The year 2017 has been a good year for Fireplace Services Denver Flame. We hope it will prove to be the start of a stronger company and better able to serve customers. Some of the changes that occurred were:
- We hired Peace of Mind Online to create a new website that is more informative, modern and user friendly. We hope to keep people informed with the latest information by posting a monthly blog as well.
- We legally changed the name of Fireplace Services to Fireplace Services Denver Flame with the intent of making it easier for people to remember our website -DenverFlame.com. We realize it is a longer name for writing on a check but we have a stamp to save you from writer’s cramp when filling it out.
- We have changed the appointment window to allow us to serve more people on a weekly basis. We still strive to narrow down the estimated time of arrival and we call when we are on the way. We hope to try new technology in the near future to allow everyone on our team to know where the technician is at any given time.
- We are aware and sensitive to the amount of time that people have had to wait for an appointment. We work as many hours as we can and try to work into our day as many people as possible. We strive to schedule in customers that need a part or another return visit on the weekends or evenings.
- We are trying to recruit new technicians.
- One of our biggest investments, besides our people, we have ever made was the purchase of a new Mercedes Sprinter. This decision took almost a year to make but we believe it will make a difference to our customers in these ways:
- The van that is being replaced has over 244,000 miles on it. This meant that some customer appointments had to be rescheduled as the van went into the shop and we had to shuffle a few parts into a rental car while the repairs were being made.
- Due to the space limitation of the van we were not able to put racks inside. We used containers stacked on top of each other. This of course, is messy and time consuming to locate the part.
- The new van is taller and has much more space for shelves and drawers. This allows for more efficient service calls and more inventory on the van to help cut down on service call backs.
- Another advantage is that the old van had most of the graphics removed because it had peeled or torn off. As a result, some customers and neighbors were concerned or nervous seeing an unmarked older white van driving slowly through their neighborhood. Not only did we get comments but had noticed a few people, including kids on the sidewalk, stop and turn around or stay behind a car until we passed by.
- With the new van, the signs are easily visible and should make people more comfortable and at ease.
- Finally, to help keep costs down, the new van has the best fuel economy of all the other vehicles that we looked at. It is much more than the average of 14 miles per gallon that we got on the old van.
