NADCA’s Mark Zarzeczny on the Breathing Clean initiative
The Federal Trade Commission estimates that Americans lost more than $4 billion to fraud and scams during the last five years. To combat scammers and fraudulent companies taking advantage of unsuspecting homeowners within the growing air duct cleaning industry, the National Air Duct Cleaners Association developed an anti-fraud task force, which then established the Breathing Clean initiative. The leader of NADCA’s Anti-Fraud Task Force, Mark Zarzeczny (ASCS, NADCA Board of Directors), recently sat down with MPT and answered questions regarding the initiative’s goals and how consumers can protect themselves.
MPT: How big of a problem are fraud and scams within the air duct cleaning industry? How can homeowners better protect themselves?
Mark Zarzeczny: Air duct cleaning is a growing industry, and like any growing industry, there will be people who will cut corners to get ahead and make the most money by doing the least amount of work. The best way for homeowners to protect themselves is to hire a NADCA member company for their air duct cleaning needs. It’s easy to find a NADCA member anywhere in the world, just by visiting www.nadca.com/find-a-professional.
MPT: How would you best describe the Breathing Clean campaign, NADCA’s anti-fraud task force? What are some of its immediate goals?
Mark Zarzeczny: NADCA’s Anti-Fraud Task Force was developed to combat fraudulent companies who are claiming to be NADCA members and taking advantage of unsuspecting homeowners. To further this effort, we developed the Breathing Clean initiative, a resource dedicated to homeowners.
BreathingClean.com is a hub of information, from videos, to checklists, the intentions are for it to serve as a guide in helping homeowners make informed decisions when it comes to air duct cleaning.
The goals of the Breathing Clean initiative are to:
- Educate homeowners about the benefits of air duct cleaning and the importance of hiring a NADCA-member company to perform the services.
- Be a resource to homeowners, providing helpful information including tips for hiring a reputable air duct cleaning company and easy-to-understand instructions for making sure the job is done right.
- Provide NADCA members with tools that will help with communicating to current and potential customers.
MPT: HVAC cleaning is still very important. What standards and guidelines should people look for when choosing a cleaning service?
Mark Zarzeczny: When looking to hire an air duct cleaning company, start with the NADCA website. The Find a Professional tool makes it easy to locate a NADCA member anywhere in the country.
NADCA promotes a higher standard of performance for all its members. A company must meet strict requirements to be a member; they must have at least one Air Systems Cleaning Specialist (ASCS) on staff, maintain general liability insurance, agree to clean according to ACR, the NADCA Standard, and comply with NADCA’s code of ethics.
On BreathingClean.com, we created a homeowner’s guide for hiring an air duct cleaning company. It’s a helpful checklist that walks the homeowner through the process from start to finish.
MPT: What resources can NADCA provide to help ensure the right companies find the right customers?
Mark Zarzeczny: One of the objectives of the Breathing Clean initiative is to be a resource to the NADCA members as well. As much as we want to be a trusted source for homeowners, we also want to continue to provide our members with the tools they need to help grow their business and market themselves to potential customers. ◆
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MODERN PUMPING TODAY, July 2017
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