MENDEL RADIATES CARING CULTURE TO CLIENTS AND EMPLOYEES

The Mendel Plumbing and Heating journey started out of a small garage in St. Charles. The company purchased its first service truck in 1985, outfitted it in the signature Mendel blue and has meticulously maintained the growing fleet of 30+ ever since.

From its humble beginnings, Mendel has come to be known as the highest quality provider of repair, installation, new construction and renovation work in the Fox Valley area. The range of services they provide not only includes heating, cooling and plumbing, but also electrical, remodeling and maintenance support.

“Most of our work is residential with about 25% commercial,” said Tom Mascari, president of Mendel. “We operate under the guiding principles of faith, family, integrity, respect and excellence and we work hard every day to be the firm our customers trust.”

During the pandemic, that meant ramping up their communication and keeping clients informed of safety protocols, as well as products and services to promote better indoor air quality in homes and businesses.

“We knew clients still needed services and we needed to show that they could continue to trust us as they always had,” Mascari said. “Indoor air quality products became front and center to our marketing pieces and to conversations with our clients.”

Mendel stands behind the quality of their service every day, something that’s apparent in the company’s nearly 9,000 overwhelmingly positive online reviews.

“As far as the client experience, we’re very consistent across our entire team,” Mascari said. “Regardless of who you talk to on the phone or who comes to perform a service in your home, you can expect a top-end experience with us. We have a very high commitment to making our clients happy and building strong client relationships for the long-term.”

It all starts with their company culture. Generally, performance gets a boost when employees are happy. To keep their employees happy and well-balanced in both their work and personal lives, Mendel leadership implemented what they refer to as “weekly hours goals” among their technicians to better accommodate all generations of workers.

“When we perform well as a support team, people are happy We have some young folks, some middle-aged folks and some older folks in the field and we recognize different people in different life stages have different values,” Mascari said. “Rather than a onesize- fits-all situation, we’ve started allowing our technicians to set weekly hour goals for themselves to better fit their needs and schedules — but our expectations for performance don’t change.”

In addition to their unwavering support toward their own employees, Mendel is a strong advocate of creating a strong, vibrant and diverse community through financial and in-kind contributions of local schools, churches, park districts and other organizations.

“Something we do that seems to be unique is, when we have trucks that still have some life left in them coming off service, we custom paint them for local community charities,” Mascari said, noting they’ve helped support organizations for cancer research, first responders and more. “They have our logo on them, but they’re colored and co-branded to the partnering organization to help create some visibility in town in a way they might not have otherwise.”

Mendel has been a proud member of SMACNA Greater Chicago for more than two decades.