For many HVAC businesses all over the country spring is the slowest season. It is usually a time to get caught up from the chaos of the previous winter, take a moment to assess the current state of the business, re-stock inventory and start planning for a busy summer. During these few months when homeowners aren’t typically thinking about their heating or air conditioning system and business slows a bit the HVAC business owners who capitalize on this down time by putting together a game plan for the summer months will almost always come out ahead. Below are three simple strategies HVAC companies can use to get ready for the rush of summer.
Staffing
In this current job market, hiring technicians is challenging to say the least. The competition for hiring quality people is at an all-time high. In preparing for summer you should be looking at seasonal data from years past to tell you how many people you are going to need this coming summer. Knowing the numbers will allow you to come up with a hiring plan and allow you to budget appropriately in case you need to provide things like hiring bonuses, additional benefits or other perks. It may also allow you to begin your hiring process earlier than your competition which in turn will give you a bigger talent pool to choose from and the advantage of bringing in new employees to train and learn your systems before the chaos of summer ensues.
Advertising and Outreach
Many marketing experts believe that direct mail postcards are effective for letting your service area know it’s time to prepare for the warmer weather. If you are already using social media to let your community know about your services, it’s also advised that you shift your efforts there, too, to let homeowners know it’s time to make sure their homes are ready for summer. It is strongly advised to implement some type of integrated software solution. Utilizing new technologies in service industry specific software can allow you to assign unique phone numbers to each of these advertising efforts and zero-in on the campaigns that are producing the most calls about your service plans.
Answering Service
If you already have one you already know that having a high quality answering service in place is imperative to running a successful HVAC business. It allows your clients to reach you quickly in an emergency, it provides you with some freedom from constant interruption of nonsense phone calls and it is the best way to capture new business and capitalize on your marketing efforts. A quality answering service is a credit to your operation and a money maker, but conversely, a bad answering service can be a nightmare. Dropped calls, lost leads, poor customer service, these are just a few of the many problems with hiring a bad service. The spring months are a great time to explore the idea of implementing the use of an answering service if your business is not already using one, or it can be a good time to look into upgrading to a higher quality answering service if your current one is not living up to your expectations. No different than any other industry, when it comes to answering services, you get what you pay for.
The early bird gets the worm and business owners who take a proactive approach during the slow months of spring to prepare for the busy rush of summer will surely reap the rewards of their labor.
