Basnett Plumbing, Heating & AC is a family-owned business located in Littleton, MA. Since establishing the company, Basnett Plumbing, Heating & AC has achieved strong growth and a strong reputation with customers. Rob — who co-owns the company with his wife, Lori — has been in the plumbing industry for over 30 years. He is a licensed technician and experienced businessperson. Rob’s experiences in the industry are diverse.
Basnett Plumbing, Heating & AC believes in community involvement and supports local clubs and organizations. As a community citizen, Rob represents Basnett Plumbing, Heating & AC in many organizations. Get to know more about Rob and his business and industry experience below.
1. What is the biggest challenge you’ve faced as a company and how did (or will) you overcome it?
Our biggest challenge is hiring and retaining good people at the rate we plan to grow. This has been a huge challenge for the past five years. The younger workforce has very little loyalty. Not all, but in general, they have less skill and get less done while demanding a higher wage. As business owners, we must raise rates to survive the demands. This adds to the difficulty of operating any business.
To overcome, we’ve added many great benefits, as well as consistently train and hold weekly meetings for good communication. We set goals, monitor progress, and give feedback (good and bad). We have career paths for employees to grow. We will pay for their training as well. However, they must sign a document stating if they leave within a certain period after training, it is to be paid back. This helps ensure honesty and commitment. It’s all about hiring and retaining people who share the same values as our company culture.
2. What is something new you’ve tried or planned to try in your business strategy?
In 2014 we added Aeroseal. Since then, we added duct cleaning and spend a large focus on heating and cooling system performance measures. This has improved average replacement sales. However, more importantly, being able to offer to improve our clients’ heating and cooling systems is something many HVAC contractors truly don’t know how to do. Most of our good, better, and best options include some form of duct distribution upgrade.
3. What has been your greatest accomplishment or something you’re most proud of?
Our reputation. It takes years to acquire a good reputation — and we’ve accomplished that! From time to time, I’ll hear a comment from someone we haven’t even done any work for who says we have a really good reputation. It starts with hiring the right people and constantly working on our company culture to assure we are all on board with maintaining our reputation.
4. What trend(s) or new topics are you seeing in the industry that you’re excited and/or curious about?
We are finally seeing people respect the construction industry (especially plumbing and HVAC). For years our industry was looked at as the catch-all for people who did not go to college. I’ve been a huge advocate for our industry, and it feels good to see that it is now a desirable industry to be in.
5. What’s your favorite pastime or favorite “quarantine activity”?
For me, not much has changed. I haven’t let it bother me or change my attitude. I enjoy everything I do.
