Behind the Scenes at Arronco Comfort Air with General Manager Brigette Trumble

What if you could ensure your home's comfort and safety all year round with a company that values customer service as much as technical expertise? Welcome to your chance to discover more about Arronco Comfort Air through the experiences of their General Manager, Brigette Trumble.   With a 24-hour response time and preventative maintenance plans, Brigette will enlighten us on how Arronco prioritizes customer comfort and their unwavering commitment to service.  Brigette will also share her personal journey into the HVAC industry and how she found her calling at Arronco.

Brigette's pride in Arronco's work culture and approach to customer interaction is truly inspiring. The company's commitment to valuing everyone's opinion and delivering exceptional customer service sets them apart in the industry. Beyond the services, we'll explore the current demand for licensed journeymen in the trades and how Arronco is not just surviving but thriving by expanding their team with both seasoned professionals and apprentices.  Join us as we delve deeper into Arronco's dedication to community, customers, and each other.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

This is the Good Neighbor podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, Mike Murphy.

Speaker 2: 0:13

Thank you again for that introduction, charlie. I am here with another Good Neighbor podcast and today my guest is Bridget Trumbull. She is the general manager at Oronco Comfort Air in Burlington. She is a client, she has become a friend and I invited her to sit with us today just to, kind of you know. Let her introduce herself and Oronco to the residents. You are all used to seeing Oronco bands all over the place. They have quite a wide service area, but you might not know some of the people and processes within Oronco. So that's what we're here to talk about today. Bridget, welcome to the show, and why don't you introduce yourself and tell us about Oronco?

Speaker 3: 1:02

Thanks, mike, for having me. I am Bridget Trumbull, the general manager of Oronco Comfort Air, as you stated, and I work for what I believe is one of the best family owned and operated companies in northern Kentucky. We have a niche in the heating, air conditioning, geothermal and plumbing side of things and we love servicing all of our local neighbors that we get to run into, even in the supermarkets and everything.

Speaker 2: 1:33

So I mentioned before service area. If you had to kind of define what the service area is, what would that be?

Speaker 3: 1:43

It is all of northern Kentucky and a good portion of central Kentucky, like the Lexington area, and probably about a 25 to 30 mile radius outside of that. We also do a little bit of Indiana and the southern part of Ohio up and into Cincinnati, no further than the top of Cincinnati, but we do have a very wide area that we cover. We have service techs and installers that come from Ohio, indiana, lexington, northern Kentucky that work for our family company.

Speaker 2: 2:23

So what type of services do you provide for? I guess, residents or commercial, is that correct?

Speaker 3: 2:29

Yeah, we do like commercial. We don't do any type of heavy commercial, but for our residents we can do brand new construction homes. We can do top to bottom installations of your ductwork and your HVAC system and then, as well as if you are currently living in your home and you need to have your HVAC system serviced, we can do that. If you need a repair, we can diagnose and repair. Then we can also take your old system out and put a new system in so that you have your comfort back in your home.

Speaker 2: 3:05

Yeah, you never know what's going to happen until it happens, and I think you're one of those businesses where, when people call you, they want you to show up at their doorstep in an hour.

Speaker 1: 3:16

Yes.

Speaker 2: 3:19

So and I've been there before what do you think would be a typical response time these days if somebody were to say turn on their heat this time of year for maybe the first time and things aren't quite acting right. So what's kind of realistic for your service? So realistic.

Speaker 3: 3:37

So we try to do the best that we can with scheduling in general. So we have preventative maintenance customers that we put on our books so that we can get them taken care of before there's ever even a service issue that they have to worry about. So that actually helps us keep spots open for those emergency calls. So if somebody was to call in over the weekend, we can actually get somebody out there typically that same day on, you know, saturday, sunday. Now if they call Monday morning depending on if we had calls come in we could get to them possibly that Monday and get them taken care of. But typically it's within a 24-hour time frame.

Speaker 3: 4:24

You know, obviously there are special circumstances or, if we know, if we already have monitoring on that system, which a lot of our customers opt into us monitoring their system so that we can be very proactive. If they get alert, we get alert and then we can say, okay, we can see what the problem is and this is what's going to take to fix it, and so then we can show up with part in hand and fix right there on the spot. Some of our customers don't have that. They might not have a newer system that has been designed to have that applicable. But we do try to have as many of those common parts that we see fail on a system readily available on our truck and if it's not, we have it to where our parts runners can get out there to them so that we can hopefully get them fixed same day as the diagnosis.

Speaker 2: 5:17

Well, that's great that you have that system set up. You mentioned two words preventative maintenance so I think that's pretty strong if people can count on you to come out on a schedule and just kind of keep things in good working order, stay ahead of things, so that they're not in a position of having to call you because something's not working. I know that myself and plenty of friends and neighbors count on you to do that for them. It certainly is better to do that than to just realize that the morning that you're hosting a big event you have no heat in your home. So uh, correct.

Speaker 2: 6:00

Yeah, so good for you. So you personally, how did you get into the business? How long have you been in the business?

Speaker 3: 6:08

So I have been in the business for almost eight and a half years and when I stumbled into my position, literally, um, it was because I have been friends with the owners and their family members for quite some time and I was in the workforce not really loving my job that I was with and just kept praying like, hey, I need a different avenue to take.

Speaker 3: 6:34

I, you know, I'm getting wore out and I'm not enjoying life in general. And so my answer God answered my prayer by me getting an invitation to come in an interview for the marketing and sales position that they had available here. And so I came in and everything with the interview process went very well. And then, when I started that's what I was doing within about six months, the owner, andy Wolf, you know, came to me and he was like, hey, I think, I think I got a different role for you to fill. You know, what do you think about becoming, you know, my assistant general manager? And I was like, okay, you know, like I'm up for the challenge, let's do this. So we I continued in that role for about another year or so and then he gave me the opportunity to step in as general manager, and so I've been in that position ever since and I've loved every minute of it.

Speaker 2: 7:35

Well, as you've been there the past, you know almost nine years. What's maybe the thing that's made you proudest? You know? To be at Aronco. What do you hang your head on in terms of gosh? This is a moment that I really feel good about what we're doing here for the community.

Speaker 3: 7:58

There are actually a lot of things that I that make me proud that I am a part of the Aronco Comfort Air family. Internally, some of those things are just the people that I get to work with and they're my extended family. They they, in and of itself, bring so much joy to my life because we all go in it together. So if there's an issue for a customer, you know we don't let it just hang on. One person like we all meet and join and speak through it. And when I say all, I mean you know from the ground up. It doesn't matter if you're an apprentice that's only been with us for a week or if you are, you know, a lifer of ours that's been with us for 30 years. Your opinion across the board matters and if you can give us insight on how to do a job better, we're going to listen. And that has been what this company has been about since the day one that I've been here and it's it's amazing, because a lot of other places it's like no, this is what you're going to do, this is how you're going to do it. I don't care what you know, you know, I know better and that's not how it is here Like we really make an effort and so that brings joy to our day to know that, like, your opinion matters.

Speaker 3: 9:18

And then that translates over to the customer because our people have the confidence that what they say is going to be supported and, for whatever reason, what they said maybe wasn't correct or could have been done better, we handle it in a way that, like, is positive reinforcement, not critical and tearing somebody down, and that gets translated to the customer and the customer can feel that, and I know that they can feel that, because the part of my job that I love the most is when that customer actually calls in and says hey, I want to speak with the general manager.

Speaker 3: 9:57

I want to let them, let her know typically they call me a him first, but I want to let her know that you know what their team did today. And so I used to get a little anxiety about that phone call because I'm like, why would they want to talk to me? But then when I realized that most of these phone calls, 98% of the time like it was a positive feedback, of saying like from start to finish, from your comfort consultant to the supervisor that came out and got the job ready, to the guys that installed it, to the person that came and did my preventive maintenance six months later. It has been a great experience and I just wanted to let you know that your team is phenomenal and I'm like thank you. I call them my family, but yes, they are phenomenal and I'm proud to be a part of that.

Speaker 2: 10:47

Yeah, whenever I have somebody from Aranco come out to my home it's not that often, thank goodness, but it's been, you know, maybe two or three times it's always a great experience. And I'm always careful not to say anything on the front end about you know, knowing you, knowing Andy, I don't want them to somehow, you know, give me service. That's not normal. Yes, you know, like they're, I want to, I want to see what they're really like, and it's always great. And then at the end of the, at the end of the visit, I always make sure to tell them how impressed I was. And if I haven't always told you that, I'm telling you now, okay.

Speaker 3: 11:27

Thank you.

Speaker 2: 11:28

You should be very proud. So a lot of the stuff that you just talked about kind of equals a great place to work. So, relative to that, are you hiring currently? What's that look like for you?

Speaker 3: 11:44

Yes, we are always hiring, especially in the market of licensed journeymen, because it is a tough market. We've got a big gap in the trades and anyone who's in the trades whether you're an electrician, a plumber, hvac, um, pipe installers, you know equipment runners, you're we're feeling the crunch. There's a big gap of where we've got the people that are retiring. We have some that still have a good 15 years left, which is awesome, but then we've got a generational gap and then we've got some new ones that are finally starting to get back in the trades, in the school system, and then when they come out, they either go to a trade school afterwards or they come straight to us. So we hire for both. Like we have an apprentice starting actually at the beginning of next week and no experience whatsoever. He just knows that he can be very hands on. So we've brought him in. So we are always hiring. We get a lot of referrals from our current staff.

Speaker 3: 12:55

One of the things I love the most is you know you hate it when it happens, but then you love it when it comes back around is if we have somebody leave our company, which is always devastating to me because it's like, oh my God, a family member is walking away, I try to see, like you know what it is, what it is, and it's always been one of those. Well, I think the grasser is greener on the other side. So I'm going to go try that. And I'm always like, hey, you know what. You left me right, so try it. And if I don't care if it's two weeks, two months, two years down the road, if you feel like that's not right for you anymore, come back, have a conversation with me. Don't go to somebody else Like, don't try to. You know, jump to another job, come back to me, let's have a conversation. And I would say nine out of 10 times that person who left me within two years has come back.

Speaker 3: 13:50

And they, they are like my biggest campaigner and advocate for a Bronco and hiring, because they're like guys, I've been there, I've done that, I've tried that, don't even bother. Like, speak to them about your wants and your needs, see if they can meet it, because you're not going to find better than here. And that's what I love. And so when I try to get that out there, like to people and it's hard to put on paper, right, you know how awesome our company is because people are like, well, that's just what you do on a job posting. Well, I mean, it truly is the epitome of our company. Like we are family, ran, we have your back. We will make your life as easy as we possibly can in this world of labor. Right, so we're going to be rough because we just part of the job, but we want to hire you. We want to hire if you have a good work ethic, if you are a good person. We want you on our family team, like we, peer join us. So yes, we are always hiring.

Speaker 2: 14:52

Yeah, and personally I would have no qualms, you know, sending a family member of mine to you to have that conversation. I've seen your heart, you know. I know you're a woman of faith and I really believe that God puts us where we're supposed to be. And you know that's happened in my life. I've seen it happen in your life. You just described it and I think the same thing goes for employees. You know, we end up where we're supposed to be and the journey sometimes is a crooked path, not always a straight line. Yes, I'm glad that you kind of allow people to go through their journey organically to figure it out, because we all, at the end of the day, have to figure out our own stuff.

Speaker 3: 15:36

Absolutely.

Speaker 2: 15:37

So good for you. Now if you could go door to door, ring every doorbell and everybody's home and you get to tell all the residents of Northern Kentucky about Oronco. What would your 30-second commercial sound like?

Speaker 3: 15:55

My 30-second commercial would be that we are one of the only remaining family owned and operated companies. We haven't been bought out by a national company or some other type of conglomerate. We are focused on our customers. We are focused on our employees, and when we show up to your house, you are getting someone who is trained and skilled in this trade. That is not there just as a selling tactic. We are there to do what's best for you all the time, and when we show up to your house, we are licensed. All of our journeymen who show up to work on your system has a license that they are supposed to be carrying and if they don't, they're not going to be there by themselves.

Speaker 2: 16:45

Well, very good to know that. Let's depart from business talk for a moment and I want to ask you I know you live in the community, the Walton Union area what do you and your family like to do for fun when you're not hard at work?

Speaker 3: 17:03

Oh well, we, we have a lot of fun, we definitely spend all of our time together and it's kind of fascinating because I have a 16 year old and a 13 year old, soon to be 17 and 14 in January, and there's not much that we don't do with each other. Yeah, sure, my husband and I, we get our breaks to have fun with some friends right now and then, and I get a break with my mom and my sisters to go do their, our traveling and shopping, but ultimately my family, we are heavy into trail riding, we have side-by-sides and dirt bikes, so we travel a lot to our cabin and just enjoy time and nature and the slowness of things that that area brings. And that's kind of like our, our bucket refill, like our battery charger. You know, when we go down there, everything stops, we rejuvenate, we get closer to each other and closer to God, and then we come back renewed and refreshed to grind through the week ahead.

Speaker 2: 18:15

Well, I also remember around just before what I'm thinking Halloween, seeing on Facebook a bunch of pumpkin carbon going on. And you guys were having such a good time. I thought, man, oh man, I need to adopt that family at Halloween time, because my wife and I were boring, we didn't even put a pumpkin out.

Speaker 3: 18:37

Oh no, that's not good.

Speaker 2: 18:39

I know. So you showed me that I need to start, you know, baking a little more fun into my holidays. We're empty nesters and so when the kids are gone we just tend to not think of those things, but I loved how you guys all came together and had fun like that.

Speaker 3: 18:54

Yeah, that is something that we so I have four sisters and a brother and amazing parents and my my goal and so, as well as my sisters and my brother and my parents, is for all of us to constantly have that interaction. So, like, we do the pumpkin carving and then here in a couple weeks we'll have polar night express and, yes, you're like what, all of these teenage kids get together and we literally watch the polar express because it's just something that reconnects us. Then we'll have a cookie night that, like, we'll all do, like we'll remake our own desserts and all that stuff, and then we have Christmas together. So we tried to like, you've got to keep that family bond going, because the moment that you let it go, it just keeps getting further and further and further away and that's, that's not a place you want to be.

Speaker 2: 19:51

Yeah, if you're blessed to have family, then keep them close. Yes, not everybody has that, and so you're truly blessed and I think one of the biggest blessings is to recognize your blessings. So I know that you're definitely in that camp. So if somebody wants to reach out to either have a discussion with you about, hey, you sound like a great place to work, or hey, I want to make sure that I get on the maintenance program to make sure that my HVAC system is rocking and rolling when I need it to be, how do they reach you?

Speaker 3: 20:30

So we have different areas that you can reach us. We're on Facebook, we're on Instagram, we have our website, eroncocom, and if you're looking for employment, right in the center top of the page, it has a link right there that you can apply on our website. We also have many pages that go over geothermal, conventional heating, air conditioning systems, our plumbing department. We have website links on there that you can literally put your information in request some days, and then we'll get right back to you and say, hey, this is what we have available. Or you can just simply call us, because we have live people answering the phones at 859-525-6407.

Speaker 2: 21:16

Well, we've covered a lot of ground this morning and just like that it's over. That's crazy. Our time together this morning is done. You did a great job, and so thank you to the listeners for listening in today and learning all about eronco comfort air. Once again, I say to you all be good to your neighbors Until next time. See you later.

Speaker 1: 21:42

Thanks for listening to the Good Neighbor podcast union. To nominate your favorite local businesses to be featured on the show, go to GNPUnioncom or call us at 859-651-8330.