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Narrator:
This is the hub of success the Boston Business podcast with your host Dave Elmasian.

Narrator:
Today Dave’s guest is Michael Duffy president of Complete Energy Services a company that saves companies a significant amount of money in all energy related expenses such as electric gas and water.

Narrator:
They’ll help you cut costs and focus your attention on what matters to you most which is growing your business through energy assessments.

Narrator:
Mike and his team will come to your business to do a complementary analysis and then make recommendations on replacing equipment that will allow for significant savings on energy usage. Most times the cost of the replacement equipment is subsidized through tax credits and energy conservation programs offered by the public utility companies to reach Mike Duffy. You can call them at 8 3 3. CBS Corp. that’s a 3 3 2 3 7 2 6 7 7.

Narrator:
Find out more about Mike and his firm on the web at C E S Corp. dot com. And now here’s Dave.

David Elmasian:
Welcome to the podcast Mike.

Mike Duffy:
Thanks Dave.

David Elmasian:
Well you know Mike how do you get start in the field that you’re in. I mean was it just the way he started to make money. Is it something that you just kind of fell into.

David Elmasian:
Or is it by design.

Mike Duffy:
Originally it happened about 10 years ago. To be honest with you as you know Dave from our experience working together I came from call center management right. So I’m managing different call centers of different industries from emergency services to tech support and many others.

David Elmasian:
Hold on a second. I’m getting flashbacks. So let’s let’s. Yes. Yeah exactly.

David Elmasian:
Full disclosure Mike and I worked together. We’re just talking about that about 20 some odd years ago at a company called Stream doing tech support. Managing a team I have air quotes going right now right.

David Elmasian:
I guess Mike I’m sorry.

Mike Duffy:
Unfortunately we lost our jobs due to the dot com crash and so forth that damn Internet. I’m telling you w w w who knew exactly. We didn’t. So fast forward a few years later. I remained in call center management after leaving stream. And it’s a very volatile industry as you know. Yeah you can lose your job at the drop of a hat. Yep. And that’s what happened. And fortunately for me I had a friend who was in the energy efficiency industry. He had just decided to bid on a contract with the with the with one of the public utilities. Yeah. He won the contract and said hey I might have an opportunity for you to come help me. Nice. So that was 10 years ago and the rest is really history. Within those ten years I refined my skills to learn more about energy efficiency and the industry gained a lot of valuable experience. I met a lot of great people Yeah made some great partnerships relationships in the industry. And it’s been great ever.

David Elmasian:
Sounds like you haven’t looked back. No. No more call centers no more calls right. Yeah.

David Elmasian:
Now I can I can definitely agree with that. So you know you’re all slots to the infamous you’re in an elevator and the person next to you says Oh hi how you doing Mike. So what do you do. What do you tell him.

Mike Duffy:
Sure. The elevator the two minutes in the elevator. Well to be honest what we do is energy efficiency and what that entails is anything that draws energy whether it be electricity gas. We also help with water. We can help with alternative energies but at the end of the day we leverage utility benefits whether it be incentives rebates and even funding from the utility.

David Elmasian:
So one that I’m curious about. You know it seems to be a contradiction that these utilities are being generous right. We don’t associate generosity with utilities. So why is it why do they have these programs. Is it just because they are being nice and generous or is there other reasons for it.

Mike Duffy:
That’s a great question and one that we really need to be further educated on you myself. Everybody who pays into these pays their electric bills pays a utility sponsored energy efficiency charge.

David Elmasian:
Ha ha. So we’re basically paying it for ourselves. Yeah exactly right. I knew it wasn’t generosity but it is.

Mike Duffy:
Yeah okay. They leverage that cost and turn it into dollars in funding for you the rate payer. And if you don’t take advantage of it unfortunately you let somebody else take your hard earned dollars. Right.

David Elmasian:
Okay. So that’s how the programs came into being. So are each one different or their nuances between the various utility companies or are they all pretty much consistent.

Mike Duffy:
Great question and again they are different even in Massachusetts we have the two big ones which are our national grid and ever source. They vary their programs but both of them for small business for example. They both carry incentives up to 70 percent off. And that is everything that’s installed that’s material. And it depends on the technology and the solutions that’s available to you. All right. So for example the low hanging fruit is typically lighting. So we change out old archaic fluorescent and incandescent lighting to too long lasting LCD. Very low wattage saves you a ton of money on your electric charges. Right.

David Elmasian:
Ok. So light goes into it. So how does the whole process start. You know you do you get a call from the utility company is that what it is that that somebody inquired about these services. Tell me how the process works. You know I’m Joe business you know business person. How how is all that. What’s the what are the steps involved before you walk in the door so to speak.

Mike Duffy:
Sure. A lead may come from many different sources. I have four sales people that work very hard at knocking on doors and introducing these programs to our customers. So that’s one way. That’s that’s probably the most popular among my team. OK. The other way is sometimes it’s utility generated a utility may do a marketing program direct mail ad campaign. What have you and some of those customers will call the utility and they’ll be transferred directly to to you complete energy services. Right. Otherwise we do our own direct mails. We sometimes have an outbound calling campaign. And we also do e-mails. We do a lot of e-mail blasts.

David Elmasian:
So maybe you can hire a call center huh. I can read one. Oh you do. All right.

David Elmasian:
So the the the lead is now generated. What’s next.

Mike Duffy:
Sure. Yep. So we schedule a complementary energy assessment. So some of the funding for those dollars that we all pay into for that program captures the cost absorbed for us to mobilize and go out to your site to do an energy assessment. Well we look for is like I said earlier anything that draws energy we’ll look at lighting refrigeration HVAD A C we’ll look at the opportunity for air source heat pumps economize there’s anything that we can do to save you money on your on your fuel charges. Right. And again we also look for water savings. Yeah water and sewer costs are enormous. Sure. So we look for reasons to help reduce that. And it’s also obviously very good for the environment. And we try to help help out. OK.

David Elmasian:
So you put an assessment together and you makes specific recommendations. Hey you know you need to like you said convert the fluorescents to LCD. The heating cooling system may need an update or replacement or what have you. And then along with that. Now at that point do you actually give them like a price for all that we do.

Mike Duffy:
So as we were collecting the information we do it electronically we have our eye pads out in the field and yet we take the information down and we can generate a quote right on site with the customer. So we know their existing footprint and we can also calculate what a retrofit footprint would look like with all energy saving solutions.

David Elmasian:
Is there also an ROI and that as well too.

Mike Duffy:
There sure is. We have our our system generates the cost difference between what you’re running at now versus what you could run out. It determines what the payback would be if you go forward with these solutions. Right. And it also calculates your return on investment. And most of our paybacks are well within two years especially with the utility five years. It’s amazing. And that’s on that on an entire project whereas some of the individual solutions may carry less than one year payback.

David Elmasian:
Wow. So they you know that’s I would say is a pretty easy decision. But there’s gonna be an upfront cost for this stuff right. No it’s the stuff isn’t free. If like you said the retrofits equipment or whatever. So you know what do you do in those cases where somebody says hey you know I’d love to do it but you know I don’t know if I have enough or I want to write a check for all this.

Mike Duffy:
Right. So as we talked about the different utilities have different programs. So if we if we just talk about the small business program. Everybody is eligible for these through National Grid units all through every source. And we can mobilize we go right out to the customer and they subsidize so much of the project cost that it just makes sense for our customer to go forward. Now as I said earlier it’s typically up to 70 percent. And that’s taken right off the top of the ball. So the customer the the small business owner is left with a 30 percent contribution. Give or take and they can also finance that typically at 0 percent interest for up to two years.

Mike Duffy:
It’s a slam dunk.

David Elmasian:
I’m in the wrong business.

Mike Duffy:
Come on board. We’re hiring!

David Elmasian:
So what’s the catch. There’s got to be a catch here right. That sounds too good to be true.

Mike Duffy:
Everybody says that. Yeah but like I said earlier it’s leveraging the dollars that you’ve put into this fund. All right. So it’s it’s an investment. You could be in business for three months. You could be in business for 30 years but you’re still contributing to these funds. Right. And if you don’t take advantage of it you’re losing that fund right.

David Elmasian:
So why what’s your biggest challenge in terms of making the sale so to speak.

Mike Duffy:
You just said it like it’s too hard to believe. Yeah. A lot of customers don’t believe that they can. They’re looking for the hook. Yeah. What else is do I have to pay for it. Right.

David Elmasian:
And I was gonna say if they want to take a first born child I sign up right away. But that’s a whole other discussion.

Mike Duffy:
You don’t even ask for blood no blood type. We don’t want to know about your children. Lessons are here. But it’s it’s it’s hard sometimes to convince people that we’re here it’s legit to give them back their money. Right.

David Elmasian:
So what’s your sales approach with the people that you work for. What. You know I know they’re knocking on doors but. But what’s the approach that you used. Because again you say you hit these objections.

Mike Duffy:
It is a sales position. However I don’t need a strong sales person in these positions right. What I do need is an educator so someone that goes out and speaks about the benefits that customers can take advantage of. Right. That is if they can make that connection. If my team can make that connection then it’s then it turns into a benefit for the customer. Right. And they typically move forward at that point.

David Elmasian:
So it sounds like a win win all around really.

Mike Duffy:
It really is. Yeah that’s kind of neat.

David Elmasian:
So what what are some of your common customers. Have you seen a trend or you know something that says hey we know we have a we’ve got a good response rate from certain industries or you know businesses they’ve been around certain locations. What have you found has been kind of a sweet spot for you.

Mike Duffy:
I work in the commercial sector. Yeah. And we all there’s also a residential home for these programs as well commercially. There is no rhyme or reason or in any particular customer that takes advantage. We serve all business customers. I am excited to help a hotel chain right now. There is so much opportunity within a hotel. I’d imagine you combine both of those programs. The residential with the commercial. There’s your hotel right. And there’s so much opportunity for electric savings fire water all the volume the volume it’s amazing.

David Elmasian:
So on the water savings what things can you do.

Mike Duffy:
Sure we can do sink areas which are low flat or high velocity flow meters basically showerheads. There’s also some toilet bladders that we can install. Yeah that those are just a few of what we can offer right. We can change our urinals and toilets as well.

David Elmasian:
So how about like that on as many as they used to be but laundromats is that type of an industry that because again I’m thinking the same thing. Very high obviously water and sewer usage very high electricity usage. It would seem to me that any even very incremental savings would pay for itself pretty quickly.

Mike Duffy:
Right. And actually in hotels. Same as Laundromat. They did a lot of fluoride as well. Yeah. So there’s this solution called ozone laundry. Okay. And what it does is it is it infuses an oxygenation basically into the water. So you’re reducing water there. Yeah. You’re also reducing the chemical usage that you use detergents. And it also helps with the drying so it reduces the drying time as well. Okay.

David Elmasian:
So you’ve been a business for a while now you know like any business you can have ups and downs and everything in between. What are some of the things that you know you really look forward to in your business. Meaning you know the task that you grab right away and then one of the ones you know the flip side of that which like Hey I’ll get to that whenever. No no no none of these things apply to me. I jump on everything naturally. But there’s some certain aspects of the business that you really you finally get a lot of gratification out of.

Mike Duffy:
I really I’m passionate about helping the customers. My my past has has led me to to really jump into the customer service aspect of it. And where this industry is so giving. Yeah and it’s just a matter of finding a need identifying the solution and then bringing it forward for that customer. And in many cases it helps these small business the smallest of the small stay open for X amount more time. Yeah or they can hire a new position or it just gives them that ability to fund something else that they need or want.

David Elmasian:
Right yeah. That it is kind of neat and it’s what’s nice about it too like you said from your perspective is they’re not really giving anything up. It’s not like you know you come in. You say Okay you’re gonna buy this this this and this there’s gonna be a cost associated with that. And then you know maybe you may get some savings down the road like you said because of the the very minimal upfront cost that they have to put out. It really mitigates the risk which means their returns gonna be even greater.

Mike Duffy:
All right. It really does. So part of our our our why our payback is the savings involved. Yeah. So as soon as we’re done with our retrofit you’re saving money right now it could be offset with some of the payment that you have within 30 percent. Right. But like I said earlier it’s a small amount of time. And once that payback is satisfied you’re making money.

David Elmasian:
So one of the things I’ve seen on your various social media accounts you have a on Fridays you post the six. But it was the right. I’m saying the right term but.

Mike Duffy:
No it’s our feedback Friday back Friday. OK. Yeah thanks.

David Elmasian:
So tell me about some of those feedback Fridays you know that that stick out to you.

Mike Duffy:
Sure. We have different social media channels we have we’re on Twitter or on LinkedIn Facebook and Instagram limited on Instagram. I’m still a little bit up there.

David Elmasian:
Yeah I know. I haven’t figured it out yet. My kids kind of keep explaining to me but it’s not work and it’s not. Oh yeah.

Mike Duffy:
But what we do is every Friday we post our feedback Friday and it’s thank heavens it’s always been a positive testimonial for my customers. We try to include a before and after and a little bit about what the customer experience was was involved with Yeah we’ve been doing it for quite a long time and our customers keep on raving about us. It’s been really good and I’ve actually received a lot of positive feedback from others in the industry about the feedback Friday. So well yeah. Because it’s gaining traction.

David Elmasian:
I mean that’s why it attracted you know my eye because it it it illustrates it sums up and you know I think all. All businesses face the same challenge which is we know our business but we can’t describe it as well as protest. Perhaps a customer can because they’re going to use terms that they it’s more relatable to other people that are maybe interested in your services. You and I can talk about our own business and talk about all this stuff. But there’s a disconnect there. Least I can say that for myself. And when we get reviews on our business you know. And yeah. Sometimes though not always wonderful you know. But more importantly the ones I think it’s just relatable. And I think that’s really a key and so I see those pictures and I saw you know there’s a bunch of areas like I don’t know like it looked like it was like an auto shop and various very small businesses that have like I can just say I picture them you see the old lights the what they call gas whatever type light dressing yeah yeah. And now they have the LCD and the comments are so consistent you see all the things are so much brighter and my my my energy costs are like 20 percent of what they used to be etc. like that. That’s kind of a neat thing.

Mike Duffy:
It is all great stuff. Yeah. So when we post these with the before and after it’s so visible and it makes our readers our subscribers our followers click into it. Yeah. And then they see the customer feedback. Right. So we try to capture feedback from each industry. Right. And then when we’re going out knocking on those doors we can refer to our posts. And they typically if we’re within a confined territory which we sometimes can be will refer our customers to even reach out to those those who have feedback or those testimonial people and receive some because it’s more credible.

David Elmasian:
Right. And you’re gonna say how great your business is and I am not saying it isn’t it is but when I can hear from a real live customer then it just it’s it’s it’s you know just more real.

Mike Duffy:
Right. Absolutely. The experience is different from a customer’s perspective. Yeah. I mean I have you know rose colored glasses on and I expect of course that my guys will go out and do everything perfectly and they do cast right. Ninety nine point nine percent of the time. I was still looking for those unicorns but from the customer side of it you know it’s it’s intimidating at first. You know they’re they they may be seeing a project that looks as though it costs a lot of money.

David Elmasian:
Right. But when we jump back into the numbers again the payback is real and I imagine business disruption is a big challenge as well. They think that hey you know what. I might shut down for a week or you know close my doors and and that’s obviously a big concern. So let’s talk about that when you when you guys and I know it’s not a one size fits all approach but you know when people bring that up what’s involved and I guess I know every situation is going to be slightly different but do they have downtime. You know what. What’s your process of handling those types of situations.

Mike Duffy:
It’s very possible depending on the solution that we’re offering. So if I could bring up refrigeration for example we would have to shut down the coolers in order to work with the electrical components of those refrigeration units. Now we minimize and mitigate the amount of downtime because our installers are so efficient and so fast that what’s so good at what they do. Right. They’re very familiar with the components of it. They know how to do these in the most quick and efficient manner right. So when we talk about or try to. Try to help people be comfortable with our installation. Yeah it’s just a matter of demonstrating that over and over again. And then sometimes as you just said we can refer to other customers who have experienced that. Right now that’s on the refrigeration side the lighting side. You know sometimes we have to be during normal business hours. Sure we’ll work any hour of the day right now to mitigate some of that downtime for our customer. So we we try to be as flexible as flexible as possible. Thank you. And we’ll work around. Customers will work during life time or work during whatever the customer feels most comfortable with.

David Elmasian:
So we talked about the good side of stuff. What’s what some of the stuff that you don’t really love doing. You know anything. I’m not saying that you hated or anything like that. But are there aspects of that from even from a business perspective. What are the things that you kind of put off like. I’ll get to it I’ll get to it. It just seems like you don’t really want to get to it.

Mike Duffy:
There are some parts of our process that we have to wait for others. For example engineering review from our utilities they do a great job in making sure that a customer is getting the maximum benefit for the solution that we’re offering. And sometimes that takes time. So whereas where relied on to be able to do most of the calculations and bring that information engineered within house and bring that to the customer it still has to be justified by the utility in order to be funded. So there is some delays that if we have an eager customer and a customer that wants or needs to go forward with a project in a quick manner sometimes there’s some delays.

David Elmasian:
Well utilities are not known for being fast.

Mike Duffy:
All right I I’m going to plead the Fifth right.

David Elmasian:
I you know I don’t want you to bite the hand that feeds you against you. But now. But it’s also because they’re a larger organization it’s not that they’re being slow it’s just that they have a process and they want to make sure all things are addressed properly and it’s just like in my business you know we always want to do things quickly and customers want things to be done quickly. But at the same time they also don’t want to miss out or have an issue later because we were in such a rush. So there has to be a little bit of you know reality check so to speak at times and it sounds like that’s what they’re trying to really trying to do and also maximize looks at their benefits.

Mike Duffy:
Absolutely. They want to make sure that the customer is realizing the benefit that we’re offering for it to them. So our calculations typically conservative and the utility make sure that our calculations are appropriate for that industry for that customer.

David Elmasian:
Right. So you mentioned you have a sales team the people that do the installation. Is that something you have in-house or do you outsource that or you work with certain vendors you have for a while.

Mike Duffy:
We have worked with the same subs for longer than I’ve been in the industry so they are extremely professional courteous polite and they’re incredible at what they do.

David Elmasian:
So again not to get some PTSD you know the flashbacks the call center but hiring is always a big part especially back in our old jobs. Right. It’s like we’re always hiring you don’t know a lot of turnover. How do you do you like that aspect of even in this role now building a team and do you feel like you know that experience is paid off for you or our past experience.

Mike Duffy:
Sure. So the team that I have right now at this moment I’ve worked with for years and years and years even though complete energy services is less than two years old. They came from another industry that I worked with. And in this energy savings like energy efficiency they’re not newbies they’re definitely not. We have over 150 years of combined experience between us.

David Elmasian:
So well I know that you’re being 83 and all you know is that I contributed to it not just that what I look like. No not at all you know because of I know we’re about the same age. So if I say that I’m sad about myself I’m not I’m just kidding but now.

David Elmasian:
But that’s great because like you said you know having that experience pays big dividends and more importantly gives benefits the customer because knowing what they know the customer doesn’t know that stuff they’re just looking at I imagine they’re enamored with the savings and all that. They just kind of you know they’re fixated on that and I speaking as a business owner myself that’s what I’d be looking at. But at the end of the day they also want to make sure that the functionality is there and that you guys have the experience to complete the process. And like you said get the benefits that they may not even realize. And like I say in my business same way they don’t know what they don’t know right.

Mike Duffy:
You’re exactly right.

Mike Duffy:
Yeah great points. So our customer to your point they they don’t exactly know what energy efficiency is. They’re worried about what they’re going to sell next to. Right. For example in retail how am I going to highlight these shirts and these pants and so on.

Mike Duffy:
And so forth. Whatever product. We help them. So it’s when we approach a customer it’s not entirely about energy efficiency although that’s where all the funding is coming from. The funding and the benefits we want to do what’s best for that customer. I wanted to highlight that product. Right. So there’s different selection opportunities different color lighting for example just to make sure that those items pop when a customer sees it right.

David Elmasian:
Yeah. So the we talked a little bit about energy conservation and it’s we know it’s a very broad topic and we can’t cover all of that right now. But you know I know you’re very passionate about that.

David Elmasian:
You know that’s another big benefit that maybe other people you know that are looking at you and saying Hey you guys really want to save my 30 percent of my utility bill or whatever but also isn’t that kind of the basis of what a lot of the programs that the utility companies are doing which is really that is the goal of energy conservation.

David Elmasian:
My Am I correct in that.

Mike Duffy:
I think if I can answer the question the utility is responsible for a certain portfolio of savings each year. Right. So Massachusetts has a three year plan. That is all about energy conservation. Right. The utilities have to enact that across Massachusetts. Right. So when the utilities are funding or determining what they can do to fund these different programs the customer is always at the focal point. Right. So whatever we can do and bring that three year plan from Massachusetts through the utilities to the customers and we’re all benefiting by it. Right. Does that help.

David Elmasian:
Absolutely does. Yeah. And you know it made me think about what you mentioned about working with hotels and similar type businesses like that you would think that you know a Hotel Association a trade group would be this would be like a perfect marriage right.

David Elmasian:
Because like you said of all you know other than labor costs I’m sure you know utilities are probably pretty high up on the on the food chain as far as their their expense report. Absolutely.

Mike Duffy:
Operating and management costs are the highest they’ve ever been. And in these utilities can offset those costs and keep keep the focus on what they can do best guest services for example else. So with with a hotel all of those operating costs are offset by their occupancy for example. So when occupancy is high so. So at the utility price whether it be electric fuel water all of those things and the amenities that go behind that more staffing and so on. So there’s a lot of cost in hotels and we can help mitigate those costs.

David Elmasian:
So how about like property management companies and similar to that same idea. Absolutely.

Mike Duffy:
Where we’re in a Flatley company owned facility.

David Elmasian:
We are we are.

Mike Duffy:
So we can certainly help property management groups we have in the past. It is a great marriage as you alluded to earlier right. We can help with exterior lighting interior lighting and all of these costs again. The majority is funded by the utilities.

David Elmasian:
Right. That’s great. So we’ll wrap things up in just a few minutes.

David Elmasian:
But where do you see the business you know down the road. Do you see any major changes that you could see anticipate in anticipation you feel like it’s still going to be the same or you know do you see any changes coming down the down the pike.

Mike Duffy:
Definitely Dave. So in when I first started 10 over 10 years ago we said what are we gonna do when we change out the last fluorescent light. Right.

Mike Duffy:
And we were kind of shouted at the fact you know what do we do.

Mike Duffy:
But the technology is ever changing and ever improving. So within that 10 year that short 10 year I feel I’ve seen so many changes in the technology and the solutions available to customers. All right. We went from you know thick tube fluorescent which was called a T twelve to a T eight which is lower in wattage. Yeah. And then we went from a t to a Super T which is even lower in wattage. Right. And in through that time you know We saturated the market with these super T. And we thought what are we going to do.

David Elmasian:
Yeah that’s it. We’re still in free die offs. We’re going to have to figure something out.

Mike Duffy:
And then LED came along. So and that was a dramatic shift and you know can buy LCD you know threw us at a greatly discounted rate right. So it’s it’s definitely in lighting that was the most major change and it really turned the industry. So now where you know we’ve been forced to become more comprehensive. So when at the onset of the show we talked about some. Different services and solutions that we offer. And it’s just growing in by the volume of what we can offer now so.

David Elmasian:
So look. Name a couple of those sure it’s Besides like you said the obvious stuff. What are some other things that you feel like you need to educate people about that hey there is a solution for this.

Mike Duffy:
All right. So air source heat pumps is one of the biggest buzzwords nowadays air source heat pumps are actually in electric heating or cooling.

Mike Duffy:
Solution for many different opportunities in across the industry.

Mike Duffy:
If you need to add a room to your facility and answer as he hop might be a great opportunity to invest in those like the residential saying that what they call is split units split.

David Elmasian:
Ok. Correct. Here I am as I look.

Mike Duffy:
Very good. Yeah. You’re an educated person.

Mike Duffy:
So yeah.

Mike Duffy:
Yes yes heat pumps. We talked a little bit about refrigeration what we can do there. Right. We can help with economize as for refrigeration and HP AC so a rooftop unit we can put it in economize there. That’s helped slows down the fan. It still maintains your air which we call CFL or the air intake in your room just to make sure that you’re up to speed.

David Elmasian:
Right. So that would be applicable especially for like restaurants too right. Absolutely. Again refrigeration not just for the food but for the guests and the whole. You know I imagine they use a lot of electricity. They sure do.

Mike Duffy:
It costs a lot of money to ensure that your food stays cold. All right. And of course there’s FDA regulations on temperature to keep meat add and so on and so forth whatever the product is. Right. So we we maintain that and and improve that on the cost side. Right.

David Elmasian:
Ok. Anything else along those lines that I’m aware of.

Mike Duffy:
Oh I actually EV charging stations is a big thing right. OK so electric vehicle charging stations. There’s such an increase in purchase in manufacturing by the way of electric vehicles. Right. So my company’s complete energy services will go out and install those for our customers. Now it’s not so much an energy saver but it is an environmental impact opportunity right for a hotel. If I keep it going back to this example hotels are using them now more and more as a guest benefit. Right. You know there’s I want to say I think 14000 electric vehicles in Massachusetts right now really.

Mike Duffy:
Well how. And it keeps on growing. Yeah. It’s grown exponentially since 2005. Right. I just it’s a Tesla you pulled up and you know a nice life.

Mike Duffy:
I don’t think that was a good looking guy.

Mike Duffy:
Yeah but the the opportunities you have that in retail for example is great because a customer will pull up to a charging station and they’ll tend to wander through the through the retail store. So it will increase their revenue as well.

Mike Duffy:
So how much of those costs generally the charging station I have no idea. Sure. There’s there’s a couple of different kinds but.

Mike Duffy:
But the standard one is probably around six to seven thousand dollars. But you’re passing along some benefit to it.

David Elmasian:
Oh yeah yeah. No I think like I said I rent out a pretty significant role as well to as far as even just being able to finance some of the cost of it or offset some of that costs through subsidies or what have you.

Mike Duffy:
Absolutely. And the utility is paying for the infrastructure. All right. So there they are going right from the pole to the charging station for absolutely free right now.

David Elmasian:
Right can’t be the slam dunk right. No brainer. Well you know Mike you I know you can when I can talk for quite a while the world we live in is a certain attention span. But before we wrap up I got to slip a little technology in here. Just a little bit. You know I know you’re a you’re a geek at heart as well too. So if you’re listening to the previous episode give thanks for the your tech so we know you passed with flying colors. So I mean let’s just run through it. So are you a macro P.C. guy back. Yeah I know some of these answers but I’m going to ask them anyway for people that don’t iPhone or Android iPhone. This one I definitely know. But I’ll ask it anyway. Facebook Instagram Twitter or LinkedIn or all the above. None of the above some combination all of the above.

David Elmasian:
I don’t believe you and that’s OK.

Mike Duffy:
I’m getting there

David Elmasian:
Netflix or Hulu.

Mike Duffy:
Netflix.

David Elmasian:
Nobody ever picks Hulu. How do they stay in business. You know.

David Elmasian:
Roku Apple TV Chromecast.

Mike Duffy:
Apple TV. Of course I’m a Mac guy.

David Elmasian:
I know I know I know Gmail or outlook.

Mike Duffy:
Outlook right now.

David Elmasian:
Take it one step further. Let’s see if you know what Office 365 or Google Apps for Business.

Mike Duffy:
I have Office 365.

David Elmasian:
Of course. Why explain why we’ve gone back.

Mike Duffy:
That’s why we all supported Microsoft. Yeah exactly. We still do we still.

David Elmasian:
I think everyone does not as a few people out there that Google up stuff you know.

David Elmasian:
Well Mike you know what a story. I know you and I could talk for for many more hours but we’re running out of time so far. If you own a business and you want to take advantage of some of the programs we talked about how do people find you and have a discussion about it.

Mike Duffy:
Well we can go to my Web site. That’s the first point of contact for us CEScorp.com. We have a free energy assessment sign up tool. Yeah. So a few pieces of information your name your business name and your address contact number. We’ll get in touch with you we’ll schedule up your complimentary energy assessment and we’ll take it from there.

David Elmasian:
Sounds like a no brainer to me. Absolutely. What you got to lose. No seriously I mean really. I’m not saying at all.

David Elmasian:
All kidding aside I you know I think like you said skepticism aside. That’s that’s a hazard of living in an area that we live in. It really is. It really is a no brainer. You know as far as from my perspective but that’s great. So. So they can contact you that way. And Mike can thank you for joining us here on the hub of success. Thanks for sharing your story.

Mike Duffy:
Thanks so much Dave. I appreciate it.

Narrator:
The hub of success podcast is sponsored by Tech Help Boston. The top rated local one stop tech solutions company for all of your computer home and commercial technology needs. Visit techhelpBoston dot.com.

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