When you love what you do and where you do it, deciding how to wrap and logo your service vehicles doesn't take much effort. The employee-owned and -operated company of City Plumbing & Electric Inc. settled on the picturesque landscape that is its home town: Hot Springs National Park, Ark.
Hot Springs is the only American city located within a national park. Its name comes from the 47 hot springs of pure thermal waters that, for thousands of years, have stemmed from Hot Springs Mountain at a temperature of 143 degrees F at a rate of nearly 1 million gallons a day - a naturally radiant town!
When water flows freely underneath your customers at all times, the local plumber shouldn't be far from anyone's mind. CPEI hired Jonathan Spencer of Seiz Sign Co. to wrap the city skyline on the company's two Dodge vans, two Chevy Express vans, one Chevy Astro van and one Ford van.
“We try to purchase vans with low mileage that are one year old,” says the CPEI team. “We've been very successful in building a fleet at a lower cost than if we purchased all new vans.” This method, the company says, has allowed it to increase the fleet from two to six in only two years.
The 15-year-old company, which is two-thirds owned by women, has a large scope of work that includes plumbing, LP and natural gas, drain cleaning, electrical, lawn sprinkler and backflow-RPZA service work, as well as commercial and residential K&B remodeling.
The vans are equipped with shelving and are fully stocked with work necessities, so each is ready to offer expert customer service. CPEI was voted “No. 1 Plumbing Company” in Hot Springs two years in a row by its service area, and the company attributes its customer loyalty to CPEI's quality employees (each is carefully screened and certified at various levels of expertise).
The visual recognition of CPEI's logo on its vans also helps make it a winner with customers.
“When we go out of area, our logo is still identifiable, and often a stranger will note, 'I know that skyline, it's Hot Springs, Arkansas.'”
Special thanks to CPEI: President Dixie Gossett, Elwen Guthrie, Ronnie Carroll and Rick Bonte.