Houston, TX – 38 members of The Unified Group reunited for the first time since 2020 for the 2022 Service Management Forum. Companies from all over the United States made their way down to Houston, Texas on Wednesday, January 26 to attend the Welcome Reception, where they once again laughed with friends, shared moments, and began what they would soon find to be a successful forum.

The following morning attendees came to the conference room for breakfast and the meeting immediately began with welcome and introductions, where new and veteran members introduced themselves. Carla Fugit (our guest speaker) of Platinum Business Strategies took over most of the day with a collaborative session on accountability, including lectures, large and small group discussions, and individual analysis on handouts. “Understanding peer-to-peer accountability processes and how it can be administered in the workplace to deal with current issues is one of the best parts about these forums,” Zane Driggers of Cullum Mechanical Construction said. Gretchen Riddle of A&G Services followed with a presentation of Financials and KPI’s, and to end the day, Matt Blauch of Blauch Brothers and Mike Meadows of A&G Services each shared a best idea with the group. Blauch’s topic was Gain Share for Service and Meadow’s topic was Team Leads.

The second day began just as successful, where Daniel Gauthier and Jeremy Holmes of CMC Corporate Solutions, and Derren Saucier of Temperature, Inc. shared their personal experience on Training Technicians. And to end the morning, Milwaukee Tool, one of The Unified Group’s purchasing partners attended to present on opportunities for the members. After lunch, everyone broke into groups for the Biggest Challenge Breakout. “The information I gathered from the other members has allowed me to determine an actual process to fix my greatest challenge. With the encouragement from these members, I do not have any hesitations in the decision making that will follow,” Jake Ramsey of Fez Mechanical said. “This is a perfect display of how outstanding The Unified Group is.” Frank Quintanar of J&J Air Conditioning and Scott Ryan of Cullum Mechanical Construction ended day two sharing the Age Gap Between Older and Younger Technicians.

On day three, Chrissy Rizzo of Service Unlimited, Inc. launched the meeting by sharing a best idea of Realigning Roles within the Company. Then, a large group discussion regarding COVID-19 took place, where members asked each other difficult questions, complained about problems they all are having, and tried to come to solutions. Chris DeMers of CMC Corporate Solutions concluded the meeting with a presentation on Takeaway Discussions. Overall, members had fantastic things to say about each piece of the forum.

“The best part of these forums is to see what others are doing and how they are implementing. It is very eye opening,” Kord Cartrette of Veregy/Midstate Energy said.

The Unified Group would love to extend gratitude to the first ever member meeting MC, Frank Quintanar (J&J Air Conditioning), who exceeded expectations and received excellent feedback. In addition, the group would like to thank the Task Force who helped plan the Forum: Matt Blauch (Blauch Brothers), Derren Saucier (Temperature, Inc.), Chris DeMers (CMC Corporate Solutions), and Frank Quintanar (J&J Air Conditioning). 

If you are interested in attending the 2023 Service Management Forum in Nashville, Tennessee, contact Janet Kelleher at KelleherJ@TheUnifiedGroup.com.