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It gets better. Applewood offers a 401K with a company match up to 50%, or 3% if an employee puts away 6%. Applewood also pays 100% of the medical insurance premiums for an employee and his family. They contract with AFLAC for optional insurance products that employees can buy, says Accounting and Human Resource Manager Marc Filas. The company also pays for financial advisors to help employees make their 401K selections, he says.

John Ward's social conscience has been honed by years of talking with Cathie around the dinner table, hearing about the less fortunate who really need some help. His attitude about employees was formed through bad experiences working for other people and by performing plumbing at Coors. Coors employees, who Ward says spent most of their day watching beer bottles roll past on the bottling line, lived in three bedroom houses, drove nice cars, and sent their kids to college. Ward was protecting the health of the nation, and he was broke. He didn't even have a garage.

Today, Ward notes, his accountant may be well compensated, but he doesn't make as much as the average Applewood plumber or electrician.

“The field staff earns the money and makes the profit,” Ward points out.

The quality of Applewood's employees is astounding. Warehouse Manager and Safety Officer Russ Smith was himself a successful Boca Raton, Fla., plumbing contractor and Blau disciple. Why is he here? Smith points to his computer screen wallpaper, a photo of his grandchildren, who live in Denver. When it became apparent that the grandkids weren't leaving Denver, Smith and his wife, herself a plumber's daughter, sold the business and moved to Colorado.

“It's extremely difficult to find another company that reflects the same integrity as you have,” Smith says.

The company only hires licensed mechanics, says Taylor, because it wouldn't be fair to the licensed people to have them work with, or make the same money as, someone who isn't licensed. HVAC technicians, for whom licensing is not required in all jurisdictions, will make more money if they get licensed and NATE certified.

Taylor and John Ward have known each other since sixth grade.

“This is our life,” Taylor says. “You have to live your personal life and your professional life the same way and treat your employees the same. If you make that investment in your community, everything comes back to you. It's like karma.”

Taylor points out that Applewood has a formal ethics in business training program on DVD that all employees take.

A journeyman plumber with a two year license earns a base rate of $20 per hour. A licensed master plumber makes $25 per hour and earns commissions on sales at a rate of 17.61%. Employees who are really good salespeople can get up to 4% more if they sell more.

All of the employees will get paid for 40 hours of work if they are on the premises, even if they don't have a service call to go to. Service techs have to bill $156 per hour when they're on the clock before they are eligible for commissions. The techs are aided by sales training from Nexstar Network and The Contractor's Friend DVDs by Matt Smith Media Inc.

“A lot of them are really good at it,” Taylor says. “That comes from hiring good people. It's a matter of offering honest options to people and good customer service that makes people want to buy. You look at the whole house and find other issues or developing issues. Just fixing the problem at hand is not good customer service if something else breaks next week. We give them options for either repair or replacement.”

Taylor estimates that his service techs have a closing ratio of 65%-70% because of their credibility.

Office pros

Applewood customer service representatives and dispatchers make more money than their counterparts elsewhere, and they're worth it.

“My experience is in running call centers, and in that industry the acceptable rate is 5% abandoned calls and 5% going into the queue,” says Manager of Customer Service Anna Sullivan. “Josh wants 100%.”

Sullivan's crew gets close to that. On November 18 the contractor received 260 calls and only two went to voice mail. Someone is answering the phone live Monday through Friday from 6:00 a.m. until 10:00 p.m. Dispatchers likewise work staggered shifts from 6:00 a.m. until 10:00 p.m.

Sullivan credits her team's success to some really good scripting developed by Taylor and Josh Ward. She did a manual count over a two week period where she separated out the calls for service from all the other phone calls and estimates that her CSRs have a conversion ratio of 80%.

“The goal is to schedule a technician so that they can get face to face with a customer so the customer can see our level of quality,” Sullivan says.

The customer can see the phenomenal technicians before they even show up at the house because the dispatchers will send the customer an e-mail introducing the technician. The e-mail includes a photo, license number and some personal information about the tech to make the customer feel comfortable.

“The technician e-mail is a trust builder,” says Marketing Director Paula Washenberger. “People are having an emergency, and they're frightened or overwhelmed. This makes them feel safe.”

The contractor has also reworked the technicians' badges to include a copy of their individual license on the back of the badge.

Your home is your safe place, John Ward says. When a customer calls Applewood, she has to know that she will get a drug-free, clean-cut technician who will respect her home.

Applewood's success can be traced to Ward and the firm's business philosophy: Better. Cleaner. Faster. Applewood's motto is, “We never lie, cheat or defraud our customers, our company or ourselves.”

“In an industry that fights its integrity daily, we are proud that we deserve — and receive — our customers' trust each time we enter their homes,” Ward says. “It never hurts a business to operate with honesty and integrity, no matter what you do.”

Amen to that. Browse through www.Applewoodfixit.com and get a taste of how a great contracting firm operates.

APPLEWOOD'S CODE OF ETHICS

CUSTOMERS

We will serve our customers with integrity, competence and objectivity.

We will deliver to our customers more than we promised through value added services.

We will perform our work to meet technical codes or better.

We will explore each customer situation in sufficient detail and gather sufficient facts to gain an understanding of the problem, the scope of assistance needed, and the possible benefits our service and technical recommendations may provide our customers.

We will respect each customer's home and property and leave them as clean as we found them.

EMPLOYEES

We will treat our employees fairly.

We will assign technical and support personnel to each job in accord with their experience, knowledge and expertise.

We will foster training for all our employees on an on-going basis to improve and uphold high performance standards.

We will hire only personnel of high personal integrity.

PROFESSIONAL RESPONSIBILITY

We will perform jobs for which we are qualified by our experience and technical competence.

We will make quality service the trademark of the jobs we perform.

We will stand behind our work. If needed, we will take care of callbacks with a minimum of inconvenience to our customers.

We will not provide services to a customer under terms or conditions that might damage or compromise the integrity of our trade and profession. We follow the golden rule.

We will not advertise our services in a deceptive manner.

We will maintain a wholly professional attitude and behavior toward those we serve, our fellow contractors, our own employees, our suppliers and the public at large.

EARNINGS

We will agree with our customers independently and in advance on the basis for our fees. They will be reasonable, legitimate and commensurate with the quality or services we deliver and the responsibility we accept.

We will make it our moral imperative to maintain a profitable business as part of our responsibility to our employees and our families.

We will listen to customer complaints about price, mindful of the honest value received by the customer and our right to an ethical profit.

SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY

We will be good corporate citizens.

We will protect the health and safety of our communities by sharing knowledge of new environmental developments and technological advancements with the communities we serve.

We will contribute money, time and labor to charitable causes.