Staff at Rooter Hero Plumbing & Air, a fast-growing plumbing and HVAC contractor serving residential and commercial customers in California and Arizona, wrapped up the recent Thanksgiving holiday by prepping meals at a local rescue mission and participating in the Drumstick Dash, Los Angeles’ largest Thanksgiving 5k and 10k run, which raises money for Hope the Mission, a charity that addresses poverty, hunger and homelessness.

But that’s just Rooter Hero’s latest push to give back to its community. In fact, Rooter Hero operates a division called Hero Helps, which gives back all year long.

“At Rooter Hero, we take the word hero to heart,” says co-founder and CEO John Akhoian. “While we do our fair share of rescuing clients from plumbing problems, we also like to help our neighbors as often as possible. Our plumbers want our communities to thrive, and we know that there are many local organizations that play a pivotal role in improving the wellbeing of Los Angeles and nearby cities.”

Since 2011, Rooter Hero, based in Mission Hills, Calif., has offered plumbing services to residents throughout California. By 2019, with the purchase of four locations in the Phoenix area and another location in San Jose, Calif., opened last year, the company has since branched out into the HVAC markets.

How Hero Helps Helps

In addition to helping during Thanksgiving, here’s just a partial rundown of how the Hero Helps gave back last year:

Last July, for example, Hero Helps donated new and gently used household items and restocked the food pantry at Alexandria's House, a homeless shelter for women and children in Los Angeles.

In addition, the shelter’s water heater was on its last legs.

“It no longer was able to provide enough warm water to the families living there,” Akhoian adds. “Many of them were having to take cold showers, so the team at Rooter Hero were happy to offer a solution. Our professionals were able to provide a tankless on-demand hot water system for their community so that everyone living there could enjoy hot water when they needed it.”

Finally, Hero Helps also provided children living at Alexandria’s House with backpacks and back-to-school supplies.

From summer onward through fall, Hero Helps also donated books for a local library; hosted an ice cream party at Ritchie Valens Park, Pacoima, Calif, for its summer camp program; bought a commercial ice maker for the San Fernando High School football team; provided school supplies to a classroom in Telfair Elementary School, Pacoima; hosted a spaghetti dinner at the San Fernando Rescue Mission for seven families (spaghetti night); and donated to the Santa Clarita and California State University food pantries.

In addition, Hero Helps provided needed plumbing and heating installation at Camp Arev, a Armenian Christian children’s camp located near the Tejon Pass and Los Padres National Forest, and the Good Shepard Center for Women and Children, run by Catholic Charities of Los Angeles. 

Giving Back to Staff

Over the years, Akhoian has given back to his staffers, too. PHC News readers may remember our 2020 cover story, which discussed some of this (tinyurl.com/yh6h4dsw):

To address the industry’s labor shortage, for example, Akhoian started Hero U, a 12-week apprentice program that can take mechanically inclined individuals who know nothing about plumbing and turn them into basic service plumbers – all while earning while they are learning.

“And over time,” he told us in 2020, “we’ll teach them even more and turn them into journeymen plumbers and eventually master plumbers.”

Training at Hero U typically means two days in the field with an experienced pro alongside, plus three days in class or at the company’s mobile training unit equipped with all of the fixtures and equipment that techs would use on the job.

Apprentices also get additional education through online training thanks to hundreds of videos the company has created that cover general plumbing repair and drain-cleaning operations.

Rooter Hero also runs a boot camp for its CSRs and techs to improve communication skills and covers building customer relationships through various role-playing procedures.

Akhoian’s  book “99 Millionaires,” available for a free download at Rooter Hero’s website, sets out to refute the idea that the only way to become wealthy is to go to college and get hired in a white-collar position. The book illustrates several success stories of Rooter Hero employees, often with no higher education or prior relevant experience, and outlines the principals taught by Akhoian that helped these individuals become millionaires in their profession.

On a related note, Akhoian also holds personal financial planning classes for his staff, which are also open to family members of employees, too.

“They just don’t teach these things in school,” Akhoian says.

More recently, Akhoian is giving back to the industry overall. For example, he launched a podcast, HeroTalk, which, promotes the home service trades and discuss topics and issues affecting the industry.

"We are excited to be able to offer our expertise on everything involving the home service industry from customer service to the work in the field to leadership and management," Akhoian says. "The topic list should appeal to anyone who works in the industry and to people who want to learn more about it." 

Finally, Akhoian has written an autobiography entitled, "Temporarily Broken: The John Akhoian Story," that delves into the decisions he made to turn away from a life of crime and drugs and toward a future in the skilled trades.

"This isn't a book about how to succeed in business," Akhoian says. "This is a book about how to not screw up your life. My teen years were a time when I needed my father the most, but he had passed away and wasn't there to get me off the streets and away from illegal activity. I had to make hard decisions to do that myself."

His father died of a heart attack when the younger Akhoian was just 17 and left a physical, emotional and financial void within the family. Akhoian's life began on a downward spiral as he hung out on the streets, ran with gang members and faced poverty. 

But, after learning the plumbing trade from a family friend who hired him shortly after his father died, Akhoian took his earnings and parlayed them into a series of home service franchises. He eventually helped co-found Rooter Hero.

Readers can find out more by logging onto rooterhero.com/books 

This feature is part of our Plumbers Giving Back series.