“Do the right thing.” David Hammond will readily tell you that those four simple words are the solid foundation the success of his company is built on. “Anyone can say it, but not everyone does it”, David says. He goes on to explain that his primary job as President is to make sure the company lives those words every day. That’s only one of the reasons that Hammond Services in Griffin, Georgia is the August NCI Member of the Month.
Hammond’s has served the southern metro area of Atlanta for over 30 years. Founded by David’s father in 1979, the company focuses exclusively on service, add-on, and retrofit sales. The company is primarily involved in HVAC work, but offers plumbing and electrical services as well. After graduating from college with a degree in civil engineering, David worked for a large national company for several years before joining the family business in 1994. He has been President of Hammond’s since 2003 and under his leadership the company has grown to nearly 40 employees. David’s philosophy is that offering the customer the very best value for their dollar is critical. “We are constantly striving to be better as a company”, he says, “and we’re always looking to learn new and better ways to do things.”
Last April he discovered one of those new things when he attended the NCI Summit in Jacksonville. According to David, “I attended the pre-Summit training session with Rob Falke, and noticed that the other people in the session were pretty sharp. And somewhere in the middle of that training the light dawned.” He could see that the NCI air testing and diagnostic methods delivered the missing pieces to the puzzle of how to really separate his company from the competition, as well as increase revenues and profit.
In May David and his operations manager, Wayne Hughes attended the NCI Fast-Track Implementation class, and the entire picture came into clear view. By June David brought in onsite training for his staff to get everyone up to speed on the new processes. At first a few of the technicians and installers were a little hesitant about some of the changes. But it didn’t take long until they began to see the benefits in the systems they were servicing and installing, like reduced static pressures, increased airflow, and higher customer satisfaction. Like David, they were impressed and excited by how some relatively minor changes in what they were already doing could have such a major impact. In fact, David was so excited that he decided to take the balancing hood and go back into the field himself. He enjoys doing the follow-up testing and diagnostics whenever a CoolMaxx report indicates a need for system improvement. In one week he sold over $14,000 in duct renovations and has been averaging between 50-70% gross margins.
“NCI is the best thing that’s happened since we started the business”, David states without hesitation. “Now we know exactly where we’re headed in the future … air diagnostics.” And in the 6 weeks or so since Hammond’s implemented the new processes, he believes they have already recouped the cost of attending the Summit, implementation training, the onsite training, as well as the cost of new tools and instruments. He has already scheduled additional onsite training in August for carbon monoxide and combustion diagnostics and testing.
One last thing that David wanted to stress is that support for change like this has to come from the owner of the company. He emphasized, “The owner needs to be the primary champion if these changes are going to work and if you expect buy-in from your employees.”
Dedicated NCI members like Hammond Services are what help keep our industry strong and vibrant! So for all they do, join us in congratulating David and the great team at Hammond’s as our Member of the Month.