Firm roots in the past, with an eye on the future
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April 3, 2024
STURGEON BAY — Derrick Ellefson, president and owner of Synergy Heating & Cooling, said his efforts toward giving back to his community as a business owner — specifically to nonprofits in the area — started with a typical service call.
“(The Door County YMCA ) originally was calling us to do service work like any other company or person does,” he said. “But they weren’t doing any preventative maintenance work — whenever something broke, they’d call us, and we were doing a fair amount of repair work for them.”
Ellefson said the Synergy team encouraged them to start doing some preventative service work regularly to hopefully eliminate the expensive, on-demand service calls that come up.
“But, they said they didn’t have it in the budget,” he said. “At the same time, though, they couldn’t afford these frequent on-demand calls when something would break down either.”
Ellefson said he doesn’t remember exactly what was needed at the time, but said it was something that could have been caught by doing regular preventative maintenance.
“That’s why I felt bad because it either could have been prevented or at least they would have known it was coming and could have been prepared and budgeted for it,” he said.
Though Synergy Heating & Cooling often stresses the importance of preventative maintenance/service work, Ellefson said he recognized nonprofits typically operate on tight budgets, with little, if any, money to spare.
That’s when, he said, a lightbulb went off in his head.
Everybody wins
Ellefson said when he started the business, it was important to him to be part of the community by giving back when and where he could and being a good corporate neighbor.
With that said, he said he also wanted his employees to feel like they had some say-so about where the company was making donations.
“It’s called Synergy — not Ellefson Heating & Cooling or with anybody (else’s) last name in it — because synergy means everybody working together to have a better product,” he said. “When I worked for companies in the past, they’d donate money to certain causes and that sort of thing. And donating money is great, but with newer businesses, money is sometimes hard to come by.”
Services, however, Ellefson said, is something Synergy had to offer.
Synergy Heating & Cooling Owner and President Derrick Ellefson said employees are part of the decision making process when it comes to giving back. Photo Courtesy of Synergy Heating & Cooling
“My thought was if we could donate some services, our employees can have a stake in the actual donation part of it,” he said. “They’re getting paid for their work, but when they go to a place, they know we’re doing this work as a donation- The employees feel involved with it — it’s not just the president of a company saying ‘we’re going to give a couple thousand dollars to a place’ and the employees don’t have a say about it.”
That, Ellefson said, is how and when Synergy’s partnership with the YMCA started (around 2014-15) — “a win-win for everyone involved.”
The company, he said, provides the filters when performing regular, preventative maintenance work and provides the labor at no cost to the YMCA.
If any parts were needed, besides the filters, the YMCA would pay for that, as well as for service and parts if on-demand service would happen at any other time — though Ellefson said he does discount that kind of service call.
Synergy maintains the Y’s heating and cooling equipment regularly — at least twice annually, which includes an inspection, cleaning, testing and tune-up depending on the time of year.
The team also addresses any potential issues they may notice before they escalate into major problems.
Ellefson said if a problem is detected and it’s not something that needs immediate repair or replacement, it gives the Y the heads-up to start budgeting for it.
“That helps them so much because they can then spread out their donation dollars instead of having to pay for an emergency call on top of the repairs,” he said. “They don’t have breakdowns anymore like they used to. And they don’t have unexpected expenses.”
Ellefson said due to the nature of the business he is in, Synergy is mostly a demand-service business.
“People don’t usually call us just to chat,” he said. “They’re calling us because they’re having a problem. So, to even out our schedule, doing regular, proactive service in between emergencies helps. It keeps us busy and is stuff we can do on our time.”
A regional effort
Ellefson said the Door County YMCA is not the only nonprofit Synergy helps.
Shortly after working with the Y, he said the company started offering the same services to the Door County Humane Society.
“The humane society is the same way the Y is — they’re on a tight budget,” he said. “They’re being run by donations. But if we can get in there and at least (help prevent) unexpected repairs to their heating and cooling systems, that’s saving them money long-term.”
Synergy, Ellefson said, also offers free preventative maintenance services to a variety of other nonprofits in the Door County region, including the Door County Community Foundation and the Economic Development Center.
In 2023, Ellefson said he estimates he and his nine employees provided about $20,000 of in-kind donations to nonprofits in the Door County region.
“$20,000 in cash is sometimes hard to come by, but this is an easy way of donating,” he said.
Other involvement
Besides the pro-bono services the company provides, Ellefson said he is heavily involved in the Plumbing, Heating and Cooling Contractors’ Association (PHCC) — sitting on the organization’s board.
The PHCC, he said, has both a national and state chapter and promotes plumbing, heating and cooling education, as well as other things related to the industry in general.
“We do a lot of work with scholarships and continuing education for plumbers and (others in the industry),” he said.
Ellefson said he also serves on the advisory council for Northeast Wisconsin Technical College.
Derrick Ellefson
“As someone who works in the industry, I enjoy this because I can help direct the college on what’s being taught and how it’s being taught as those things relate to the industry,” he said. “It needs to be enlightening and educational, but what’s being taught must also be current and accurate information.”
Ellefson said it might sound clichÈ, but it makes him feel good when he’s giving back to the community he calls home.
“I hate saying ‘giving back’ because it makes it sound like I took something,” he said. “But I’m using all the stuff everyone has given me throughout my career, and I’m helping out with my knowledge. It’s a nice feeling.”
Another branch
Besides providing service to residential and commercial heating and cooling systems, in 2023, Ellefson said Synergy Heating & Cooling began offering similar services to larger boats and yachts — an idea he said came about because of the synergy he said he has with the staff.
One of his employees said he was familiar with boats and wondered if the company might want to start offering services to boat owners.
“There weren’t a whole lot of companies who would travel to boats at some of these marinas,” he said. “The owner could take it to a boat dealer, but not a lot of (service people) travel there, especially when you consider the logistics (involved) in dispatching a truck and getting it there.”
Ellefson said he saw an opportunity in the industry.
“And it fits with what we do,” he said. “We have dispatchers and dispatching software, our trucks are stocked with whatever they might need and one of our employees is familiar with that kind of work. So, it made a lot of sense.”
Located in a county that is surrounded on three sides by water, Ellefson said adding large boat and yacht services to the company’s repertoire was a smart business decision.
“There are a lot of marinas around and some of these boats have air-conditioners on them — some even have two or three of them on their boats,” he said. “So, it’s a service we can provide that fills a little niche. It’s a part of our business we don’t do a whole lot ofñ we had probably one or two calls a week last boating season — but it makes sense for us because it fits right in with what we do.”
