June 27, 2025 • 37 mins
In this episode of The Robbins Podcast, the team sits down to talk about the real concerns homeowners face when it comes to heating and air conditioning. From the rising costs of system replacements to refrigerant changes and the impact of AI like ChatGPT, we break down what you need to know. We also share how Robbins keeps customers informed, comfortable, and confident—whether you're calling for service, walking through our doors, or just looking for honest answers.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:09):
I like to
welcome everybody outto Robin's podcast, number nine.
Back on game in a little while.
I'd like to welcome to Michelle.
She's been in one podcast prior.
That was in a different format.
So welcome.
First time to the intro.
Thank you so much.
Golf.
So, I guess it's been a long enough time.
(00:32):
We should check in.
So anythinganybody wants to shout out there,
what's going ongood in your life right now?
Work looks good. This is awesome.
Yeah.
Another podcast.
We've done this for a long time.
Like,you know, kids are getting Big Richard.
And he I guess creaturespretty all go to a year and a half.
(00:53):
Yeah, yeah, something like that.
Somewhere in there.
That's for you.
Yeah, yeah. That's that.
We should probably. Yeah.
Simplify that a little bit.
Kids are getting big.
Especially StevenMichelle's kids getting really big.
I keep
getting rid of them.
I think the house material let's saidlet's get on it or wrap it up and Steve.
(01:13):
Michelle.
Yeah.
You said activities. Yeah.
Now than we've ever beenwith just two kids.
I don't,and we're going to blame that on Reese.
Okay, let's be honest.
Let's bring that outand put it on the table.
That's Reese's fault 100%.
Yes. Yeah.
Golf and volleyball.
There you go.
That's.
(01:35):
Super funny.
We've actually had a lot of changes happenwithin our industry here recently,
so maybe we could be
highlighting some changesand some things we're navigating through.
Keep in mind, like our customers,what things
they can anticipate and expect, that's,maybe not fair to them.
(01:55):
And how fresh those things.
Do we want toshout out there one of the biggest things
for every human on thisthat's affecting everybody?
It has heating and air conditioning.
But the benefit is we're keeping pacewith it
a little bit and how it's affecting us.
(02:17):
So I knowI really feel like it's the beginning.
So if you, like, makes tapthis stuff really hard and like, have
I just wish everything was like,
ChatGPT like that would makeso much easier to help me out so much.
Okay, that makes itso we could just make everything right.
Check.That's it for the best of the smartest.
I am so it's fast and it's it's
going to change some things,but luckily we're
(02:40):
learning itand keeping it up to speed with it.
So it changed my whole perspectivewhen you showed me
that it mapped out your entire vacationthat you've yet to take.
I'm still waiting onyou guys to go to Turkey, so yeah, yeah.
And you showed me thatand it was like five pages long.
I was like, this is unbelievable.
Let's go.
Now I just have to verifyall those things are actually a
(03:01):
like the real things.
Yeah.
You're going to Turkey. So yeah.
Are you flight already booked?
So don't try to get out of this.
Well everything's a lotfaster with ChatGPT.
We thought that Michelle thoughtthis would take a little longer
than whatever,you know, than four minutes.
(03:24):
Was what?
As hard as it isand the changes that are going to happen,
what benefits do you think there willfor for customers and for us with that,
I think one thing that I've seen is
people are starting to use itto diagnose their systems.
The benefit of that is youget a quick like,
hey, you need to change your filter or,you know, you get a quick answer.
(03:45):
The downside is you're missingall the industry experience.
So they're giving you things that aremaybe that work across the nation.
But we have a unique every every area hasa little bit of a nuance, you know.
And sometimes it takes that experienceto know
what little tips and tricksyou might need.
So you might need a new filter,or you might need, you know,
another two step or threestep process to fix your system.
(04:06):
So it's good for a quick answer.
So we're going to dive in.
Today would be thathey this just putting home routines
with unexpectedsome breakdowns that you know nobody
with our industry it's hardbecause we're as needed.
You know, nobody really goes out
shopping for heating and air conditioninguntil it's needed usually.
(04:30):
Or if they have a certain numberof breakdown, whatever.
But yeah, I think that using like,
what you talked about, planning a vacationpeople can use check your routine
to quicklytry to pinpoint help ease their mind.
Should I call a provider?
Could I try to maybe changea filter first?
You know,and maybe it's going to steer you
not in the right direction every timewould it be so help you to start
(04:53):
to navigate the right directionso you know when you should call us
and when we can come in andhelp and for the situation.
A lot of peopledon't want to talk on the phone anymore.
If you notice that,like a lot of the younger generation
in my generation, too, it'slike they don't want to talk to anyone.
They don't want to deal with anybody,they want to schedule everything online.
They want to.
And I think
ChatGPT can really help you with that,that that instant response effect.
(05:17):
Right.
So, it may not alwaysbe the right answer,
but at least maybe it could guideyou in the right direction.
So that's reallythat's a really good point.
I feel like I'm the only person in your
that that's actually a factor.
You should you should feel like thatbecause that's you.
Yeah.
That's you.
For me,
you know, I, I look at itand see some of the frustrations.
(05:41):
Generation has with
the move toward
nobody really want to talk
to those that are here, like, I'm getting,
I think in for the most part,that they need to talk to somebody.
That's just the waythe business was done forever.
And so some of that, you know, hopefullythere's a fine medium that we can
(06:03):
we can learn and figure outhow to do both of those things
because that is interestingand several demographics.
So I think that some do that we do prettywell just trying to be that
friendly voice, the knowledgeable voiceon the training we do,
but also keeping pace with looking online,
getting prices online,all those things that people
(06:25):
just want to kind of learn thingsbefore they make the phone call
or make appointment.
So it's kind of the best of both worlds.
What we're shooting for,
I think it'd go a lot more hours.
And so it's alwaysbeen on the forefront of my mind.
It's just keep that personal touchbecause there is.
We just naturallynobody will ever be able to work all
(06:47):
to having that face to face interaction.
And you're going to have peoplewho don't want to talk about phone.
They want to do all this kind of happen.
Right.
And and I think, as we say with the times,we can fit that and help
those that need usjust to show up when they schedule us
online and maybe get a text messageand stuff like that.
But there's also going to bea lot of people for quite a long time that
(07:08):
we want that face to face.
They want to be comfortedby hearing the voice on the phone.
And I think that's alwaysbeen important to me,
because I thinkmaybe that's important to me, too.
I have someone whoalso works in that, in that,
you know, aspect of things, of
just making sure that I feel comfortablewith who's coming to my house.
And I maybe I've got to talk to them priorand that kind of thing.
(07:31):
And that really does,no matter how much you try that person
to person, person to person interactions.
I think other elephant in the room,
one big one is the refrigerant changethat just recently happened.
So we're dealing with
we dealt with this a few years ago,
when they changed for their on us and,
(07:53):
new equipment and manufacturing
problems and back ordersand inventory issues and things like that.
So, that's somethingthat we're going to navigate again.
And, maybe we can think back towhen we did that before.
And how are we going to kind of navigatethat now
that we've had experience before with itand how to move forward?
(08:14):
So what would we I guess, what would we dofor tailoring in our customers,
to help ease their mindas to these things?
I think for one thing, with the,with the refrigeration, the system.
Right. That's what that's what makes your.
Work.
Right.
Or trigger that that close to the system.
(08:35):
There.
When I started in the industry,
it was, the refrigerant that was
primarily with our community.
And then that switched over to.
And we've been around for.
And so this new refrigeranthas switched over this year.
We I think that this yearit is, after the before
(08:59):
we were after to,
have both of those,you know, have their, their different
in their own perspective.
And we just want to do the
32 system and vice versa.
So I think one of theI was just on our panel,
one, like,why didn't the industry go that way?
The industry went that waybecause it was regulated
(09:21):
by Department of Energyand so EPA, stuff like that.
So that's why the changes of that, it'sa cleaner refrigerant.
It's better for the atmosphereand stuff like that. And so
was we're trying to be good stewardsof the land and and stuff like that
to make that work, and do the best.
And I think that some of the changesgo for now.
There are a lot of challengesthat come with that,
(09:43):
and we'll be dealing with thema little bit this year.
So we'll navigate that.
And I'll go ahead
know what refrigerant my system had in it.
Like I know because I do this.
But if I didn't know anything about it,I be able to tell what my system has.
You can always look on a nameplate,right?
If you have an outdoor unit, the nameplate will always tell you,
(10:05):
or an easy waythat it's not 100% accurate.
But if you're just looking for a closeguesstimate, it would be kind of like let
Steve was saying, if you use your timeframe, how old is your equipment?
How long is it been there? Right.
If it's been there prior to 2025,
from 2005 to 2025,you can almost guarantee
that it's going to be it'sgoing to be for tonight almost every time.
(10:27):
So and prior to that would be our 22that there's not too many are 22 systems
left out there.
But they're you know they're stillthey're still running around.
So you could
you could kind of use a time frameto get a pretty good guesstimate
if you wanted to know, say,if your nameplate, they sit out in the sun
so they, they go awayand you can't, you know, it's
sometimes it'shard to see the lettering or whatnot.
So easy way to tell
(10:48):
tell a homeowner that's listening to this.
One of our customers, whoever might be is,
to be prepared
for when that time frame to.
Because as refrigerant
gets more and more dated as of now,we've had another change in refrigeration
report 22 is going to startto become even more obsolete,
where they're going to start focusingon own three, four, ten, eight parts,
(11:12):
you know, and keeping those in stockfor all the people who recently had
those systems installed.
And I think that our 22 that'salways going to
continue to send out more and more,
but rather than just putting iton the backburner in the back of mind
and not thinking about, hey,when does this system need to be replaced,
what happens if it fails?
(11:32):
What happens if I have a big failureand I'm looking at a costly repair?
Something that you can do to put your mindat ease is to
just be prepared for the expense of eitherrepairing or probably
replacing the system,especially if you're trying lower
to select a guy and said,and we start talking about that
20 plus year old system,you really should be prepared.
(11:54):
It's coming and it's going to happen.
And it's unfortunate, right?
But if we face the facts,it's more comforting.
So the over rightinstead of like no surprise
and instead I'm frustratedand things like that
being more proactivefor air conditioning, which is.
And if you're not sure if you know, okay,I don't know about this house
(12:15):
that I'm not sure you knowhow old the system is.
You know our company,but you get three free home valuations
and for every estimate.
So it's one of those things whereif you have questions or want to start,
but you know, they're, you know, planning,you can do 1 or 2 things.
You can do maintenance on your systemand your maintenance technician
to let you know how the system is,or you have a provider come
(12:36):
look at it, tell you the age of it, but,you know, kind of cost
structure.
I think that's
that's one partthat's valuable to know somebody
so that you don't have to navigatethrough the entire internet of our 22
hour, four, ten a hour, or 54 Band trying to wrap your head around that.
If you don't know what it is to knowsomebody who does.
(12:57):
So that's where we come.
I mean, you guys.
With your
give herso I can set a point that for one of you
to go out there.
And you, you might
remember I did that for yearswhere people were just preparing.
Right.
(13:17):
And so 4 or 5 years later, theyget a phone call, hey, we're ready now.
We're going to the system.
But it help them knowupfront what the cost,
so to speak, in the customer apprehensionsand things of
like when you have an emergency serviceand not knowing what to expect.
That's one of the things you can do.
(13:38):
Is I know a lot of my friends and stufftoo, is like,
because everyone wants to know,like, what? Is it going to go?
Well, how much is it going to costwhen that happens?
Right.
Like, you want to plan for those things,but in the meantime,
the best thing you can do is keepyour system clean, change your filter.
That's one thing I tell peoplewho are kind of worried like, oh, shoot,
that sounds scary. Like,just keep your system.
I mean, you'll get every ounce of itthat you can,
(14:00):
which is something that we love to doand take care of people.
Just helping
take care of that part, you know,somebody don't know how to do in life.
If they don't, that we help out there.
But change yourfilter, keep your system system clean.
You can make it last as long as it. But
I think one thing that's hard to do
as we think about,
(14:22):
having all done
this for many yearsnow, is them taking all of that away
and putting ourselves in so many issuesthat it knows nothing.
And so as we kind of consider that, whatwere some things you guys can think of,
if you knew nothing,if you had no experience in the industry,
what would be something?
You have that right,you know, or a concern,
(14:43):
like if something did happen to my systemor it was an emergency
or I need to replace the system,what what would be something with worry
or be concerned with?
My firstthings first would be cost, right?
How much?
How much does this cost? Right.
Because you don't.
Most people, including myself,before I started doing heating
and air conditioning, I didn't.I didn't know what an anything was.
(15:04):
I didn't know anything about it,I didn't care.
My house was hot and it was coldand that was cool. With it.
Like there's no one in between so youdon't notice it till you need it, right?
So, if something like that breaks,my first thought would be
I how much does it cost?
Or what is this going to cost me to eitherfix it or replace it or how old is it?
And, you know, just kind ofgetting some information on it would be
(15:25):
the would be thefirst and foremost for me.
I think that's interesting.
We can drive around and,you know, that price of trucks and cars
because there's a lot of money over time.
So you can pull inand if you're curious, you can see it.
There's no
car allowed for heating.
There can be.
That's good.
Right.
So, yeah, definitely. And,
(15:47):
under understandingwhat the cost would end up being
because we have some people over there,you know,
present a price to some peopleand they're like, well,
much cheaper than not lookingin the exact same scenario.
We would go into another person'sover there, just like
I didn't expect it to be that.
And so there's this huge rangeof knowledge of how much to expect
(16:08):
when you're goingto have to replace the system.
And so it's interesting to see thatin a couple of major goes down,
something like for we're going to beyou know, we don't hear that.
But there's some peoplethat that'll be there, done some research
and kind of have an ideaof what they're up.
And so I think that that kind of helpsprepare them for
what it's going to look like.
(16:29):
Do you think it's the younger
generation that thinks,oh man, that was cheaper than I thought.
And maybe the older generation because Iyeah, I remember I bought one of these
before back in 94, and I rememberit wasn't even close to this much.
Right.
Yeah. It should be cheaper.
Steve.
So let's say
(16:50):
like even ten years ago,
stuff was,you know, three times less than it is now.
Like everything acrossthe board has been it's a it's different.
It's it's a lot more expensiveall across the board.
So you know the
and I don't know this is I guess
maybe this is the intent of the podcastis to relate what we know.
(17:12):
So somebody she doesn't know.
Because as a homeowner not knowinganything, I probably would know, like,
I wouldn't know if I should make thismy system or not.
You know, I sometimes Iand and the only reason I realize that is
because I get that question like,oh my, you just sitting out there like,
what should I do with it?Should I have it service?
(17:34):
Is it goodjust to run until it doesn't anymore?
Because that's reallythe biggest thing, is you don't realize
how much of a part of it'sjust a place in your life.
You can tell it's our in,
you know, like, oh, I see, like,this keeps me comfortable all the time.
And now it's 85 degrees in my house,or now it's 50 degrees in my house
(17:57):
and it's not working. It should be.
What should I have done to the systemthat maybe this wouldn't have happened?
You know, because it's just it'sjust so important.
So thinking about that, I think,
one thing is just encouraging peopleto do maintenance.
You should have your system looked atwhether it's on the fly in your program,
(18:18):
like the offer is crucial foror if it's just like a one time inspection
or even just if you've never had itdone, have it done, at least not find out
what kind of shape your system inand at least give you
some peace of mind of like, wow,this needs a lot of work.
Or actually it's working pretty well.
But just call an expertwho can tell you actually
(18:38):
what kind of conditionyour system is in, rather than just
guessing. It's good.
You know, it's it'sjust finding that information is.
And that's another thingthat I can't do for you,
right, is a worksheet with my airconditioner.
It's not there looking at it
until somebody actually goes inand puts their tools or their instruments
of gauges and stuff on the systemwhere they determine how.
(19:02):
I think that some do that.
So for me, now that things are gettinga little more confusing with is it
AI, is it real or not realor it's so expensive, is that right?
Should it be cheaper?
Like that's where it's so importantto call the right people.
Like, I look at all of you guysover to my house, which I have before.
Or I mean, one time Steve was out of townand my AC broke house painting.
I was like, no.
(19:22):
So I like tech.
Like, could you come over here?
But it's so important to know,like to have people that you trust
that you know, they're going to tell you
the right information,they're going to charge.
Only you know, the right, honest price.
It's like dollars don't go as far.
So you got to make sure you ain the right area.
So it's important.That's what I love about this
that we do.
(19:43):
But I'll see you at the grocery storeand then
you know have you tell me, hey,you guys really did my furnace
and I'm not a part of the community.
I think peace of mind too, right?
I think for me, a warranty paysa lot of part in that, right?
Not only do you,
I mean, people make mistakesand we make mistakes and other parts
fail sometimes, right?And that's important to know.
But having, having knowingsomebody got your back, whoever came out
(20:05):
did the work for youI think is super important.
That's a it's so simple, yet,you know, it's very few and far
between in our industry and especiallywhere we live in the Four Corners.
So, yeah, just knowing peace of mindafter they leave.
Hey, if something else goes wrong,
I have either a 30 day warrantyor a two year old warranty, or,
you know, a ten yearparts and labor warranty, you know,
whatever,whatever the circumstance brings.
(20:27):
But I think I think I'll pay anyamount of money for peace of mind, right?
To knowthat me and my family are comfortable
and we're and we're safe, and my stuff'snot going to explode in this and that. So.
Yeah, I think I'm on that end of thethere you get her, ask me questions.
I'm thinking technically,what what the companies think it's going,
(20:47):
you know, any time you going to be movingtheir, their,
their particles in the air in the system,hopefully they can kind of filter
you through,
but it's still going to gothrough your system.
Right.
And so as I hear you, it's one of themthat in
five many years right now, that stuffstarts to collect on your boil
(21:09):
or outside of and come from the military.
You're it's going to raise your cost
to operate that in a short period.
So that's it.
That's gonna continue for thatpressure to go up.
It just stretches out the system.
(21:30):
And so it's kind of one of thoselike weights I'm here to get them.
You're like get it done on routine basiswhere you're going to pay the bill.
Either way.
The gas company
or whatever it is that you'reyou're paying because your system
efficiency. So
that's what I do with it.
(21:50):
I don't think I've been doing itfor too long.
At 27 years, I can go back to not knowinganything about their conditioning.
So I think we should make a Steve,
like I said, a DVD.
Like takes to make it.
I didn't ask all of our questions.
I'm sure you're good with that.
Oh, we totally did.
Okay, listen here now, Steve.
Yeah.
That's good.
Listen, I have a technical question.
(22:13):
Oh, is.
So I think that's another good question.
I like we have this a lot.
A lot of people go to Home Depot, Lowe's
and see a wall of filters and like,is it the bigger the better.
Do I want 14?
Like,what kind of filter do I put in my system?
Like, I want to be safe and secure.
Do I get this big fat one?
Does it cause issues because we seea whole nother side of what filter to put?
(22:37):
Sometimes bigger is not always better.
We are.
This is the gospel according to Richard.
But Richard, Richard and.
It is a joke.
Anyway,
but I, I always tell peopleand I've actually known this is where
I mean that, this is just what I, whatI think, I should research it, but
(22:58):
I don't know that pleated filters,like the
the ones that look like a fabric materialor shaped like an accordion,
that a lot of peopleare really drawn to use them using
because the marketing is really good.
And, clean up your air and,and all of that kind of stuff.
I really think it was a marketing thingwhere these filter companies, or whoever
(23:18):
it is, saw an opportunity to say, hey,this is a better filter,
you should buy this filter.
And it turned into more expensive filter.
But your average,
heating or
your system was not designed to handlethat kind of perspiration.
Can we make the system workwith those filters?
Yes, but it takes a lot of workand a lot of work system design
(23:40):
to make those filters work.
So just grabbing that filterand putting it right in place
of your existing system,
I would say 98% of the timethe system's not designed to handle that.
But the filter companiesnever really looked
at that age back that time and decidedthat was a good thing.
They just looked at it as a marketingoption, you know, for people.
(24:01):
And it is right.
It better filters do help for air,but you have to just be aware
that there are things you should doin your system to actually get the
and there's,
honestly,there's other better options out there,
to help clean the air with the particles.
I'm just using a really dense filter.
That's a super good point.
I always I always explain it
(24:21):
to customers that really similarto what you what you just said to me.
A filter isn't meant to clean your air.
It's meant to keep your system clean.
Right? It's meant to keep the dirtand the debris out of your system.
At the end of the day,if you're worried about the quality of Air
Gleich products, we we're a firm believer.
I mean, whether you go Remy Haloor you go and I wave or you go, you know,
(24:42):
there's there's a dozen different waysyou can go with that.
And I think if you'reif you're really worried
about the filtration of your air, go, goIQ because the, the, the filter.
Yeah. Is it going to catch stuff.
But is it going to causeyou longer problems in the long run.
And the answer is yes.
Yeah.
The more dirt that gets in itand you turn that thing
into straight carpetbecause you haven't cleaned it,
(25:02):
you know,you haven't changed it out in six months.
I mean, you're, you're going toyou're going to end up smoking a motor or,
you know, but there's a ton of thingsflooding a compressor.
There's a ton of things that could happen
that could go wrongjust over a dirty filter.
So you rather.
Yeah, there's a little less Mervrating on a non pleated filter.
But your system is going to love youso much more.
It's I mean it's it'sgoing to make or break the hole
(25:23):
because then you havea little bit of leeway.
That's something I use a lot withthe customers too
is you have some leeway there.
That way if your filter gets dirty,then essentially you're not restricting
as much air as you are with a with awith a pleated filter,
because right off the rip,you're restricting
half the air flowof what you wanted in the first place. So
that's one thing that's so greatlike about technology.
(25:44):
Like you can Google thingslike if you have a question, just ask.
That's one thing that's awesome about ustoo, is like
people can call and just ask like, well,what about this?
What about that?
And there were that trusted source like,
you got the best of both worldshere in Barrington.
You got the AI,
you got the technology stuff,but then you have
good people that can help in your home,like where it really counts.
So if you have a question, just ask
(26:06):
my favorite teams.
When customers walk in the door,I love to help customers in the front.
And that's it because a lot of it, right?
I don't work in the service.I know enough about the industry.
I know a little bit about motors.I know about, like the specifics.
Some of the stuff like people come in withand where I'm like, like, I,
I mean, I'm pretty sure, like, I know,I know that, I know, but I better go ask
where's let me pull up the Steve GPTand all.
(26:28):
We'll test this out just to make sureI'm doing what I'm doing.
But it's pretty interesting.
Yeah, I love when people walkthrough the door with awe.
I really love ductwork.
People walk through the door, hey,I'm looking for this.
I'm like, hey, come to the whiteboard.Let's let's take a look at this.
Let me draw youwhat I think you're saying.
That way we're on the same pagethat those are also a lot of fun.
But when you get there's like 3or 4 people
that helping somebody come over to meand I'm like, hey, that's the more, right?
(26:50):
Yeah. Yeah.
Like, that I don't know.
I don't know how you do it.
It's it blows my mind. Yeah.
That's example
mean if you didn't have like,you know, no.
Trends.
Trends in your ways.
So we have about 4 or 5 minutesleft with the whole thing.
(27:12):
I think we should highlight this.
We talked about the, what?
Aside from the technical,what do you think
apprehensions would be of, like,
know I haven't seen my systems not goingto call there like it's supposed to.
It's not eating like it's supposed towhen you pick up the phone or you,
to either schedule
online or, do researchor call the company.
(27:36):
What initial apprehensionsdo you think you have
as far as choosing the right contractor?
What things are you looking for that help?
You know that you've chosen the right.
I want somebody to
at the end of the day, I'm.
I'm a simple person.
I want somebody to show up whenthey tell me they're going to show up.
I want you to be on time.
(27:56):
I want you to do exactly what you tell methat you're going to do.
I mean, it sounds like, well, well done.
Everybody should do that.
But you'd be surprisedabout how often we do.
We do not get that in our industry. Right.
And that's not doing our Farmingtoncommunity any justice.
I feel like,you know, it does happen. We do.
We do also make mistakes,but we try to make them very few and far
between and try to do the right thingall the time.
(28:18):
So, like, if I was calling somewhere where
I don't know anything about anything,if I called a Comcast guy and I
and he says he's going to be at my houseat 9:00, I expect him to be there at 9:00.
But if you're calling the gas company,they're going to tell you
that they're going to be there betweennine and midnight and anytime in between.
And you must be thereand available whenever they get there. So
exactly.
(28:38):
Yeah.
And it's always the end of the time frame.
So, but at the end of the day,just do what you say you're going to
do, show up when you say you'regoing to show up and just treat me right.
Be polite.
You know, it's it it's all the simplethings that I think the world's missing.
Now, ever since Covid, it'skind of went really downhill of everybody.
You can't trust anybodyor they just won't show up.
They won't answer your phone call.They won't.
You know, they just don't do what they saythey're going to do.
(29:02):
What else?
I look at warranties too.
Like like, of course,
I mean, look at the reviewsand kind of kind of make my choice
and have somebody come at themand fill it out.
And then kind of towardsthe end it's going to be like,
okay, are you going to warrantythis? Are you to come back?
So some of those things are reallyimportant about making a purchase, right?
You know,not buying something off the shelf.
And you can compare two different ones.
(29:22):
It's like, hey,well, who's going to watch one?
Who'sgoing to give me the better warranty?
That's what I'm looking for is like,I don't want something to go wrong.
Which one is going to help me knowthat it's not going to go wrong for me.
So warranties are not way for me.
I don't like surprises, right?
So if somebody out of my house,
I end up getting an invoice,
(29:44):
just a random invoice into the job,
that would be more frustrating for me.
And so, you know, one thing that we
we pride ourselves onare guarantees upfront price for. So,
so whatever it
is, they don't present you with a priceand we end up putting them
(30:04):
where they charge you for it.
So we make sure that the customer is aware
the diagnosticthat this module will follow.
And the technicianis going to give you a price
on what's going to take to repair it now.
So there's some times where
if it's a, you know, like a gas stove,we can't cast past that person at work.
And we're going to say, hey, you know,right now I got to replace the gas.
(30:26):
It's going to cost X amount of dollars.
Once I get that,then I can finish diagnosing your system.
So let me get that.
But we have thoseconversations ahead of time
aware of the
malware randomly be to blame at the endof this month, even though it looks like.
And I think for me, the surprise.
Yeah.
(30:47):
By the way,yeah, there's you needed a compressor.
So I went ahead and changethat out for you.
Okay. That's our 22 system.
So get it.
Got a new one. So.
Well I think as we wrap this up,
appreciate it for this.
And the feedback.
The the world has changedAmazon changed it for us.
(31:10):
The way people livepurchasing is different now
than it has been like 5 or 10 years ago.
That aspect is very different.
So our whole intentionis to make this easier on our,
we want to be the go to expertsin our field.
We don't want to,
(31:32):
you know, try to just send somebody out
who is not trained very well,and we're not there to do that all.
We have a pretty rigoroustraining program,
and I think that's kind ofmy input on this as far as,
whateverengines I would have as far as calling
a company is, I just want somebodythat knows what they're doing.
If I can't do it myself,
(31:54):
I don't want to call somebodywho also isn't for sure
on what they're doing.I want to be able to call somebody
and know that that's awell trained technician.
That they're going to have the knowledgeand if they don't,
that they have the resources,
like all of us here, that they can calland we can put our hands together.
And that happens quite a bit, right?We do that.
We do come across problemswhere we have to bridge together,
(32:15):
but we're in it to till the endand to be quick and efficient
and just get it and get,I was very impressed with, here recently.
I had a company here in town,some concrete in my house, and
I made a four concrete before.
I probably could do it right.
But I was very impressedjust as far as how easy it was.
(32:36):
They showed up when they said
they're going to show up,they obviously knew what they were doing.
Painless and all of that.
And then it's justhe kept me informed step by step.
And four days later I had so much concreteand it looked very nice and
and really, that's, you know, on the flipside of don't want to call somebody
that I feel like I paid a lot of moneyto the internet least,
(32:57):
or get a second opinionor call them back a bunch of times.
And so that's really
for everybody out there.
And that's what we strive to do, to striveto train all of our guys pretty well.
We rigorously train and make sure thatwe put qualified professionals out there
and make sure that peopleare in good hands
and that they can trustand know that we're there.
(33:20):
But other than that here.
So any other final feedback?
Yeah.
I don't know, like,I mean, you bring up a really good point.
We we have such a good team here, man.
It's it's it's crazy.
I don't I can't say this for sure,but I, I guarantee we're up there
and probably the top five I bet.
(33:41):
And Nate certificationsas a whole lot of company,
which is, that's it's crazy.
I mean, that's crazy.
Whenever our proctor comes inand he he gives us Nate test, he's all,
you don't see this?
And I give Nate testsall over the state. Right.
So it's like per per like all of our guys.
We we don't we require themto have Nate certifications.
That's how they move up in their career.
(34:01):
That's how we want them to try to pushand strive to be better on a daily basis.
And and and if that doesn't make thembetter than I don't know what will.
Right.
And and sadly, I mean, there is a downsideto that too, right?
Some of the guys sometimesthis isn't the industry for everyone.
So they have to take these testsand they end up being like, you know what?
I'm burnt out,I hate this, this isn't for me.
And sometimesit's a good thing for them too,
(34:22):
so they can move onand go do something else.
But I think we we push our guysand we put a lot of training into them.
And we want them to be really good.
Not just for us as a company,but we want the customer to get the best
at the end of the day.
So I think, I think that that makesa big difference in how things come out
and how satisfied the customer isand how well we do our job. So.
(34:43):
You can just tell
we have customers that walk in our doorthat like, just feels cool here.
Like, I want to work here.
Like you can just tellif something's gone.
Well, you know, we're on the same page.
We're on the same boat.
It's just a fun it's a fun atmosphere.
And we like to have.
I know that's the best, but, like,what are we?
We have 2 or 3 high now.
(35:04):
Yeah.
2 or 3 people
that we that have been customersand like you know what like Kayla we,
we were doing her house and the guys areat her house installing her system.
Yeah.And she was like, hey, I have to leave.
I'm going to an interviewat your job, at your work.
So I'll be back.
So that's pretty funny. Yeah,
yeah.
Speaking of that, as far as the careerpath goes, until we get to the podcast
(35:26):
here, I got a little, testwith one of our staff.
So it's kind of cool that we get thatmaybe they can see
their own career path they don't follow.
And it's not easy.
You know, we expect them to knowthis stuff before they move forward.
And I think that's just our responsibilityas a leader,
Christian contractor in our communityis to make sure that we're not boring,
(35:49):
setting up our guys to fail and centerinto a project that they can't handle
and do not setting the communityor the customer
up to fail or send somebody out therethat doesn't know what they're doing.
And so we have a way of tracking them,and we
we don't let them run out and do the math,and they're not ready for it.
And so I think that's the greatest partof that career path that we have
(36:10):
is that guys aren't getting frustratedbecause they're not going
out there, that you.
And so Ithink there's there's some comfort there.
I think some of them want to move upafter the customer.
Okay. Look, I'm not there.
And so there is at leastthere is a benchmark
that they get to go off ofand and know where they have.
And that's I think that's great for them.
(36:32):
Well,
I appreciate everybody joining us today.
Another one of the books and like
we'd like to talk about this whole podcastif you need to.
So we're a phone call awaywhere the technicians
are coming to buy your install or whateverit is.
That way, you know, up through our doors,like Skyler said, we're
we love having peoplecome in to see us and ask questions,
(36:54):
and that's what we're here to do.
So, to all of you,thank you for joining us today.
We'll see you next time here.
Bye now.
I like to
welcome everybody outto Robin's podcast, number nine.
Back on game in a little while.
I'd like to welcome to Michelle.
She's been in one podcast prior.
That was in a different format.
So welcome.
First time to the intro.
Thank you so much.
Golf.
So, I guess it's been a long enough time.
(00:32):
We should check in.
So anythinganybody wants to shout out there,
what's going ongood in your life right now?
Work looks good. This is awesome.
Yeah.
Another podcast.
We've done this for a long time.
Like,you know, kids are getting Big Richard.
And he I guess creaturespretty all go to a year and a half.
(00:53):
Yeah, yeah, something like that.
Somewhere in there.
That's for you.
Yeah, yeah. That's that.
We should probably. Yeah.
Simplify that a little bit.
Kids are getting big.
Especially StevenMichelle's kids getting really big.
I keep
getting rid of them.
I think the house material let's saidlet's get on it or wrap it up and Steve.
(01:13):
Michelle.
Yeah.
You said activities. Yeah.
Now than we've ever beenwith just two kids.
I don't,and we're going to blame that on Reese.
Okay, let's be honest.
Let's bring that outand put it on the table.
That's Reese's fault 100%.
Yes. Yeah.
Golf and volleyball.
There you go.
That's.
(01:35):
Super funny.
We've actually had a lot of changes happenwithin our industry here recently,
so maybe we could be
highlighting some changesand some things we're navigating through.
Keep in mind, like our customers,what things
they can anticipate and expect, that's,maybe not fair to them.
(01:55):
And how fresh those things.
Do we want toshout out there one of the biggest things
for every human on thisthat's affecting everybody?
It has heating and air conditioning.
But the benefit is we're keeping pacewith it
a little bit and how it's affecting us.
(02:17):
So I knowI really feel like it's the beginning.
So if you, like, makes tapthis stuff really hard and like, have
I just wish everything was like,
ChatGPT like that would makeso much easier to help me out so much.
Okay, that makes itso we could just make everything right.
Check.That's it for the best of the smartest.
I am so it's fast and it's it's
going to change some things,but luckily we're
(02:40):
learning itand keeping it up to speed with it.
So it changed my whole perspectivewhen you showed me
that it mapped out your entire vacationthat you've yet to take.
I'm still waiting onyou guys to go to Turkey, so yeah, yeah.
And you showed me thatand it was like five pages long.
I was like, this is unbelievable.
Let's go.
Now I just have to verifyall those things are actually a
(03:01):
like the real things.
Yeah.
You're going to Turkey. So yeah.
Are you flight already booked?
So don't try to get out of this.
Well everything's a lotfaster with ChatGPT.
We thought that Michelle thoughtthis would take a little longer
than whatever,you know, than four minutes.
(03:24):
Was what?
As hard as it isand the changes that are going to happen,
what benefits do you think there willfor for customers and for us with that,
I think one thing that I've seen is
people are starting to use itto diagnose their systems.
The benefit of that is youget a quick like,
hey, you need to change your filter or,you know, you get a quick answer.
(03:45):
The downside is you're missingall the industry experience.
So they're giving you things that aremaybe that work across the nation.
But we have a unique every every area hasa little bit of a nuance, you know.
And sometimes it takes that experienceto know
what little tips and tricksyou might need.
So you might need a new filter,or you might need, you know,
another two step or threestep process to fix your system.
(04:06):
So it's good for a quick answer.
So we're going to dive in.
Today would be thathey this just putting home routines
with unexpectedsome breakdowns that you know nobody
with our industry it's hardbecause we're as needed.
You know, nobody really goes out
shopping for heating and air conditioninguntil it's needed usually.
(04:30):
Or if they have a certain numberof breakdown, whatever.
But yeah, I think that using like,
what you talked about, planning a vacationpeople can use check your routine
to quicklytry to pinpoint help ease their mind.
Should I call a provider?
Could I try to maybe changea filter first?
You know,and maybe it's going to steer you
not in the right direction every timewould it be so help you to start
(04:53):
to navigate the right directionso you know when you should call us
and when we can come in andhelp and for the situation.
A lot of peopledon't want to talk on the phone anymore.
If you notice that,like a lot of the younger generation
in my generation, too, it'slike they don't want to talk to anyone.
They don't want to deal with anybody,they want to schedule everything online.
They want to.
And I think
ChatGPT can really help you with that,that that instant response effect.
(05:17):
Right.
So, it may not alwaysbe the right answer,
but at least maybe it could guideyou in the right direction.
So that's reallythat's a really good point.
I feel like I'm the only person in your
that that's actually a factor.
You should you should feel like thatbecause that's you.
Yeah.
That's you.
For me,
you know, I, I look at itand see some of the frustrations.
(05:41):
Generation has with
the move toward
nobody really want to talk
to those that are here, like, I'm getting,
I think in for the most part,that they need to talk to somebody.
That's just the waythe business was done forever.
And so some of that, you know, hopefullythere's a fine medium that we can
(06:03):
we can learn and figure outhow to do both of those things
because that is interestingand several demographics.
So I think that some do that we do prettywell just trying to be that
friendly voice, the knowledgeable voiceon the training we do,
but also keeping pace with looking online,
getting prices online,all those things that people
(06:25):
just want to kind of learn thingsbefore they make the phone call
or make appointment.
So it's kind of the best of both worlds.
What we're shooting for,
I think it'd go a lot more hours.
And so it's alwaysbeen on the forefront of my mind.
It's just keep that personal touchbecause there is.
We just naturallynobody will ever be able to work all
(06:47):
to having that face to face interaction.
And you're going to have peoplewho don't want to talk about phone.
They want to do all this kind of happen.
Right.
And and I think, as we say with the times,we can fit that and help
those that need usjust to show up when they schedule us
online and maybe get a text messageand stuff like that.
But there's also going to bea lot of people for quite a long time that
(07:08):
we want that face to face.
They want to be comfortedby hearing the voice on the phone.
And I think that's alwaysbeen important to me,
because I thinkmaybe that's important to me, too.
I have someone whoalso works in that, in that,
you know, aspect of things, of
just making sure that I feel comfortablewith who's coming to my house.
And I maybe I've got to talk to them priorand that kind of thing.
(07:31):
And that really does,no matter how much you try that person
to person, person to person interactions.
I think other elephant in the room,
one big one is the refrigerant changethat just recently happened.
So we're dealing with
we dealt with this a few years ago,
when they changed for their on us and,
(07:53):
new equipment and manufacturing
problems and back ordersand inventory issues and things like that.
So, that's somethingthat we're going to navigate again.
And, maybe we can think back towhen we did that before.
And how are we going to kind of navigatethat now
that we've had experience before with itand how to move forward?
(08:14):
So what would we I guess, what would we dofor tailoring in our customers,
to help ease their mindas to these things?
I think for one thing, with the,with the refrigeration, the system.
Right. That's what that's what makes your.
Work.
Right.
Or trigger that that close to the system.
(08:35):
There.
When I started in the industry,
it was, the refrigerant that was
primarily with our community.
And then that switched over to.
And we've been around for.
And so this new refrigeranthas switched over this year.
We I think that this yearit is, after the before
(08:59):
we were after to,
have both of those,you know, have their, their different
in their own perspective.
And we just want to do the
32 system and vice versa.
So I think one of theI was just on our panel,
one, like,why didn't the industry go that way?
The industry went that waybecause it was regulated
(09:21):
by Department of Energyand so EPA, stuff like that.
So that's why the changes of that, it'sa cleaner refrigerant.
It's better for the atmosphereand stuff like that. And so
was we're trying to be good stewardsof the land and and stuff like that
to make that work, and do the best.
And I think that some of the changesgo for now.
There are a lot of challengesthat come with that,
(09:43):
and we'll be dealing with thema little bit this year.
So we'll navigate that.
And I'll go ahead
know what refrigerant my system had in it.
Like I know because I do this.
But if I didn't know anything about it,I be able to tell what my system has.
You can always look on a nameplate,right?
If you have an outdoor unit, the nameplate will always tell you,
(10:05):
or an easy waythat it's not 100% accurate.
But if you're just looking for a closeguesstimate, it would be kind of like let
Steve was saying, if you use your timeframe, how old is your equipment?
How long is it been there? Right.
If it's been there prior to 2025,
from 2005 to 2025,you can almost guarantee
that it's going to be it'sgoing to be for tonight almost every time.
(10:27):
So and prior to that would be our 22that there's not too many are 22 systems
left out there.
But they're you know they're stillthey're still running around.
So you could
you could kind of use a time frameto get a pretty good guesstimate
if you wanted to know, say,if your nameplate, they sit out in the sun
so they, they go awayand you can't, you know, it's
sometimes it'shard to see the lettering or whatnot.
So easy way to tell
(10:48):
tell a homeowner that's listening to this.
One of our customers, whoever might be is,
to be prepared
for when that time frame to.
Because as refrigerant
gets more and more dated as of now,we've had another change in refrigeration
report 22 is going to startto become even more obsolete,
where they're going to start focusingon own three, four, ten, eight parts,
(11:12):
you know, and keeping those in stockfor all the people who recently had
those systems installed.
And I think that our 22 that'salways going to
continue to send out more and more,
but rather than just putting iton the backburner in the back of mind
and not thinking about, hey,when does this system need to be replaced,
what happens if it fails?
(11:32):
What happens if I have a big failureand I'm looking at a costly repair?
Something that you can do to put your mindat ease is to
just be prepared for the expense of eitherrepairing or probably
replacing the system,especially if you're trying lower
to select a guy and said,and we start talking about that
20 plus year old system,you really should be prepared.
(11:54):
It's coming and it's going to happen.
And it's unfortunate, right?
But if we face the facts,it's more comforting.
So the over rightinstead of like no surprise
and instead I'm frustratedand things like that
being more proactivefor air conditioning, which is.
And if you're not sure if you know, okay,I don't know about this house
(12:15):
that I'm not sure you knowhow old the system is.
You know our company,but you get three free home valuations
and for every estimate.
So it's one of those things whereif you have questions or want to start,
but you know, they're, you know, planning,you can do 1 or 2 things.
You can do maintenance on your systemand your maintenance technician
to let you know how the system is,or you have a provider come
(12:36):
look at it, tell you the age of it, but,you know, kind of cost
structure.
I think that's
that's one partthat's valuable to know somebody
so that you don't have to navigatethrough the entire internet of our 22
hour, four, ten a hour, or 54 Band trying to wrap your head around that.
If you don't know what it is to knowsomebody who does.
(12:57):
So that's where we come.
I mean, you guys.
With your
give herso I can set a point that for one of you
to go out there.
And you, you might
remember I did that for yearswhere people were just preparing.
Right.
(13:17):
And so 4 or 5 years later, theyget a phone call, hey, we're ready now.
We're going to the system.
But it help them knowupfront what the cost,
so to speak, in the customer apprehensionsand things of
like when you have an emergency serviceand not knowing what to expect.
That's one of the things you can do.
(13:38):
Is I know a lot of my friends and stufftoo, is like,
because everyone wants to know,like, what? Is it going to go?
Well, how much is it going to costwhen that happens?
Right.
Like, you want to plan for those things,but in the meantime,
the best thing you can do is keepyour system clean, change your filter.
That's one thing I tell peoplewho are kind of worried like, oh, shoot,
that sounds scary. Like,just keep your system.
I mean, you'll get every ounce of itthat you can,
(14:00):
which is something that we love to doand take care of people.
Just helping
take care of that part, you know,somebody don't know how to do in life.
If they don't, that we help out there.
But change yourfilter, keep your system system clean.
You can make it last as long as it. But
I think one thing that's hard to do
as we think about,
(14:22):
having all done
this for many yearsnow, is them taking all of that away
and putting ourselves in so many issuesthat it knows nothing.
And so as we kind of consider that, whatwere some things you guys can think of,
if you knew nothing,if you had no experience in the industry,
what would be something?
You have that right,you know, or a concern,
(14:43):
like if something did happen to my systemor it was an emergency
or I need to replace the system,what what would be something with worry
or be concerned with?
My firstthings first would be cost, right?
How much?
How much does this cost? Right.
Because you don't.
Most people, including myself,before I started doing heating
and air conditioning, I didn't.I didn't know what an anything was.
(15:04):
I didn't know anything about it,I didn't care.
My house was hot and it was coldand that was cool. With it.
Like there's no one in between so youdon't notice it till you need it, right?
So, if something like that breaks,my first thought would be
I how much does it cost?
Or what is this going to cost me to eitherfix it or replace it or how old is it?
And, you know, just kind ofgetting some information on it would be
(15:25):
the would be thefirst and foremost for me.
I think that's interesting.
We can drive around and,you know, that price of trucks and cars
because there's a lot of money over time.
So you can pull inand if you're curious, you can see it.
There's no
car allowed for heating.
There can be.
That's good.
Right.
So, yeah, definitely. And,
(15:47):
under understandingwhat the cost would end up being
because we have some people over there,you know,
present a price to some peopleand they're like, well,
much cheaper than not lookingin the exact same scenario.
We would go into another person'sover there, just like
I didn't expect it to be that.
And so there's this huge rangeof knowledge of how much to expect
(16:08):
when you're goingto have to replace the system.
And so it's interesting to see thatin a couple of major goes down,
something like for we're going to beyou know, we don't hear that.
But there's some peoplethat that'll be there, done some research
and kind of have an ideaof what they're up.
And so I think that that kind of helpsprepare them for
what it's going to look like.
(16:29):
Do you think it's the younger
generation that thinks,oh man, that was cheaper than I thought.
And maybe the older generation because Iyeah, I remember I bought one of these
before back in 94, and I rememberit wasn't even close to this much.
Right.
Yeah. It should be cheaper.
Steve.
So let's say
(16:50):
like even ten years ago,
stuff was,you know, three times less than it is now.
Like everything acrossthe board has been it's a it's different.
It's it's a lot more expensiveall across the board.
So you know the
and I don't know this is I guess
maybe this is the intent of the podcastis to relate what we know.
(17:12):
So somebody she doesn't know.
Because as a homeowner not knowinganything, I probably would know, like,
I wouldn't know if I should make thismy system or not.
You know, I sometimes Iand and the only reason I realize that is
because I get that question like,oh my, you just sitting out there like,
what should I do with it?Should I have it service?
(17:34):
Is it goodjust to run until it doesn't anymore?
Because that's reallythe biggest thing, is you don't realize
how much of a part of it'sjust a place in your life.
You can tell it's our in,
you know, like, oh, I see, like,this keeps me comfortable all the time.
And now it's 85 degrees in my house,or now it's 50 degrees in my house
(17:57):
and it's not working. It should be.
What should I have done to the systemthat maybe this wouldn't have happened?
You know, because it's just it'sjust so important.
So thinking about that, I think,
one thing is just encouraging peopleto do maintenance.
You should have your system looked atwhether it's on the fly in your program,
(18:18):
like the offer is crucial foror if it's just like a one time inspection
or even just if you've never had itdone, have it done, at least not find out
what kind of shape your system inand at least give you
some peace of mind of like, wow,this needs a lot of work.
Or actually it's working pretty well.
But just call an expertwho can tell you actually
(18:38):
what kind of conditionyour system is in, rather than just
guessing. It's good.
You know, it's it'sjust finding that information is.
And that's another thingthat I can't do for you,
right, is a worksheet with my airconditioner.
It's not there looking at it
until somebody actually goes inand puts their tools or their instruments
of gauges and stuff on the systemwhere they determine how.
(19:02):
I think that some do that.
So for me, now that things are gettinga little more confusing with is it
AI, is it real or not realor it's so expensive, is that right?
Should it be cheaper?
Like that's where it's so importantto call the right people.
Like, I look at all of you guysover to my house, which I have before.
Or I mean, one time Steve was out of townand my AC broke house painting.
I was like, no.
(19:22):
So I like tech.
Like, could you come over here?
But it's so important to know,like to have people that you trust
that you know, they're going to tell you
the right information,they're going to charge.
Only you know, the right, honest price.
It's like dollars don't go as far.
So you got to make sure you ain the right area.
So it's important.That's what I love about this
that we do.
(19:43):
But I'll see you at the grocery storeand then
you know have you tell me, hey,you guys really did my furnace
and I'm not a part of the community.
I think peace of mind too, right?
I think for me, a warranty paysa lot of part in that, right?
Not only do you,
I mean, people make mistakesand we make mistakes and other parts
fail sometimes, right?And that's important to know.
But having, having knowingsomebody got your back, whoever came out
(20:05):
did the work for youI think is super important.
That's a it's so simple, yet,you know, it's very few and far
between in our industry and especiallywhere we live in the Four Corners.
So, yeah, just knowing peace of mindafter they leave.
Hey, if something else goes wrong,
I have either a 30 day warrantyor a two year old warranty, or,
you know, a ten yearparts and labor warranty, you know,
whatever,whatever the circumstance brings.
(20:27):
But I think I think I'll pay anyamount of money for peace of mind, right?
To knowthat me and my family are comfortable
and we're and we're safe, and my stuff'snot going to explode in this and that. So.
Yeah, I think I'm on that end of thethere you get her, ask me questions.
I'm thinking technically,what what the companies think it's going,
(20:47):
you know, any time you going to be movingtheir, their,
their particles in the air in the system,hopefully they can kind of filter
you through,
but it's still going to gothrough your system.
Right.
And so as I hear you, it's one of themthat in
five many years right now, that stuffstarts to collect on your boil
(21:09):
or outside of and come from the military.
You're it's going to raise your cost
to operate that in a short period.
So that's it.
That's gonna continue for thatpressure to go up.
It just stretches out the system.
(21:30):
And so it's kind of one of thoselike weights I'm here to get them.
You're like get it done on routine basiswhere you're going to pay the bill.
Either way.
The gas company
or whatever it is that you'reyou're paying because your system
efficiency. So
that's what I do with it.
(21:50):
I don't think I've been doing itfor too long.
At 27 years, I can go back to not knowinganything about their conditioning.
So I think we should make a Steve,
like I said, a DVD.
Like takes to make it.
I didn't ask all of our questions.
I'm sure you're good with that.
Oh, we totally did.
Okay, listen here now, Steve.
Yeah.
That's good.
Listen, I have a technical question.
(22:13):
Oh, is.
So I think that's another good question.
I like we have this a lot.
A lot of people go to Home Depot, Lowe's
and see a wall of filters and like,is it the bigger the better.
Do I want 14?
Like,what kind of filter do I put in my system?
Like, I want to be safe and secure.
Do I get this big fat one?
Does it cause issues because we seea whole nother side of what filter to put?
(22:37):
Sometimes bigger is not always better.
We are.
This is the gospel according to Richard.
But Richard, Richard and.
It is a joke.
Anyway,
but I, I always tell peopleand I've actually known this is where
I mean that, this is just what I, whatI think, I should research it, but
(22:58):
I don't know that pleated filters,like the
the ones that look like a fabric materialor shaped like an accordion,
that a lot of peopleare really drawn to use them using
because the marketing is really good.
And, clean up your air and,and all of that kind of stuff.
I really think it was a marketing thingwhere these filter companies, or whoever
(23:18):
it is, saw an opportunity to say, hey,this is a better filter,
you should buy this filter.
And it turned into more expensive filter.
But your average,
heating or
your system was not designed to handlethat kind of perspiration.
Can we make the system workwith those filters?
Yes, but it takes a lot of workand a lot of work system design
(23:40):
to make those filters work.
So just grabbing that filterand putting it right in place
of your existing system,
I would say 98% of the timethe system's not designed to handle that.
But the filter companiesnever really looked
at that age back that time and decidedthat was a good thing.
They just looked at it as a marketingoption, you know, for people.
(24:01):
And it is right.
It better filters do help for air,but you have to just be aware
that there are things you should doin your system to actually get the
and there's,
honestly,there's other better options out there,
to help clean the air with the particles.
I'm just using a really dense filter.
That's a super good point.
I always I always explain it
(24:21):
to customers that really similarto what you what you just said to me.
A filter isn't meant to clean your air.
It's meant to keep your system clean.
Right? It's meant to keep the dirtand the debris out of your system.
At the end of the day,if you're worried about the quality of Air
Gleich products, we we're a firm believer.
I mean, whether you go Remy Haloor you go and I wave or you go, you know,
(24:42):
there's there's a dozen different waysyou can go with that.
And I think if you'reif you're really worried
about the filtration of your air, go, goIQ because the, the, the filter.
Yeah. Is it going to catch stuff.
But is it going to causeyou longer problems in the long run.
And the answer is yes.
Yeah.
The more dirt that gets in itand you turn that thing
into straight carpetbecause you haven't cleaned it,
(25:02):
you know,you haven't changed it out in six months.
I mean, you're, you're going toyou're going to end up smoking a motor or,
you know, but there's a ton of thingsflooding a compressor.
There's a ton of things that could happen
that could go wrongjust over a dirty filter.
So you rather.
Yeah, there's a little less Mervrating on a non pleated filter.
But your system is going to love youso much more.
It's I mean it's it'sgoing to make or break the hole
(25:23):
because then you havea little bit of leeway.
That's something I use a lot withthe customers too
is you have some leeway there.
That way if your filter gets dirty,then essentially you're not restricting
as much air as you are with a with awith a pleated filter,
because right off the rip,you're restricting
half the air flowof what you wanted in the first place. So
that's one thing that's so greatlike about technology.
(25:44):
Like you can Google thingslike if you have a question, just ask.
That's one thing that's awesome about ustoo, is like
people can call and just ask like, well,what about this?
What about that?
And there were that trusted source like,
you got the best of both worldshere in Barrington.
You got the AI,
you got the technology stuff,but then you have
good people that can help in your home,like where it really counts.
So if you have a question, just ask
(26:06):
my favorite teams.
When customers walk in the door,I love to help customers in the front.
And that's it because a lot of it, right?
I don't work in the service.I know enough about the industry.
I know a little bit about motors.I know about, like the specifics.
Some of the stuff like people come in withand where I'm like, like, I,
I mean, I'm pretty sure, like, I know,I know that, I know, but I better go ask
where's let me pull up the Steve GPTand all.
(26:28):
We'll test this out just to make sureI'm doing what I'm doing.
But it's pretty interesting.
Yeah, I love when people walkthrough the door with awe.
I really love ductwork.
People walk through the door, hey,I'm looking for this.
I'm like, hey, come to the whiteboard.Let's let's take a look at this.
Let me draw youwhat I think you're saying.
That way we're on the same pagethat those are also a lot of fun.
But when you get there's like 3or 4 people
that helping somebody come over to meand I'm like, hey, that's the more, right?
(26:50):
Yeah. Yeah.
Like, that I don't know.
I don't know how you do it.
It's it blows my mind. Yeah.
That's example
mean if you didn't have like,you know, no.
Trends.
Trends in your ways.
So we have about 4 or 5 minutesleft with the whole thing.
(27:12):
I think we should highlight this.
We talked about the, what?
Aside from the technical,what do you think
apprehensions would be of, like,
know I haven't seen my systems not goingto call there like it's supposed to.
It's not eating like it's supposed towhen you pick up the phone or you,
to either schedule
online or, do researchor call the company.
(27:36):
What initial apprehensionsdo you think you have
as far as choosing the right contractor?
What things are you looking for that help?
You know that you've chosen the right.
I want somebody to
at the end of the day, I'm.
I'm a simple person.
I want somebody to show up whenthey tell me they're going to show up.
I want you to be on time.
(27:56):
I want you to do exactly what you tell methat you're going to do.
I mean, it sounds like, well, well done.
Everybody should do that.
But you'd be surprisedabout how often we do.
We do not get that in our industry. Right.
And that's not doing our Farmingtoncommunity any justice.
I feel like,you know, it does happen. We do.
We do also make mistakes,but we try to make them very few and far
between and try to do the right thingall the time.
(28:18):
So, like, if I was calling somewhere where
I don't know anything about anything,if I called a Comcast guy and I
and he says he's going to be at my houseat 9:00, I expect him to be there at 9:00.
But if you're calling the gas company,they're going to tell you
that they're going to be there betweennine and midnight and anytime in between.
And you must be thereand available whenever they get there. So
exactly.
(28:38):
Yeah.
And it's always the end of the time frame.
So, but at the end of the day,just do what you say you're going to
do, show up when you say you'regoing to show up and just treat me right.
Be polite.
You know, it's it it's all the simplethings that I think the world's missing.
Now, ever since Covid, it'skind of went really downhill of everybody.
You can't trust anybodyor they just won't show up.
They won't answer your phone call.They won't.
You know, they just don't do what they saythey're going to do.
(29:02):
What else?
I look at warranties too.
Like like, of course,
I mean, look at the reviewsand kind of kind of make my choice
and have somebody come at themand fill it out.
And then kind of towardsthe end it's going to be like,
okay, are you going to warrantythis? Are you to come back?
So some of those things are reallyimportant about making a purchase, right?
You know,not buying something off the shelf.
And you can compare two different ones.
(29:22):
It's like, hey,well, who's going to watch one?
Who'sgoing to give me the better warranty?
That's what I'm looking for is like,I don't want something to go wrong.
Which one is going to help me knowthat it's not going to go wrong for me.
So warranties are not way for me.
I don't like surprises, right?
So if somebody out of my house,
I end up getting an invoice,
(29:44):
just a random invoice into the job,
that would be more frustrating for me.
And so, you know, one thing that we
we pride ourselves onare guarantees upfront price for. So,
so whatever it
is, they don't present you with a priceand we end up putting them
(30:04):
where they charge you for it.
So we make sure that the customer is aware
the diagnosticthat this module will follow.
And the technicianis going to give you a price
on what's going to take to repair it now.
So there's some times where
if it's a, you know, like a gas stove,we can't cast past that person at work.
And we're going to say, hey, you know,right now I got to replace the gas.
(30:26):
It's going to cost X amount of dollars.
Once I get that,then I can finish diagnosing your system.
So let me get that.
But we have thoseconversations ahead of time
aware of the
malware randomly be to blame at the endof this month, even though it looks like.
And I think for me, the surprise.
Yeah.
(30:47):
By the way,yeah, there's you needed a compressor.
So I went ahead and changethat out for you.
Okay. That's our 22 system.
So get it.
Got a new one. So.
Well I think as we wrap this up,
appreciate it for this.
And the feedback.
The the world has changedAmazon changed it for us.
(31:10):
The way people livepurchasing is different now
than it has been like 5 or 10 years ago.
That aspect is very different.
So our whole intentionis to make this easier on our,
we want to be the go to expertsin our field.
We don't want to,
(31:32):
you know, try to just send somebody out
who is not trained very well,and we're not there to do that all.
We have a pretty rigoroustraining program,
and I think that's kind ofmy input on this as far as,
whateverengines I would have as far as calling
a company is, I just want somebodythat knows what they're doing.
If I can't do it myself,
(31:54):
I don't want to call somebodywho also isn't for sure
on what they're doing.I want to be able to call somebody
and know that that's awell trained technician.
That they're going to have the knowledgeand if they don't,
that they have the resources,
like all of us here, that they can calland we can put our hands together.
And that happens quite a bit, right?We do that.
We do come across problemswhere we have to bridge together,
(32:15):
but we're in it to till the endand to be quick and efficient
and just get it and get,I was very impressed with, here recently.
I had a company here in town,some concrete in my house, and
I made a four concrete before.
I probably could do it right.
But I was very impressedjust as far as how easy it was.
(32:36):
They showed up when they said
they're going to show up,they obviously knew what they were doing.
Painless and all of that.
And then it's justhe kept me informed step by step.
And four days later I had so much concreteand it looked very nice and
and really, that's, you know, on the flipside of don't want to call somebody
that I feel like I paid a lot of moneyto the internet least,
(32:57):
or get a second opinionor call them back a bunch of times.
And so that's really
for everybody out there.
And that's what we strive to do, to striveto train all of our guys pretty well.
We rigorously train and make sure thatwe put qualified professionals out there
and make sure that peopleare in good hands
and that they can trustand know that we're there.
(33:20):
But other than that here.
So any other final feedback?
Yeah.
I don't know, like,I mean, you bring up a really good point.
We we have such a good team here, man.
It's it's it's crazy.
I don't I can't say this for sure,but I, I guarantee we're up there
and probably the top five I bet.
(33:41):
And Nate certificationsas a whole lot of company,
which is, that's it's crazy.
I mean, that's crazy.
Whenever our proctor comes inand he he gives us Nate test, he's all,
you don't see this?
And I give Nate testsall over the state. Right.
So it's like per per like all of our guys.
We we don't we require themto have Nate certifications.
That's how they move up in their career.
(34:01):
That's how we want them to try to pushand strive to be better on a daily basis.
And and and if that doesn't make thembetter than I don't know what will.
Right.
And and sadly, I mean, there is a downsideto that too, right?
Some of the guys sometimesthis isn't the industry for everyone.
So they have to take these testsand they end up being like, you know what?
I'm burnt out,I hate this, this isn't for me.
And sometimesit's a good thing for them too,
(34:22):
so they can move onand go do something else.
But I think we we push our guysand we put a lot of training into them.
And we want them to be really good.
Not just for us as a company,but we want the customer to get the best
at the end of the day.
So I think, I think that that makesa big difference in how things come out
and how satisfied the customer isand how well we do our job. So.
(34:43):
You can just tell
we have customers that walk in our doorthat like, just feels cool here.
Like, I want to work here.
Like you can just tellif something's gone.
Well, you know, we're on the same page.
We're on the same boat.
It's just a fun it's a fun atmosphere.
And we like to have.
I know that's the best, but, like,what are we?
We have 2 or 3 high now.
(35:04):
Yeah.
2 or 3 people
that we that have been customersand like you know what like Kayla we,
we were doing her house and the guys areat her house installing her system.
Yeah.And she was like, hey, I have to leave.
I'm going to an interviewat your job, at your work.
So I'll be back.
So that's pretty funny. Yeah,
yeah.
Speaking of that, as far as the careerpath goes, until we get to the podcast
(35:26):
here, I got a little, testwith one of our staff.
So it's kind of cool that we get thatmaybe they can see
their own career path they don't follow.
And it's not easy.
You know, we expect them to knowthis stuff before they move forward.
And I think that's just our responsibilityas a leader,
Christian contractor in our communityis to make sure that we're not boring,
(35:49):
setting up our guys to fail and centerinto a project that they can't handle
and do not setting the communityor the customer
up to fail or send somebody out therethat doesn't know what they're doing.
And so we have a way of tracking them,and we
we don't let them run out and do the math,and they're not ready for it.
And so I think that's the greatest partof that career path that we have
(36:10):
is that guys aren't getting frustratedbecause they're not going
out there, that you.
And so Ithink there's there's some comfort there.
I think some of them want to move upafter the customer.
Okay. Look, I'm not there.
And so there is at leastthere is a benchmark
that they get to go off ofand and know where they have.
And that's I think that's great for them.
(36:32):
Well,
I appreciate everybody joining us today.
Another one of the books and like
we'd like to talk about this whole podcastif you need to.
So we're a phone call awaywhere the technicians
are coming to buy your install or whateverit is.
That way, you know, up through our doors,like Skyler said, we're
we love having peoplecome in to see us and ask questions,
(36:54):
and that's what we're here to do.
So, to all of you,thank you for joining us today.
We'll see you next time here.
Bye now.
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