Business View Caribbean | Volume 9, Issue 2

28 BUSINESS VIEW CARIBBEAN VOLUME 9, ISSUE 2 with an excellent sales and service support team.” Universal Equipment Sales Manager, Francis, is also an engineer and is known by name by most hotel managers. They have his phone number and are in constant communication with him. Of course, hospital and hotel clients need to have their equipment back online immediately when a problem occurs, so the company often provides technical support by phone or video chats to get equipment up and running if at all possible that way. Hernandez boasts, “The effort that Francis has done has been key for us to make sure that we’re not only known for selling equipment but that the clients know if they buy from us, they will have our support for the life of the equipment. We’ve built good relationships with our clients and also with the consultant engineers. When choosing water heating systems for a new building or project, those engineers reach out to us because of our expertise. We’ll give them a selection based on our experience and they will go with that recommendation. The consultants trust us entirely.” While it is currently a challenge to find workers in Puerto Rico, most Universal Equipment employees have been with the company for 10 to 15 years. One thing that sets the company apart is that they are a small, family-owned company and therefore super flexible. Being family-oriented, they understand when a staff member needs a day off for personal reasons, and they give a lot of vacation time. That being said, part of the business is with maintenance contracts, so some employees are on call, 24-7, in case a client has an emergency where their building equipment is down. In that respect, Universal Equipment provides full support, regardless of whether it is a weekend, or a holiday. Supply chain disruption due to the pandemic has