Staying Positive in a negative business environment.

Wow! Is this even possible? Yes I believe how we approach life everyday will determine our outcome. Stuff does not just overcome us. We have the opportunity to overtake and control our circumstances by approaching it with a can do attitude. Don't you just hate it when you call some type of service oriented company and the person they send is a can't do person? It seems to defeat the whole reason for calling in the first place. When I approach a job, it is always with a can do attitude. Unless you tell me that it is not worth fixing or we determine that to be the case we can fix it. Staying positive has other very fun consequences like being pleasant to deal with. Life is too short to walk around with negative bias all over us. We have the choice to make things better around us and that is what being in the service business is all about. We fix broken things so they work again. What a great job we have. There are plenty of ways to stay positive when you see how much we have all been given. We have so much more than many other people around the world. Rejoicing in the small things like running water and "flowing away from the house" sewage are a couple of really good things to rejoice about. I approach life with the premise that people are basically good and they want to have positive experiences and they want to give positive experiences. Therefore I am not looking for the other person to screw me over. I believe in the goodness that is inside of people wanting to get out. I love what I do.
   I would like to suggest that a negative business environment comes from a selfish perspective and flows down hill from there. If you have an idea that everything is always about you and the way that you feel, that is felt all around you. It tends to rub off too. This is the last thing that will help us as a community and a nation. We are all in this together and being in the service business is about community. This is why we like to say give us a chance to prove to you our excellent service. I am sorry that I got a little off track here. If you came here looking for mechanical solutions. This is not an article about that at all. This is just one of my random thoughts and you don't have to read it. I will try to keep writing on subject for those of you who get irritated by people getting off subject.I do, however, try to keep with the title of the article so you can weed out something that you are not interested in.

thanks for reading.   

Why Spend Big Money on Name Brand Equipment. Isn't all equipment basically the same?

    This is a question that deserves to be answered and that is the subject of this blog today. I have been an American Standard Dealer for many years but I have worked on so many other types of equipment. The major contenders ie, Lennox, Carrier, Bryant, York are very similar in quality provided you match the efficiencies and other features. But when it comes to some of the other brands such as Goodman, Armstrong, Ducane, and many other knock off brands. These prove to be much lower quality and will provide you with a product of much lower life expectancy. Often these products will be sold under the allure of a very enticing warranty, but as I tell many of my customers, you are going to need that warranty. While American Standard (Trane) does have a very good warranty with their product, I have found that I rarely need to use it.  The equipment has a very high quality in the way it is manufactured and I tell my customers that even if they did not know anything about what they are looking at, they would still pick out the American Standard product if it was setting side by side with some of these other manufacturers products. It is that obvious.Often the thickness of the metal makes it obvious. 

     Having to fix equipment everyday I see what works and what doesn't. That is why I continue to sell and service American Standard equipment. I believe that it is worth the extra money spent to get their quality equipment. Another very good example of how reliable American Standard equipment is, is by looking at the extended warranty costs. This is basically an insurance policy. With insurance everything is about statistical data. If the track record is that the equipment has lots of repairs that cost a lot to fix, the insurance policy will be much higher. With American Standard's extended warranties, you can purchase a 10 year parts and labor warranty for a very cheap price. This means that they have statistical data that says their equipment is very reliable therefore they don't have to charge very much for an extended parts and labor warranty. This is why I continue to only sell their product year after year. This is a tough decision since there have been many times when I have lost sales to people with the lower quality equipment but I know that in the long run, I am happier to be providing quality that lasts. So in the end, all equipment is not basically the same. There are very important differences. And as we have heard so many times before, you get what you pay for. This seems to be very true in this instance. 

If you have other questions or comments feel free to contact me at www.mcconnellphac.com and click on the contact page.