Air Specialist: The Cooling and Heating Guru of Houston

Air Specialist has established its superior reputation by keeping families in the Houston-metropolitan and surrounding area comfortable in their homes for over 41 years. Air Specialists provides HVAC air conditioning and heating services, insulation and even indoor air quality products to ensure its customers full 100 percent satisfaction guarantee.
The company was originally founded in 1970, but since Rick Jacobsen and David Pelton bought Air Specialist in 2004, it has flourished. The company provides its clients with uncompromising customer service, highest quality and dependable parts and equipment, excellent manufacturer warranties as well as its own guarantee of workmanship. With an understanding that its customers have busy and hectic schedules, the company also provides fast, same day service with an on-call 24/7 emergency service.
The company operates out of one main facility located in Pearland, Texas. Air Specialist is a non-union company and employs 80 personnel, with annual revenue between $12 and $15 million. Jacobsen recognizes the crucial tools his valued employees bring to the company. “Like any other business that’s in the service industry, we struggle to get good people and retain them. It’s something that we have to work on day in and day out to sort through and make sure that we are bringing in good quality people that share our values and treat our customers well,” says Jacobsen.
Supporting its Name
Primarily 90 percent of the company’s projects are HVAC residential service work, but Air Specialist does dabble in some light commercial work as well. Due to its superior reputation, many of its customers have been referred from previous clients or by word-of-mouth, which helps the company continue to grow.
Air Specialist not only installs the top brands of equipment available in the market today, but the company also stands behind the quality of its workmanship. Air Specialist offers a 10-year parts and labor warranty that will cover systems for the next decade, even if the home is sold. The transferable warranty stays with the system, which is an eminent selling point to potential buyers.
Air Specialist also offers preventative maintenance and service agreements to its customers for HVAC systems. The company offers a preventative maintenance agreement program, which entitles its customers to a spring and fall precision tuning and maintenance for their system. Air Specialist offers this agreement in order for its customers to accumulate additional benefits. These benefits include an improved efficiency and the extended life of equipment, inflation protection, transferability and entitlement to priority services as well as a 10 percent discount.

Expansion Essentials
Due to the recent economy, according to Jacobsen, the new construction market has dropped drastically in the past three years. “There was a major fall-off. Production builders virtually went to a stand-still,” Jacobsen explains. “We were already deep in the process of re-making the company, so it hurt us, but it wasn’t crippling,” he continues.
The company is contemplating long term potential expansion to the Dallas area. With Jacobsen going for his MBA, the company looks forward to a major marketing effort underway for fiscal year 2012. “I think it will definitely benefit our company, short and long term,” claims Jacobsen.
Very optimistic for the company’s future Jacobsen says, “As far as our residential retail business, dealing with existing homeowners, business has been very strong. We have experienced growth year after year since we bought the company, and I don’t see anything that would indicate a fall-off. We are confident in the economy.”
Air Specialist executes a number of proficiencies in order to pursue the best service possible. These prestigious programs include the North American Technician Excellence (NATE), which is a special designation that the company’s service professions have obtained that demonstrates the highest level of technical training expertise in the industry.
In addition, the company created its’ own Install Quality Program, which requires all installations to be reviewed for quality control to ensure efficiency of newly installed equipment. Air Specialties has also been a member of the Houston Better Business Bureau (BBB) for over 10 years. As if that wasn’t enough, the company also received an Authorized Factory Dealer Designation, which are the highest designations awarded by equipment manufacturers to authorized dealers. This award indicates that the company met all of its highest standards of quality workmanship and has the best trained professionals in the industry. With both Jacobsen’s and Air Specialist’s persistent thirst for perfection, Houston’s homes will remain at desirable temperatures for years to come.