Next to our own immediate families, the people of Experts In Your Home could not be prouder of the relationships we have developed with hundreds of customers – people who comprise our extended family.

Over the course of more than 60 years in the greater Chico area, we've built our business on two simple but important principles: to provide expert, efficient service and an unparalleled customer experience. Our customers trust us because we've earned it in the course of serving as their go-to home maintenance service.

But there's always that first encounter – the first time we visit a customer's home and they cannot quite hide their skepticism about who we are, what we do and how we do it. Practically everyone, it seems, has a shady or unscrupulous “contractor story” in his or her past.

Experts In Your Home Prizes Credibility

Since we always have our eyes trained on building long-term relationships with our customers, we don't duck questions. In fact, we welcome them. One of the best and most basic questions of all is, “How do I know that your heating repair person knows his stuff?

Regular readers know that Experts In Your Home often turns to authoritative, third-party sources for information. The last thing we want is for people to think that we're trying to sell them a product or service. (Better that sources like the U.S. Department of Energy and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency address the need for, say, regular heating and air conditioning tune-ups.)

To answer the know-your-stuff question, we turn to the Comfort Institute, an international research, training and consumer organization devoted to home comfort issues. It offers tips phrased in the somewhat negative parlance of “don't do this” and “don't assume that” (rather than the positive phraseology that Experts In Your Home favors). But we won't quibble. The Washington state-based institute says that you stand the best chance of finding a heating repair technician who knows his stuff as long as you:

Do Trust Your Gut Instinct

• Don't assume that all contractors are “pretty much the same.” They're not. Heating and cooling companies generate among the highest number of complaints with the Better Business Bureau. Check this source as well as a company website for clues about a company's track record in a community. A heating repair technician who knows his stuff also knows that it's to his professional advantage to join the staff of an established, reputable company.
• Don't trust a heating repair technician who won't explain your options. Unless it's a broken heat exchanger in a furnace – which presents serious health and fire hazards – a technician who knows his stuff will explain your repair-vs.-replace options. Certainly, he should make a recommendation. But if he knows his stuff, he will explain the reasons for his recommendation and let you decide. He knows that it is his professional responsibility to advise you of your options and not presume to make important decisions for you.
• Don't hire a heating repair technician who refuses to size your home for a new furnace or inspect your ductwork before installing it. These are two vital steps that Experts In Your Home explained in a previous article, “Steps to buying a new home home heating system.” A heating technician who knows his stuff will be conscientious and thorough – not steer you to an oversized (and inefficient) furnace that costs more money so that he can race out the door.
• Don't try to continue a conversation with a heating repair technician who doesn't ask you a lot of questions – and doesn't appreciate yours. Here's an Experts pet peeve if there ever was one. After all, if our customers didn't ask good questions – and if Experts In Your Home weren't committed to answering them in detail – how would we demonstrate that we know our stuff?

If you haven't had a heating system tune up in a while, schedule one here: