We caught up with the brilliant and insightful William Marushik a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

William, appreciate you joining us today. Let’s start big picture – what are some of biggest trends you are seeing in your industry?

We find that, despite us living in an age of communication, with a dozen ways to talk and interact with people, Most of our customers can’t even get someone on the phone. They can’t get calls back, or responses to their emails. We pride ourselves on being in a unique position to address that concern. While it may be odd for some to call for a handyman and reach someone in an office, the point is, you reach someone! Someone who will take your calls. Answer your questions. Wal through things with you. This is in part, where I come in. I’ve gained a wealth of knowledge in my time here, and am able to explain to customers what’s going to happen and why. If we miss a call, we call back. We get an email, we respond. There our customers who call us and are literally surprised to hear an actual human talking. As a local man myself, I am able to understand the problems of my fellow City livers, and get on their level as we discuss their work. For many of our customers its this service, this responsiveness, that makes us a go to for them. Cause there’s no avoiding, no run around, just straight customer service.

William, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

I went to school for business and marketing. I planned to be a copywriter. Seemed like the perfect job for me, as I have a creative side, as well as logical analytical side, that I think can work in the overall spread of marketing. I ended up here at Finest Fix by responding to a job listing. I think I wasn’t 100% what they were looking for, but I don’t they 100% knew what they were looking for either. They took a chance on me, and I just manage to thrive at making things work. I thought I would answer a phone call or two, do some social media marketing, and I ended up managing the whole office, and the new staff as they came in. Now that I’m a couple years into this position, I feel a new confidence in myself and my mind for business.

I think, In major part, my personality worked in this position, because it wasn’t all just business and numbers. This company, this industry, needs a human touch. With that door open, I was allowed to be a little creative, and friendly, and personable to the clients. I was able to make this a company with a friendly voice and spirit. Of course, we higher great guys who are all very nice themselves. I was allowed to foster that environment and culture here. I knew, as I talked to customers new and old, that that’s something they wanted. I was able to convince them to give us a try, something I only had the confidence to do, because I knew I was backed up by a solid team of workers, both in and out of the office.

We truly want our clients to get the right fix. We also don’t want them to feel cheated. From time to time, Ill even explain to the customers their fix is so simple, they don’t NEED a handyman, Ill explain the fix over the phone, at no charge. There’s customers who contact us just to ask questions and I will talk time to answer them. Because of that, when they do NEED work, we are the first call they make.

Can you share a story from your journey that illustrates your resilience?

While I manage the office staff, I also interact directly and often with our field workers. When I came into this role, I wasn’t a particularly handy guy, nor am I a particularly imposing figure, as I am the shortest guy at the company. So when it came to being able to stand face to face with guys twice my size, who have been doing this stuff for years, and hold my own in a conversation, and get them to trust me and my directions, I knew I had my work cut out for me. I had to learn fast. Ask questions. Give them room to speak, but also make sure I was heard. I let them walk me through their end, and then tell them where I am coming from. It was a back and forth. I was nervous at first. That I’d be crushed. Pushed out. Disliked. But, through being kind, willing to learn and not TELL THEM how to do their job, but discuss how we as a team would be tackling a job, I earned their respect and friendship. I now feel, any and every job goes better when I am able to talk through it with them, and hear what they see, and tell them what I see, and how best the two views can come together to get the best results.

What’s worked well for you in terms of a source for new clients?

Word of mouth remains our best advertisement. We go out, we help someone, we do something right, and people start to talk. They see our truck in their area, they remember the name, they give us a call. The best for us, is property managers. The owner of the company himself is an owner of over 100 properties, and we service all of those. We’ve learned to help property managers in such a unique and honed way, that when we’re able to help one property manager, news quickly spreads to others. We love getting calls from new property managers that want to bring us in to assist, cause we get where they’re coming from. We understand their needs and thought process. The more we can learn from each and every customer the better we can do on the next job and the next.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.finestfix.net/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/finestfix_philly/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/p/Finest-Fix-100095291094733/
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/finest-fix-philadelphia

Image Credits

Aliyah Hamilton- Office Administrator