Condo Media - March 2017 - 33

pumps needed to get hot water at a client property running
again by morning. "There's nobody else in the area that
would have been able to pull that off," Fred Jr. claims.
MillTown takes its proactive philosophy a step further
by providing specific preventative maintenance programs
that are tailored exactly to client properties with common
heating and hot water. As Fred Jr. puts it, "We want to keep
ahead of any issues so that we can try to minimize them."
WELL-EQUIPPED TO DEAL
WITH HIDDEN ISSUES
The ability to respond to an emergency at lightning speed is
further enhanced by technology. "Knowing where everyone
is all the time, right down to the minute, is important," Fred
Jr. points out. For that reason, GPS technology tracks every
vehicle. "Our call center is like EMT dispatch. All of our
vehicles are GPS-ed on the map, and all of our jobs are on
another TV screen, so we can see where everything is," he
reveals. Further, every technician is furnished an iPad, so
that he can get information fast in the field.
And those are just a couple of the technologies that MillTown employs. Others handle hidden issues. For example,
MillTown technicians use pipe cameras to find issues inside
piping and ductwork, and, once the camera has identified
an issue, locators can explore hidden areas-for example,
underground or inside a wall-to pinpoint exactly where
the problem is located, so that just the affected section can
be opened up for repairs. And thermal-imaging cameras
help find hot spots in motors or leaks in walls that otherwise
couldn't be seen without "making a mess of the inside of
somebody's home," Fred Jr. says.
MillTown also has special equipment that can listen for
leaks inside concrete, equipment to freeze pipes to make
repairs quickly and without draining entire systems, and
equipment to thaw frozen pipes without the use of torches, a
helpful safety feature.
IT'S ALL ABOUT THE SERVICE
MillTown did recently cope with one instance of fire-"our
first fire in 38 years," according to Fred Jr. A MillTown
technician was soldering inside a unit at Meenmore Condominiums of Boxborough, Mass., when material in the wall
above the area of repair began to ignite. A resident noticed
the smoke, and together, the resident and the MillTown
technician found a hose, got into the affected unit, and
extinguished the fire before it blazed.
"It's very fortunate that they moved quickly and got water
on the source and drowned out the possibility of disaster,"
says John M. Gustin, association manager for The Evergreen Harvard Group of Bedford, N.H. He reports further
that MillTown got an insurance adjustor out the next day
and "took ownership" of the situation. "It's one of the

smoother remediations and reconstructions I personally
have been involved with," he says. "What really counts is
what someone does in a crisis, and they really stepped up to
the plate. They're worth their weight in gold."
Stepping up in a crisis is a concept MillTown embraces.
"If a business is predicated on problems, like ours is, sometimes there are hiccups in the road," Fred Jr. points out. "It's

A fourth-generation plumber, Fred Webster Jr. hopes
his sons will follow him into the business one day.

how you react to that by doing the right thing that keeps
people coming back." As a result, most of the company's
customers have been with them for 10 years, and many date
back 20 years or more.
Fred Jr. understands that it's not just the technicians out in
the field who make that happen. It's also the support staff
back in the office. "We care about our employees. We know
that the employees in our company are the most valuable
asset that we have, period," he says. "Fifty percent of what
we do is fixing the problem the customer called us for.
The other 50 percent is making sure we provided the right
customer experience and communicated with the customer
from start to finish."
Under Fred Jr.'s leadership, communication has been a
cornerstone of MillTown's customer service. Calls are made
before, during, and after each job to ensure that the client
is kept informed throughout the process. And the Websters
are also available to attend board meetings as needed.
Ultimately, it all comes down to one thing. "We fix problems," says Fred Jr. "And fix them fast."
For more information about how MillTown can
accommodate your association's plumbing and heating needs,
call (978) 253-4303, or visit www.milltownplumbing.com.

http://www.milltownplumbing.com

Condo Media - March 2017

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