Business & Oilsands(Archives)
HVAC Solutions: Focused on Serving Fort McMurray
Eleven years ago, Brad Lucier started HVAC Solutions after realizing that Fort McMurray was lacking the service and support required for clients in town. “I ran a branch office for another company for more than three years, and we had a number of contracts north of town,” he shares. “When an in-town client would call for service, we wouldn’t be able to provide it for them as all of our people were at site. Nothing upset in-town clients more than hearing that phrase.”
That’s when HVAC Solutions began – as a company focused on businesses right in Fort McMurray.
Craig Vickery, Service Manager at HVAC Solutions, says it’s the desire of HVAC Solutions to put the needs of their community businesses and the individuals they rub shoulders with every day, first.
“It’s no secret that Fort McMurray is a fantastic place to grow a business,” explains Vickery. “Unfortunately, a lot of companies set their sights on the mines operating in the region, and as such – when they succeed in landing a contract – they entirely neglect the local service needs of in-town customers. We have seen it time and time again: the mines rev up and the needs of in-town customers are put on the back-burner.”
Over time, HVAC Solutions went on to create a separate division that performs site contracting, but doing so has allowed them to maintain their commitment to meeting the needs of the businesses right here in Fort McMurray.
A large component of HVAC Solutions is their Service department, where they primarily work with customers to provide them with maintenance options for their buildings and equipment. They also coordinate and respond to scheduled and emergency service needs from a variety of sectors including: heating, cooling, ventilation, plumbing, and refrigeration – whether that’s repairs and diagnostics, commissioning, or installation.
With a commitment to providing superior service, the effect is substantial for both the business and the customers. “Superior service starts in the attitude we collectively share towards what we do,” says Vickery. “It is our desire to provide customers with exceptional maintenance and service that reduces equipment failure, lowers operating costs, and extends the life of their equipment and buildings.”
“Our mission is to continually build and maintain lasting and trustworthy relationships by never losing valued opportunities to negligence,” Lucier says, going on to explain HVAC Solutions’ mission statement further. “This includes upholding a corporate reputation of excellence reflected by: quality service completed in a timely manner, community involvement, safe work practices, personal growth and skill development of employees.”
The commitment to service is what motivates the relationships HVAC Solutions establishes with their customers, according to Vickery, and it far exceeds the importance of their customers’ annual business with them.
“We are setting out to build long-term, tightly woven relationships with our in-town customers so that no matter the season, they have the confidence in knowing we are here for them,” explains Vickery.
Focusing on building a recurring revenue-based business, HVAC Solutions set out to offer maintenance agreements to their clients from the start. “By being in a maintenance agreement client,” explains Lucier, “you would get priority service que, and a reduced labour rate.”
HVAC Solution’s focus on maintenance helps building owner and managers reduce their owning and operating costs associated to their heating, ventilation, air-conditioning, and refrigeration equipment. Although the maintenance agreements can be pricey from the outset, they are designed to extend the life cycle of equipment, ultimately saving building owners and managers money.
“If you have a piece of equipment with a life cycle of 15 years, and we can extend it to 25 years through preventive maintenance, then that is reducing your costs overall,” says Lucier. “The old mentality was to give a cheap agreement, and then bill for all the extras. This does nothing to help reduce the owners’ costs, though.
The team at HVAC Solutions truly believes that it is the relationships that they build with their clients that make all the difference. “We try very hard to meet with our clients annually, asking very pointed questions regarding our service and technicians,” Lucier explains. “This is our report card from our clients, and we take them very seriously.”
HVAC Solutions Ltd. is one of the leading mechanical companies in Fort McMurray and surrounding areas, offering a wide range of mechanical services to Industrial, Commercial and Residential markets. To learn more about what they do, visit www.hvac-solutions.ca.
