In the Nov. 18 issue of The NEWS, Butch Welsch, president and owner, Welsch Heating and Cooling Co., St. Louis, asked a simple question of his fellow contractors: is your number of service calls on the rise or is it decreasing? Welsch had seen an alarming decline in service calls over the last four years, and he wondered if others were finding the same trend in their area. And the responses came pouring in.
While some contractors reported that their number of service calls remained robust, the vast majority noted that they, too, were experiencing a decline. As Rich Morgan, president, Magic Touch Mechanical Inc., Mesa, Ariz., stated, “Since 2011 we have seen a gradual decrease in service calls. We also saw this happen shortly after Sept. 11, 2001, when people were hesitant to spend any money unless absolutely necessary; however, that was short lived, whereas this seems to be becoming the new norm.”