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Interview with Glenn Sanders Jr. of BlueTex Water Solutions - Kingwood

Interview with Glenn Sanders Jr. of BlueTex Water Solutions - Kingwood

Published: Sep 28, 2016, 3:00pm

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As part of our ongoing "Getting to Know Your Local Businesses" series, this week we sat down with Glenn Sanders Jr. of BlueTex Water Solutions.
 
Tell us a bit about your business:  What does your business offer, and what do your products do?

We’re a local water purification solutions company, and we love helping homeowners & residents enjoy the benefits of clean, healthy water in their homes! We offer top-of-the-line water softeners, reverse osmosis drinking water systems, and whole home water purification systems – all manufactured right here in the U.S.A. The equipment we install can really have a tangible effect on people’s lives. Anyone who’s interested can read all about our products and the problems they solve on our website, but the short and sweet summary is: Water softeners remove dissolved “hard” minerals from your water, like calcium and magnesium. These minerals are what cause those nasty, white spots all over your shower glass and dishes and build up those white scale deposits on and in your faucets.

We also offer reverse osmosis drinking water systems, and these are just tremendously popular. Reverse osmosis water is the cleanest, purest, most delicious water you can imagine – much better even than most bottled water (and much less expensive in the long run!). Reverse osmosis removes just about everything from your water – pesticides, herbicides, viruses, bacteria, fluoride, arsenic... I really don’t try to scare people rattling off the things that can be in water, but I feel like people should really understand what they and their family might be ingesting. Finally, we offer whole home water purification systems.

How did you decide to get involved in this line of work? How did the business get started?
My background is primarily in water treatment. I worked with a well-known water treatment company for nearly a decade, which is where I learned about the products and the industry. We were doing really well and I was enjoying a great career and loved what I did. Then one of our children experienced some severe, life-threatening health problems and she was in and out of the hospital for nearly a year. We nearly lost her several times, and I quickly realized that I needed to do something different that gave me more flexibility to be there for her and for my wife and our other children, but still earn a decent income. So I basically said screw it all and walked away from the career and started doing home remodeling work so that I could do jobs close to home on my schedule and have the time and ability to be there for my family. I named the company Screw it All Home Services. I did remodeling and construction jobs, but with my background and skill set I was also able became an independent dealer for Watts Water Technology and was therefore able to offer water purification equipment to my customers as well. That has become a very successful part of my business, so I decided to branch off and separate the two businesses and focus more on the water purification aspect, so BlueTex Water Solutions was born. While I still do some renovation jobs from time to time, I’m really throwing all of my attention and effort into growing BlueTex Water Solutions and developing great relationships in the local community.

Tell us a couple things you are proud of about your business. What are you known for? What separates you from the competition?

Well first I would say that our number one focus is providing our customers with the best service possible. It is so important to me that we put 110% effort into making sure our customers are happy throughout the entire process. Being a small business, we have the opportunity to develop great relationships with our customers and provide that personalized, responsive service that is often missing in business these days, especially with larger companies. Customer satisfaction is the metric by which we judge everything we do. At every job, the number one question in my mind is “Is the customer happy?” That’s what I want – happy customers with clean, awesome water.

What sets us apart from our competition? Well, aside from our strong emphasis on great customer service, the quality of our products is a big distinction. We’re very proud to deal exclusively with Watts Water Technologies products. Watts is a global leader in water treatment technology and has been around for 140 years. Their products are all made here in the U.S.A, which is really important to me, and they’re backed by a great warranty. I’ve had a lot of experience with water purification equipment over the years, and Watts products are by far the best I’ve ever worked with, and it’s a great company in general. Big-name water purification companies often have equipment private-label manufactured for them, so the customer doesn’t really know where it comes from or what the quality is, but we don’t do private labeling. We may be a small, local company, but the products our customers are getting with us are absolutely the best quality, and there’s a big company behind the equipment. I wouldn’t put my name and reputation behind equipment that’s anything less than the best. We don’t have the giant marketing budgets of the big-name companies out there, so we really depend on the quality of our products and service to help us make a name for ourselves in the local community.

In addition to great service and products, we’re also distinguished by our pricing and the accessibility of our products. We really work hard to give as many people as possible the opportunity to have clean, healthy water in their homes. So many people think that water purification equipment is just astronomically expensive and out of their price range, and usually it is with the big-name companies because, well, they’re big companies with a lot of overhead and a really big marketing budget. They’ve got a bunch of sales people and sales supervisors and sales managers and directors and on and on, all of whom get a cut of the sales price. The customer is paying for that! But being small and local, we don’t have all of that overhead and price inflation. I run the business out of my home because we don’t need an office (and the expenses that go with it), so our customers aren’t paying for a big, shiny building that they’ll never see and a virtual army of employees that they’ll never come in contact with.

I’m lucky to have some great people supporting me and working with me – my beautiful wife, Lara, is really just amazing – she’s so supportive and helps me so much. We have 5 children and they love to help me with projects and ideas! I’m also blessed to have 3 great people working with me – they all share my vision and goals, and each one of them brings such unique talent and ideas to the table and has a real feeling of ownership and responsibility for the success of our business. Ben and Lauren are a married couple who recently joined us –  Ben is handling sales and helping me with installations, and Lauren is my design and marketing guru. And JD has been with me for a while and helps me with installations and service. We’ve really become like a family - I’m really proud of our team and think that together we’re going to be able to achieve so much. I’m very excited.

What is your favorite part of running this business?

Helping people, absolutely. There is nothing better than the smiles on my customers’ faces when they realize how much our products improve their water and their lives. It’s so easy to take for granted the role that water plays in our everyday lives. We use it for so many things and just don’t even think about it. And with incidents like that in Flint, Michigan, more and more people are just really worried about what’s in their water, and in many cases they should be! I know I don’t want my kids ingesting some of the stuff that can be in our water. It’s scary! And sure, we can buy bottled water to drink, but even most bottled water is just treated municipal tap water, and we buy it at about a 2000% markup over tap water! And then there are the environmental considerations of all of the waste generated by bottled water. But we can’t use bottled water to bathe or wash our clothes or clean our homes.

I remember one of my customers had a child who had really bad allergies – she was allergic to so many things, and it turns out that she was having a recurring allergic reaction to the chlorine in their water. She was ingesting it, bathing in it, and it was in her clothes from being washed. Her doctor had recommended that they consider getting a water treatment system. I had been doing a minor renovation project for the family and the customer knew that we also offered water treatment equipment. We got them set up with a whole home water purification system that softens the water and also removes chlorine and other chemicals from all of the home’s water. A couple of months later the mom called me, almost in tears, letting me know that her daughter’s condition had improved and how much better she was feeling. That touched me so much, and I am so grateful to have been able to help that girl and her family.

Who is your ideal customer/client? Who do you serve best?

Anyone who wants to have clean, healthy water in their home (or business!) is our ideal customer. We’re not picky when it comes to customers! We’re based in Atascocita, but we serve Humble, Kingwood, Porter, Huffman… the entire greater Houston area. We appreciate each and every one of our clients and feel blessed to have earned their trust and their business, and we don’t take that for granted. We know that our products can be an investment and we work with each customer to make sure that they’re getting the products that are best suited to solve their water problems and improve their lives. We don’t try to oversell or stick customers with products they don’t really need.

Can you tell us something about yourself as the business owner?
My philosophy of business ownership is that your relationships make or break you. Relationships – with your employees, with your customers, with your suppliers – are just so critical. Just as in any relationship, trust is the most important factor. My customers have to trust that what we tell them is true and we are offering them a fair price on great products and that we’ll be there for them when they need us. The people I work with have to trust me to make good business decisions and lead the company to success. I have to trust my employees to represent me and my business and give my customers great service. I have to trust my supplier to produce products that are reliable and high quality. As a business owner, earning and building that trust is the most important thing. Because we’re small, we rely heavily on word-of-mouth recommendations from our customers to their friends, family, and co-workers, and we won’t get those recommendations if our customers don’t trust us.

I also emphasize respect in business, which I think is becoming harder and harder to find. Our customers and potential customers will see this in how we interact with them. We don’t use high pressure, pushy sales tactics like some other companies do. We will test your water free of charge or obligation and make honest, straightforward recommendations for products that will improve your water based on what’s actually in it. If you don’t have a problem with your water, we’ll tell you and won’t try to sell you something you don’t need! We respect and your time and won’t waste it with long-winded sales pitches. We also respect your ability to make a purchasing decision on your own time based on what’s best for your family. We respect the significance of the investment in water purification equipment and you’ll never hear us say that you need to make a decision by a certain time to get this deal or that you have to buy today! We want our customers to be confident and happy in their decision to do business with us and know that we respect and appreciate them.

Are there any special promotions, annual sales, or special events that you'd like to mention?
We do offer completely free, no-obligation water testing services. You can call us or visit our website to schedule an in-home test, or local residents are welcome to bring a sample of their home’s water to our booth at the Kingwood Farmers & Vendors Market (each Thursday) and we’ll test it there free of charge.

Because significant savings are built into our pricing already, we don’t really use sales and promotions. Our customers can know that they’ll get great pricing on our products any time of the year; they don’t have to wait until a certain time of the year or look for a coupon. However, we are offering an end of Summer Promotion. Those coupons can be found on Kingwood.com at Kingwood.com/BlueTexWater. We also offer, a year of free filter changes for customers who buy a water softener and reverse osmosis drinking water system, or a whole home filtration system. Also, because referrals are so important to us, we’re happy to offer referral bonuses to our customers. Refer us to a friend who becomes a customer and you’ll receive a year of free filter changes. Like I said earlier, relationships are so important, and because we don’t have a big marketing budget we really rely on word-of-mouth recommendations from our customers – that’s really the best and most effective form of advertising.

Is there any other information you'd like your potential customers/clients to know about your business?
I just really want people to know that we’re a local company who’s providing a fantastic product with outstanding service at a great price and that we are committed to giving our customers a great all-around experience. While most people love supporting small local business, some people have concerns about doing business with a smaller company because, let’s be honest, they might not be around forever. Small business can be tough. We don’t have any intention of going anywhere anytime soon, but our customers can rest assured knowing that if anything did ever happen to us, the products they purchase with us are backed by a global company who will stand behind them, so there’s no risk – the products we install are warrantied by the manufacturer, rather than by our company (although we do warranty our installation labor).

People have a lot of options for water treatment equipment. There are some big, well-known names out there. I just want to ask that if you’re considering making a purchase, or just want to learn more about what options are available, give us a chance to show you what we can offer. We would love to have the opportunity to earn your business.

For more information about BlueTex Solutions, visit www.BlueTexWater.com



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