Often, people shrug their shoulders at their first anniversary at any job. It seems like getting to that one-year point is more of a mandatory steppingstone than an accomplishment. As I reflect on what my last year has been, I believe it is worthy of a recap.

One year ago, I posted a blog titled “Becoming an Intelli-Hood Sales Engineer (During a Pandemic)”. At the time, it seemed as though we were approaching the end and beginning to see the light at the end of the pandemic tunnel. As we all know, things did not go as planned. And over a year later we all continue to learn ways to adapt and overcome.

You see, the world did not shut down, companies needs did not simply go away, in fact, as we became more aware of what we were dealing with, we realized that people don’t just want the products we offer, they NEED them! All the sudden HVAC and indoor air quality (IAQ) were the single most talked about topics related to occupant health and overall building health. Thus, my role as a Sales Engineer began to take shape at a seemingly exponential rate. As the year drew to a close, more and more businesses began to open their doors, release budget holds, push projects through and even start new projects. So, what does all this mean for my role now and moving forward compared to what was happening in this role last year?

Volume. The last four to six months have been very busy with new construction projects popping up from Delaware to Washington State. The process has remained similar, with some significant differences that we had not thought of prior to last year. Meetings with customers began to happen via MS Teams and Zoom, which allowed us to hold multiple pre-construction meetings per day, thus completing more projects. Customers and employees began to see the value in the “virtual” and no longer found it an obstacle, but a tool to further their reach.

Piecing it all together, the Melink way:

On top of order volume, customer site visits with field technicians became possible again. Now, all the pieces of our Melink puzzle are finally connected. What can you expect if you work with Melink on a new construction project?

1. When you reach out to Melink with new construction needs, myself and my Business Development Manager will work closely with you to obtain all pertinent information related to the project to get a budgetary quote out to you as quickly and accurately as possible. This will ensure you have a proposal ready when the project goes to bid.
2. As you obtain more detailed information, that will be relayed to us, so you have your budgetary quote updated with more firm numbers. Some items that are useful here are: Mechanical Plans, Fan Schedules and Submittals, detailed drawings of the kitchen that will receive controls as well as approved hood manufacturing drawings that our controls will be installed in.
3. Upon winning the project, you will be able to purchase directly from Melink and you will work with one of our Project Managers to figure out all of the project logistics including parts shipment location, desired installation date, timeline, technician to perform the work, other important site contacts and all safety and PPE requirements related to the job.
4. You will also receive submittal drawings from our Applications Engineering team that gives you details on how our system will be installed in the hoods of your kitchen. These are great to share with the electricians that will be performing the high voltage work on your project, and also offer a good reference for any potential questions that would arise before, during and after the installation and commissioning of the Melink Intelli-Hood ® system in your kitchen.
5. Once the project is complete, you will receive a detailed closeout package that outlines the work that was done, final “as-built” engineering drawings that are unique to your kitchen, operators manuals for the kitchen controls as well as a user’s manual for the variable frequency drives (VFDs) that were used in your system.
6. Lastly, you will receive peace of mind that you just had a demand control kitchen ventilation (DCKV) system installed by the company who started it all, and with that comes the 30 plus years of experience and trust associated with the Melink name.

So, to sum it all up. What has changed over the last year? Not a whole lot, and everything all at the same time. The Melink family is still one that you or I can rely on whenever there is a question or issue that needs to be resolved. We are still extremely dedicated to exceptional customer service and helping our customers make the world a better place, one building at a time.

to join us in our mission today!