6 Things I Learned From a Burst Hot Water Tank!

February 13, 2012 - BlogSquad,

At least that was the plan when I woke up this past Friday morning, I’m getting dressed and packing up my mac, throwing it in my incase bag, ready for a great day. My wife was dressed for work and just starting to hand wash a few dishes. It was then that she noticed… we had no hot water. She didn’t say anything to me about it, just went downstairs to see if something was up with the hot water tank. That’s when I heard the shout of my wife coming from the basement “We’ve got a flood!” Yupp, our water heater had sprung a leak, and not a minor leak but a pretty significant, water flowing everywhere, kind of leak! Long and short of it: we just finished a major renovation of our basement with new carpet going in Christmas Eve and only some finally cabinetry finishing touches to go in and some baseboard.

So here we are with a large amount of water in our basement and me losing a full day of work because I’ve got to deal with this. It’s still not completely dealt with, but we’re moving along quite well. The restoration company has been at my house every day and working on drying out all the carpet and getting stuff replaced that needs to be replaced. We’ve got a new, non-leaking water heater, which is my favorite type of water heater. But through this entire event I learned a few customer service keys from both the restoration company and from the water heater rental company and their subcontractors that are very relevant for us as Audio Visual Integrators (or ESCies, loveya CEDIA):

If you get a call from a customer with an emergency, you’ve got to put yourself in their shoes and be at the top of your game. My wife called the water heater rental company to schedule a new tank installation and they told her they scheduled an appointment for that morning, but after the appointment time had come and gone, with a call back, we discovered they booked the appointment for 8 days in the future. It took over an hour to get something booked and until 6:30 that night before a tech showed up to tell us that it was leaking and needed to be replaced.
If something is wrong with an installation, don’t berate the customer for it. It’s not their fault; they aren’t the installer that may or may not have screwed something up. When the HVAC subcontractor showed up to look at replacing the unit late Friday night, you know… the one that leaked and flooded my just finished basement. He pointed out three or four things that were wrong with my current installation and how it was going to make his job harder. As a customer… that’s not my problem and definitely not my area of expertise. If someone messed up my install previously, I wouldn’t know it and defiantly couldn’t keep on top of it.
When you’re in someone else’s house, treat it like it’s your house. Better yet, treat it even better then you would your own home! We’ve all been in our customers homes, we all use drop clothes and stair runners (right!) Well my HVAC guys brought in drop clothes and ran them through the house. Great! Unfortunately, I don’t think they had clean said drop clothes in the last few days or weeks. So yes, they did help keep some of the water and snow from their boots off my floor, but when they picked up the drop clothes, they left a bunch of dirt and debris all over my tile, hardwood, and carpet floor!
Clean up after yourself! I really shouldn’t have to mention this, but after my friendly HVAC people left my house yesterday, I went around and swept up our tile and hardwood floors (see pt. 3 above) and then went and swept up the area where they were working and cleaned up the debris, wood shavings, and crud left over from their install. Then I went outside and cleanup some packing material left in my driveway from their truck when they unpacked the new water heater.
If you are working with something that touches other devices on-site, check them before you leave the site. While replacing my water heater, they we working with the gas lines and shut off our gas. Do you know what else is attached to my gas line… my furnace. This is right beside the water heater. As soon as they left, we discovered that the furnace pilot light had gone out. I couldn’t get it to light and it took five calls to the owners cell to get him to answer and to agree to come back to get our furnace going again. Not cool, especially when it’s -20 degrees Celsius outside!
If you are going to recommend updates to a customer, give them a way to contact you, the option to book an appointment to quote on the updates. – Upon the replacement of the water heater, we discovered we had some maintenance that needed to be preformed on our HVAC system, probably necessitating a complete replacement. So I’ve got this HVAC business owner in my basement telling me about the issues and how he’d be cheaper then anyone else in town and could replace it whenever I want. Then he left! He didn’t give me a card, didn’t ask if I’d like him to comeback this week to give me a quote on the repairs or replacement costs, etc. It was just bad business.

What this experience did was just give me a refresher on what to remember when we are in someone else’s home. It’s one thing to be professional on a daily basis, but it means so much more when you’re there in an emergency situation. Had it been a regular day and I wasn’t already stressed out and on edge, I probably wouldn’t have been as aware of these issues as I was on Friday and Saturday after my basement had flooded. What I haven’t touched on, was how amazing the restoration company and their staff was. And don’t worry, I’ll be talking about the great things I learned from working with them. But that’s another post for another day.

May your future be bright and your lights dim!

Matt D. Scott

Matt D. Scott is the president and founder of OMEGA Audio Video, in London, Ontario. Matt had his first encounter with Pro-Audio at age 6 when a PA loudspeaker fell, cracking his head, and leaving a scar to this day. After mopping up the blood, Matt started his A/V career and has been working in Pro A/V, Commercial A/V, and Residential A/V ever since. Matt loves the industry and all things tech! A self-professed TechHead, Matt shares his opinions on social media, local radio, on omegaaudiovideo.com, on mattdscott.com, through various publications and right here for rAVe as a proud member of the Blog Squad!