In 1996, Tim Hanlon and his wife, Carma, took a leap of faith in purchasing Grogg’s Home Services, a heating-and-air-conditioning business founded by her father, Leon Grogg. Operating first out of their home, Tim learned the trade while working a second job, and Carma juggled phone calls and scheduling with raising their children. They dispatched service calls from their kitchen, and on one occasion, the neighbor’s dog stole a pair of their employee’s work boots off the porch. “He had to get to the job, so I gave him $50 to buy a pair of boots on his way to the customer’s house,” Tim recalls. Their hard work and philosophy of exceeding expectations have made Grogg’s Home Services a success.

The company has been online since 2006. While Tim admits he resisted technology at first, “eventually, I became the driving force behind totally getting out of the yellow pages,” he shares. Today AdWords, Google’s advertising program, accounts for 80 percent of their online sales, according to Director of Finance and IT Adam McDowell. They use insights from Google Analytics to optimize their ad campaigns, improve web traffic, and keep customers engaged. The Internet has allowed the company to expand their service area from West Virginia into Ohio, and informs customers about new service offerings. “Online advertising has helped us reach further than what typical print media will allow us to reach,” says Adam. “And having that online presence to say we now provide these other services has been huge.”

Grogg’s Home Services has long since outgrown the Hanlons’ kitchen, adding a Clarksburg branch to their location in Parkersburg. They service nearly 10,000 customers a year, and have expanded into electrical, plumbing, and other services. Despite their growth, Adam says, “Grogg’s is still very much a family environment.” They offer extensive training—75 to 100 hours a year—to their employees. “We invest in them because we want them to stay here, and to have the tools they need to be successful,” he explains. They also give back to the community by donating to charities and supporting local families in need. “We always try to do the right thing, even if it costs us money to do so,” Tim says, which has earned Grogg’s a reputation for providing reliable, quality service, and for doing right by customers and employees alike.