Why we won the BBB Torch Award (and why it matters to your home)
GSMS is thrilled to announce that we have been honored as a 2026 BBB Torch Award for Ethics winner by the Better Business Bureau Serving New Hampshire.
As a second-generation family business providing dedicated service to New Hampshire since 1987, we find this recognition deeply significant. However, before we begin our celebration, we would like to clarify what this distinction represents, as it differs from the typical "business award".
This wasn't a popularity contest
You've probably seen plenty of “best of” awards around New Hampshire. Most of them work the same way: whoever collects the most votes wins. They're fun, and we're grateful any time a Client takes a minute to vote for us. But votes measure popularity, not how a company actually operates.
The BBB Torch Award for Ethics is different. There's no voting. Instead, we had to submit a detailed application and open up our business practices to an independent panel of judges, including representatives from Business NH Magazine and the Southern New Hampshire University School of Business. These are people who evaluate companies for a living, and they had no stake in picking us.
The panel dug into how we lead, how we treat our team, how we price and communicate with Clients, and how we show up for our community. In other words, they audited our ethics. And after all that, they chose GSMS as the Torch Award winner in the large business category.
What the judges looked at
The Torch Award is built around four things:
Character. How leadership makes decisions, especially when doing the right thing isn't the easiest or most profitable path. For us, that goes back to the beginning. Our owner Zak Downing, likes to say his leadership started in the passenger seat of a service van, holding the flashlight at five years old so his dad, Mark, could see to work. That's where our standards come from, and they haven't changed.
Culture. Whether the company invests in the people behind the work. Our Specialists aren't just employees. They're the reason our work holds up, and we've built a workplace where integrity comes first, and gratitude is a daily habit.
Clients. How a business communicates, prices, and solves problems. We've never believed in “gotcha” pricing or pressure tactics. You get our best, fairest price from the moment we arrive at your door, and honest answers even when they're not the ones that make us the most money.
Community. Whether a business gives back where it lives. Through our We Love Local initiative, a portion of every service call goes directly to a New Hampshire non-profit. We believe a local business should be a pillar of its community, and the judges took notice.
What this means for you and your home
Here's the honest reason we wanted this award, and why we're telling you about it.
When you hire someone to work on your HVAC system, your plumbing, or your water quality, you're letting them into your home. You're trusting their diagnosis, their pricing, and their workmanship. Most homeowners have no easy way to verify any of that before the truck pulls into the driveway.
The Torch Award is one way to verify it. It means an independent panel examined how this company really operates and concluded that we do business the right way. Not the most-voted way. The right way.
So when you call GSMS, you're hiring a company that's been audited for ethics, holds an A rating with the BBB, stands behind every job with our Great Service Promise, and answers to our neighbors rather than a board of directors. That's been true since 1987. Now there's a torch to prove it.
Thank you, New Hampshire
This award belongs to our whole team, and to every Client who has trusted us with their home over the past 39 years. You've grown this business one referral at a time, and we don't take that for granted.
If you'd like to see what ethical, detail-driven service looks like in person, we'd love to show you. Call us at 603-424-8258 or request service online. Great service makes sense, and now it's award-winning, too.
