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President's Corner

Temps are Rising and So Is Business
by Richard Papaleo, President

Dick Papaleo Well summer has started early here in Las Vegas. It was 107 degrees here yesterday and you can bet that all the air conditioners are running full time. That means more service work for us and in fact, we have put out another truck to support the increase in work. These are good problems to have and I hope all of you have the same “problem”.

Not only has our service business increased but our filter and equipment sales have grown as well. This has caused us to hire more people and invest in more manufacturing equipment. Las Vegas was one of the most affected cities in the nation as related to unemployment at 14%, and in spite of that, we are one of the very few companies in the nation that are growing.

On another subject we have decided to manufacture our own UVC lights in-house to control the quality and the supply of units. We will be shipping out units immediately and plan to be able to support over 2,000 units per month as our first production goal. We have been using the Lean Manufacturing process for years with our filter production and will introduce the same process with UVC lights. This will insure the lowest cost to produce and improve our product flow to make timely deliveries.

You may or may not know that we are also manufacturing our own HEPA filters and have invested in equipment to support that process. Every day we are looking for ways to improve our products and contain cost to make our equipment and parts the most competitive in our industry.

Thanks for your support and confidence in our company.

Dick's signature

Being Creative when Talking with a Customer

Provide solutions to customer's problems
by Mary Dziak, Marketing Manager

Mary Dziak I am in the process of stopping smoking after many, many years of a nasty habit. It made me think of some things I need to do with my own home and car, to get the smoke odor out.

The reason I’m telling you this is you have ways to present this same type of services to your customers. We all do the fogging of the deodorizers and disinfectants, but did you ever think of offering an “ozone” treatment? A small ozone generator put onto a system for a short period of time can take away all the odors within that system.

If you have a fire damaged home or cigarette smoke issues, you may have to run the ozone generator for up to 12 hours. This is a very good way to get some extra revenue while making your customer very happy.

Ozone treatments have to be done very carefully with no human or animal occupancy for at least a couple of hours after the ozone machine has stopped. An ozone machine can not be used if humans or animals are currently occupying the space that is being deodorized.

It is very easy for you to do though. The Ozone machine has timers and you set it and leave the building. The size of the home or facility will dictate how long you have to run the machine. After running, you have to stay out of the building for a couple of hours to let the ozone dissipate to safe levels for humans or animals.

This same process can be used in automobiles. It is a very short time for a car. Again, you have to let the ozone dissipate before re-entering the vehicle.

With all this said, when you’re in front of your customer, you have to think of creative things to present to them. LISTEN, THINK OF A SOLUTION, PRESENT, MAKE MONEY!!!!

Commercial Quoting

Several Factors to Consider
by Wayne Tracy, Operations Manager

Wayne Tracy When quoting commercial work there are several factors you have to consider. These can vary from job to job, but must be considered and investigated when providing a quote. Listed below are some of the major things to look into.

Special Insurance Requirements: Be sure when quoting commercial work you ask what the insurance requirements for the job are. Special coverages such as Employee Liability, Umbrella policies, bonding, and even special wording can be very expensive. If there are special requirements, send them to your agent and they’ll provide you with pricing for these coverages. I always add the cost of these special requirements as a line item in my quote. Often times the building owner/project manager may waive this requirement when he’s made aware of the added costs he may incur.

Special Equipment: Are the ceilings high and will you need a scissor lift or boom to gain access? Or maybe it may be a special ladder or staging. Like other requirements, list it as a line item. The owner may have this equipment already and let you use it to avoid the added cost.

Grills and Registers: There are several different types and you have to determine if they are removable and how they are removed from the register pan. Some styles are unibody construction or tack welded and may not be removable at all. If this is the case you need to allow extra time for getting access to the duct for cleaning. In some cases you may have to disconnect the flex hose from the register pan, then reconnect it. This can be very time consuming and you must allow for this extra work in your quote.

Volume Dampers, Fire & Smoke Dampers: These are very common in large commercial duct systems and can be very difficult, if not impossible to clean through. If you have blueprints they can be located on the print. If you do not have prints you’ll have to spend some time at the site locating them - again, a time consuming task and you have to allow for it in your quote. You may be able to clean through a volume damper with an air whisk, but Fire & Smoke Dampers are virtually impossible to clean through. You’ll have to clean up to them; then make cuts in the sheet metal to continue cleaning on the other side of the damper.

Turning Vanes: These are located in square ducting when the duct is making a 90 degree turn to help steer the air through the corners of the duct. It is impossible to get a cleaning tool through these dampers and you’ll have to make sheet metal cuts to get around them.

VAV Boxes & Reheat Coils: These are located in large commercial duct systems and like other obstacles you cannot clean through them – you’ll need to make access cuts before and after them for cleaning.

These are the more common obstacles I encounter in quoting commercial work. Always be on the lookout for potential problems or obstacles that may confront you on the job. A missed obstacle can be very costly and have a direct impact on the profitability of a job.

The Intangibles

How to Take Your Business to the Next Level
by Melanie Sands, Customer Service

Melanie Sands In one of our past newsletters we took the time to discuss customer service and how to make it better. In that article, we pointed out ways to exceed your customers’ expectations such as: a live person answering the phone, listening to your customers and helping them with their needs, taking the extra step to make sure the customer is happy at the end of the conversation and that they do not need anything else at that time.

All of these steps are important to keeping the customer satisfied and to make sure they contact you again for their indoor air quality needs.

But these things don’t happen by themselves; they require a combined effort between you and your employees. Here are some tools that will help you accomplish the atmosphere needed for both your employees and your customers.

Attitude: Being positive and uplifting to not only the customers but also to fellow employees helps improve the overall attitude in the office. Providing a well-balanced office will bring about: fewer absences, less fighting amongst each other, less stress - while increasing motivation, and better teamwork.

Goals: Setting goals in the work place allows your employees to know where your expectations are and to organize their work life in a way that they can meet and exceed these expectations.

Performance Evaluations: Everybody likes to know how they are doing and taking the time to do evaluations is a perfect opportunity to let your employees know how you feel about their job so far and what areas of improvement you think they can work on.

Listening & Talking: This is probably one of the most important things to do; taking the time to talk with your employees makes them aware that you actually care about the things that they do and also does not leave them in the dark about what is expected. It is also very important to listen to your employees as they are the ones who see the inner workings of your business and can provide you with ways to help things run more smoothly.

Using these easy tools allows an open communication amongst everyone while promoting an environment that can only benefit your business in the long run.

Air-Care Employee Spotlight

Getting to Know Tom Chuhay

Tom Tom Chuhay was born in Lakewood, Ohio and lived in Parma, OH until the age of 18. He moved to Arizona and lived there for 34 years and has been in Las Vegas for the past 11 months.

Tom joined the Air-Care team in February 2012 and spends his time here programming our CNC machine and working as a CNC machinest. His favorite thing about working at Air-Care is the team spirit and friendships with other co-workers.

When he's not working at Air-Care, Tom enjoys bowling, playing darts, billiards, swimming, boating and pretty much anything outdoors. He appreciates the opportunity to do what he enjoys doing here at Air-Care.

President's Corner

Being Creative when Talking with a Customer

Commercial Quoting

The Intangibles

President's Corner

Being Creative when Talking with a Customer

Commercial Quoting

The Intangibles

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Air-Care Employee Spotlight