GOING THE EXTRA MILE

Fox home solutions provides expertise in home automation

BY ROBIN HOWARD | PHOTOGRAPHY BY HOLGER OBENAUS

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Imagine this: You’ve been on a long trip. You’re on the last flight of the night and all you want is a hot bath, a glass of wine and bed. On the taxi in, you pull up an app on your phone that lets you turn on the entry and interior lights in your house, view the surveillance system, check the temp and humidity of the wine cellar, and cool your bedroom to a crisp 72 degrees. You even fire up a little jazz to complete your perfect welcome home. Sound good? It’s all possible thanks to Charleston-based Fox Home Solutions.

Fox Home Solutions has been providing structured wiring, home theaters and wholehouse audio/visual systems for the past nine years. Clients include commercial businesses and private residences in the Lowcountry and beyond.

Frank Fox is the mastermind behind these custom systems, and as a 24-year veteran in the industry, he’s got a reputation for expertise and sincerity. “I truly believe customer service is lacking everywhere. That’s why I built this business,” Fox says. “So many businesses go 90 percent of the way, but they fail on that last 10 percent.”

Fox’s reputation for going the extra mile is why he has a cult following in the Charleston area. “We focus on design. We don’t oversell and we don’t overcomplicate it. We listen to what our customers truly want and need, that’s why our customers trust us,” Fox says. And do they ever. So much so that Fox doesn’t have a need for a showroom. Instead he has keys to some of his clients’ homes. With their permission, he’s able to show new clients home automation systems in action.

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“Frank and his team have been with us from the building stage,” says Dr. Susan Richardson, a long-time client of Fox Home Solutions. “In the last six years they’ve upgraded our Internet, changed over our cable provider and added automated heating and cooling. Whatever changes we go through, and whatever new technology becomes available, we know they’ll take care of us.” The Fox Home Solutions team installed the wiring for Internet, television systems, surround sound in the media room, central vac, whole-house stereo and surveillance in Richardson’s Daniel Island house.

For Fox, automated solutions are more than just convenient. “Some of our clients just don’t want to come home to a dark house. Some want surveillance systems so they know when their kids come home. They can see the car is in the drive and they have peace of mind. We’ve also set up automation on medicine cabinets for clients who have elderly parents. For one of my clients, if that medicine cabinet doesn’t open by 10:15 every morning, it sends an email.”

Fox says that he loves app based controls, but he always encourages his clients to install a wall control, too. As an example of how he helps clients think through how their systems should function, Fox explains: “Think about it. If you’re listening to music when your phone rings and you want to turn off the music, you can’t do it easily. Wall systems give you back control of your home automation when you’re using your phone.” Wall systems also allow guests to control the home’s systems without downloading an app.

“We believe in enhancing peoples’ lives, but we also believe in doing it with integrity,” Fox says. “We’ve been with many of our customers through multiple houses. That speaks volumes about the trust we’ve built.”

Fox credits his grandfather, Hayden Parton, for his commitment to integrity. “My grandfather ran a grocery store after World War II and he always told me: ‘Right is never wrong and wrong is never right. Do the right thing simply because it’s the right thing to do.’”

Robin Howard is a full-time freelance writer in Charleston. See more of her work at robinhowardwrites.com.

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