Confidence

    Everyday I take a few moments and try to figure out how we can make this company better than our competition. When I do that I tend to put myself in the position of our consumers. What does the typical consumer want? Some days it hits me square in the face, some days I draw a complete blank. Recently I had the opportunity to speak with some very smart colleagues regarding this very topic and I believe that the consensus from that discussion surrounded "consumer confidence". Simply put consumers want to feel confident in their choices when it comes to the products and services they aquire. While this certainly isn't a new theory by any stretch,  achieving it seems to be the goal at hand. 

   So how can Friendly Heating & Cooling, Inc. gain consumer confidence? I believe that good pricing, quality products and good service are some of the key factors when gaining consumer confidence in the HVAC field.  To date, we currently provide some of the best prices around. The products we use are in my opinion some of the best out there and good service has allways been our primary function. But are these enough for the consumer?

   NO. I dont believe they are. I also believe that consumers want better warranties from the products they purchase and the companies they employ.  The industry standard has been 30 days labor 1 year parts from the date of installation, well that just isnt enough to feel conifident when your in need of an HVAC repair.  So today I am happy to announce that Friendly Heating & Cooling, Inc will be extending the standard warranty to provide our customers a 3 Year Parts and Labor Warranty on HVAC repairs.  Simply the best warranty in the Greater Lansing Area. By doing this I want our customers to feel conifident that their choice in Friendly Heating & Cooling, Inc was the right one. 

For any questions please feel free to contact me at 517.327.6086 or msobczyk@friendlyheating.com

ipad for HVAC? II

Last February I optimistically opined on the usefulness of Apple's iPad in the HVAC industry, wondering whether a technician or salesperson could use this devise to make their job easier. Well almost a year later and numerous hours of testing, tweaking and waiting for updates I can confirm that for us, its about 95% perfect.

By now most people already know about the iPad and the potential. But lets face it if it weren't for the applications and their developers the iPad would be no where as useful.. Taking that in mind, in this post I want to cover the applications we use on a daily basis for our HVAC business.

The calendar, this application is native to the iPad and may be our most valuable. Without a good calendar, appointments would be missed, addresses lost and customers angry. Currently we are syncing several Google calendars to the ipad. Using Google calendar gives us the ability to sync across multiple devices with multiple calendars. A change to a calendar is made at the office and within seconds the iPad is updated with the new information as well as every other device connected to that calendar. Certainly faster than the old days of a phone call, a pen that hardly works and more paper to ink up.

Speaking of pen and paper one of our biggest needs was the ability to invoice our customers electronically on the job site. Since the iPad will also run iPhone apps I acquired invoice2go. To my surprise it was exactly what we needed. This app gives you the ability to customized the look and feel of invoices and estimates using their desktop software. The UI is clean and simple and the ability to email receipts makes this app a must get.  With a resolution upgrade this app would be perfect.

Along with the ability to invoice our customers we also needed a way to receive credit card payments at the job site. So after a bit of research I settled on GoPayment from Intuit. It's simple quick and easy, punch in the numbers let the customer sign the iPad and hit send. E-mail the CC receipt and your off to your next appointment.

To me being mobile means that 90% of what I do in the office can be done on the road. So in order to get closer to that 90% we use a service called myfax.com that will email us in PDF format, anytime a fax is received. We get a lot of faxes so in order to organize these PDF's we use GoodReader. This application allows us to do just about anything to a PDF. Organize, print, protect and of course view. This app is well worth getting if your looking for great PDF organization.

A few of the other apps we use in the field are iXpenseIt for daily expense tracking, TWC MAX to check the weather, Osfoora to update out twitter feed, Todo keeps track of things that need to get done, Bento a database application and of course Google maps with gps.

With the vast amount of applications available and the iPads ability to be mobile I would defiantly recommend this to any HVAC company looking to go mobile.

iPad for HVAC?

On Jan 27th Apple introduced the new iPad and when I caught my first glimpse I found myself intrigued and excited. As I continued my barrage of refresh button bashing along with my constant jumping from twit.tv to gdgt.com to engadget.com a wave of disappointment appeared as I realized that this iPad was simply a bigger, faster version of the iPod touch. No multitasking, no camera and no flash support. Yep it's an iPod touch alright. All I could think at that moment was Apple fail.

Well a few weeks have past, and looking back I may have been too harsh on the iPad. While I still do not agree with Apples distain for flash, I was willing to take another look at this device without all of the fanboy/media hype surrounding what this device could be and concentrate on what this is and how can I use it in my HVAC business.

As most HVAC contractors know the presentation of information for potential customers is vital to success. Imagine yourself at a residence, you have completed your measurements, you sit at the table ready to discuss all possible options for their project and you pull out the iPad. Right then and there you could perform a manual J load calculation.  One home button click, a finger tap and your customer is now viewing photos from your past projects. Another few taps and they are viewing product literature. Easy access to the web for those times when you don't have every answer. Complete your proposal, sign and email a copy directly to the customer with a few key strokes.  All that's left is to access the calendar on the iPad and schedule the project.  Clean, efficient and organized sends a message.

Presentation is not all this device could do for the HVAC field. Service technicians with an iPad could view the days schedule. Access the assisted GPS to locate job sites. Access the web for information during a repair. Most supply houses now have web sites that give you the ability to check inventory, order parts and access service bulletins. Once the job is complete the technician can electronically complete the invoice accept credit card payments and email the customer a receipt all within a few minutes. Again efficiency is the key here.

With over 140k applications in the app store the potential for this device is pretty good. A few that have come in handy for me on my iphone are dropbox, ptracker, cc terminal, Air Sharing, tweetie 2, iXepenseIt, yellowbook and lets not forget the occasional game or two during those down times. Now the $829.00 question. Will I buy one for this business? I do see the potential but since they wont be available for a few more months I simply don't know. I would have to get my hands on one play with it and see if it lives up to Apples past quality.  Either way I am looking forward to it's release.

Bypass or Steam: Which one are you?

Proper humidification of your home is vital for its well being as well as for your own.  We all know that with proper humidification we can alleviate dry itchy skin and bloody noses. We also can reduce the symptoms of the common cold as well as our susceptibility to sinus infections.  Proper humidification can also prevent hardwood floors from cracking, buckling and separating.  It will reduce static electricity and help to preserve wood furniture.  Humidification is essential for good Indoor Air Quality (IAQ).

The best way to achieve proper humidification is with a whole house humidifier. These devices connect to the duct of your home and add humidity throughout the day generally during the heating cycle of your force air furnace.  There are two main types of whole house humidifiers.  Flow through bypass and steam.

Flow through bypass humidifiers operate by injecting water evenly across a specially designed pad.  The hot supply air from your furnace passes across this pad taking with it water vapor to be distributed throughout your home by your supply duct.

Steam humidifiers operate by creating steam within the the humidifier and injecting it into the supply or return air duct where it is distributed.

I posed the question “Which one are you?”  What I meant by that comes down to efficiency. The Flow through bypass humidifier is non efficient when it comes to water usage. As its name describes, the water that is not distributed as vapor, flows through to be drain away.  The steam humidifier is extremely water efficient, nearly 100%.  However in order to generate that steam, this humidifier requires a 120v circuit to operate.  As whole house humidifiers go, it is electrically non efficient.

So which one are you? Do you prefer to save water or electricity?

Contractor Vs. Equipment: What drives your decision?

Goodman, Amana, Lennox, Carrier, Bryant, Trane, Heil, American Standard and the list goes on. If your in the market for a new heating or cooling system for your home, how do you sift through the myriad of equipment out there today? You can spend hours online rifling through reviews, technical specifications and consumer opinions. You may come away from that experience with a greater knowledge and a solid decision on what equipment  is right for your home. Or if you’re like most, you can walk away more confused than ever. Reviews rarely give anything but the basics. Technical specifications are what they are, technical. And consumer opinions can be your most valuable information or your worst enemy. Let’s be honest it’s a crap shoot.

My advice is to forget about equipment. I know that might sound crazy but what you may or may not have found during your fact finding mission is that many of the furnace manufactures are owned by only a few parent companies. For example Trane & American Standard or Carrier, Bryant and Heil or Goodman and Amana. There you have it three separate companies manufacturing over 11 different brand named equipment, with little deviation in technology among them all. So at least for now, forget about equipment.

Take your time and research your local contractors. Hit up a few web sites, check out the Better Business Bureau, talk to your friends and neighbors, Google them up and look for reviews, you might even call your local mechanical inspector. Inspectors deal with contractors on a daily basis. They might not be able to recommend a contractor outright, but they should be able to give some insight on their past projects. It is absolutely essential that you get the right contractor for your project.  Be a good consumer speak with a few contractors have them take a look at your project. Ask them what equipment they would recommend. Most contractors will carry a few manufacturing lines and should be able to provide you with accurate and honest information. Through your research if you feel that you have chosen a few good contractors your equipment decision will come at ease. Remember if installed improperly even the best equipment will fail.

Questions or comments feel free to contact us at 517.327.6086 Let us know what we can do for you.