Customer Service

We’ve all become aware of the term “customer NO service.” Consumer advocate, Clark Howard, uses the term incessantly on his radio and TV shows when referring to big corporations, Wall Street banks, the airline industry, cable companies, government offices, and other utilities. Clark has also at times, accused small and mid-sized companies of also being out of touch with their customers. 

I am often tempted to call his show to challenge Howard’s misconception that every company embraces this “hands-off” attitude and to applaud the company I work for, Gault Energy and Stone, on the extraordinary “Customer Service” culture we have developed. I want to let Mr. Howard know about the survey returns we receive back from our customers giving us exceptionally high marks on all levels of customer service – from our customer care, service and HVAC departments, to our sales department, to our oil, propane, and stone delivery drivers—Gault prides itself on unparalleled customer service. I’d also like to tell Mr. Howard about the personal service we offer our customers and how we go the extra mile for our older customers who don’t have family here in town. I’d like to tell him about the day one of our customer care representatives delivered homemade cookies to one of our “seniors”, or the time I sent a children’s book to a customer to celebrate the birth of her child after having a troubled pregnancy.  I’d love Mr. Howard to hear some of the testimonials from our customers when they call and tell us how our drivers helped them out during a recent delivery or how refreshing it is to have a technician arrive at their house and look them in the eye and shake their hand. I’d tell him about the time our technician pointed out to a customer that her car tire looked extremely low and she took it to the garage and they found it had a nail in it. These stories are endless here at Gault.

I also want to tell Clark Howard how, during these tough economic times, we continue to work closely with our unemployed, underemployed, and senior customers to help them find financial assistance. I’d like to tell him about all the differences between us and our competitors and about how we are an honest company that delivers on the promises we make, and if we fail in any way, how we are honest enough to admit our shortcoming and respond to resolve the situation. I’d like to tell Mr. Howard that our exceptional customer service begins with a team of dedicated employees who live the Gault Mission of Creating Lifetime Customers each and every day.

Finally, I’d like to forward Clark Howard a testimonial from a Gault customer who is also a Realtor in the area: “Your company is the best! Wish we’d come to you first 25 years ago. Everyone is always so gracious and helpful and fast in solving the problem – from the first person who answers the phone all the way through. Thank you so much!” Testimonials like this are bountiful here.

One of these days I just might make that call to Clark Howard. I’ll let him know how great Gault customer service really is. Until that day comes, I’ll just be grateful to work with a team of professionals who truly care about their customers. There is no such thing as “customer NO service” here!

---Bernice Oleyar, Customer Service Manager

Have a Holly, Jolly, Sustainable Holiday!

I was shocked to learn that between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day, Americans generate an extra 100 million tons of waste each week! This holiday season, we can all work together to reduce the environmental impact of the holidays by following some simple suggestions that will also save us money.

Here are some ideas to help celebrate the season while also caring for the earth:

Gift Wrapping and Packaging

Do you know that if every American family wrapped just 3 presents in re-used materials, it would save enough paper to cover 45,000 football fields? Here are some alternatives:

• Use wrapping paper made with recycled content.
• Have children make their own wrapping paper by designing and coloring on brown paper grocery bags or use old homework pages to wrap gifts. Sunday comics also make colorful gift wrap for children's packages as do old posters, maps, old sheet music, and wallpaper scraps.
• For packing, consider these alternatives: Popcorn (enclose a note saying birds can eat it), biodegradable starch peanuts, used packing peanuts or bubble wrap from a previous gift, or crumpled newspapers.
• Adorn your gifts with reusable items such as hair bows, ornaments, shoe laces, neckties, toys, bows and holiday cards.
• Keep the fronts of old Christmas cards to use as nametags, bookmarkers, dinner place cards or postcards.

 

Holiday Decorating

Do you know that live Christmas trees are a renewable resource? Not only do tree farms replant regularly, but the trees contribute to better air quality while growing.  Live trees are usually locally grown and sold, saving both transportation costs and in turn, the added air pollution that comes from transportation. Plus 90 percent of used Christmas trees are recycled into mulch! Here are some suggestions:

• Consider buying a potted tree that can be replanted in your yard. Use trimmed branches from your tree for decorations for wreaths.
• Decorate your home, tree and centerpiece with holly, cedar, berries, cranberries, popcorn, fruits and nuts, all of which can be composted or used for bird food after use.
• Use LED (Light Emitting Diode) lights for house and Christmas tree lighting.  LED holiday lights use up to 95% less energy than traditional holiday bulbs and last up to 100,000 hours when used indoors. Over a 30-day period, lighting 500 traditional holiday lights will cost about $18.00 while the same number of LED lights will cost only $ 0.19.
• Turn tree and outdoor decorative lighting off at bedtime and during the day. 
  

Reduce/Reuse/Recycle

Do you know that half of the paper America consumes each year is used to wrap and decorate gifts? Thankfully, most gift packing and gift wrapping materials can be reused or recycled. Here are some things to keep in mind:

• Save and reuse gift bags, wrapping paper, bows and ribbons. If you must buy new wrapping paper, use environmentally-friendly paper made from fibers such as hemp. Also look for paper that uses recycled content.
• Remember that much of the packaging from presents, including corrugated cardboard and pasteboard, can be reused or cycled. Most mail centers will recycle packing peanuts.
• Donate gently used toys and clothing to charity organizations.

All of us at Gault Energy and Gault Stone wish you and yours a healthy and joyful holiday season!

All the best, Sam


 

Economics 101: The Laws of Supply and Demand

At some point, we were all taught the basic principles of supply and demand.  When there is an abundant supply of something, prices drop.  Conversely, when supplies are limited, prices tend to rise.  Why, then, is it different for oil?

Last summer we saw some of the greatest volatility in the energy market in decades. The price per gallon of oil shot up over $4.00 and was predicted to rise to $5.00 or $6.00 a gallon.  If the principals of supply and demand were holding true, global oil supplies should have been extremely low, pushing prices up. However, this was not the case. In fact, the global supply of oil was at a record high, with refineries worldwide operating at capacity.  What, then, drove these prices up so high?

Oil speculators had a lot to do with it.  But it is also important to know that oil acts more like a stock on the New York Stock Exchange than like a commodity on the New York Mercantile Exchange.  And, as we know, stock prices can be extremely volatile, rising and falling sharply in short periods of time.  Fluctuations in stock prices are also a direct reflection of the economy.  In the midst of a recession, oil prices over the last 12 months have behaved like stocks, rising and falling as a result of economic forecasts.

There are a few lessons that can be learned from last year’s extreme volatility.  First, no one can predict where oil prices will go—not how far up, nor how far down.  No one.  Second, fixed price contracts come with great risk to the buyer.  When prices fall dramatically, fixed price contracts do not move and these buyers end up with buyer’s remorse.  Third, programs like the cap price program offer a kind of insurance for buyers; protection against rising oil prices with the benefit of riding the price wave downward should prices fall.

Finally, it’s important for me to note that oil companies like Gault do not profit when prices are high!  To the contrary, our profit margin goes down as prices go up. Lower oil prices are better for us all.  So when you begin to hear the media talking about the global supply of, and demand for, oil, remember, Economics 101 does not always apply here.

It was never about the trucks

It was never about the trucks. It was about helping my Father and Grandfather and the other Gault family members that helped build this company.

I can remember as a young boy, six or seven years old, waiting with my Dad on the docks of the Saugatuck. The oil tankers would slowly wind down the river, late into the night. I watched with great enthusiasm, as excited about the boats as I was about staying up until midnight, and about helping my dad. Then there were the barges, which unloaded heaping piles of sand, thanks to enormous cranes, for our mason department. It was a young boy’s dream.

Over the years, I accumulated a life’s worth of memories, some more memorable than others. One time a woman backed up her Mercedes convertible to the hopper and insisted we unload a half a ton of sand into the back of her car. Grudgingly, we did, and we watched that beautiful car drive away, axles and bumpers scraping the road.

Not that the “sand in the trunk” story is the best example, but Gault has always been about taking care of our customers. From the very beginning, this was the driving force behind any business decisions we made. This is what led us through our transformation from a coal company to a heating oil company and now, to an energy conservation company. Our customers’ needs changed, and we listened. We would never have made it last for generations if we hadn’t.

In fact, it was my Grandfather who recognized the need for our company to become a full-service heating oil company and established our in-house service department decades ago. My Grandfather also recognized the need to hire great people, to “expand our family.” By hiring the best, we’re able to provide the best service, to retain customers the way we retain employees: through consistent communication, respect and loyalty.

From the very beginning, we also realized how critical it is to give back: to our customers, to our employees, to the community. It is this full circle approach to doing business that has taken our business in new directions, and transformed Gault from an 1863 feed and lumber hauling company to a company with two distinct business units: energy conservation and stone and landscape supplies.

My memories on the dock of the Saugatuck continue to ground me, humble me, and make me proud of our fifth generation family business that has done so much for so many people during our 145 plus years in existence.

Sam Gault