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    1. Service

    Tools of the Trade: April 2008

    April 1, 2008
    Each month, Contracting Business picks a leading contractor and takes a look at the products, tools, and services that he or she has chosen to help make their company successful.
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    Each month, Contracting Business picks a leading contractor and takes a look at the products, tools, and services that he or she has chosen to help make their company successful.

    Cropp-Metcalfe, Fairfax, VA

    Cropp-Metcalfe, Fairfax, VA, the 2008 Contracting Business magazine Residential Contractor of the Year (CB, Feb. 2008, pg. 32) is a residential service company with more than 21,000 service agreements. The company, where Contracting Business magazine Hall of Fame member Mitchell Cropp (CB Aug. 2007, pg. 58) is president, provides service to Maryland, Northern Virginia, and Washington D.C. Here’s a look inside the trucks, office, and shop of one of the nation’s leading residential contractors.

    In The Trucks
    Number and type of trucks/vans: 170 total: box vans for installation, regular vans for service, stake body for deliverys, and pick up trucks.
    Tools provided to technicians: CPS reclaim machine, Ritchie vacuum pump, Macho drill, Home Depot ladders and sprayers, Milwaukee sawzall, Stinger shop vac.
    Test instruments technicians carry: Temperature analyzer, megaohm meter, multimeter, and leak detectors.
    Preferred field communications method: Nextel.
    Preferred brand of ladders: Werner.    		 In The Office
    Preferred business management software: SaWin Service Automation.
    Preferred business software package: SaWin Service Automation.
    Preferred sales management software: Winsales.
    Preferred computer/ printer equipment: Dell.
    Preferred photocopier equipment: Canon.
    Preferred fax machine: Brother.
    Business connection to the Internet via: T1 line.
    Preferred uniform supplier: UniFirst
    Credit Cards Accepted: VISA, MasterCard, Discover.
    Certification: 120 technicians certified or licensed through NADCA, NATE, RSES, CFC Certification, or Journeyman-Master Lic. HVAC, plumbing, electrical, security.    		 In The Shop
    Preferred HVAC heating and cooling equipment brands: Carrier.
    Preferred accessory equipment: Carrier, Aprilaire, and Honeywell.
    Preferred zoning equipment: Carrier, Arzel.
    Warehouse equipment: Home Depot hand trucks.
    Amount of equipment inventoried: $500,000.