Doing Business with Local Companies — and Finding Them Isn’t Always Easy

As a local Cassopolis business owner, I work very hard to provide excellent service and quality in everything we do here at Bolt Laserworks. I’m always appreciative of customers who make the effort to do business with local companies like us rather than big national firms. So, when on the coldest and snowiest night of this winter so far, I got home last night and found our house cold and the furnace not working, it was my turn to find a local furnace repair company to call in the morning. Before retiring to sleep under heated blankets in our cold bedroom I searched for someone to call in the morning to get our heat back.

thermostat

Like anyone would, I pulled out my phone and Googled “furnace repair near Cassopolis.” What I found was Finding Them Isn’t Always Easy. Every single result was a third-party service site — not actual repair companies but call centers that gather your information and then distribute it to whoever subscribes to them. I wanted to talk to someone local, directly, to find out how soon they could come take a look and what their service call might cost.

Even when I typed in the names of companies I knew were in our area, Google still buried their real contact info under pages of aggregator links. I wasn’t interested in talking to someone in Atlanta or Houston who’d send a text alert to a contractor somewhere nearby. I wanted a Cassopolis business — someone who’d actually answer the phone.

After getting nowhere with Google, I turned to ChatGPT (yes, AI can help us find local companies better than Google sometimes!). It listed several nearby companies, including Discount Heating Air right here in Cassopolis.

This morning at the office I called them, and get this — the phone was answered by a live person. I know, who does that anymore (besides Bolt Laserworks)? I spoke with Erik, explained the situation, and hoped he could schedule a service call within a day or so since this was the first real cold snap of the season. He surprised me when said he could meet me at the house within an hour.

Sure enough, I pulled into the driveway and there was Erik waiting. Within 30 minutes, he’d diagnosed the problem: a bad ignitor. He said he had to drive into Elkhart to get the part but would return in two hours to finish the job. What really impressed me was what he didn’t say — there was no push to replace the 20-year-old furnace, no talk of “can’t get parts” or “it’s not worth fixing.” Instead, Erik pointed out that new furnaces are expensive and that ours was in otherwise excellent shape.

Two hours later, he was back and within 30 minutes the furnace was reassembled and blowing warm air again. When he handed me the bill, it was far lower than I expected. Before leaving, Erik told me to call anytime we had heating or cooling issues. You can be sure I will.

So here’s my good deed for the day — and with winter here do yourself a favor, write this down and post it near your furnace since Finding Them Isn’t Always Easy:

Discount Heating Air Erik – Cassopolis, MILicensed, bonded & insured for residential and commercial work in Indiana and Michigan Ph: (574) 399-6480

Discount Heating Air - Cassopolis, MI

You won’t find that number easily by Googling, but now you have it.

We talk a lot about supporting local, and this is what it really looks like. It’s not always just buying a cup of coffee downtown or ordering from a local maker like us at Bolt Laserworks — it’s also remembering that there are still great, honest, hardworking professionals like Erik who’s business may not be visible on Main Street, but who pick up the phone, show up when they say they will, and do the job right without upselling you on something you don’t need.

So next time your furnace quits, your sink leaks, or your car won’t start — try a local first. You’ll be glad you did.

– Jeff Nelson, Bolt Laserworks, Cassopolis, MI “We make it special.”