In addition to being a supplier of the leading Commander brand of fire extinguishers and delivering regular inspections and servicing of you fire equipment, at Hartson Fire, customer service is at the heart of our ethos. But what does this mean?
Hartson Fire was originally established in 2001 by Cyril Hartson a specialist with more than 20 years’ experience in the fire equipment industry. Cyril was working for a national company with huge ambition and a desire to develop a business that put the customer rather than sales targets first.
Over time, he developed a high-profile client base of around 300 customers across a range of sectors from letting agents, hotels, stadia colleges, gyms, pubs, clubs, offices, charity organisations to hospitals run by the Cardiff and Vale NHS, Swansea Bay University Health Board, University of Wales Trinity Saint David and Parc Y Scarlets, just to name a few
Today, though the company has grown exponentially from 300 to over 1200 now 1400 clients- and the majority of the original companies are still customers today. Despite this growth, Hartson Fire continues to deliver the personal service Cyril has always practised to all customers, knowing most of them by first name terms. It’s this level of service, together with new initiatives recently introduce, that sets the company apart from its competitors.
In 2016, Cyril’s daughter Victoria joined the company which has since gone from strength-to strength including the development of a new online platform and investment in software to streamline business practices.
Since Victoria joined her father within the business, she has also actively achieved key accreditations including CHAS, Construction Line and Safe Contractor, enabling the company to tender for larger contracts via the Sell to Wales portal. Hartson Fire is also on the BAFE register – a national independent register of quality fire safety companies. All BAFE Registered Companies have been independently assessed to determine their competency to confidently deliver specific fire safety services such as fire risk assessment, fire detection and fire alarm system works and/or fire extinguisher servicing/maintenance.
Victoria has also changed the status to a limited company, increased the number of employees from one to six with a corresponding fleet of vans which can often be seen out and about across South West Wales.
Due to these strategies, some smaller accounts have extended their contracts with Hartson Fire to large single accounts including Swansea Bay Health Board, Cardiff & Vale NHS, The new University of Wales Bay Campus development in SA1, Swansea, the new Wolf TV Studios in Cardiff Bay along with S4C new offices in Carmarthen.
In addition to CHAS, Construction Line and add ISO9001 accreditations, the team of engineers at Hartson Fire rigidly follow all clients’ site requirements, rules and policies, including signing in and out of each job.
When it comes to the installation and servicing of fire extinguishers, Hartson Fire provides all clients with RAMS (risk assessments and method statements) prior to starting test work, where/when required.
During the Covid pandemic, as fire extinguishers still needed to be serviced in all commercial premises, we had in place our policies and procedures to enable us to operate during these times including maintaining social distancing, limited the number of engineers attending a site at one time and the wearing of PPE as appropriate. We also ensured that, prior to each new job, our engineers were familiar with each customer’s own Covid policies and procedures, ensuring we followed these too in order to keep everyone safe.
All customers are aware that Hartson fire offers a 24- hour call-out service for customers which is available 365 days a year with a focus on protecting clients’ businesses from the risks of fire.
The company also uses dedicated software that controls all customer data including alerts when equipment is due to be serviced or replaced. Larger clients are now also provided with an asset record, giving a full breakdown of the types of fire equipment they have on site and where they are located. This also enables us to ensure that all paperwork is ready on time to be signed off by our customers.
As a family run business, Victoria and the team also continuously strive to minimise environmental and social impacts as well as ensuring financial stability.
The company actively strives to reduce the use of energy or raw materials, using renewable alternatives and making the best of new markets for innovative or better performing products within the fire extinguisher and related market.
Demonstrating their long-term commitment to quality and service excellence, Hartson Fire has recently gone is currently going through the process of attaining ISO 9001 considered to be the ultimate global benchmark for quality management.
To find out how Hartson Fire can help your business to be fire safety compliant through a team of dedicated and fully trained engineers and top of the range fire extinguishers, call us today on the number below:
