Where it all began…
Cast your mind back to 1993, a young Russell Chatfield decided to branch out on his own as a subcontractor, fresh off the back of years working in a sales role within the industry. Thanks to a large network of potential customers from many years working within the industry, Russell’s business began to grow and so started the journey to become Chatfield OzCool.
Originally called Chatfield A/C & Electrical Services (CAES), which operated out of Russell’s home, the business was eventually registered as Chatfield Air-conditioning and Electrical Services Pty Ltd in 1995.
With three young children at home and on-call 24/7 for every customer, the early days were hectic indeed, but fast forward to 2001 and Russell brought in a business partner, Adam Bourke, to help run the business as a director. This next stage in the business presented a more dynamic company structure, and the ability to take on additional service technicians. This allowed Russell to focus on business operations and expand the business’s work capacity.
In 2005, they purchased OzCool Refrigeration Pty Ltd. To streamline this acquisition and merge it into Russell and Adam’s existing business, to operate as one, they decided to rebrand the company name to Chatfield OzCool, which is the name they still trade with to this day.
Russell and Adam have certainly seen their fair share of changes over the years, but the biggest change they have seen is energy efficiency in air-conditioning and refrigeration. Russell Chatfield notes, “Inverter technology and digital electronic controls are at the forefront of our industry now. In turn, we offer energy-efficient upgrade options to all our customers; this reduces operational costs and allows the equipment to operate longer.”
The other notable change over the years, is the advancement of communication methods. Russell recalls, “In the early days, we used pagers when we were on-call on the road. We’d be communicating back to the call centre and writing down messages and we’d pass the pagers around to whoever was on call overnight”. (Be sure to ask Adam about his younger years, where he’d often lose his pager on the dancefloor at the disco!)
Adam even recounts back to the days before they had pagers, “We used to use 2-way radios! We’d have a radio in the car that would go back to base, and we’d be radioing back and forth while out on jobs.”
These days, modern technology has completely changed the way they operate. Thanks to smartphones, the Chatfield OzCool service technicians now have an app where they can see all the job details and notes on their phones. This information is all automated back to the office in real-time, so the technicians can create online quotes and can time the jobs and geo-track their locations. This means that the office can see where all the technicians are at any given time, making for a more streamlined operation and transparent communication for customers.
Where to from here…
Russell is all about development and growth moving forward. “We plan to continue to grow the team and maintain great relationships with our customers, while continuing to expand the business. We also plan to assist the development of our qualified refrigeration mechanics, offering them the ability to train as an A-grade electrician and become dual-traded.”
With a solid reputation and a great team at the forefront, Chatfield OzCool is setting the standard in air conditioning and electrical services.
If you would like to find out more about the team at Chatfield OzCool, give us a call on 1300 361 186.