Tammy Ferris, President of Gene Love Plumbing, Air & Electrical

MidlandsBiz:
Where were you born? What is your educational background?

Tammy Ferris:
I was born in Pinehurst, North Carolina and attended university where I earned a degree in something totally different from plumbing – fiduciary management.  I came to South Carolina in 1987 and started working part-time for Gene Love Plumbing as a night dispatcher answering the phone and sending out the calls to the technicians.

I immediately recognized Kathy Love as a smart business woman who was very progressive in her thinking.  She created a fun work atmosphere and I just decided that this was the type of person, and company, that I wanted to work for. 

MidlandsBiz:
What other roles did you play at the company?

Tammy Ferris:
Kathy trusted the job that I was doing and saw the hard work that I was putting into the company so she moved me into roles with progressively more responsibility.  With my background in accounting, it was a natural fit to take on the payables and receivables.  When you reconcile accounts and become directly involved with the annual budgeting, you start to understand the key drivers of your business’ profitability.  Eventually I took on the role as general manager in charge of the day-to-day operations of the company. 

In 2006, I bought the company.

MidlandsBiz:
Are you a plumber?

Tammy Ferris:
I did earn my journeyman plumber’s license along the way.  By the time I became general manager, I had pretty much done every job that there was to do at the company, including driving a truck, cleaning sewer lines, and fixing a few leaky faucets. 

MidlandsBiz:
What did you learn from Kathy Love?

Tammy Ferris:
Kathy was amazing at setting the tone for the entire organization and recognizing the important role that culture plays in a business.  Gene Love has always been a place that cares about its employees; that is our most important core valuel.  I see maintaining company culture as my number one job and critical to the long-term success of the company. 

MidlandsBiz:
What is the key to success in your industry?

Tammy Ferris:
First of all we will do the work at the agreed upon upfront price.  Secondly, we guarantee our work; if it’s not done right, we’ll fix it.  No questions. 

We know our customers have choices, so it’s all about forging a relationship with our customers and executing on superior, consistent, customer service. Honor your customer’s time – be there on time.  Respect their home. Work around their schedule. Clean up after the job.

People like to do business with people that they like.  Our industry tends not to have the best reputation, so whom we hire is also critical.  We do background checks on every prospective new hire and we insist on a drug-free environment. 

We don’t want people to call us just one time; we want them to call us every time.

Our top priority is to provide excellent customer service.  The best way to deliver consistent customer service in a company as large as ours is through happy employees.  You have to create a workplace where people like coming to work every day.

MidlandsBiz:
How do you do this?

Tammy Ferris:
Employees like to know that they are making a difference at a company.  Like all businesses, we have targets and goals.  We celebrate our successes as a team and acknowledge individual achievements.

Fun in the context of a workplace is more of a function of allowing people to use their God given talents to contribute to the bottom line of the company.  The most important place to start is matching skills to jobs.  It’s the manager’s job to uncover those talents and get people into their correct roles. It’s NOT fun for an employee to spend all day long doing something that they are not good at.

Then it’s about training.  And I don’t mean a crash course one day training session and then sending your new hires out on their own in front of your customers.  Training at Gene Love Plumbing, Air & Electrical is taken to a whole new level and it’s ongoing.  If your manager puts you in a job in which you have talent, and then trains the heck out of you and supports you along the way – then you are going to be really good at your job.  That’s fun!

We also try to be very inclusive of the spouses and involve the employee’s whole family in company events and in the regular communication flow of the company. Employees like to know that the company values them not just as an individual, but recognizes how important people’s families are in their lives.  .   

MidlandsBiz:
What is it like to be a woman running a company, especially a plumbing company?

Tammy Ferris:
For a long time, Gene Love has belonged to Nexstar, a national plumbing, electrical and HVAC organization.  When we first started going to these meetings, it was very unusual to see any women at all at these meetings, let alone as the owner.  But that has changed. 

MidlandsBiz:
What advice would you give to women?

Tammy Ferris:
Read about successful businesses and just get started. There are scores of great books on business, but I particularly like the Chicken Soup books or anything written by Jack Canfield.  He is one on America’s top motivational speakers and he always talks about how the most important thing in business and in life is action. 

MidlandsBiz:
Do you read lots of business books?  Do you have other books you would recommend?

Tammy Ferris:
I usually have 3 or 4 business books on the go at any one time.  I like the book Pivot because it stresses the importance of adjusting your attitude. It’s about evolving and getting your thought process to the next level and creating a vision that others can follow.  Attitude is everything in business and in life.

I also like Execution because lots of people have vision and elaborate strategic plans, but in business it’s about getting the job done. 

MidlandsBiz:
How has plumbing evolved over the past decade?
 
Tammy Ferris:
When I first started, every sales call was the result of an emergency such as a broken sewer line, a leaking pipe or clogged drain etc.  Today plumbing has become less of an immediate need for people and more of a want; it’s almost become more of a lifestyle choice.  People want to beautify their home, and we are starting to assist some of our customers with remodeling.
 
MidlandsBiz:
How do you measure customer satisfaction?

Tammy Ferris:
Our dispatchers follow up on every call in what we have named happy calls’.  They ask questions like:  Is there anything else we could have done better?  Would you recommend us to someone else?  If a customer will refer us to someone else, then we feel we have done our job. 

We also send survey cards and we offer our customers a convenient forum on our website to give us feedback.  Once a year, we also hire a third party company to anonymously survey our customers. 

I can’t stress enough how focused this company is on the importance of continuous improvement in customer service.  We are always striving to do better.
 
MidlandsBiz:
How has your business model evolved?

Tammy Ferris:
In 1996 when our founder Gene Love officially retired, we did both residential and new construction plumbi
ng as well as some landscaping.  In our management strategic planning sessions, we decided to identify what we did best and focus on our strength – service.  We decided to phase out of new construction and landscaping completely and became a company dedicated to residential plumbing service only. 

Over the past couple of years we have looked to diversify and move strategically into other lines of business that would help the company grow and benefit our customers.  Building on our reputation in home services, we decided to diversify our offering to include electrical and HVAC.   We are confident that we can deliver an excellent product and superior service here, too.
 
MidlandsBiz:
How has your company grown?

Tammy Ferris:
In 1996, we hovered consistently around $2M in sales a year.  In the year 2000, we grew to $3M.  In 2008, with our new lines of business we were at $4M.  We are on track to grow 25% this year.  We are strengthening our brand.
 
MidlandsBiz:
What are your plans beyond 2009?

Tammy Ferris:
We are in the process of strengthening and changing our brand to give it a fresh new, modern look, so we are 100% focused on the Columbia market over the next several years.  We are also phasing in a name change over the next three years, from Gene Love Plumbing to Love Plumbing, Air & Electrical.  We feel that this a great name.  At some point in the future, we have discussed possibly expanding into new markets – Charlotte, Charleston and Ashville – but nothing definite.
 
MidlandsBiz:
What are you most proud of?
 
Tammy Ferris:
Without a doubt, the growth that I have seen in the talented management team that we have here is what I am most proud of.  They are an amazing group of people.  
 
MidlandsBiz:
What challenges do you see ahead in your industry?

Tammy Ferris:
A few years back our biggest obstacle was finding talented employees, but that has changed.  The economy is good here in Columbia, better than in the rest of the country, and in that regard, we are very fortunate.

This may sound funny, but I do not dwell on obstacles and prefer always to focus more on opportunities.  I live in the future.  We are constantly looking to where we want this company to be four and five years from today.  We do a management retreat four times a year one of which lasts for three days. I call it dream time.  How can we create positive change, both in our company and in our community?  I believe that if I can see our future, and more importantly, if I can get my employees to see our future, then we will get there.  Absolutely!

MidlandsBiz:
How does Gene Love give back to the community?

Tammy Ferris:
We give back by donating free services to those less fortunate throughout the year.  We support the Oliver Gospel Mission and Pets Inc. and recently we set up to have one dollar from every service call we run go to either the mission or Pets.  Our customers choose which. 

We like to spend money in the community and to support local businesses and institutions.