e sell service, not oil," says Jeff Tasse.  "Anyone can sell oil," he adds, "but we try to keep that personal touch.  Customers can call us at home anytime.  We prefer to have family members take turns answering the phone at night.  Price is not it.  We do almost as much business in service and installations as we do in oil."

Jeff Tasse is presidents of Tasse's, which was founded in Southbridge, MA as a plumbing and heating company in 1946 by George R. Tasse.  grandfather to Jeff.  In 1959, the company began selling fuel oil.  The business added an air conditioning operation in 1971, and moved to their current location to 1978.

"My grandfather would be proud of the way things are going." Tasse says.  "My father is too.  We have good customer  service and dedication to the community.  We've established a good customer base - people were happy to do business with my grandfather and dad, and they re happy to be with the third generation."

The founder's s son, George P. Tasse, served as president of the company from 1966 until his retirement in 1993.  Grandson and current president, Jeff Tasse rejoined the family business in 1988 after a career elsewhere.

Over the years, Tasse's has purchased two other companies, one in oilheat, one in plumbing.  They now have 1500 full-service, oilheat customers.  Tasse employs 22 people - 11 technicians (four are qualified in both oil and plumbing; two in HVAC).  They have three delivery trucks.

Heating plant installed by Tasse's

Tasse offspring on the payroll include Jeff; sister Leigh, head of accounts receivable; brothers, Mark, service technician and installation mechanic and Kyle, healing and cooling sales.

Tasse Fuel markets in Southbridge, Sturbridge and Charlton, MA and some, in northern Connecticut, mostly holding to a radius of 15 miles.

"A lot of oil companies are doing giveaways; they are killing each other," notes Jeff Tasse.  "There's plenty of business out there, but those customers looking to switch for a deal will last only as long as the deal lasts.  I want your business but won't give you something to get it.  We get customers based on the fact we do a good job," Tasse emphasizes.

"We do not compete with the contractor who works out of his truck.  We only bid jobs in custom homes.  These are hydronic and radiant heat and 98% are oilfired.  Our philosophy is - every installation should become a long term customer."

Jeff Tasse observes that his company's computer system is an integral part of successful customer service.  "Three years ago, we looked at a lot of different systems, most were either oil without service or service without oil.  We needed more versatility from a computer system to use in all parts of our company.  In addition to oil delivery control, we needed to control service dispatching, parts inventory and warranty coverage.

Radiant heat being installed

"We finally selected the Oil-Pro management system from Micro Analysts Associates," observes Tasse.  "The system uses degree days and appliance fuel usage to accurately forecast deliveries.  At the same time, it can do service dispatching in 'real time' for accurate billing.  It works with today's Windows environments and is fully Y2K compliant."

"It has been doing the job for us.  We are currently working on doing both inventory control and purchasing with our system," adds Tasse.

Tasse sees continued slow growth in Tasse's future.  "We'll sell less oil to more customers," he explains, with more efficient equipment and conservation of fuel.  "We're not out to get the big commercial accounts," Tasse says.  "We just want to take care of 'Joe Homeowner' as best as we can.  We try to make our service as personal as possible," he concludes. 

printed in the March 1999 issue of Oilheating Magazine