Plumley on Plumbing...

Great Heating Tips to Save Money

2010-11-30T13:52:00.002-05:00

The following article has 10 common myths on how to save money during the Winter. How many of these mistakes do you actually make...?

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ygreen/20101115/sc_ygreen/10mistakespeoplemakewithheat

How To Avoid a Thanksgiving Day Fiasco - Not a Food Fiasco but a Plumbing Fiasco

2010-11-23T15:26:00.007-05:00

Do you know what has long been regarded as the busiest day for a plumber? If you guessed the day after Thanksgiving, you would be correct. There are many reasons for this. Now, to be honest, I have no problem coming out to each and every house in Atlanta this Friday, but you could save the hassle and just read the following article.

You are welcome!

Happy Thanksgiving...

http://www.diylife.com/2010/11/18/plumbing-problems-on-thanksgiving/?icid=main%7Chtmlws-main-n%7Cdl8%7Csec3_lnk1%7C185810

PS. That is not our technician in the picture. We wear uniforms!!!

Winter Is Here...Now What Do I Do?

2010-11-09T11:35:00.002-05:00

It is the same every year. Around late September, everyone is just about fed up with the warm weather. We complain to whoever is listening. All we want is some cooler weather. Then it comes and nobody is ready for it. We all want to know what happened to Fall. Nobody is happy.

So since we can't avoid the cold weather, we must prepare for it as best we can. This is a link to a great article on "Winterizing" your home.

http://homeguide123.com/articles/Winterizing_Your_House_-_Tips_for_Winterizing_Plumbing.html

By being proactive and protecting your house now, you will save a lot of money in the long run.

Wow...It Has Been Awhile

2010-11-01T17:36:00.003-04:00

Blogging is no easy task for me. It falls right in with using chopsticks, braiding my seven year-old daughter's hair and staining the deck. These are not impossible tasks, just not something that I look forward to doing on a daily or even weekly basis.

I always approached this blog as something that I was providing for others - some deep insight or some light hearted humor to start a morning. But the reality is that this blog is for me. This blog is for my company, and this blog is for my employees. After spending three days at an industry conference last week, the importance of a weekly blog was conveyed multiple times over the course of the three days. Google (the ultimate judge in the overall rating of your website) tells us of the importance of a blog. So get ready...

We will do it all here. Technical education, money saving tips, life of a service tech, etc., maybe even how to use chopsticks. See you next week.

Full Moon?

2010-03-09T09:59:00.002-05:00

Last week was quite a week. I personally think that a combination of a full moon and the effects of a tremendously cold Atlanta winter lead to a wacky week of customer calls. Here are some of the highlights:

Monday, March 1 at 9:15 am - A woman from Stone Mountain called to get a technician out to check on her slow running kitchen drain. We took all of her information and everything seemed normal until she asked a question at the end of the conversation that seemed strange. "Will your technician have a pen and paper with him?" she asked. We said yes, and politely asked why pen and paper was needed. Well... she proceeds to tell us that her house is bugged and she is secretly being taped by the FBI. So all communication will need to be done on paper. As you can imagine, this is not a typical request.

The call went about how I guessed it would. The lady was absolutely not of sound mind and she did not have any plumbing issues. I think she was looking for someone to talk (write) to and discuss some covert FBI mission.

Tuesday, March 2 at 3:30 pm - A woman from Alpharetta called and said that she had a leak in wall. Simple enough call. The tech went out to find that she did indeed have a leak coming from a pipe in the wall. Want to know how the leak occurred? Well, the homeowner had taken a sledgehammer to about 50 places in her walls throughout the house. Want to know why? She was looking for the "midget, crack dealer that was living in her walls." I can't make this stuff up.

Friday, March 5 at 11 am - One of my technicians was in Marietta trying to clear a slow kitchen drain. He pulled the trap under the sink and was cabling the line. There was blockage that he could not seem to clear. So he went into the crawl space under the house and cut the 2 inch line so that he could use his mini water jetter to clear the obstruction. He jetted the line back to the sink and then jetted the other way. As he was jetting he continued to pull back a lot of grease but could not get through the blockage in the line. After numerous attempts with the jetter, the blockage started to clear and my technician pulled back a full grown squirrel that had managed to get himself into the drain line. Obviously, it did not end well for the squirrel, but the homeowner was very happy. The squirrel was probably running on the roof and found a vent that was warm and jumped in.

So that was our week in a nutshell. You gotta love this job!!

$400 Gift Card Give Away

2010-02-22T07:48:00.005-05:00

RooterPlus is giving away $400 in March and it is easy to win.

The contest will be held between March 1, 2010 and March 22, 2010. Entrants may win no more than one prize during this time. Entrants must be 18 years of age or older. RooterPlus will select one winner each Monday between March 1, 2010 and March 22, 2010. Winners will be selected by a process of RooterPlus' choosing. RooterPlus reserves the right to deem any entry ineligible for any reason.

Winners will be required to respond to a Facebook message prior to claiming prize. Winners who do not respond within 72 hours forfeit their prize. Gift cards will be mailed to all winners.

Employees of RooterPlus and their spouses are not eligible to win.

All prizes will be a $100 Visa gift card.

Here is how to enter: Become a fan of RooterPlus on Facebook. Winners will be selected at random from all Facebook fans.

All federal, state and local laws and regulations of the United States apply. Void where prohibited or restricted by law. Winner's names may be posted on our website and fan page. Entry constitutes each winner's permission to post the the respective winner's name. This contest is in no way affiliated with Facebook or any entity other than RooterPlus. All entrants and winners release RooterPlus and their respective affiliates, subsidiaries, agents, employees and all others associated with the development and execution of this Contest from any and all liability with respect to, or in any way arising from, the Contest and/or award, acceptance or use of the prizes, including liability for personal injury, death, damages, or monetary loss.

A Good Problem to Have

2010-02-15T08:58:00.003-05:00

Everybody loves to be thanked. Employees love to hear they are doing a nice job or the company is better because of them or they finished the month with the highest productivity. RooterPlus is no different. We have almost fifty employees and every single one of them loves to receive praise. They also like to receive other things...prizes, gift cards, cash, etc.

Some large plumbing and HVAC companies make the technicians provide their own vans/trucks. Others companies will provide the vehicles for the techs. We fall into the latter category. We give each plumbing and HVAC technician a $35,000 - $50,000 vehicle to treat as his own and run service calls out of. This way we can control what vehicles are on the road with our name and logo on it.

Well the other day, we took delivery of a brand new 2010 GMC service truck. The truck then was wrapped with our new logo by In-Depth, who does all of our vehicle wrapping and do a great job. The truck looks great and is the newest "best truck in the fleet." Now here is the question: Who gets the new truck? Everyone wants it. Everyone can't have it. It is my decision to make, and it is hard deciding what is most important in determining who deserves this latest perk.

Here are some factors that I use to make a decision:

Who has seniority
Who is the top producer
Who never gets complaints or call backs
Who takes the best care of his current vehicle
Who smokes or doesn't smoke
Who needs the new vehicle for extra space, towing capabilities, etc
Who is in charge of our large, commercial accounts
Who has the best driving record
Who has a master plumbing license and who has a journeyman license
Who is the best representative of RooterPlus

I am curious to know what you guys think and would love to hear your comments.

The Ring Part II - Not What Anyone Was Expecting

2010-02-07T11:19:00.002-05:00

So the day had come. Saturday. Super Bowl Saturday, and RooterPLUS was going to make someone's day memorable. (This is where you read the last blog from last last week) The weather was good and I had a great crew ready to give away their Saturday just to do something nice. And then it got weird...

My dispatcher called the customer, who we had been in contact with throughout the week, to let her know that we were coming out to her house, free of charge, to try to find a 100 year old family ring at the bottom of her 1000 gallon septic tank. She said no. Not a pleasant "no thank you, I am very busy today" but a "I don't want you on my property NO!!" My call taker thanked her for her time and told her if there was anything that we could do to call us. She then called my cell phone and relayed the message.

I was dumbfounded. This woman had thanked me personally several times and said that our company had really taken care of her in a time of need. I had to call to find out what was going on. So I logged on my laptop and pulled her number from the database. Then I called. She proceeded to tell me that her neighbor told her that we had probably taken the ring the first time we were out there. According to the neighbor, who now had absolutely convinced this elderly woman that he was correct, the ring could not have made it to the septic tank and that my tech had stolen it and sold it, and that was the reason that we were coming to her house to "try to find it for free". We had already made our money off the sale of the ring, and that nobody would offer to come out for free and spend all day searching through sewage to help somebody out.

Wow! I very rarely find myself speechless, but I was. I politely told her that was not the case and that both individuals and companies alike often times do things out of the kindness of their heart. I then wished her a great weekend and said goodbye.

Maybe she will call back and maybe she won't. It made me sad, but I quickly rethought the entire situation and fell back on the actions of my employees. They were willing to give up their time to do the right thing. Sometimes it is the thought that counts...

Sometimes You Just Have to do the Right Thing...

2010-01-31T19:18:00.003-05:00

At RooterPLUS, we get interesting calls all of the time. Last week we received a very interesting call. A woman from Gainesville called and told my call taker that she had dropped a ring in the toilet and wondered if we could get it out. This is not the first "jewelry down the drain" call we have received, but there was something that made this call different. When my call taker asked for her contact number, the customer gave it to her but told us that we could not leave a message on the machine because her mailbox was full. It turns out that her son had died unexpectedly a couple of days ago and his voice was on her machine and the mailbox was full. She refused to delete any of his messages and was going to buy a new machine. The woman was in tears, which then lead to my call taker being in tears. We sent a technician out.

Our tech arrived and soon found out that the ring had been in her late husband's family for over one hundred years. Her husband passed away less than three years ago, and this is all she has left. We removed her toilet and put a camera down her line. Unfortunately, the ring was nowhere to be found. It had made its way to the septic tank. Even though we were unable to retrieve the ring, we got a call from the customer after our tech had left the home. She once again broke down in tears and said that the employee we had sent was "one of the nicest men she had ever met." This particular tech has seven (yes...seven!) children. The customer loved this and felt like she connected with him.

So now we have a very sweet lady, dealing with some terrible tragedy in her life, who takes the time to call the office and thank us for sending such a nice and compassionate technician. But, she does not have her ring back. This is where RooterPLUS can make a difference. We called the customer (I had another call taker call because the initial one could not contain her tears) and told her that we were going to come to her house and pump her tank for free. We will pump it very slowly and remove all liquids. Then we will try to use a fine mesh pool net to try to find the ring. We will go out later this week and try our hardest.

As the General Manager of a large Plumbing, Septic, Heating and Air company it is very gratifying to do nice things for our customers. This incident also revealed something else about my employees. Even though all of my employees are on 100% commission based pay, I had three of my septic technicians offer to go to this woman's house. Knowing that this might turn out to be an all day endeavor, three of them offered to basically work for free to help her out. Working in an environment that is surrounded by people who want to help others is what makes my job great.

Stay tuned and see how this plays out...

Working From Home...Not Working for Me

2010-01-25T15:13:00.003-05:00

I always thought it would be a great gig to work from home. You know, no 5:15 a.m. alarm, no shower, shaving and getting all dressed up. I don't have to brave the cold and walk through puddles to the car. I can just put on my sweats, fire up the laptop, get some breakfast and work away. I have email and my cellphone, I can log onto GPS and see where my guys are and I can see the dispatch board and know exactly which calls are coming in. I can see in real time exactly how much revenue is coming in and exactly what we are spending out in the field. Who needs an office?

Today was the day. I was going to give it a shot. My little girl was sick and home from school, so the wife went to work and I was going to work from home. I got out of bed around 6:30 a.m. and got all ready for a busy Monday. I took some calls from managers and techs. I sent some emails and replied to others. Checked the dispatch board and talked to my dispatchers. It was now around 7:30 a.m. and I was looking for things to do. I turned on some music because it was so quiet I could not concentrate. A couple times I caught myself clicking on the "get mail" icon to see if somebody was sending me something. I was bored out of my mind! I called the wife and asked if she could work a half day. She came home around noon and I went to the office.

As soon as I walked in, the phones were ringing off the hook. Ringing phones in the service industry are like slot machines paying out tokens. That is where the money is. I saw my managers and my dispatchers. There were fires to put out. There were customers to talk to. It was exciting. I got to the office around 1 p.m. and did not take a breath until about 3:30. This is the way I like it. Some people probably thrive in an at home environment - not me.

I need people around me. I need to watch motivated people doing something that they like. I don't know if it is the energy that I need or the smiling faces. I love my job and the people that I work with. You can have your sweat pants and couch and I will take my office in Cumming, GA all day long.