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Mike Testa Plumbing, Inc. in 5 Useful Answers
Helpful expertise means providing our customers with thorough, knowledgeable, accurate information regarding the issues that they may be facing, as well as all the options available to them to address that, taking into consideration all of their personal factors about it, uh, to make sure that they feel comfortable and satisfied when they make a decision about how they would like to proceed. I got into this industry when I was very young, helping my father out on his jobs. He was a plumber for 50 years. And then, when I got out of school, um, I needed to get to work right away to provide for myself, and I tried my hand at a number of different trades. Wasn't very good at a lot of them. Uh, but then I tried out plumbing, uh, specifically, and I found that I really enjoyed the work that, um, was involved. It always kept me on my toes and having to think about creative solutions to difficult problems. Well, I did not actually start this business. This business was started by Mike Ta back in 1989. I was only four years old at that time, but I had been working with Mike for a number of years when I first started thinking about the possibility of leaving and starting my own business. And Mike at that time was kicking around the idea of what he was going to do as far as retirement and what was going to happen with the company. We started having some discussions, and you know, I came to the decision that it would be a far better option for myself to invest in an established company, as well as to learn directly from Mike, who had been running a successful business for 30 plus years at that point. He was, is the best boss that I've ever had, and the way that he did business was the way that I wanted to do business. So, I thought it was a great option. Well, from a plumbing standpoint, the thing I enjoy the most is every job that I go on is like a puzzle. Nothing is the same day to day. I mean, of course, there are things that are similar to each other, but it constantly keeps you on your toes and mentally engaged, and everything is interesting. It's not just some monotonous day in and day out sort of job. On the management aspect and estimating side of things, I enjoy going out and taking a look at jobs and providing creative solutions for our customers to take care of the issues, uh, that they're having in ways that they may have never considered in the first place, and to make sure that we're doing so in a fair, you know, financially sound way for them. Well, the first thing I would advise anybody, ask, and with any contractor that they may decide to do work with, is are they licensed, bonded, and insured? That's always very important to know. Um, with service work specifically, I would always advise that customers understand how the company charges for the work that they're doing. Our company, we charge a time and material rate. So, we're just charging strictly for the hours that we spent on site, plus the cost of any material that we may use. But there are other companies out there who do something like flat rate pricing, where they're going to provide you with a cost to do the job upfront. And some people prefer that, some people prefer the other way. I would also want to know how experienced the technicians were and to be sure that we're getting people who have been doing the work for a little while, or if they are apprentices, to know that upfront and to know that they have a good support system behind them. Uh, potential customers should know that we have been in business for over 30 years, and with the new ownership of myself, uh, that we plan on being here for at least another 30, and that we are developing long-standing, uh, technicians and employees who plan on being here for the long haul, and to make sure that they are going to be getting the best possible service that we can in a fair and evenhanded way, and to make sure that they are 100% comfortable with the service that we provide.