20+ Year Customers Receive Maintenance Discount

As a follow up to my February post, I have completed my rounds to the list of 20+ year customers to say “thank you”!  All of them were very gracious when I visited and presented to them a 20% discount off their next year’s maintenance costs.  BTW…that 20% discount idea came from our service techs…when asked “how should we recognize these long term customers?”…they were quick to respond, “give them a discount!”…and we did. 

Here’s a quick summary of all those I met with…

Bob Strunk & Vicki Wishard of St. John’s United Church of Christ in Chambersburg.

 

Julius Kissel of Shook Home in Chambersburg.

Pastor Richard Feesser, Frank Fonner and members of the church board & staff at Grace Church United Methodist in Harrisburg.

Mike Bair with Hanover Bowling in Hanover.

Ron Geist with Associated Pennsylvania Constructors in Harrisburg.

Jim Staub at Miller Chemical in Hanover.

Paul Roberts & Don Thornhill with Atlas Roofing in Camp Hill.

Paul Nelson at Associated Products Company in Mechanicsburg.

Earl Noel at his Residence in Spring Grove.

Long Term Service Customers Blog – By: Bill Craft

As a company, James CRAFT & Son has needed to employ service technicians for a long, long time…let’s face it, when it comes to mechanical systems, things can go wrong.  And when they do, owners typically call the installing contractor.  However, it wasn’t until the late 1980’s that we began a more organized & structured “Service Department” within our firm.

Since that time, we’ve learned how to train & certify technicians, how to dispatch service calls, write maintenance agreements, equip service vans with proper tools & equipment, and how to get lots of “little” (relatively speaking) invoices out in the mail.  Today we’re proud of the size and level of sophistication this valuable department has achieved.

Looking back, we’re fortunate to still have some of the same clients today that we began working with all those years ago, and would like to recognize the following who have been loyal to using James CRAFT & Son’s Plumbing & HVAC Service Department for more than 20 years…

  • Hanover Bowling Center, Hanover, PA
  • St. John’s United Church of Christ, Chambersburg, PA
  • Grace Church United Methodist, Harrisburg, PA
  • Mr. & Mrs. Earl F. Noel, Hanover, PA
  • Associated Products Company, Mechanicsburg, PA
  • Associated Pennsylvania Constructors, Harrisburg, PA
  • Miller Chemical & Fertilizer, Hanover, PA
  • Penn DOT (I-81 Rest Areas), Franklin County, PA
  • Shook Home, Chambersburg, PA
  • Atlas Roofing, Camp Hill, PA

Customers like these keep us energized, give us something to look forward to each day, and inspire us to keep providing the “Quality CRAFTsmanship” our valued customers have come to expect from us.

A Tribute to Our Heritage Blog – By: Bill Craft

On August 13, 2014 we celebrated & honored the life of our mother/grandmother, Gloria J. Craft, who passed from this life to the next on July 30, 2014.  Although she was not “founder” of the company, nor held the position of CEO or President, there’s not one person in our company that did not benefit (directly or indirectly) from her daily contributions.  For a long long time, even well into her 84th year, she was present in our office on a daily basis providing help & support.  Her smiling face and unending encouragement for everyone around her will be greatly missed.  Words alone cannot express our gratitude for her life, and the example she set for us!

The CRAFT Family has been extremely blessed with a rich and proud history…something the current (4th) generation of family management, and the upcoming (5th) generation are committed to continue.  As instilled in us from our predecessors, passing down this heritage of character, integrity, excellence, quality and hard work are paramount to our future success.

We honor and appreciate those who’ve gone before us…you laid the foundation…you paved the way for those of us who follow.

We are proud!

We are grateful! 

Jack Miller Network Blog – By: Bill Craft

In January I once again traveled to Orlando, Florida to attend the 3-day annual meetings of the Jack Miller Network.  James CRAFT & Son is a proud member of this elite organization of over 700construction industry firms from throughout the U.S. and Canada. At its heart is the philosophy of“Win-Win Sharing”.  Network members gather to trade their successes and failures without boast or shame, opening up to one another every aspect of their businesses, from financial and marketing programs to safety and management strategies.

As a long time attendee of these annual meetings I have the distinct privilege of running the following 3 Focus Groups for the organization where I facilitate meaningful discussion among those in the room…

Starting a Service Department – helping other companies understand the framework of a good Service Department by outlining the necessary components to ensure good customer service and provide templates for important forms and documents. Over the years we’ve been able to help a number of network members get their own service departments started. This year 9 new companies attended.

Client Relationship Management – everyone practices “Client Relationship Management” in some form or another, but processes and implementation vary widely among contractors. In this group we explore what tools and processes contractors use to manage our most important asset, our customers.

Here I am leading the CRM Focus Group…we had 27 attendees for this one.

Developing the Leader within You – being a leader in a successful and growing construction company takes guts, courage and charisma! This group discusses proven techniques that have worked for great leaders of the past. It also looks at the “human dynamics” involved with leading people and motivating co-workers toward successful teamwork.

This is the “Leadership” Focus Group (my favorite one) where we had 20 attendees this year.

Two days of various Focus Group classes are followed by a 3rd day of “Roundtable Discussions” on specific job related topics.  These are always good because the discussions are more intimate with a smaller group of people.

I participated in the Marketing & Sales related Peer Group this year.

At the beginning of the 3rd day everyone gathers for some comments from Mr. Jack Miller himself, as well as some annual awards that Jack announces and distributes.

This year I was honored to accept the award for “Outstanding Contributor” – voted such for the 17th time by the members.

Gas Prices Blog – By: Bill Craft

They’re up, they’re down…they’re up, they’re down! 

So goes the never ending cycle of fuel prices in our country, and around the world. No surprise, right? We see it every year…gas prices go up around Memorial day, and they slip back down around Labor day. So what else is new? Well, just this…one thing I heard recently (and you may have too) is that consumer confidence in our nation is very closely linked to the rise and fall of gas prices. A recent study revealed “nearly 9 out of 10 consumers say that rising gas prices have a large impact on their sentiment toward the overall state of the economy.” Makes sense to me…next to our household groceries, fuel for our vehicles is probably the most frequent thing we purchase on a weekly basis.

Nonetheless, it’s our responsibility what we think & feel and how we let the latest news affect our mood.

One thing we try to keep in mind at James CRAFT & Son is this…”our mission is to be the leading provider of superior mechanical systems and services, through quality CRAFTsmanship, committed customer service and professional solutions.” With that as our guiding light we strive to look past the news of the day, the fluctuation in consumer (gas) prices, and keep our eyes squarely fixed on taking good care of our customers.

Modern Office Technology Blog – By: Bill Craft

In terms of “office technology” we’ve come a long way from fax machines and pagers! Now-a-days it’s email messages, electronic documents and text messages…many of which are done right from our smart phones. Anymore I find myself making frequent trips over to the nearest copier/scanner to turn a piece of paper into an electronic document so I can get it into my computer and work with it. My, how times have changed!

Oh…and the piece of paper gets put into the recycling bin (of course) after its been scanned.

Anyway, we recently made a move in our office to adopt a “document management system”…just one more step towards added efficiency. Starting in one area/department, we’ll systematically incorporate our various processes into this electronic system. If done properly it’s designed to save time, money and

paper. Not that we want everyone to start going around “hugging trees”…we still need paper, and will most likely never get completely away from it. But paper and ink cost a business like ours a lot of money. Not to mention all the machines (printers & copiers) that we need to support a “paper filled” office environment.

One thing we’ve realized during this “project” is to also take a look at our internal procedures before (or while) transferring them to the new electronic system. It’s not smart to take an existing, cumbersome, multi-step, redundant process and simply transfer it over to an electronic format. If we do, we won’t gain any efficiency or productivity. So, as a part of the “project” we are also analyzing our workflows to make sure it’s being done efficiently and to eliminate duplicate efforts.

This is just one of many new enhancements we’re making in order to accomplish our mission of “being the leading provider of superior mechanical systems & services.”

CRAFT Service Department Blog: On Call 24/7 To Meet Customers’ Needs – By: Bill Craft

Being in the Mechanical Industry gives us many opportunities to demonstrate our “problem solving skills”. Perhaps more than anyone, our team of Service Professionals must apply their technical knowledge, skills, training, and experience on a daily basis to help our customers when they call upon us to solve problems.

When something is broken, noisy or leaking…when people are hot but want to be cool…cold and wish they were warm – there’s just one call to make – to James CRAFT & Son’s Service Department. We provide around the clock service to commercial, industrial & institutional clients with on-call service technicians who are trained and ready to meet any problems that arise.

If we don’t already provide you and your facility with quality maintenance and expert troubleshooting and repair service, please allow us to meet with you to explain what we can do to help.

 

 

Welcome to our inaugural blog post! – By: Bill Craft

We are James CRAFT & Son, and we provide Quality CRAFTsmanship in Every Job! The history of a company says a lot about what it can offer its customers and how it will treat them. At James CRAFT & Son, maintaining our small town roots and providing exceptional quality and service is not just the fulcrum of our business, it’s our legacy.

We are a fourth generation family owned and operated business, and the 5th generation is being groomed now to continue the history of exceptional quality, that began way back in 1900. We value our customers by providing employees who are the best trained, well educated and safest. We provide complete energy management solutions, quality-controlled engineering, design, layout, and installation of your systems.

By maintaining a full service department, as well as our own state-of-the-art sheet metal & welding fabrication shops, the support behind our field operations makes us one of Central PA’s finest Mechanical Contractors.

You can trust that our history and experience will enhance your project or facility with capabilities that ensure Quality CRAFTsmanship in Every Job!