“That pretty much covers it from one end to the other,” says Chris Zimmer. The mission is borne out in the way the company conducts business. Every customer receives a complete needs analysis. “We go into the house, measure the site, and conduct a heat-loss analysis,” says Mark Tallen. “Then we go back when both the husband and wife are available and spend about an hour going through a checklist of questions. We spend time with the homeowners to determine their needs and requirements. I’ve had people tell me the competition spent five minutes in the house and then sent them an estimate in the mail. We believe a professional job requires professional assessment and professional presentation.”

Brian Newport, Sales Manager at Habegger Corp. says Zimmer Heating and Cooling does the best job of making a sales presentation of anyone he’s seen. “They’re very good at using a sales presentation book, at parlaying both the high quality of the Carrier equipment as well as the things Zimmer Heating brings to the table. They regularly take part in sales training to continually improve their sales ability.”

But selling is only the first step. Zimmer Heating and Cooling has its own sheet metal fabrication center, one of the very few dealers in greater Cincinnati that does. The shop has been in existence as long as the company and can design and custom build ductwork for virtually any installation. “If you need a certain size , twisted a certain way, with a certain degree of offset to make it fit into the home and look like it belongs there, we build it ourselves, ” say Chris Zimmer. “There’s no making do.”

Within three weeks of an installation, the service Department dispatcher makes an appointment to come back and meet with the homeowner and check on the equipment. “We run the equipment through its paces by someone who’s been trained to do that,” says Mark Tallen. “We want to make sure the equipment is doing what we told the people it would do. The service technician can answer any questions, and if someone isn’t quite happy with something, we have an opportunity to take care of it right away. We never walk away from a service issue until all is in proper working order”

Zimmer Heating and Cooling is visible in the community, from the business’ location in a heavy traffic area, multiple brightly lettered trucks and its sponsorship of community activities throughout the community.

While Zimmer Heating enjoys a tremendous word-of-mouth reputation, they make an active effort to keep their customer base engaged. They advertise, and every spring and fall conduct a special marketing effort to existing customers for “clean and check” service. “They bring in someone part-time, specifically to call each customer. If she can’t get a hold of someone, she sends a reminder letter,” says Newport. “They do very well with that.” But Zimmer contends that’s just icing on the cake. What’s important is the quality of the work itself. “There’s no big secret to what we do,” says Chris Zimmer. “Our guys do great work and we do it right the first time.”

“We’re the best because we don’t take shortcuts,” adds Mark Tallen. “Our most used tools are drop cloths and shop vac. We pride ourselves in doing a quality, clean job,”