Rolling Warehouses

Our Trucks Make The Difference!

Dateline, last Thursday at about 5:00 pm… we have what my wife considers to be an emergency. Our icemaker stopped functioning and we have no ice. Off to the store I go to resolve the lack of the most precious commodity in our home, and the next day I start looking for an appliance repair guy.

I occasionally become the person that needs a service, rather than being the one providing it. I didn’t have the time or energy to try and figure out what an icemaker replacement was going to entail, so of course my thought was to leave it to the professionals. Here is where my tale of woe goes downhill.

The repairman shows up the next day and after a bit of poking and prodding, he says the dreaded, “I need to order parts, but don’t worry they’ll be here tomorrow.” I’m thinking great, another appointment that I must fit into my busy schedule, however I need the repair so I’ll juggle things and make it work. The appointment is set for the next afternoon and I think we are good. Wrong, but thank you for playing!

The next day, the repairman calls and says the parts didn’t come in. The day after that the supply house sent the wrong parts, and the day after that the repairman couldn’t get them picked up in time to make our appointment. Finally, on the fourth day, he makes the appointment and fixes my icemaker. I probably don’t need to say this, but it was not the most pleasant of experiences to endure.

This in turn got me to thinking about the trucks that we use to service our clients and how the concept of a “super truck” makes the experience we provide to our clients so much better. We like to think of our trucks as rolling warehouses, with the typical truck having several thousand pieces and parts on them to handle nearly any of the repairs we encounter during a typical day. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that we can make every repair on the planet without having to order parts as there are certainly times that it’s just not possible. I am saying that we have water heaters, faucets, water closets (toilets) and hundreds of other things that help ensure we don’t take up any more or your precious time than we absolutely need to.

I’m not picking on my appliance guy, however, I have a pretty common refrigerator and had he employed a business model similar to ours my after thoughts would have been much better. My loyal readers know that I wave the Art flag high and quite often, and I must say that following each time that I have a service performed at my home, it reminds me how we really are very different than most other companies. When it comes to showing up on time and getting the job done correctly the first time, we really mean it when we say that “We Can Fix It”!

Until next time, be safe my friends and can someone please help me get the song Ice-Ice-Baby out of my head?

House Whisperer out!!