Legacy Over Exit

Peakzi Podcast: Private equity money can be tempting, especially when the emails and offers show up every day. But what happens to the customer when the business model turns into “replace everything” instead of “fix what’s right”? I’m joined by Bob Bidstrup, CEO and general manager of First Call Jewel out of Idaho Falls, Idaho, a third-generation home services company founded in 1947, to talk about choosing integrity over a buyout and what it really takes to earn trust in HVAC, plumbing, and electrical work.

We get into Bob’s path from growing up around the shop to buying out the prior generation in 1998, plus the decision to rebrand as First Call Jewel so homeowners know exactly what the company stands for: being the first place you call when something breaks. Bob explains why the team prioritizes measuring, explaining, and educating customers instead of guessing, and how that philosophy shows up in a culture built on “do the right thing” for the company, the employees, and the customer.

We also dig into operations and growth: why specialists beat generalists in the trades, how cross-training helps technicians spot problems beyond their lane, and why constant training is the only way to scale consistent service. Then we shift to the future of home services marketing, AI search, and reputation management, including how Peakzi helps optimize content for AI-driven discovery and why technician-level reviews may soon shape who gets the call.

If you care about building a durable local service company with real customer service, hit play. Subscribe, share this with a contractor friend, and leave a review with your biggest takeaway.

Powered by: www.peakzi.me

More info at: https://ai.firstcalljewel.com/

Peakzi Podcast: Home Services Success Stories

Transcript

Welcome And Guest Introduction

Julian Placino 0:00

Welcome to the Home Services Success Stories podcast powered by Peakzi, the number one AI platform for growing your home services business. I'm Julian Placino, your host, and we have another terrific show in store for you today. Because today we have Bob Bidstrup, who is the CEO and general manager at First Call Jewel. Bob, welcome to the show. How are you? I'm very well. Good, good, good. Well, we're excited to learn more about you and the business and your journey to becoming a home services leader. So, Bob, if you would take a moment to briefly share about your journey into the family business and how you stepped into the role of CEO and general manager.

Speaker 1 0:38

Well, my grandparents started the business back in 47. You know, my dad and uncle ran it from 78 until 98. And I grew up just I had seven sisters, so I would, as a little kid, I always would prefer to go to work than to be at home. Um, so I always hung out. And so then in 1998, um I bought my dad and uncle out and started the business um or kept it going. Um and that's where we're at today.

Julian Placino 1:10

Amazing. So that's the genesis. So I am curious for someone who has grown up in the business, did you ever ever have any apprehension of staying within home services versus carving out your own path, or this is the thing that I wanted to do? Was there any of that in your story?

Speaker 1 1:24

Um, I don't know. For some reason, this is always what I wanted to do. My dad said I was crazy to keep doing it, but here I am.

Julian Placino 1:35

Well, what inspired you about your dad and the business and ultimately home services? What do you love about it the most?

Speaker 1 1:41

Um, it's really great to be able to help people with uh, you know, in our climate, heating is not an option. You pretty well have to have it, and we do electrical and plumbing as well, so it's all services that people really need. And so it's nice to be able to go take care of their problems.

Legacy And Rejecting Private Equity

Julian Placino 2:00

Yeah, so serving people, helping them with their with their problems, and ultimately it is um one of those necessary things that we need to have. So uh very important and critical as far as uh what you do in the business. So um, so as you mentioned, this is third generation business, it's been around since 1947. So, what kind of responsibility do you feel carrying a three-generation legacy forward?

Speaker 1 2:22

Um a lot of responsibility. You know, I have a lot of option opportunities to sell the business. Every day I get emails people wanting to buy it, but I've got a son who is um uh now working in the business and wants to carry it on to a fourth generation. So uh we want to keep it going and help it be successful for another generation.

Julian Placino 2:45

I love that. And and 100%, like we see private equity coming into the market, buying up a lot of these businesses. So you shared just a bit about it now. So, what does it mean to continue to keep uh the business privately held and not selling out to private equity?

Speaker 1 2:58

Yeah, the private equity, it sure would be fun to take that money and run. But um boy, the way they treat people, it's our competitors that have done that, it's really just become all about um telling them, telling customers they need a new furnace, they gotta just spend money, money, money. And um that's nice, but want to be honest, want to show people, give people what they deserve, which is good service, versus here, we're just here to sell you something because we gotta pay somebody back.

Rebranding To First Call Jewel

Julian Placino 3:30

So staying true to the integrity and uh the control and the level of service that your brand is known for. So um, well, as as a CEO of the organization, you of course are in charge of strategic moves for the business. And I know in 1998 a very pivotal thing happened, and that was you led the transition from Jewel Inc. to first called Jewel. So, what wasn't working at the time, and what was your vision for that transition?

Speaker 1 3:54

So originally it was Jewel Electric, and that was what it was known for. But then as they branched into heating and air, and and then I brought plumbing on in 98, uh, they they wanted to have it be more than just Joule Electric since heating actually became a bigger part of it than electrical. So they switched it to Jewel Inc. And then I don't know if it was a good idea or not, but when I um bought it in '98, I came up, I had to come up with a new corporation. So I changed it to First Call Jewel to try to maybe distance a little bit from the Jewel name since we don't sell jewelry and be more of the, hey, we should be the first place you call when you need home services.

Julian Placino 4:33

Got it. And did you have kind of a separate vision for it as far as kind of the direction you wanted to take the business versus um kind of where you've seen it come from?

Speaker 1 4:42

Just wanted to grow into you know doing more than just the electrical and and the heating and air, get it so that whatever people need in their home, they can call us, we'll take care of them.

Julian Placino 4:52

So before 1998 it was purely electrical, but now it's the full gamut of home services. Is that right?

Speaker 1 4:58

Yeah, and in the late 80s they added the heating and air. Um, and then in 98 I added plumbing as well as the that already had electrical and heating and air at that point.

Training First And Specialists Model

Julian Placino 5:10

Gotcha. Okay. Well, your customers they often mention how your team measures, explains, and educates instead of just guessing or selling. So what why was that approach so important to you and the way that you deal with your customers?

Speaker 1 5:24

We just try to make sure we're doing the right thing. You know, we can come in and guess about stuff, but um so we spend a lot of time on training. Um, every Tuesday and Thursday morning we have training with our people and and we um try to make sure that they know and understand what they're doing, the latest stuff, um, really work on communication, how we communicate properly with customers so that when we do go out there and we're talking to them about what um what they need to fix their problem today and or what's what's available that would be beneficial to them. Um we try to make sure we're not just throwing stuff out there that hopefully something sticks, but what would really work, what would really be beneficial for them. And then try to communicate that in a way that they can receive it and um hopefully want it.

Julian Placino 6:16

So a big emphasis on training. So tell us a bit more about your team because something I know that you are very intentional about is you've been and you've been building specialists, not jack of all trades. So where did that decision come from and what does that mean for your customers?

Speaker 1 6:32

Well, you know, originally when we started branching into like plumbing and stuff, um at first it was well, we can have these guys do this. All you need to know about plumbing is that it flows downhill or whatever, paydays on Friday. But then you start to realize that no, plumbing, electrical, HVAC, there are three different trades that you really need to have people that know what they're doing about each one of those trades. Yes, I know a lot about all of them, but um, to be a specialist in a specific trade means you're gonna give the customer the best service. You go in and just I know a lot about a little or a little about a lot versus really knowing what I'm doing. So we try to focus on having plumbers be plumbers, heating air guys be heating and air guys, electricians be electricians, but at the same time, having it so that they understand if I'm a plumber, I understand the basics of electricity and I understand what heating and air is so that when I'm there in the home, I'm not just looking at their plumbing system, I'm paying attention to all the things that a customer might need to know about because I'm the professional and they don't, they're not. So um, even though maybe I'm not an electrician, but I understand, hey, that doesn't look right. That's something we should have one of our electricians come actually take care of for you. Um so on one hand, we're not jack of all trades, but on the other hand, we truly do try to cross-trade, cross-train so that they really can be helpful for the customer, even though they wouldn't be the one actually doing the work.

Julian Placino 8:07

Yeah, it sounds like you definitely want each individual to stay as a master of their craft, but know enough when to spot other issues around the home. So you can bring in the other side of the business to be able to satisfy that need as well. Is that right?

Speaker 1 8:19

Yep.

Julian Placino 8:20

Got it. And and how many uh team members now today?

Speaker 1 8:23

Oh, we've got about 55.

Julian Placino 8:26

About 55. Okay, amazing. So um, so so when you think about culture and what makes your team great, how would you articulate what makes the team great uh at first call, Jewel?

Speaker 1 8:38

You know, our motto is to just do the right thing. We look at things as like a three-legged stool. We actually have a three-legged stool that we have um the company, the technicians or the employees, and the customers. We feel like if we take care of all three all the time, then we have something that will stand and continue on for a long time. If we ever cheat any one of those three, then it falls. And so we want to make sure we're doing the right thing all the time.

Julian Placino 9:07

And you know, I've dug into your reviews and consistently it talks about how technicians create this experience for customers where they feel it it's consistent, right? So I guess what I'm trying to ask is how do you scale that? Like, how do you teach customer service to a person with a with a with a with a craft that's so technical at times, you know?

Speaker 1 9:26

It's just constant training. Yeah, when things happen, sometimes negative things. All right, what can we all learn from it? And instead of running from it or being afraid to hurt somebody's feelings or whatever, sometimes we got to talk about the hard stuff and say, hey, here's what happened. What should we have done differently? How can we make sure we don't repeat that? Um, and then when we do good things, try to highlight those good things and make a big deal about the fact that, hey, this good thing happened and look what's how the customer benefited from this guy's actions.

AI Search And Peakzi Tools

Julian Placino 10:01

Yeah, so really being honest about your outcomes, understanding if if there was a mistake or something you could have done better, owning it and kind of improving along the way, um, I think those are really great values to stick to. So um, so again, as uh a CEO, you're you're in charge of innovation and the growth of the company. And as you know, this this show is powered by Peakzi, you're a Peakzi customer. So, as a home services leader that has seen so many different changes throughout the industry, how would you describe what Peakzi is?

Speaker 1 10:28

So uh Peakzi is there to help us with the AI portion of things since the AI search is different than a regular Google search. And Peakzi is one of the first ones I've seen that was coming to say, hey, um, you got to approach this a little differently. The search spot for the AI is gonna be different than a human. Um, and so they've been working on putting an overlay over our website to uh have a website that is more specific to AI. It doesn't look as nice, it's not as pretty as what a human would, but bots AI staff doesn't care, it's looking more for content. So we feel like Peakzi is trying to help us um come up better on AI searches.

Julian Placino 11:15

Interesting. Any uh any outcomes or anything you can report now, having been a a customer for Peaksy?

Speaker 1 11:21

We just barely got the Peakzi website up over the weekend. Um, and so nothing new yet. But okay.

Julian Placino 11:29

And any other hopefully soon, right? So you just started the platform. So any other features that you found at least interesting? Because what I heard was that it was AI search. So the nature of how people consume and search for information is changing. Um, it's less kind of traditional, you know, your Google searches, but now people are interacting with, of course, your your phone, right? These these LLMs. So any other features that you have seen so far, Peakzi, that was interesting to you?

Speaker 1 11:52

Yeah, so an interesting thing. Peakzi has a thing where you can look and see um what a technician, what kind of reviews and stuff technicians have had specifically. So we've been showing our people that you know, going forward in the future, people won't just call and ask for first call jewel. They're gonna be looking for who is the best technician at first call jewel. Or maybe someday you leave first call jewel and you go somewhere else, and they're still looking for um, oh, John has the best reviews. So we're encouraging our people as they talk to customers about reviews and things to encourage them to use their name. Because uh as Pixie pointed out, going forward, it won't just be about the company, it'll also be about the individuals, and they'll have a rating, good or bad, out there, and so our people need to pay attention to what does that rating look like?

Julian Placino 12:48

Absolutely, and that's another great credibility credibility tool for the business, and also a lot of folks use it for a recruiting tool, right? Because you get to see based on empirical evidence and data of real reviews about who are the top technicians in there and how can you build a relationship from it. So uh I'm glad that you brought that up. So um, yeah, so before we begin to kind of close things out here, Bob, anything else you'd like to share about Peakzi?

Speaker 1 13:11

Um no, they seem like a a good innovative company. The the founder of it worked with another company that we had used for years, and so I feel like they know what they're doing, and we'll we'll see.

Julian Placino 13:26

I love it. And you're talking about Pawan, is that right? Yep. Okay, awesome. Pawan and I were actually very good friends. That's actually how we started this collaboration here. So uh any words that you could share about Pawan, about having worked with him in the past?

Speaker 1 13:39

Um, I've never met him personally, so no, I can't really say too much, other than he seems like a really smart guy because um the things he's put together seem like they they work.

What He Wants To Leave Behind

Julian Placino 13:52

And that's kind of all you need to know, right? The brand and the outcomes and the results, and just knowing that he has a great track record and technology and specifically home services. And now he's bringing that all into uh the AI space. And man, is it making waves already? So I appreciate you mentioning that. So um, so so so kind of closing things out now, um, looking ahead, and there's already been such a great legacy for the business, but what is it that you hope to leave behind for your customers, your employees, your community?

Speaker 1 14:20

Um, just hope to leave behind a well-functioning um company that's adapted to the current times so that it can just continue on and continue to serve the people of Southeast Idaho.

Where To Find The Company

Julian Placino 14:36

Well, it sounds like y'all have a tremendous track record. You strike me as a tremendous leader who really cares about the industry and uh certainly wish you all the great continued success. So, uh, Bob, if you would share with us uh what's your website, social media, how do folks connect with you?

Speaker 1 14:50

So firstcalljew.com is our website. Um social media, we're on Facebook, uh, Instagram, all of those. Um easy enough to find us through any of those channels. We're doing a lot more with YouTube these days. So um yeah.

Julian Placino 15:08

Nice. And we'll make sure to have all that contact information in the show notes as well. So, Bob, thank you so much for your time today. It's been a real wonderful time getting to know you.

Speaker 1 15:16

All right, thank you.

Julian Placino 15:17

And everyone else, thanks for tuning in. That is it for today's episode, and we'll see you next time on the next episode of the Home Services Success Stories Podcast powered by Peakzi, the number one AI platform for growing your home services business.