Reliance Takes Your Home Comfort Seriously

While it doesn’t have the same eye appeal as stone countertops or hardwood floors, your furnace and air conditioner s are critical to the comfort of your home.

You may not give much thought to your furnace, water heater or air conditioner until it isn’t working, but that’s where Reliance Home Comfort™ can provide peace of mind. The company, with more than 50 years of experience, sells, and repairs furnaces, air conditioners, water heaters, provides plumbing services and sells water purification systems and water softeners.

Reliance has 1.7 million customers across Canada It serves a diverse clientele, including the Chinese community and provides brochures in Chinese; its call centre has agents who speak Mandarin and Cantonese. Earlier this year, CKP (Canada) Holdings Ltd., a subsidiary of Cheung Kong Property Holdings Ltd., became an investment partner in Reliance.

The company has stringent hiring and training processes for every team member, from call centre agents to its technicians. The company has been cited as one of the 10 Most Admired Corporate Cultures and its CEO and president Sean O’Brien has been honoured with a Most Admired CEO award. Creating a culture where team members take pride in their work and deliver first-class customer service are key Reliance values.

“One of our strengths is our turnaround time,” Sreekanth Kumar, regional sales manager for Reliance, told the Epoch Times in an interview. “Our call centre is in Oshawa and when a call comes in, it immediately goes to our service team and a technician is deployed. A quick turnaround is part of customer service excellence.”

When a technician visits a homeowner who is interested in new equipment, he or she will analyze the home’s heat loss and gain using software, explain how heating and cooling systems operate, ask questions about the client’s lifestyle, and help to choose the best HVAC (Heating, Ventilation, Air Conditioning) system tailored to the customer’s needs and budget. Providing excellent after sales services is another of Reliance’s strengths.

With people moving on average every five years and systems costing $12,000 to $20,000 to purchase, “our company is very big on the rental proposition,” says Kumar. A system may include a furnace, air conditioner, and NEST or Ecobee Wifi thermostat that can be programmed with a smart phone, with rental packages running from $69 to $200 a month. The advantage of renting is that homeowners pay nothing upfront and Reliance will maintain and repair the equipment at no cost.

Reliance provides a host of protection and maintenance programs. Heating protection plans, for example, begin at just $9.99 per month and include parts and labour, a full service guarantee; unlimited service calls and have no deductible or hidden costs. Heating and cooling protection plans begin from $16.49 per month.

The company has also ventured into plumbing services, which homeowners are embracing. Customers pay a flat fee per month and Reliance plumbers will come to deal with common water emergencies such as leaks or to install new fixtures.

Reliance carries its own line of SmartAir appliances, as well as brand names such as Rheem, Amana, Bosch, Goodman, and Carrier and can provide customers with a good, better, or best option.

Homeowners are becoming more interested in equipment such as HRVs (Heat Recovery Ventilators), which supply a constant stream of fresh air into the home and help to maintain good indoor air quality, and tankless hot water heaters which provide a constant stream of hot water on demand.

Heating and combi boilers are also gaining popularity and are one of the most efficient means to heat a home, by using hot water as the heat source. They are versatile and can be used through conventional heat distribution methods, as well as for radiant and in-floor heating, and to heat driveways, hot tubs, and pools.

Reliance is a participating contractor in government rebate programs available to homeowners who upgrade homes built prior to 2000 to save on energy. The Enbridge Home Energy Conservation Rebate offers an incentive of up to $2,250 is based on energy-saving measures for homes such as: insulation, air sealing, furnace, boiler and/or water heater replacement. It requires before and after energy audits by a certified auditor, which Reliance can arrange. Union Gas offers a similar rebate program. Both pre- and post-retrofit energy audits must be completed by December 31, 2017.

For more information on Reliance Home Comfort’s services, visit www.reliancehomecomfort.com

Tracy Hanes is a GTA-based freelancer specializing in real estate and home-related topics.