Everything is Marketing

they are just the tip of the real marketing iceberg.

Marketing is Marketing 

Here are examples of what must continue:

• Digital: SEO (no it’s not dead yet), PPC (stop paying-stop playing), LSA, GMB and map packs, social media (emphasis on social), email, plus third party lead aggregators.
• Media: Radio, TV, billboards (including building signage), voice drops, plus truck wraps (aka rolling billboards).
• Direct Mail and Print: Radius mailers around installations, client retention, prospecting, Thank You cards, business cards, referral cards, yard signs, valve tags, equipment stickers, plus certain print media.

Every single thing is marketing, and all are reflections of  your brand. You can’t completely outsource it.

Every single thing is marketing, and all are reflections of  your brand. You can’t completely outsource it. Sure, you can hire marketing agencies, brand consultants, graphic designers, and more, but YOU need to tie it all together with your culture and operations.

Superb CSRs

Your Customer Service Reps (CSR) are part of your marketing too. Despite being literally the first live, human impression once a client decides to call your company, CSRs are usually the most underpaid, undertrained, underappreciated team members on your staff. These amazing folks can make or break your call board. Their conversations can either set the technician or advisor up for success, or they can dig a hole that they’ll have to dig out of to rebuild trust and regain credibility.

Dedicated Dispatchers

Your Dispatchers (DSR) are also part of your marketing. These  incredible humans hold perhaps the most crucial role in winning or losing the day, every day. The constant reviewing, prioritizing and reprioritizing, shuffling, and updating clients can make or break your profitability. Effective dispatching for dollars is absolutely crucial to your marketing return on investment.

Dispatchers hold perhaps the most crucial role in winning or losing the day, every day. 

Don’t believe me? If the DSR sends the wrong tech to the wrong call because he’s closest or the client has been waiting the longest, and the tech doesn’t generate a lead that a better qualified opportunity tech most likely would have, and you subsequently miss out on an $8500 average sale, doesn’t that lower your ROI?  

Tremendous Technicians

Your field technician team is  also part of your marketing. They’re where the rubber meets the road in terms of brand alignment with reality. Are they friendly? Are they clean and fresh? Are they professional? Is there consistency in their process to always deliver and exceed expectations? All the slogans or mission statements go out the window if the primary folks delivering on them drop the ball.

Your technicians are where the rubber meets the road in terms of brand alignment with reality.

Also, techs drive trucks, which are your rolling billboards. The way they drive and park, the cleanliness of the vehicle inside and out, even their behavior while driving matters. Do they let cars into traffic or block them from merging? It all matters to either build-up or teardown your marketing efforts. For technicians, the #1 way they impact your marketing is their thoroughness of getting the job done right the first time. Nobody wants to actually have a service call, but they hate having to do it all over again even worse.

Astounding Administrators

Admin and other internal support team members are also part of your marketing. How easy are client interactions with your company? Do your processes align with your brand promises? Are they friendly or is dealing with customers “not their job”? Are they responsive or "too busy" to help a client now and will have to get back to them? We’re all customers of lots of companies too, and we draw conclusions about those firms based on everyone we deal with, including and especially the back-office folks when we have an issue.

The Admin/Support team also has a tremendous influence on your internal customers, especially your techs, whether they get built-up or torn down . 

The Admin/Support team also has a tremendous influence on your internal customers, especially your techs, whether they get built-up or torn down . A less than ideal internal experience with a teammate can often lead to a less than ideal experience with a client.

Important Intangibles

What about all the intangibles in your business? These include:

• Equipment stickers – do you make it easy for customers to find your name & number when they have an issue? Do you brand the whole house?
• Valve tags – do you make it easy for customers to know what valves/pipes do what, so if they have an issue they can at least turn it off until you can get there?
• Yard Signs – do you put out mini-billboards on all projects?
• Service Club Memberships – do you have a way for customers to put their systems on cruise control, so they don’t have to worry about or remember what to do when?
• Facility – can customers easily find you if they want or need, and will they be greeted and welcomed? Is your facility clean and organized?
• Training – do you have a training program to ensure your staff is up to date on the products and services you provide, so you can deliver WOW service?
• Community – do you participate in your local community? Are you a good corporate citizen of your market?
• Education/Communication – do you stay in front of your customers, and not just to constantly be selling them something? Do you remind them of important things or events at the appropriate times for your geographic location and housing stock?
• Problems – do you have a process to resolve issues and guarantee 100% satisfaction, really? Is it just me, or do you look at 1-2 star reviews first too?
• Culture – do you actually have one that consistently aligns with your brand or just fancy words and slogans? Does everyone on your team know it, live it, and empowered to deliver it?

Part of the Formula

Marketing tactics themselves are not a cure-all. Marketing is a  big gear in your business machine, but it’s not the only one. Every key area of your company is a gear  that must align and mesh with all the other gears to drive your business machine forward. Everything is interdependent.

The Customer Experience that aligns with your branding to build brand equity is your ultimate marketing message. Your entire business machine is your marketing strategy. It’s easy to be distracted by the “shiny object” tactics of specific types of marketing and lose sight of your business machine as a whole. The more efficient and powerfully your business machine runs, the more impactful your marketing and brand equity will be, and more referral-worthy your company will be, too.

Getting it all aligned is the key to your massive success. 

Tom Casey, Jr. is chief quality officer at Griffin Service, St. Johns, Fla. He was previously the CEO of Casey's Climate Partners, an industry leader for decades. Tom is also a member of the Contracting Business HVAC Hall of Fame, Class of 2022. He can be reached at [email protected] / 518-732-JEDI.