Orangutan Home Services: Improving Arizona’s Habitat

Jordy Tessler and Ron Schuman founded Orangutan Home Services (Orangutan) in 1993 as the HVAC contractor that always works in the best interests of its customers. The name was originally American Home Services, but in 2010 the company officially rebranded with the help of a dedicated orange primate.

Orangutan has fielded over 1 million service calls and 50,000 new unit installations as of 2012, which helped the company earn the title of No. 1 Air Conditioning and Heating Contracting Company in the country from HVAC News. Above any accolade or numerical benchmark though, Orangutan focuses on delivering a top-quality experience for every customer, every time.

“The foundation of our company is an affordably priced, comprehensive HVAC maintenance program,” says Ron Schuman, vice president of Orangutan. “We rebranded to make sure our trucks and company were never forgotten.”

The Orangutan team services over 225,000 properties and 40,000 active maintenance program customers. The company has many notable clients as well. Orangutan is the exclusive HVAC service partner for Home Depot stores in Arizona. The team also maintains alliances with the Phoenix Suns and Mercury basketball teams, the Phoenix Zoo and the University of Arizona Steele Children’s Research Center.

The key to Orangutan’s approach is a borderline obsession with client satisfaction. If a client reports a less-than-satisfactory experience, the Orangutan team joins together to find a way to make it right, simply because Orangutan will accept nothing less from its 350 employees. Orangutan operates from locations in Phoenix, Scottsdale and Tucson to reach clients across Arizona. According to Schuman, the Tucson and Phoenix metropolitan areas account for the lion’s share of Orangutan’s volume.

A Whole-house Approach

The North American Technician Excellence program certifies all of Orangutan’s technicians. Additionally, employees are continually retrained to remain on top of the latest technologies and best practices in order to maintain Orangutan’s Building Performance Institute certification. Orangutan may be best known for its work in air conditioning and heating systems, but the company also provides its expertise on a range of ancillary home services like insulation, plumbing, home security and pest control. The addition services ensure that Orangutan can work with customers to provide an end-to-end solution that addresses a broad array of concerns.

After all, installing a high-efficiency cooling system without addressing any insulation inefficiencies makes the system substantially less efficient. Orangutan works closely with customers to establish the client’s foremost priorities, after which Orangutan technicians will inspect existing systems and formulate a game plan that meets the client’s performance expectations and budgetary constraints.

“Over the past few years, we have become Building Performance Institute-certified while working with the local utilities to train our staff to provide whole-house solutions,” adds Schuman. “A central heating and cooling system is complex and not a stand-alone item. Directly replacing and older system with a new one does not solve problems cause by leaking ductwork, degraded insulation, or prior installation mistakes.” As a result, Orangutan has expanded into plumbing, insulation, ventilation, pool services, pest control, home security, energy analysis, solar solutions, window tinting, remodeling and handyman services.

The company’s innovative approach to each individual customer is what sets Orangutan apart from the competition. Tessler and Schuman incorporated their 20 years of expertise and transferred it onto the iPad to provide easy information for their customers. “This app contains everything from the history of the company to upfront pricing and training videos,” says Schuman. The innovative technology creates a professional connection between the customer and the Orangutan team. Customers are now able to make informed decisions when working with Orangutan.

Comfort and Confidence for All

In fact, Orangutan specializes in residential retrofits and repair services, with new construction accounting for just a small fraction of the company’s total volume. Orangutan understands that homeowners don’t always have a 12-hour window of time to wait around for a service technician and service requests are scheduled in small windows of time where the customer chooses the time of day. Orangutan equips its fleet of service vehicles with a neatly organized portfolio of repair parts, ensuring the client’s system will be back in working order immediately.

Estimates are always free of charge and Orangutan backs up the quality of its work with a variety of ancillary services. Orangutan will insulate attics to prevent thermal losses and help customers save more on energy costs. The company will also provide pest control services to protect the home from termites and other invasive critters that can spread germs, irritate allergies and generally startle residents.

Orangutan focuses equally on the home’s energy efficiency as it does on the health of the indoor environment. The company is familiar with systems like the Eliminator water-softening system and the Zeta Rod system, which remove hard minerals from the water and help keep appliances in working order longer. The company can also install reverse osmosis filtration systems and on-demand hot water heating systems to help customers consume less water and savor the water they do consume. Orangutan also offers a variety of home security systems complete with 24-hour monitoring services as an ADT authorized dealer.

Orangutan backs up the performance of all of its systems with a variety of maintenance plans designed to keep the home’s heating and cooling systems efficiently operating. Orangutan technicians will clean air ducts, replace filters and check hoses to ensure systems won’t fail even under the stress of the hot desert sun. Cooling a home in Arizona is a matter of safety, not just comfort. When equipment fails on hot summer days homeowners are at serious risk, which is precisely why the company strives to help those most in need.

Giving Back

In 2011 alone Orangutan donated over a dozen air conditioning systems and the installation services to families in need. In one case, an Orangutan employee heard a radio report of a foster care home whose cooling unit was stolen and dismantled for the scrap metal. The employee immediately notified management, who quickly mobilized to install and secure a new unit for the home in anticipation of 115-degree heat that day.

Orangutan also showed its appreciation for its mascot by donating toward the construction of a state-of-the-art orangutan habitat at the Phoenix Zoo. The previous habitat was not much more than a concrete slab. Through the team’s work in other parts of the Zoo, including at the new Event and Education Center, Orangutan decided to show its love by donating $500,000 to spruce up the habitat.

And Orangutan plans to continue building momentum in the next few years. “We are about to launch a national licensing partnership where we will be joining forces with other small to medium-sized HVAC contractors who sharing our vision and wish to join the Orangutan family,” says Schuman proudly. In the process Orangutan Home Services will set a national standard for responsive, comprehensive home services, keeping clients cool, comfortable and confident in energy efficiency.