In the lyrics of 70’s rockers ELP, “Welcome back my friends to the show that never ends, we’re so glad you could attend, come inside, come inside.”

After a few months of self-fulfillment, and recharging of the batteries, I think I’m ready to resume this blog where I left off.  I’ve had some great customer service examples lately, and I’d like to talk about them over the coming days and weeks.  And, of course, I’ve seen other examples and we’ll discuss them in the course of all this.

I’m building a big wood shop here on the mountain to pursue my love of all things wood.  Since heating in a building with high ceilings, low floors and big open spaces is always a concern, I decided to go with hydronic heating (the tubes set in the concrete floor with hot water flowing through them.)

As part of my research, I came across a company on the internet (located in Vermont) called Radiantec.  A quick call verified these guys are the most knowledgeable in the country when it comes to radiant.  The problem I’d had was I’d gotten a bid locally for $12,000 dollars for the system.  I didn’t feel like that was reasonable, so I started looking around to see what the same system would cost in other parts of the country.  Apparently it’s worth about $6,000 - $7,000 tops.  That’s where I got in touch with radiantec.

I had decided to do the job myself.  (Hey!  I figured if I can build and airplane I can certainly put a few tubes in the floor.)  Just one little glitch — I didn’t know anything at all about what, or where, or how, or anything else.  The local people either did your system from cradle to grave or they didn’t talk to you at all.  So I decided to call Radiantec, pump them for information, then go buy my stuff from the cheapest place on the internet.

What I found when I called them really surprised me.  They were willing to divulge everything — nothing held back.  They had all the stuff for sale, but they were willing to help whether I was going to buy from them or not.  As I did my research, I found they were within about 3% of the best price I could find anywhere and they had it all, so I could get everything I needed from one place.

When it came to the boiler, though, I had a problem.  The price of the boiler was about $1,500 higher than I could find it elsewhere.  When I expressed my concern about the price of the boiler, they said, “Well, if you want a cheaper boiler you can check out . . .” and gave me the names of other competing boilers.  They didn’t say, “Oh, but these aren’t as good,” or anything like that.  Just gave me the names and let me go draw my own conclusions.  The other brands had been given poor ratings by other consumers and I wasn’t interested.  I went back to them and told them I wanted their boiler, but didn’t want to pay so much for it.  They very casually gave me the name of other competitors who sold the same boiler for less.

At the end of the day, I spent $4,000 with these guys.  I have never been treated so well or so fairly by anyone.  I felt like they were truly trying to help me, not just sell me something.  Because of that, my son did a system about the same size as mine and bought from them .  He had a different salesman, but the same great service.  Then my buddy from Montana did the same.  Again, different salesman than my son or I, but the same great service.  Then his brother in Utah bought.

All in all, because those guys treated me so well, you can count about 9 systems and over $50,000 in revenues to the company.  No, they didn’t get all my money.  I bought my boiler elsewhere.  But they got the rest of my business and my undying loyalty which was worth way more, at the end of the day, than the boiler.

I can’t help but think how great the world would be if everyone did business like our friends in Vermont.  You’ve got to be good to have your office in Vermont and be selling service in Idaho, Montana, Utah, etc.  These guys are that good.  If you need a system, let me know and I’ll give you the name of the salesman I worked with.  If you don’t need one right now, at least consider how you treat your customers.  Hopefully you aren’t holding them hostage like people around here try to do.  Hopefully you are giving them everything they need so they’ll be back and be comfortable recommending their friends.

Thanks for reading this incredibly long story and I look forward to writing more.