Beyond the Quick Fix
Company owners Kristin Wampler (left) and Kristen Sgroi.
When Kristin Wampler and Kristen Sgroi met, they became fast friends. And now, they’ve turned that friendship into a women-owned electrical contracting company that has carved out an intriguing niche in Western Mass.
Specifically, they met while working for a commercial electrician, and they hit it off immediately. So when they started talking about launching a business of their own — Wampler has a long entrepreneurial background — an electrical firm made sense. Even though they’re not electricians themselves, they knew enough about the trade — and plenty more about running the back end of a business — to give it a go.
But as they launched Contractors Electrical Plus in Westfield, they quickly pivoted away from the commercial and industrial side, instead planting a flag in what they felt was an undertapped market in residential jobs.
“My husband does home improvement, a lot of remodeling, and he’s always looking for electricians and plumbers and HVAC people,” Wampler said. “So I said to Kristen one day as we were driving, ‘you know, with all the knowledge that we’ve gained, we can open up our own residential service and repair business.’”
So they did — and their model proved to be a successful one.
“Our motto is that we protect your most valuable assets, which are the people in your home,” Sgroi said, adding that they aim to be a more relatable company for women.
“My husband does home improvement, a lot of remodeling, and he’s always looking for electricians and plumbers and HVAC people.”
“Who tends to call for services? It’s more often women who call,” she noted, adding that she and Wampler stress peace of mind in customer interactions, as all technicians are thoroughly background checked and drug tested, scheduled times are strictly kept, and all pricing is detailed up front, with no surprises later — with the same price offered weekdays, nights, or weekends.
Also, “one of us usually comes out, and we introduce ourselves. That puts the homeowner at ease, too,” Wampler said. “When another woman is coming to the house, you have that commonality. We understand what it’s like to be a woman home alone when somebody comes knocking at your door. It’s been awesome, the people we’ve met, and some of our customers have become good friends of ours.”
The company offers an annual membership plan as well, which offers perks like always having an electrician on call, services warrantied for the life of the membership, and discounts on the work itself.
But where Contractors Electrical Plus really sets itself apart is the way it educates customers.
“A friend of mine lost her home to an electrical fire,” Wampler said. “So we really want to educate customers on the risks of their electrical panel — because she actually had some rodents coming in the wintertime; they built a home in her panel, which caught a spark and ignited the house.
“With our program, we do home safety inspections. Once a year, we’ll come through your house and educate you on your electrical system — because you’re using electricity 365 days a year. That’s the heart of your home.”
Even during routine jobs, the company’s technicians make a point of pointing out and clearly explaining issues — and how to prevent them in the future.
Master electrician Gary Martineau, a former teacher, has been effective at educating customers and mentoring younger employees.
“When you’re working in the big industrial space, everything is kind of open, where, in a house, everything is behind walls. Nobody sees it,” Wampler said. “When you go into parking garages, you can see all the conduit, but nobody gets to showcase their good work in residential. When we do new builds, we’ll take pictures, but once the panel goes up, you never see it again. But there’s so much that happens behind the walls.”
As an example, she noted that a customer recently had some bathroom fans changed out. “You wouldn’t believe how disgusting they were. When we took it down, it was just corroded with stuff. The homeowner was like, ‘wow.’ It’s the dust, and you don’t realize that’s coming back into the air. So with our home inspections, we’re checking all of that, and we’re making sure you’re breathing clean air, your smoke detectors are up to date, and all your safety hazards are taken care of.”
She shared other electrical hazard stories — of a smoking thermostat, improper phone chargers, and other small issues that had the potential to turn into bigger issues, and even fires.
“There could be a million electricians out there, but what’s going to set you apart from the other ones is being relatable, being empowering, and the customer knowing that they’re actually talking to somebody who cares enough to educate them. They don’t just come to your house and say, ‘OK, that’ll be $150’ or ‘that’ll be $300,’ and not tell you what made that happen, so you can prevent it in the future.”
Knowledge Is Power
The business partners take their motto seriously.
“This really is about protecting our most valuable assets,” Wampler told BusinessWest. “Like I said, my friend lost everything in that fire. Thank goodness she didn’t lose her kids or anything. But there are sentimental pieces that you can never get back.
“Electrical fires happen. Just recently, there were six fires in Springfield, and they were all from electrical malfunctions,” she went on. “So I really want to educate the homeowners on the safety risks. If we see something, we educate the homeowner. It doesn’t matter if you’re in our plan or you’re not in our plan, it does not matter. We educate the homeowner.”
“Electrical fires happen. Just recently, there were six fires in Springfield, and they were all from electrical malfunctions. So I really want to educate the homeowners on the safety risks.”
She noted that the company includes an actual teacher, Master Electrician Gary Martineau, a veteran of Westfield Technical Academy. “He’s a great educator when he goes out to homes and talks to homeowners. He’s also a great mentor to our apprentices. He takes his time with them and educates them. He’s been amazing.”
The mention of Martineau and his experience training teenagers got Wampler and Sgroi talking about the challenge of introducing young people to the trade, as her own son has been.
“The trades in general — that’s one thing AI is not going to replace,” Wampler said. “Like, plumbers are a dying breed. I feel like these young kids need to be more involved in getting into plumbing because there are so many old-timers in plumbing, and when they retire, they’ve got to pass this down — because AI is not going to replace them. Same thing with electrical or HVAC or carpentry.”
In that way, teaching young people the trades, including electrical work, is a way to empower them, she went on.
“Do something with your hands, because that’s never going to go away. You can always make money. You’re never going to be without a job because you can always do side stuff. My son has always loved electrical. He’s always wanted to know how things work. So he liked the flow of this work.
“Not everybody’s meant to sit behind a desk and do computer stuff,” she added. “They’re meant to be out there, and they want to build things. And that’s the future, building.”
Wampler said she and Sgroi plan to visit area vocational schools in an effort to bring more girls into the trade.
“If you’re in trade school, you don’t have to go into cosmetology; you can choose this. We want to empower them to choose a different path than they might have thought about.”
Team Players
Meanwhile, they continue to go into the field themselves, delivering parts, generally helping out, and talking to customers.
“It really shows your employees that you’re a team player — you’re not just the boss, you’re not just the one in the office, you’re not a dictator, but you’re out there with us,” Wampler said. “So we do that quite often.”
“And,” Sgroi added, “we try to keep open communication with all of our employees. It’s an open door policy, if they have any concerns.”
The bottom line, Wampler said, is that “we make sure we take care of our employees because our employees take care of us. That’s huge, knowing and appreciating the people that work with you. And they don’t work for us, they work with us. That’s what we try to instill — we’re here for you, and we’re doing this all together.”
They employ a team of six right now and provide constant opportunities for training, including how to sensitively talk with customers, but also be firm when an issue needs to be fixed.
“It’s communicating with the the homeowner on what things are urgent and what things can wait, and how to deal with somebody who hems and haws and is just looking for a Band-Aid,” Wampler said. “I’m not about a Band-Aid because the minute that we touch it, we now own it. And if we’re the last person to touch it, we’re going to fix it right the first time, or you can call somebody else.”
