Here is a great video I wanted to pass on.  The quesiton it raises for all of us in our personal and work lives is, "What's your purpose?"

Chances are, you don't. Still, a growing number of our customers have asked about the potential of lead and other impurities contaminating drinking water. As far as municipal sources go, Marin County has some of the "best" water in the country. However, the chlorine and ammonia that go into disinfecting the water, and the lead and impurities that accumulate in the plumbing system between the treatment plant and your home, can lead to less than ideal drinking water. The best thing you can do is educate yourself on what is actually in our tap water, and then make the decision you think is best for you and the health of your family.

Here are a few recommendations from the EPA for consumers concerned about contaminated water.

• Anytime the water in a particular faucet has not been used for six hours or longer, "flush" by running the water until it becomes as cold as it will get.
• Use only water from the cold-water tap for drinking, cooking, and especially for making baby formula.
• Have your tap water tested professionally, or test it yourself with one of several inexpensive kits available.
• Make sure to run the water until you feel the temperature change before cooking, drinking, or brushing your teeth, unless otherwise instructed by your utility.

In addition:

• You can go to MWWD's website for 2011's Water Quality Report to see exactly what is in your tap water.
• Use a faucet or pitcher filter that removes lead from drinking water. If you use a filter, be sure it is certified to remove lead.
• Call us about installing a whole house filter or purifier.

Please feel free to call or email me with any questions. If you have any suggestions or tips I would love to pass them along. Take care and we'll see you soon!

Paul Guzman, GM

Do you know how we get most of our best customers? It's usually from great customers we already have! It always makes us smile when a new customer mentions a friend or family member who said that they "just had to call O'Connell Plumbing" if they really wanted to be taken care of. So now it's our turn to say "Thank you". We decided that our advertising dollars were best spent on the people who really build the foundation of our business (you), not on bigger and bigger yellow page ads, so we revamped our referral program in an effort to show you just how valuable your recommendations are to us.

So here's the deal, starting on April 15th, the first time you refer a new customer to us we'll send you a check for $25, the second time we'll send you a check for $50, and for the third referral and every on after that we will send you a check for $100. That's right, a cool hundo every time you help one of your friends or family to find the best plumber for their home and family. Now for our Elsie Club Members the pot is a little sweeter. Members get $50, $100, and $150 for their referrals. Just make sure whoever you send our way uses your name when we ask how they heard about us.

Now the conditions:  1) New customers must not be in our existing database at the time they call to schedule an appointment and give us your name and;  2) Work must be contracted and completed (does not include service fees or estimates) for check to issued.  That's it!  Nothing tricky or sneaky about it, just a great way for us to give back to the most valuable thing we have in this business, you!  If you have any questions or comments about the program, you can call the office and talk to Charmina or email me at paul@oconnellplumbing.com and we'll be happy to chat.  Until next time!

Paul G

  I don't know how many of you actually watch commercials anymore but I just saw the new Taco Bell commercial that's out, trying to refute the recent study that found a Taco Bell taco to contain only 35% beef.  Now the commercial states that; "88% of our seasoned beef is pure beef and the other 12% is signature recipe."  That sounds great but I sure did not hear them tell me how much of the "seasoned beef" makes it into their Beef Taco filling.  I am going to assume about 35%.  This does not make Taco Bell evil, it just makes them typical.  And if you are really worried about the percentage of real beef in your Taco Bell taco, you should probably not be eating there anyways. 

  So you may ask yourself, "Why is a plumber talking about Taco Bell on his website?" and that would be a good question.  What the Taco Bell commercial made me think about is how do we treat our customers when something goes wrong, or we make a mistake.  (I say that knowing that as much as we would love to achieve perfection every day it does not always happen.)  We take great pride in telling the truth here, even when it exposes a mistake or oversight.  I hope I have never sounded to one of my customers like that Taco Bell commercial sounded to me.  Our goal is to treat all of our customers with respect, and make sure that they are happy with us and our work at the end of the day.  If you have had a good experience with us I would love to hear about it.  And if you have had a bad experience I would appreciate hearing about it even more.  What's more, lets open it up to all plumbing companies.  Let me know about good and bad experiences with any plumbing company you have used.  (We don't always have to make our own mistakes to learn from them, right?)  You can leave a comment here or email me at paul@oconnellplumbing.com  Thanks everyone and we'll talk soon!

Paul Guzman

Just a quick thank you to everyone who voted for us in the Pacific Sun's annual Best of Marin Contest. We are here to serve our community, and your votes are the ones that count. Thank you to all our loyal customers, friends and family who support us and our families!