It takes Jeff Hall approximately three hours to call everyone he’s sold a vacuum cleaner to since 2005, the year he opened his namesake business at the junction of routes 90 and 17 in West Rockport.

The reason for the calls goes like this: When Hall opened Jeff's Vacuum, he did it right around the corner from his former employer, Electrolux (now Aerus). He was the new guy on the block and he needed customers, so as a perk he offered a free annual servicing with each purchase.

“It’s getting to be quite a task for free but I get a ton of referrals that way,” he said.

The promise could easily have mushroomed out of control, but it hasn’t been a problem, yet. And there have been other benefits along the way that Hall never planned on, which makes a certain kind of sense, given that Hall never planned on being in the vacuum cleaner business to begin with.

In 1989 he responded to a classified ad seeking management trainees. The ad wasn't any more explicit, so when Hall showed up for the interview and the door said Electrolux, he decided to drive around the block a few times.

"I thought, this can't be it," he said.

Hall ultimately got the job, and he worked with the company for the next 15 years, starting as a salesman and moving up to branch manager and division service manager.

In the front window of Jeff’s Vacuum sits a vintage Electrolux XXX canister vacuum that would be familiar to any child of mid-Century America. Those were the heady days of the company, and though the vacuums weren't as sleek looking when Hall signed on in 1989, the quality was still there, he said. But starting around 2000 when the company was sold, Hall saw prices go up and quality go down. It was why he left the company, he said.

After seven years of servicing all brands and years of vacuums, his opinion on this point hasn't changed.

Hall works alone and splits time between sales and service. Most of his business, he said, comes from private individuals, though he has several accounts with commercial cleaning companies. In his workshop, he services all makes and models of vacuum cleaner and he keeps the adjacent showroom stocked with replacement belts, bags and accessories for just about any machine. But the only brand of vacuums he sells are by Miele, a German company that produces, among other things, coffee makers, dishwashers and ovens.

Miele vacuums are pricey (a basic “stick broom” runs $275 and the top-of-the-line canister model is close to $1,200) and Hall doesn't pretend otherwise. But he thinks they're worth every penny. They're what he calls "20 year vacuums."

Jeff's Vacuum hasn't been open long enough to prove the 20-year idea. But Hall has kept up with his customers dutifully, and so far he hasn't been wrong.