a little bit about the Reading Phillies event, the Calico Night,
I think. Yeah. It was just this past weekend, right? Yeah.
Yeah, just Friday evening. It's one of the things that we love doing.
(42:44):
It's probably my favorite community night of the year that we're involved in.
And we do do a number of different community activities throughout the year.
This past Friday was our annual Cocalico Community Night.
For probably almost a decade now, Vertex has sponsored a fireworks night up
at the Reading Fightin' Philz, which was initially really for little league
(43:04):
teams in the Cocalico region. but it's just kind of grown over time.
And we've kind of developed a beautiful partnership with the school district.
And so both the Reading Phillies invest and we invest and we create a whole
evening just to celebrate the school district.
And so Friday night, we had our annual meeting. We had 135 of the students that
sang in like the choir for the national anthem.
(43:26):
Wow, that's cool. It was so awesome.
Of course, the Little League teams are out there before the game throwing ball
and that was really great.
We honored some of the retirees from the school district. Some of the existing
faculty did like slingshot competitions against some of our staff.
We genuinely believe that we're better together in the community.
(43:47):
And so the Cocalica district has been one of those really, I would call it a
divine partnership because we found a way to really serve them and their district
through internships and through unique sponsorships.
I told them a couple years ago, listen, we can just like send checks.
But what we'd really love is, you know, you guys have a fixed budget.
And so if there's a teacher, there's a department that has a unique need,
(44:11):
give us a call. And sometimes that's the theater department.
They'll call and be like, we don't have money for costumes for the theater.
Or like, let us sponsor that.
Because the unique impact on a couple kids in particular for just that thing
that they're invested in is really significant.
So that's one of the things that we love. We sponsor another,
a number of organizations within our region here.
(44:32):
Real Life Community Services is another one that we love to sponsor a number of their events.
Shout out to Rod Redkay. That's exactly right. Yes. Mayor Rod.
We just, we've had, he's, he's a two-timer on, on Lancaster Connect.
So yeah. Nice. Yeah. Yeah.
Rod's a great friend. And again, someone that's.
(44:53):
It is an amazing organization. And then you get like the Gokaliko Ed Foundation as well.
And actually, I think that over the last couple of years, even as a business,
maybe it's unwise business practice, but we've actually tried to constrict our
service area a little bit,
even though we go all the way to Mechanicsburg and all the way to Philly and
all the way down to Corrieville, which feels like the other side of,
(45:14):
well, it is the other side of the county for us. It is.
But we've tried to constrict it a little bit because we want our investment
in the community to be deep, like deep roots.
And so any opportunity that we have to serve teachers, families.
So this year for the for the game we we handed out 3 000 t-shirts
for um students and families and just
(45:36):
a sea of blue cocalico was there so yeah we
love getting to serve the community and um the
language that i you know use around it there's there's two of the teachers that
retired um just this year they got to throw out the first pitch actually teacher
in a custodian but yeah um and so yeah any opportunity that we have again to
um to build that that mutually beneficial you know thriving as a community, we love it.
(46:01):
Yeah, that's awesome. I really wish Jeff was able to be on the show. He went to Cacalico.
Awesome. So, you know, he's got roots there and, you know, this would,
I'm sure he'd have some comments to make during that. No doubt.
I'll have to have him watch this segment here.
Yeah, make sure he does. So, I can't believe it's like 45 minutes has kind of
(46:25):
gone like that. Yeah, I know. Oh my goodness.
Yeah, right. Goodness. So what's next? What's on the horizon for Vertex Mechanical
or even the Homology podcast?
You know, looking ahead, maybe the rest of 2025 or beyond. What's on the horizon?
On the Homology horizon, we're about to enter what is conventionally our really
(46:48):
busy season as a business.
And so our margin for that kind of shrinks.
So we've prerecorded a couple that we'll prepare to put out here in the coming weeks.
And then really we just buckle down for the
next couple months because again kind of serving customers is
at its peak demand over the next couple months we're a
small organization so i would say we're like a medium
(47:10):
small business right we're not just two guys or
three guys we're also not 200 technicians so the
entire team really rallies pretty hardcore in this
season to serve the customers and and
actually serve one another because it gets pretty um pretty emotionally
exhausting sometimes physically exhausting but that's
that's kind of what's what's next um you won't you
(47:32):
won't see us doing as many of the um extracurricular activities
until we get into like august september um but then when we engage like in things
like the denver fair um you know we help sponsor the fireworks night at the
denver fair and like that's another big event that's coming up so we'll we'll
have that kind of fun activity in the future but for the next two or three months
is pretty singular in purpose.
(47:55):
And so let's say somebody's in the Lancaster community, has an emergency,
AC goes down, the phone number was there on the screen, maybe you could say
the phone number to contact.
717-335-2633 is the number to call, and that gets you right in touch with our team.
(48:15):
If you call in the after hours, you'll still get a real life human being that'll talk to you,
And even if that's 1 a.m., we might not be able to get there at 1.30 a.m.,
but you'll talk to a real human being and help to be able to get a job prepped
so we can come and serve you right away.
That's awesome. That's awesome. And of course, the website again,
vertex-mechanical.com. It's right there on the screen.
(48:39):
And of course, the Homology podcast. I'm sure there's, you just pull up YouTube,
search Homology podcast.
There it is. And then, oh, right there it is. YouTube at vertexmechanicalinc3693.
If somebody's got to type it all in there. Yeah, the address that must have
(49:00):
been assigned at one point.
What's the significance of the numbers there? None. None that I'm aware of at all.
Or, of course, Facebook, Vertex Mechanical on Facebook, and you can watch the
Homology podcast right there as well. Yeah, for sure.
Awesome. Josh, is there anything we missed talking about that you'd like to
(49:21):
mention about Vertex, about Vince, about what you guys do, about the podcast?
Yeah, no, we hit a lot of things, Ben. This has been a blast to talk.
Thank you so much for hosting me here. It's been a real honor.
Thanks for letting us share a little bit about who we are. I do think that Vertex
is unique in our region at a core level.
(49:42):
What we can do is similar to what a lot of other companies can do,
but who we are, I think, is unique.
That's awesome. And we can feel that through this conversation. So thanks for being on.
Thanks for sharing. Not done with you quite yet. If you've got a few more minutes,
we've got our Connection cocktail here.
It's a few questions to get to know our guest a little bit better here.
(50:04):
So we're going to jump right in.
Favorite book, podcast, or TV show you're crushing on right now?
Favorite book. So I'm a sucker for biographies.
I love biographies. And partly because I'm intrigued by human story.
And so I just love biographies.
(50:26):
Probably the favorite one I ever read was a couple of years ago.
Ron Chernow wrote a book on a biography on Grant. It was like enormous.
I was like, I don't know, 800 pages or something. I just devoured it. I was fascinated by it.
I'm not naturally a reader, but I was like, this was a fascinating man.
So I do love biographies of all types. That's cool.
(50:47):
Disclaimer is that I'm halfway through my PhD program right now.
And so I have forced readings and so like the pleasure reading has like the
balance there has gone pleasure readings going down required readings going
up so I'm reading a lot on leadership theories etc but then,
you said favorite TV show I don't know if I have one but I did just see that
(51:08):
last night was the first episode of a revived Duck Dynasty that just came out
brand new yeah so like I guess like second generation so I know my kids I didn't
get there yet I thought, well, that could be an interesting one to watch,
especially since the patriarch, Phil, had just passed away, I think, last week.
So maybe that will be coming up on my list.
(51:31):
Well there you go there you go yeah well focus on the phd and
then it's even i know i did be i do there you
go good question all right uh we're kind of coming into like
peak vacation season i know it's your busy season at vertex mechanical but let's
say you could go anywhere dream vacation money wasn't a problem whatever where
(51:53):
are you going i think next on that bucket list for my wife and I is probably
Alaska. I think it's somewhere wild.
We just got to hit a bucket list last year and we spent some time in Italy.
And that was like, I never thought in my wildest dreams I'd go there.
That was remarkable. But I think somewhere wild in Alaska.
(52:16):
I'm also, if I didn't mention this, I'm a massive introvert.
So I love the thought of how many people are in Alaska.
I'm like, let's go there. That's my favorite amount of people.
Yeah, you could probably find a spot and not see a single person for days or
weeks. I'll see more bear than I will people.
That's my situation. There you go. Yeah. So that's the formula.
(52:38):
Bear to ratio or bear to person ratio has to be. Excellent ratio.
Yeah, per square mile. Well, I'm in favor of the bear. We're bear, less people.
There you go. That's awesome. All right. Now we're bringing it back home.
Favorite spot in Lancaster. It could be coffee shop, restaurant,
park, hidden gem, whatever.
Wow. So I'm, I'm an outdoors guy. So I like, I like, I like parks.
(53:01):
I mean, I, I like going everywhere from up here. It's middle Greek,
which is, you know, the Northern end or even all the way South,
which would be like Susquehannock state park is all the way,
way, way down there. I love the outdoors.
Um, so those would be some of my favorite places, a hidden gem.
Um, I call it a hidden gem just because it's a part of our little community
up here. Now, when I lived in Manor Township, the little hidden gem was the Central Manor Mart.
(53:25):
Officially, it was the bakery. It was called the Bakery and Grill,
but everybody from there knew it was just the Mart.
So, when we moved up here, it was like, well, what's that place?
And we've discovered that up on the northern end here, that place is called
the Country Corner, the KK.
And it is a tiny little place up here in Reinholds.
And they got maybe seating for 20. I don't know, like not much.
(53:49):
But the best soft serve ice cream I mean just the best soft serve and I tell
you there's nights that we'll kind of look across, like it might be 7 o'clock
still and we look across everybody at home and we're like, are you going to the KK?
I was like, let's go to the KK we're going right now, we'll hop in there and
you get soft serves that are this big and like, oh my goodness it is so good
(54:13):
so yeah, that's like my little hidden gem.
So, awesome. Thanks for sharing. What is so special about the soft serve?
I mean, it's this big. That's awesome in itself.
But like soft serve is usually vanilla, chocolate, twist.
Do they have special flavors? Can you load it up with like… Oh,
they do. That's an excellent question.
Yeah, you can load it. And the flavors, I mean, they might have like raspberry or mint.
(54:35):
Okay. They have tea berry, which I think is particularly intriguing. Do you know tea berry?
I've had it once or twice, yeah. I mean, I'm not going to turn away almost any ice cream flavor.
Right. But T-Berry is particularly unique up there.
It is like, I don't know, just like from a quality standpoint,
I know what product they use and everything. And it's just exceptionally creamy, delicious.
(54:58):
And you're always like, I'll just take a medium today. And like halfway through,
you're like, I should have gone with a kid's cone. I should have gone with a kid's cone.
It's so much but it's just it's just that delicious and I think it's the nostalgia
you know of a small place there's lights out of the trees outside,
and so maybe it's not that it's the best I think it is but I think it's really
(55:20):
actually about having having that place in your backyard that you build memories
with your family and that's what that's what makes it a hidden gem and like
I said that's why it was the mart back in the day but now it's the KK yep yep the country corner,
yes but with a K With a K. Country corner with a K. That's awesome. Love it.
Thanks for sharing. I mean, ice cream is near and dear to my heart as well.
(55:43):
Yeah, well, and there's top ice cream, because we have Fox Meadows that start
just around the corner from us as well.
So top tier ice cream there, and then you go north and you got the K.
I mean, it's just all around.
It's a beautiful thing. We're super blessed. And of course, right now it's strawberry
season, so strawberry everything around here. Yep.
Very good. Awesome. Well, thanks for playing along with Connection Cocktail
(56:06):
here on Lancaster Connection. Thanks for being on the show.
Again, it's Josh Vander Plait, CEO of Vertex Mechanical.
Thanks for sharing about all the great things you're doing in business and with
the community and with your podcast, the Homology Podcast.
It was great taking a deeper dive with you on those subjects.
So thanks again for being on the show.
My pleasure. Thanks for all your great questions. It was an honor.
(56:28):
Yep. Yep. Have a great afternoon, Josh. Take care. Thank you. Take care. Yep.
All right, man, we are almost out of time.
Again, thank you to Josh for being on the show, for sharing about Vertex Mechanical.
Really, really cool organization. If you have HVAC, electrical,
plumbing, any of those kind of home trade needs, Vertex Mechanical is your place.
(56:55):
Again, vertex-mechanical.com is their website, doing things the right way,
treating customers the way we treat customers here at Gardner's.
And it's cool to see how our businesses are aligned in that way.
So just testimonial time, quickly here at the end of the show.
(57:15):
Testimonial here for Gardner's Mattress and more.
What's unique about some of our testimonials, of course, Josh and I talked about
Google reviews. and the positive feedback that people put online,
whether that's some of these community groups or Facebook or, of course, Google.
But people still go old school and write handwritten testimonials back to us,
(57:38):
which is always fun to receive in the mail.
People put a stamp on an envelope and send it in, right?
Old school. So this person, Mary,
There's a recent customer, and she worked with Drew, one of our excellent salespeople
here at Gardner's. She just said Drew was wonderful.
He is very tuned in to all of her concerns, very knowledgeable and patient.
(58:00):
The process to assess the sleep needs and make mattress recommendations was
very thorough, and there was no doubt that Drew knew the products and was not
at all there just to make a sale.
We talked about that with Josh. Some HVAC companies are.
Unfortunately, make the customer feel like it's just a very transactional,
I need this replaced, and it's kind of in and out sort of service job.
(58:25):
And that's not the way Vertex does business. It's not the way Gardner's does business.
And Gardner's was not the first store I checked in my quest to replace my current
mattress, but I soon knew I was in the right place and right place is all in CAP.
So that was cool to get that. in this morning's mail from Mary,
one of our recent customers. So thank you, Mary.
(58:46):
Thank you to all of our great customers here at Gardner's.
If we can help you with your sleep needs, if you're watching and you woke up
a little grumpy or you woke up a little sore, you tossed and turned,
flipped and flopped all night, give Gardner's a shot. Just give us a visit.
Check out our website. See what we're all about. See how we can help.
Stop by. Come take a nap. You can rest in peace.
(59:08):
Well, actually, that was pretty morbid. You can shop in peace here at Gardner's.
We're not going to be a high-pressure sales organization here ever.
So we can help. Let us know.
All right. That about wraps up today's show. Thank you for watching.
Thank you again to my guest, Josh, from Vertex Mechanical.
(59:31):
We're back here next Monday at 2 o'clock with another great guest here on Lancaster
Connects, making connections in our community.
Again, letting people tell stories Great people with great stories Of how they're
helping the Lancaster community That's what we do every week here at Lancaster
Connects Thanks for tuning in And we'll see you on the next Connection.
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