There is a lot of buzz lately about improving the environment and making more choices that lean towards energy efficient products.  In today's world, it might do everyone a bit of good to pay attention to some simple items that you can do to help themselves and the environment as well.  But doing some basic things is great, but we all need to learn more about being more energy efficient to really make the greatest impact, not only on our own wallets but as a side effect of making changes, improving our environment.

I found a few tips on the department of energy web site.  They do have some great information there for those who are looking to learn a bit more about energy efficient, products, research new technology.  It's a great resource and you could definitely spend hours there looking and reading all of what they publish online.  These are a few tips from the department of energy web site:

Energy Auditing Tips

• Check the insulation levels in your attic, exterior and basement walls, ceilings, floors, and crawl spaces. Visit www.energysavers.gov for instructions on checking your insulation levels.

• Check for holes or cracks around your walls, ceilings, windows, doors, light and plumbing fixtures, switches, and electrical outlets that can leak air into or out of your home.

• Check for open fireplace dampers.

• Make sure your appliances and heating and cooling systems are properly maintained. Check your owner's manuals for the recommended maintenance.

• Study your family's lighting needs and use patterns, paying special attention to high-use areas such as the living room, kitchen, and outside lighting. Look for ways to use lighting controls—like occupancy sensors, dimmers, or timers—to reduce lighting energy use, and replace standard (incandescent) light bulbs and fixtures with compact or standard fluorescent lamps.

But as I said, many of us need to go a little beyond some of the simple items and take a more in depth look at our homes in order so that we can put together a more comprehensive and thorough plan of attack that gives us a bigger bang for our buck.  This often requires the help of someone like an energy auditor to come and make a review of our homes and make some recommendations.  Often your local power utility companies do have programs where they do come out to make recommendations, however i would also check to see if there are some local Home Energy Auditors who also provide this service. 

You can find these in your local phone book or you can try making a request for a quote for a Home Energy Audit using a service.

We recently just conducted a survey of 41 Home Inspection Companies and gained a little insight on a potential problem area.  We all know how frustrating it is sometimes to try and call a company when you are looking to have something done only to come across having to leave voice-mail, or feel like you have to contact three or four businesses and in the end you are left wondering why you feel like you have to pull teeth in order to give some business your money?  It's actually a very interesting fact, and it does leave you wondering if it's just you or you are just becoming too sensitive or impatient. 

So, before you go off thinking that this must be all you and you are just being impatient, let me throw some figures at you.  Of the 41 companies we called only 46% answered their phone, 12% of the calls went to voice-mail, and the remaining businesses 42% we could not get through to the Home Inspection company at all after three tries.  Out of all the Home Inspection companies we left voice messages for only one returned our call. 

In a slowed economy where the pace of home sales is not quite as fast as it used to be, most small businesses suffer the problem of not having sufficient cash flow to support bringing aboard and hiring extra help.  Which makes this is often a not so easily resolved problem.  But there are a few possibilities that perhaps may be worth considering.

1.  One of the easiest answer is to make sure that as a business owner there is always someone to answer your phone.  If it can't be you, then it HAS to be someone else.  Often, this is single most important aspect of customer service that you can provide.  And also, as can be seen, if you do answer your phone, then your chances of improving your level of business increases drastically.  And believe me, if the percentages we came across is anywhere close to being representative of the larger group then some serious attention needs to be given here. 

2.  Return calls promptly.  Based on our experience, half of the population didn't even care what the call was about.  This makes for a lot of good business left on the table for those who do care.  So even if you miss a call, try returning the call.  Chances are that your customer is still looking for a Home Inspection company.  You might catch them still and save the day.

3.  Try an answering service.  There are services out there that can help with this type of situation.  At least, you can capture the customer's information so that you can have an organized return call back to the customer and at least they will know that they will get their message returned.

4.  Hire an office person.  Of course this is requires a good level of business to support, however it's critical to the business success.

But I'd like to hear from several others out there on this topic.  What kinds of things do you do or have you done to improve this situation in your businesses?  What do you do to improve your level of customer service?

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If you live in several of the Southern states such as Texas or Florida you may want to look into your windstorm policies to see if you are getting a windstorm mitigation discount.  Often insurance companies will provide lower rates for those homes which have wind mitigation features such as storm shutters, impact resistant glass, and other features based on roof design and roof construction. 

Insurance companies often rely on Home Inspection companies which often offer these types of inspections.  Typically these companies will look for these features and provide a report to you or your insurance company with the results.  The amounts you can typically save vary, and it is recommended that you contact your insurance company to determine if you qualify for any discounts based on the mitigation features present in your home.  Savings are often well worth the small amount that a typical inspection costs to have this done.

If you live in Florida you may want to look into resources such as http://www.mysafefloridahome.com as an additional source of information.

I just wanted to let everyone know that we are currently in the process of taking on new authors to contribute content on our site.  If you have expertise in the areas of Real Estate, Homes, Construction or anything related to Houses and Homes feel free to sign up via the authors link. 

Look forward to hearing from you!