Recently we’ve had an ongoing series of posts talking about the Bell Brothers’ Core Values. In each post, we take one of our values and examine it in detail. Each value is assigned a letter, and all the letters together make up the word “ETHICS.” This is the fourth post in the series of six.

It can’t be bought or sold, but it can be earned like a dollar. It takes time to be noticed, but it’s always there. And when you have nothing else, it’s what people still see when they look at you. We’re talking about integrity, a trait that we’re proud to have here at Bell Brothers. We’ve always had it, but we want to make sure it informs everything we do–for us, that’s what matters.

Bell Brothers’ Core Values: D.W.Y.S.Y.W.D (dwiz-ee-wid): Do What You Said You Would Do

We love Doctor Seuss, and Bell Brothers is in the same school as Horton from the cartoon “Horton Hatches the Egg:” He says, “I meant what I said, and I said what I meant. An elephant’s faithful one-hundred percent.” For Bell Brothers, that pretty much sums it up: If we say it, we do it. Plain and simple. That means we’ll fix what we say we’ll fix, we’ll show up when we say we’ll show up, and we won’t promise something we can’t deliver on.

We also do it in a timely manner. It’s no good to do something years after promising it, if the promise was for a few days time. We know that our clients have lives and busy schedules, and they need work done reliably and on time. They may not have all day to wait for a HVAC guy to show up–they need him there when he says he’ll be there. And if he works for Bell Brothers, that’s when he’ll be there.

We Value the Reputation That Has Been Built Before Us

Reputation starts with family. In our families, the good reputation that we have was earned by our ancestors, our grandparents, and parents. When people know we’re from those families, they know we’re part of the same tradition. More recently, our company has been building a good reputation for itself over the years by doing good work at a fair price. The best way to honor that is to commit to doing as good a job as ever for the clients we treasure. Why do clients keep coming back? Because our integrity keeps us doing a good job. Recently we had a conversation with a client who had just had us install their third AC system. This is a client we’ve had for decades, and they were so happy to be working with us again in their new home. Those sorts of relationships are the kinds we want to keep.

We Do What Is in the Best Interest of our Clients

Not the almighty dollar. Not our pride. Not our checkbooks. Our clients. At Bell Brothers, they come first plain and simple. It’s easy to cut a job short, take lunch early, come back late, and maybe go home early so we can beat the traffic. But we’re hired to do a job. And while that job may differ–change filters, tune-up a heater, or service a leaky faucet–the real job we’re being hired for is to do what’s in our clients’ best interests. That’s true no matter what we’re doing. And if we’re not doing that, we’re not doing our job. We’re not earning our money fair and square. And we’re not treating people with integrity.

We don’t talk about this very often, but a lot of the stuff we work on can cause a lot of damage to people’s homes and wallets if not serviced correctly. We will never be the kind of guys who risk that for our clients. It’s just solid business, and more than that–it’s the right thing to do.