A member of the Mitchell Cooling and Heating team since 1994, Lindy Strickland wears many hats: human resources, office manager, customer service, and dispatch. In her first year with the company, she was also our lead childcare provider.
Back then, owners Chris and Kathy Mitchell ran the two-year-old company out of their home. While Chris was out installing heating and cooling systems in new construction, Kathy and Strickland took turns answering the phones, scheduling calls, and taking care of the Mitchells’ young daughter.
As the company grew, they soon moved into a proper office space, and Strickland focused entirely on company operations. She was later promoted to office manager and now oversees the office team. She still answers the phones and schedules service calls as needed. (If you’re already a Mitchell customer, you’ve undoubtedly spoken with her from time to time.) But as the business and team have grown, Strickland has taken on accounts receivable, paying bills, human resources, and office management.
“When I first started, everything was done on paper,” says Lindy, “paper service tickets, and each customer had an actual paper file. When calls came in we had to pull the files and give past customer information to the techs.”
Technology has since greatly streamlined that process. “Over the years, the computers and iPads have made things much simpler,” she says. “The techs now have the ability to see all the past information, the history, for each of the calls they have. That frees us up to help more customers.”
Good People Who Work Well Together
Strickland is not alone in her long tenure with the company. Assistant Service Manager April Johnston has been with the company 24 years. New Construction Manager Gus Loaiza has been with us for 25 years. General Manager Bill Lord is the new kid with only 20 years at the company (though he has 30 years experience in the HVAC industry).
“That gives people confidence in our staff,” says Strickland. “They know who we are when we pick up the phone. They’ll get to know a particular tech and always request them by name. They’ve had them in their homes and know them on a personal level.”
For Strickland, the people of Mitchell are like a second family.
“We have a good, honest, dependable group who are here to do their best at what they do,” says Strickland, “whether it’s in the office or working out in the field. We all pitch in wherever we’re needed to take care of our customers to the best of our ability.”
Family, Faith, and Mountain Hikes
Outside of work, Strickland is very active in her church, although the present COVID-19 restrictions have limited that somewhat. “We can’t be as involved as usual,” she says.
“Our family spends a lot of time together,” Strickland says. She and her husband have adult children now living in Savannah and Athens, so they frequently road-trip on the weekends to visit one or the other. Her son, currently in school to become a physical therapist, is getting married soon, so they’ve been helping to prepare for that important day.
Strickland and her husband also like to go hiking in the mountains. “We’ve taken a couple of trips out to Colorado,” she says, “and this year we went to Montana and Wyoming. We go up to the Smokies often and hike all over North Georgia.”
These hikes are all day hikes, she says. “At night, I want to take a shower and sleep in a hotel.”
Sleeping in a tent, with no heating or air conditioning? It’s just not for her.
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Is it time for your regular HVAC maintenance? Give Lindy a call to schedule it or talk with anyone else in the office by calling 770-995-7585. You can also schedule service online.