Mrsrooter

Did you know Thomas Crapper has a special day dedicated to him? In the history of plumbing he is often given the credit for inventing the toilet.  While that is not true he certainly advanced the adoption of the toilet in the western world. Today at Mr. Rooter® Plumbing we’re celebrating Thomas Crapper Day in remembrance of the man who improved the functionality of the early flush toilet. Thanks Mr. Crapper!

I want to share with you how Mr. Crapper changed the world with the promotion of sanitary plumbing. He was mentoring plumbers and mastered the art of plumbing by the age of 14. And by the time Mr. Crapper was 30, he owned his own plumbing company, Thomas Crapper & Co.

He was awarded nine patents in all. One of his most notable inventions was the float valve. This part is located inside the tank and prevents toilets from overflowing – a necessity for today’s modern toilet!

Word spread quickly of what Mr. Crapper was doing. It wasn’t long before he became the sanitary engineer for several members of England’s royal family.

Plumbing systems have come a long way since the early days of Thomas Crapper, but he built a lasting foundation that developed the modern plumbing we use today. You can read more at http://www.punchbowl.com/holidays/thomas-crapper-day.

Please join us in celebrating this world class plumber, and here’s wishing you a world class day.

Happy flushing!

Did you watch Mr. Rooter® Plumbing on “Undercover Boss” Sunday night? If so, you got a good look at our Code of Values™ and how we operate our company by living them out on a daily basis.

Our Code of Values™ main categories are Respect, Integrity, Customer Focus and Having Fun in the Process. To help you better understand them, I will be sharing more about our Code of Values™ in 2012.

As for the Customer Focus section, Stacie Thrasher, who is Mr. Rooter Plumbing’s Manager of the Customer Experience, will write a monthly guest blog about the testimonials we receive from Mr. Rooter Plumbing customers.

As much as I hate to say this, a great customer experience is rare these days.  Luckily, I belong to a company – Mr. Rooter Plumbing – that puts customers first.  With that being said, it’s always great to hear about a Mr. Rooter Plumbing service professional, customer service representative or whole team that went above and beyond to create a phenomenal customer experience.

The testimonial I’m sharing with you today comes from a customer in Memphis, Tenn.  She says she consistently receives outstanding customer service from her local Mr. Rooter Plumbing shop, and on top of that, she recommended Mr. Rooter to a friend, who also had a great experience!

She says: “Mr. Rooter always handles my issues as if they were their own and I am completely satisfied!”

In the end, the customer is satisfied with the service he or she received; price and quality only get you so far. It’s the extraordinary customer service that puts you ahead of the game.

At Mr. Rooter Plumbing, providing outstanding customer experiences is our top priority. We would love to hear from you about your experience with Mr. Rooter Plumbing. If you would like to share your story with us, please email it to MrsRooterBlog@MrRooter.com.

Here’s wishing you a world class day.

If you watched Mr. Rooter® Plumbing on “Undercover Boss” Sunday night, you probably noticed how our service professionals wear branded Mr. Rooter uniforms and drive clean, branded vans. You also had the opportunity to see the world-class customer experience we deliver.

It was great seeing our service technician show Dina Dwyer-Owens (aka Faith Brown on “Undercover Boss”) our 14 Steps when he didn’t know she was the CEO and chairwoman of our parent company The Dwyer Group. We do a lot of training here at Mr. Rooter Plumbing, and I was delighted to see how he followed our systems and shared them with Dina.

If you read the Mrs. Rooter Blog often then you know my passion is providing outstanding customer experiences. I am happy to share with you some of the rave reviews Bob Minkert, who owns the Mr. Rooter Plumbing franchise in Roswell, Ga, and his team members receive.

Here are my favorites:

“Scoop was AWESOME!!! He let me know what was to be expected the entire time and did everything in his power to help me. Super friendly and fantastic personality!!! My son was sick and he gave him extra attention. Felt like we made a friend!!!” – Christy Jones

“Best in town! Last weekend, my youngest discovered that flushing a small stuffed animal down the toilet was the quickest way to make mommy and daddy mad. Mr. Rooter got to our place in a quick amount of time and had that stupid bunny pulled out of the septic tank pipe in about 15 minutes. Our septic guy also joked about how it’s a pretty common call for him to get. I am reassured that I’m not the only parent of a two-year-old toilet scientist. We also had him pump the tank while he was out and the pricing and professionalism was outstanding!” – ethand

“The techs were pleasant, clearly communicated everything to me, and went above and beyond what was required and expected. I highly recommend this company!” – ElizaBennet

Reading rave reviews like these make my day. It is a joy to work with wonderful Mr. Rooter Plumbing franchise owners like Mr. Minkert.

Here’s wishing you a world class day.

“This episode ranks among the most powerful and moving episodes of UNDERCOVER BOSS.” This is how “Undercover Boss” Executive Producer Chris Carlson describes the episode on Sunday that features Mr. Rooter® Plumbing. Wow!

If you aren’t aware Dina Dwyer-Owens, the CEO and chairwoman of our parent company The Dwyer Group, goes undercover for CBS’s hit reality show “Undercover Boss” this Sunday, Jan 22.

I want to share with you what else “Undercover Boss” Executive Producer Chris Carlson said about the episode:

“This is clearly more than just a job for Dina: She has deep emotional ties to the business and its employees since The Dwyer Group was founded by her late father, who was also her mentor.  She’s also pretty adept at a couple of the jobs she does undercover, which is not always the case for the bosses.”   

We are really looking forward to watching the show! Don’t forget to tune in this Sunday, Jan. 22 at 8 p.m. ET/7 p.m. CT.

Here’s wishing you a world class day.

All of us at Mr. Rooter® Plumbing are looking forward to watching Sunday’s episode of “Undercover Boss”, which features Mr. Rooter Plumbing and Dina Dwyer-Owens, CEO and Chairwoman of our parent company The Dwyer Group. We would be delighted for you to go “undercover” with us!

If you’re wondering how you can do that, take a look at this picture of the Mr. Rooter Plumbing Marketing and PR department. This is how we go undercover.

Carol Smith, Whitney Wyatt and Fawn Barlow with a Mr. Rooter Plumbing Technician cutout.

Send us your pictures of you going “undercover”. We’ll post them on our Mr. Rooter Plumbing Facebook page and tweet them out. To view pictures of others going “undercover”, check out https://twitter.com/MrRooterCorp and http://www.facebook.com/mrrootercorporation.

Having Fun in the Process!

Mary Kennedy Thompson

Have you heard the good news about The Dwyer Group®, parent company for Mr. Rooter® Plumbing, being on CBS’s hit reality show “Undercover Boss” on Sunday, Jan. 22 at 8 p.m. ET/ 7 p.m. CT?

We are so excited to see Dina Dwyer-Owens, Chairwoman and CEO of The Dwyer Group, go undercover as “Faith Brown”, a name she personally chose to pay tribute to her faith as a source of strength. Dina will share our Code of Values on the popular, two-time Emmy nominated “Undercover Boss”.

If you follow the Mrs. Rooter Blog often, you’ve probably read about our Code of Values and my passion of providing outstanding customer experiences for our Mr. Rooter Plumbing customers. On “Undercover Boss”, you’ll get to see these in action, as Dina talks about our focus of putting customers first.

“Undercover Boss” kicks off its third season on Jan. 15 and continues the quest to enable some of the world’s most successful company leaders to embark on grassroots journeys within their own organizations.

Don’t forget to tune in on Sunday, Jan. 22 at 8 p.m. ET/ 7 p.m. CT to see Dina, The Dwyer Group and Mr. Rooter Plumbing on “Undercover Boss”. We’ll be sure to remind you as the date gets closer.

Here’s wishing you a world class day.

We all know being a parent is hard work. Rewarding work …but hard. Your child’s safety must be one of your top priorities, and no matter how old your child gets, that never goes away.

The bath time ritual, when your children are young can be stressful, or bonding, and sometimes fun but many do not think safety when drawing the water for the bath. Not only is it cleaning the day off your fast moving child, but this nightly ritual allows bonding time and relaxes them before bedtime. But a scalding water mishap can change all that.

With January being National Bath Safety Month now is a great time to discuss the risks of scalding water. When bathing your child you need to make sure the water is the right temperature and there is no risk of burning your child’s sensitive skin. Scalding water is blamed for about 3,800 injuries & 34 deaths yearly, according to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission.

While we see it on the news and read about it in the paper, it is hard to imagine it could happen to us. It only takes seconds for a child to suffer third-degree burns — whether it’s simply turning on a faucet and stepping into the bathtub without checking the water temperature. Do you know at what temperature your water heater thermostat is set? If you don’t, you should find out.

There are plumbing precautions you can take to help keep this from happening to your children. For starters, lower your water heater thermostats to 120 degrees Fahrenheit. Added bonus – you can save three to five percent in energy costs by lowering the temperature of your water heaters by 10 degrees Fahrenheit. Make sure to follow the manual or have a plumber do it for you!

Another option is to install anti-scald devices on individual taps. If the water gets too hot, these devices slow the water down to a trickle. Anti-scald products are available at home improvement stores. Homes built within the last 25 years should be equipped with fixtures that prevent changes in water temperature due to water pressure variances within the home. However, if your home is not equipped with a temperature-pressure balancing valve, be sure no one in the home flushes a toilet or uses cold water while a shower is in use. Someone using other plumbing fixtures could steal the cold water from the shower, making the water too hot.

Here’s wishing you a safe and world class day!

My Home Life website – www.myhomelifemag.com – is a resource I go to time and again when things around my house are not working properly.  Whether the problem is indoors or out this website saves me a lot of time. It is also full of good to know information, and it can do the same for you.

My Home Life, a website filled with home improvement topics, features information from seven service companies that cover everything from plumbing to electrical to carpet cleaning questions. Surely there is an answer to your household quandaries on the site.

While you know Mr. Rooter® Plumbing provides full-service plumbing and drain cleaning services, here is some information on our sister companies:

• Aire Serv® provides heating and air conditioning services.
• Glass Doctor® provides glass repair and replacement services for both auto and homes.
• Mr. Appliance® repairs household appliances.
• Mr. Electric® provides electrical services.
• Rainbow International® specializes in home restoration from fire, flood, smoke and mold, as well as carpet cleaning.
• The Grounds Guys™, our newest sister company, provides lawn care and landscape services.

Next time you find yourself in a bind save yourself the hassle and visit My Home Life for the solution. You can also sign up to receive our monthly emails at http://www.myhomelifemag.com/join-mhl/, as well as read our past issues at http://www.myhomelifemag.com/mhl/.

Have a question regarding your home? You can ask it at http://www.myhomelifemag.com/ask-a-question/.

Here’s wishing you a world class day.

How was your 2011? It was a good year for Mr. Rooter Plumbing thanks to our customers who spread the word about us, and we’re looking forward to 2012. As I’m sure you’ve been planning for the New Year, we have too. Before I share our upcoming plans I am delighted to tell you how Mr. Rooter wrapped up 2011.

Several magazines included Mr. Rooter Plumbing in their national rankings:

• Franchise Times Top 200, which lists the top 200 franchising companies based on worldwide sales.
• Entrepreneur ”Franchise 500”, which is the world’s most comprehensive list of franchises based on financial strength and stability, growth rate and size of the system.
• G.I. Jobs Military Friendly Franchise list, which represents the top 7 percent of the nation’s franchises that are doing the most to recruit military veterans.

It is an honor to be included in these distinguished listings. If you aren’t familiar with them, you can check them out at www.franchisetimes.com, www.entrepreneur.com/franchise500 and http://www.militaryfranchising.com/list-2011.aspx.

I would like to give a shout out to our sister companies that also made these rankings. Congrats to Aire Serv®, Mr. Appliance®, Glass Doctor® and Rainbow International® for being Military Friendly Franchises. These four companies, as well as Mr. Electric®, also made the “Franchise 500” ranking.

Here’s wishing you a world class day and 2012!

It’s that time of year again where we start to take stock of our year, and begin planning our New Year’s resolutions. One of my resolutions for 2012 is to bring a little joy into each day and share it with those most important to me. What is yours?

One resolution every home owner should have on her list is to take better care of our homes. Plumbing plays a big role in our daily lives, and to keep things running smoothly here are a few resolutions to consider:

• I will know where my water shut off valve is located.
• I will scrap all plates in to the garbage before putting in the dishwasher.
• I will not flush anything that does not break down easily.
• I will space showers at least 10 minutes apart to allow for draining ease.
• I will not put anything down the garbage disposal that is not liquid form.
• I will install low-flow toilets to conserve water.
• I will not set up water sprinklers that hit mainly driveway or sidewalk (wasting water).
• I will use leftover water in glasses for watering plants.
• I will look at buying a front loading washing machine which reduces water usage.

Here’s wishing you a most happy New Year…and may your plumbing pipes keep flowing!