Why
is David Mathews at CCAC?
My dad, Richard Mathews Sr., started Mathews Heating and Air Conditioning in 1957 when my mom was pregnant with me. I grew up in the air conditioning business. At the age of 8, I started cleaning the shop on Saturdays and during the summer. By the time I was 14, I was working as an installer’s helper on the install crews during the summers. As soon as I could drive I was doing installs and service work. I worked after school and during the summers all the way through high school and two years at Del Mar College. I went to UT in Austin to get my Bachelor’s Degree in Mechanical Engineering and came home during the summers and spring break and Christmas break to work to save more money to finish school.
After College I came back to the family business and started working there in sales, design, and management. I held every job there was at the company. In 1992, I was made General Manager and was responsible for the operation of the entire company. My father and brother and I together owned the company.
In 1997 my father wanted to retire, but he had a hard time just letting go. A nation wide company that was buying air conditioning companies and consolidating them approached us. They offered us the opportunity to sell the company and allow my father to retire completely. At the time we thought it was a good idea, my father would retire and my brother and I would stay on and run the company. So in 1998 we sold the company to Service Experts.
The big corporate mentality is just not the same as the local home-owned way of doing things we were brought up with. My brother Rick left the company after about two years. I hung in there trying to make it work. My father always taught me that if you take care of the customer they will take care of you. The problem was that the Big Corporate mentality is REVENUE and PROFIT only. In August of 2002, I had all I could stand and because of the things they were doing I could not work for the company any more. I turned in my resignation and left Mathews Heating and Air.
At the time I did not know what I was going to do, I just knew that my morals would not allow me to work for that company any more. I took some time off and thought hard about what I wanted to do. I knew that I would only be happy in a family owned business that cared about taking care of the customers. When I talked with Dick Rector, owner of CCAC, and found out that he was interested in possibly selling his company, I knew this is where I should be. I worked for CCAC for a while and have now bought the business. As they say The Lord works in mysterious ways, and I know that he had a hand in what happened to me. I now have the opportunity to take care of customers the way that I know they should be taken care of, and don’t have some big corporation telling me I have to make more money. CCAC does stand for Constantly Concerned About Customers, and as long as I am here we will live up to that motto.
There is a lot of confusion among people out there as to what took place and why I am here. Some people think that Mathews Heating and Air bought out CCAC. That is not true. Some people think that I had a fight with my family and left the company. That is not true either, there are no Mathews at Mathews Heating and Air.
I want to thank all of my friends and customers that have called and talked with me and given me the opportunity to earn their business. I do feel that it is my privilege and a great responsibility to earn the trust of my customers, and to continually strive to do a better job of earning your business each and every day.