Happy Veterans Day

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Friday Fun: Maytag History and The Maytag Man

As parts suppliers we have always had a special fondness for Maytag Men. The Maytag Man is probably the most well known association many people have with the appliance service industry. There are a lot of fond memories service techs have shared with us of working with Maytag before the company was acquired by Whirlpool. For those of you with Maytag nostalgia or a fondness for the Maytag Man, we hope you enjoy this video as much as we did. It is a little long, so give yourself 15 minutes to watch it. It has some great old pictures, clips from commercials and interviews with folks in the Maytag advertising department discussing the history of this iconic advertising character. Enjoy!



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Throwback Thursday: News Recap November 7, 2014

If you have been reading the W.L. May Blog but haven't checked us out on Facebook, Twitter or Google+, you may not be getting the whole story. We use all of those social media outlets to share news stories that relate to our industry as well as appliance tips we have found from other sources. Here is a recap of some of the top stories we have seen lately. A lot has been happening so without further ado:

We start with some consumer friendly articles we feel would be great for sharing:

• CTV jumped on the "scary things about your appliances" bandwagon that seems to roll out around Halloween. Link
• In a less "scary" vein, Fort Wayne Journal Gazette had some helpful tips for cleaning appliances. Link
• Buffalo News pondered the old classic "repair or replace" question. Link
• Tribune-Review shared their cleaning tips to eliminate germs in the kitchen. Link
• Ask Anna gave some instructions for cleaning stainless steel. Link 
• Sears site My Managed Life gave advice for avoiding appliance "disasters" during the Holiday Season. Link
• Home Advisor shared some tips for fixing a "leaking" refrigerator. Link
• Style Caser showed some items to be machine washable, despite their "dry clean only" label. Link

Next, we look at the manufacturers and how they have been in the news recently:

• Whirlpool introduced the Everydrop water filter. Able to go anywhere this is a great looking product and we have them on hand for you to try. Link
• There was some bad news about Whirlpool September sales.  Link
• GE also suffered a little bit of a set back. Link

We found several articles that might be of interest to those of you who love all thing appliances:

• New Philadelphia Times-Reporter told the story of how a washing machine was invented by a pastor, because 'Cleanliness is next to Godliness". Link
• Country Life shared some usual uses for dishwashers. Link
• Fire /EMS Blogs showed how they use old refrigerators for condfined area training for Fire fighters and EMT. Best use for an old appliance we have seen yet. Link
• The Tomahawk told us how "laundry day" was in the times before the automatic washing machine. Link
• For $100,000 you could have this music box set that actually comes in a refrigerator. (No really, we can't make this stuff up!) Link
• KERO Bakersfield shed some light on why today's stainless isn't the same as it used to be. Link

Sometimes, the links we post are related to technology, business or happenings on the internet:

• Vertical Response Blog shared some tips for social media promotions. Link
• CyberBiz described a scenario where smart appliances could cause trouble on the internet. Link
• Forbes talked about the virtual trail we leave behind us in some modern vehicles. Link

We close with a couple of fun stories:

• TribToday.Com posed the question: An alien offers you a Magic Washing Machine that automatically washes, dries, folds and puts away all your laundry for the rest of your life. But you need to give up 10 points of your IQ. Do you take the deal? The writer has his own solution to the dilemna. Link
• Seattle Home Inspector, Charles Buell  suggested he would rather appliances uses names rather than  model numbers. Link

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Web Tools Wednesday: The Importance of Original Content

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Here at W.L. May, we are seeing the marketplace shift in some dramatic ways in a very short time. We have chosen to take a stance of educating our customers to help them address those challenges. That is why we so strongly support the technical and business training opportunities being offered by the United Servicers Association, as well as providing information to help your business via this blog, Facebook, Twitter and Google+.

It has been fun to watch as many of our clients have developed their own social media strategies, often with great success. We have seen some companies gaining greater prominence in their communities which is reflected in their adding technicians and growing their businesses. It is our desire that our efforts here have been helpful to you in providing inspiration or information to share with your customers, we even hope you have been having fun along the way. We do wish that for you.

As more and more companies begin their own forays into the world of social media. This seems like a good time to talk about original content. This can be a confusing issue when discussing social media because social sharing is at the core of how sites like Facebook work. For the rest of the article I will be using Facebook as my examples but the points are true for whichever social media platform you are using.

Sharing is a good thing to do when you come across an item that you think your page followers would find of interest. There is a right way and a wrong way to do it though. I have seen some companies that will go so far as to cut and past entire articles as their status posts. I have even seen posts like these that claim the were written by the poster, when a quick search shows the post to be a preexisting article. This is a really bad idea. You will be getting the information out there, but you are also exposing yourself to the potential of lawsuit for copyright infringement.

Now, you may be thinking to yourself that there is plenty of that sort of copy and paste thing happening on the internet every where you look and no one is going to notice if I just copy the text as if it were my own. You may be right, so far. The truth is, a search of Google did not lead to any stories of successful lawsuits for plagiarism in Facebook. Lawsuits have been filed against some blogs though. As a business owner, you are always the target of a certain breed of lawyers. Why give them something to work with?

The best method is either to take the article and rewrite it yourself, in your own words, and with your own opinions mixed in. The is not the most original approach but it still leaps and bounds above directly cutting and pasting. As those of you who follow W.L.May on the social networks know, we prefer to offer a link directly to the article. Best is a comment to go with the link explaining why you find it of interest. This allows the writer to recieve credit for their article being read. Since many writers are paid by the number of people who visit their page this is a way of letting them get their due for helping you with your marketing efforts.

When it comes to pictures, it is perfectly acceptable to "share" a picture that someone else has posted. However, if you choose to post a picture yourself again it is wise to make sure that you own the rights to the picture. There are numerous sources of free images you can use or you can take pictures yourself to use. Don't just copy a picture from Google images and use that. Those pictures are often copyright protected and again leave you vulnerable to lawsuit. Some photographers have been successful in suing for images being used on blogs and settlements have been fairly large. Why take the chance?

There are considerations to be made about the style of your posts: personal or business like, how often to talk about yourself or your company, whether you should talk about religion and politics. All of these things can have a huge impact on your success using social media. But that will have to wait for a future post. Have a great day and happy servicing.

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Kelly's Korner - Traeger Smoker Barbeque's

Hey, All!

Wow, it is November already!  Where has the time gone?  And now comes the holidays and all the joys and frustrations those bring.

Are you looking for something a little bit different for your holiday meals?  Have you ever had anything cooked on a Traeger barbeque?  In my opinion, these are the best barbeques - by far! - over any of the others, whether gas or charcoal, out there. 

Traegers are electric smoker/barbeques that have a hopper that feeds flavored wood pellets into the burning chamber to cook your food.  It gives the food a wonderful smoky flavor that is out of this world!  And because the burning chamber is covered, there is a very small chance of the flame ups that you get with gas and charcoal.  They are rated as a smoker vs barbeque so if you have restrictions where you live regarding barbeques then you may be able to have one of these.

If you have a one stove kitchen like I do, then timing and space are very limited when getting that holiday dinner together.  So free up your oven of that turkey, prime rib or whatever you cook for the holidays, and cook them on the Traeger.

W L May is an authorized Traeger dealer and we have the smokers, pellets, sauces and rubs and other accessories here.  Come on down and check them out - you will find yourself cooking on this more than you will your stove - summer or winter!  And if you come down on a Friday, chances are that we have ours going and are cooking up something for you to sample.

So come on by anytime and check out these exceptional Traeger barbeques - I will be posting other things - recipes, helpful tips, etc., throughout the holiday time so keep an eye out.  And if anyone is wondering what to get me for my birthday/Christmas - I'll take one of these!

Have a great week!

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Motivation Monday

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Friday Facts: Five Essential Stock Items for November

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We at W.L. May hope that you had a nice Halloween last night with plenty of tricks and treats and we also hope that you are enjoying the fall colors in your local area. With Halloween behind us, a glance at the calendar reminds us that we are heading into  the holiday season with Thanksgiving just a few short weeks away. When the pages of the calendar turns to November, the calls begin to come in for ranges. Unlike most of the year, when more recent appliances are the usual service call request, during Thanksgiving time people have a tendency to evoke nostalgia and go with what has always worked to create a memorable holiday. Often, this means an old range. Many of the more universal range parts are those found on electric ranges and that is what we will be concentrating on here. However, if you are in an area with more gas appliances you'll want to make sure you have an adequate supply of igniters on hand.

How can you be prepared, as a servicer, for those electric range calls? As we have previously stressed on this blog, you want to minimize return trips so a stock of "universal" parts for ranges can do wonders for your efficiency during the holiday season. So what should you have ready to go? Here are a few suggestions:

• Bake and Broil elements. This is probably the most common request we get during Thanksgiving season every year. Sure, we stock a lot of elements, but you'll want to have some on hand yourself. We recommend reviewing your service history and at least make sure you have the most common ones on hand. If you have a brand that is particularly well represented in your area, you might want to include a few less common elements from that brand as well. If you need some suggestions, ask your W.L. May parts expert. We would be happy to help.
• Surface Elements. Many ranges uses the same standard surface elements. Having these in your truck can mean the difference between completing a call and going back later. Whether you decide to use OEM surface units or a generic version, make sure you have some on hand.
• Burner Receptacles. Don't forget that sometimes replacing a surface element also means replacing the receptacle. Again, many use the same receptacles. Don't let yourself be caught short.
• Universal Thermostat and Surface Switches. We recommend using the OEM specified thermostats and switchs whenever possible. However on some old ranges they thermostat may be out of production. If that is the case a universal thermostat may save the day. We also stock a few universal switches that could come in handy on these older machines.
• Drip Pans and Cleaners. The holidays are a time for entertaining and many people see this as an opportunity to spruce up and do some extra cleaning in the kitchen. If you are prepared with cleaning solutions and replacement drip pans, you may be surprised to find customers eager for those items. Beware of you own bias here. You might not be inclined to replace stained drip pans on your own range, however many customers appreciate the opportunity to replace their own drip pans. If you have them on hand, you can spare your customer from trying to find pans that fit (and probably don't) at their local big box store and , by the way, you will be increasing your own bottom line as well. Win-win!

The holidays also have a tendency so increase calls for dishwashers, icemakers, and trash compactors. Consider how you can prepare yourself with pieces for those items as well. We look forward to helping you solve some of the mysterious old appliance parts problems as you work your way to a delicious turkey dinner (or Tofurkey if you are so inclined). Just give us a call and we would be glad to help. So what do you find to be an essential stock item at this time of year? Please, let us know in the comments.

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