Business Spotlight

 Local Business Spotlight: Lifetime Plumbing, Heating, And Air

By Paul Johnson

"You actually talk to us like a friend, not a salesman," a customer recently told Colton Edmonds. From what I gathered talking with him, that statement tidily captures the ethos of his company, Lifetime Plumbing, Heating, and Air ("LPHA" for short, below). Colton and his wife Makynzee have been Payson residents for five years and started dating while working simultaneously at a different HVAC company. After counseling together about it, and shortly after the birth of their first child, they decided to go into business for themselves. Together with a partner who handles the plumbing side, they launched LPHA a few months ago.

I asked him about his business model. Colton shared that in his experience, most medium-to-large HVAC companies push their technicians to sell add-ons and recommend replacements whenever they possibly can -- which can run $10,000 to $20,000 for a unit in a normal-sized house -- even if the unit is just out of date or needs only minor fixes. His approach is exactly the opposite: saving customers money by repairing only what specifically needs repairing. As a small family-owned and -operated business, their low overhead allows him to accomplish repair work at the same level of quality but at a much lower price. "Maybe all it needs is a $10 part. I'm not going to sell you a new HVAC system unless you want it." 

Colton also gets a kick out of teaching customers how to do any maintenance and repair work they want to learn for themselves. He said he tries to give his customers a range of options when possible, from full service all the way down to the do-it-yourself version. For customers who prefer the DIY version, often to beef up their handyman skills or to save money (or both), he diagnoses the issue and then takes the time to teach them how to do the repair. On one recent house call, the homeowner was eager to learn how to resolve his malfunctioning air conditioning system. Colton walked him through the process and showed him what had gone wrong internally -- it just needed a simple and cheap part available from Amazon. Colton showed him how to replace it himself if he wanted to go that route, and the customer was glad to learn and deeply grateful to have options. In the end, for the sake of convenience, he chose to pay LPHA to do the full job. "Would you have charged for that training if he went for the DIY version?" I asked. "Nope, just the $50 show-up service fee," he said with a smile.

Relatedly, he explained, a diagnosis from a service call will often show that the HVAC needs three or four different things fixed. Some customers choose to have LPHA take care of everything, while others ask to do one or more of the minor items themselves based on his instructions. Colton makes a point of checking in with these DIY enthusiasts about the items they opted to handle, to ensure he does not leave them hanging or neglecting their follow-up work. In addition to guaranteeing all of their service, LPHA provides follow-up phone calls or texts after each repair job to ensure that the fix actually resolved the issue and that it's still working. They provide optional notifications for upcoming scheduled maintenance. After talking with him, the most notable point in my opinion is that he realistically works with customers to help them plan how to handle repairs based on their circumstances. For instance, if a customer has a badly malfunctioning heater but cannot afford a full replacement at the moment, "I might say, let's just fix it up this year and then look at maybe replacing it next year. Then, they can plan ahead financially."

LPHA covers Millard and Utah Counties. Their primary service coverage in Utah Valley is the area from Springville on the north through to Payson, Santaquin, and the rest of the southern tip of the county. So far, a large number of new customers have been referrals by existing customers. On one recent occasion, Colton was chatting in the driveway with a guy whose HVAC he had just fixed when that customer said, "You know, my neighbor right there mentioned he needs his HVAC fixed sometime soon." The customer walked him across the street and introduced him on the spot; LPHA ended up taking care of that repair job as well. A large part of what drives those referrals is his growing and well-earned "anti-salesman" reputation -- essentially, a repair guy who knows his stuff and sincerely prioritizes taking care of the customer over trying to boost his own bottom line. I related that, together with his emphasis on customer education and preventative maintenance, he reminds me of a mechanic's version of a physician: skilled and prepared for full surgery if that is what is required, but also ready to just coach the patient on healthy lifestyle changes. "Yeah, I sometimes refer to myself as the doctor," he quipped.

Besides HVAC, which Colton currently handles here himself in south Utah County, the company also provides plumbing services in the same coverage area with licensed, background-checked technicians they employ. LPHA can be contacted through their website at lifetimeplumbingheatingandair.com or by phone at 385-454-3584.