Maximizing Service Potential: Strategies for HVAC Contractors to Grow and Succeed
Residential HVAC service is the backbone of a successful contracting business, providing steady revenue, customer loyalty, and opportunities for long-term growth. Residential service offers consistent demand, as homeowners rely on HVAC professionals for maintenance, repairs, and system upgrades year-round. Contracting Business reached out to some of the best coaches in the industry to learn how HVAC contractors can maximize their full service potential.
Service potential is only limited by appetite — appetite and the ability to develop and train,” says Dan Kayser, business coach for Nexstar Network. “When we get to a point where our service team is consistently and reliably achieving the business's financial goals for that department and delivering a 5-star customer experience every time, that's a success.”
Angie Snow, principal industry advisor for ServiceTitan, notes that service potential is how we can get the most out of our service opportunities.
“It's maximizing the opportunities that we have in service, and it starts clear back with your marketing,” she says. “What marketing are you using to help you obtain service calls? Trends that we've seen in the industry, and that we know are important, are memberships. The importance of having a membership program, the importance of building relationships with your customers for that ongoing customer base, and ongoing service, repair, and replacement opportunities. When we talk about service, it starts with having a way to continue to serve and build a customer base. Then we think about how to help our technicians be successful at servicing equipment — what tools can we give them? What leadership training? What training opportunities? We know that there's a bit of a labor shortage with technicians, and so understanding how to attract, retain, train, equip technicians to do a good job is really important.”
Tools, Technologies, and Strategies
Sandy Papavero, director of sales and marketing for CEO Warrior, notes that hiring a training, coaching, and accountability organization (such as CEO Warrior) will aid in guiding and supporting a contracting company in all facets of operation and decision-making criteria.
“Using a CRM to create proper reporting will enable service and sales departments to look for missed opportunities as well as additional opportunities for proper follow-up in the home,” she says. “CRM plays a huge role in optimization. Understanding your numbers guides the sales and marketing efforts. Garbage in = garbage out. Proper testing for all markets and evaluating and pivoting as necessary is important. Utilizing AI fills voids in roles that are overlooked; call center appointments as well as chatbots to answer any questions. Automation for marketing and client outreach is also essential.”
Drew Cameron, board member for EGIA and EGIA Contractor University founder and faculty member notes some great tools for contractors include EGIA Contractor University training, Interplay Learning, and National Comfort Institute training on airflow, refrigerant charge, and combustion efficiency. “Systems, processes, and leadership [are needed] to hold techs accountable to execute. Joe Cunningham's HomeServiceChecklist app is a great tool for ensuring execution.”
Documenting, training, and executing their Perfect Service call process (the actual workflow) and communicating via a Technician Excellence framework (explaining the workflow, what was found in good condition, failed, failing/watch items), are also important tools, Cameron adds. “Share why the failure occurred and how maintenance helps avoid failures. Talk about replacement or upgrade as appropriate. We teach all this at Contractor University.”
Snow points to Artificial Intelligence (AI) as a great tool to help contractors increase efficiency and help train their employees.
“With ServiceTitan, we have pre-built estimate templates or proposal templates to simplify things, and we have ways to use AI to automate invoices,” she says. “We’ve just launched our version of technician sales coaching recording, so we can actually go out with a technician. The call is recorded, so we're getting an automatic transcribing of the conversation, very similar to Rilla, but this one is already included in ServiceTitan, so everything is reported. It’s a really neat process to be able to give those technicians that immediate feedback, that immediate coaching. There is something to be said about still doing those ride-alongs because you do get a lot of insights. The problem with ride-alongs is the techs are on their best behavior when the boss is in the car with them, right? Now, to be able to have this tool where you can get a more realistic vision of how your techs are performing, the conversations they're having, how they're presenting — it gives you a lot more insight as to what they're actually doing in the field. It’s a really good way to keep training technicians.”
Balancing Quality Service and Cost Efficiency
There’s no going rate in the HVAC industry, Kayser notes. A business must charge for the service it provides.
“Step one is we’ve got to be worth the price we charge, and we have to practice what we preach,” he says. “We have to deliver excellent service to the people who allow us to serve them. One really important call-out on cost versus efficiency is measuring the productivity of the team. If we run a lot of calls, and we don't produce a lot of results, or if our customers are choosing not to do business with us, that makes it very hard to stay competitive on pricing. I call that ‘billable hour efficiency,’ and that's what we refer to it at Nexstar. It is really a measure of how productive our. technicians are in the field. If we have low billable hour efficiency, then we have to charge more because we're not producing a result very often. If our technicians are producing a result every time they run a call, then it's easier to be cost-competitive while delivering great service.”
Papavero says it’s important to have a clear vision for the company and create a team that lives by the core values of the company will create a standout client experience.
“A well-trained staff to manage the day-to-day expectations and understand what role they play and what they are accountable for in their roles,” she says. “You do not need to spend a lot of money to acquire clients when you have a well-defined marketing strategy and client loyalty program. How do they differentiate themselves in a flooded market where price seems to be a perception of value? Cost efficiency is tied to systems and processes.”
Training and Culture
“I don’t remember who said it, but there is an old saying: ‘What if we train them and they leave?’ And the response is: ‘What happens if you don’t train them and they stay?’ Training is everything,” Kayser says. “We have to not only have the technical ability to take great care of our customers, but we have to have the soft skills to deliver great experiences and build our reputations as a solid service provider.”
Kayser is a big proponent of having a progressive career roadmap for employees.
“In the service environment, that may look like a level one, two, three, or four technician,” he notes. “It may incorporate licensing components and skillset components. I find that by having reward systems in place to reward the behaviors you want to reward and having some sort of progressive career roadmap available to them, people will want to learn. And they'll want other people around them to be successful as well.”
According to Cameron, having techs demonstrate proficiency in workflow and communication is vital to brand and customer experience and achieving results. “Ride-along coaching, AI coaching, and shadowing are also helpful. You have to train at hire and have ongoing training, regardless of age or tenure.”
Continuing education and development are core values that form the foundation of the culture, Cameron adds. “Learning, growth, and performance progression are built into every team member's career path. Meeting rhythms, performance reviews, compensation, rewards, bonuses, contests, etc. are all tied to the individual, team, and company's growth, development, and performance.”
Culture is absolutely everything for Papavero.
“When we have a culture of employee learning and advancement; everyone is operating in alignment,” she says. “We work hard at guiding business owners to show their employees a career path and how their own personal vision will align with the company's vision. It doesn't take long for us to do a proper business assessment and make determinations of what needs enhancement in our clients. At times, it is the chokehold of the owner that doesn't allow employees to become autonomous and make decisions that will move the company forward. Companies with growth mindsets will do what they can to make their place of work a win for everyone involved.”
Snow says “culture” is a magic word for contractors.
“Part of your culture is a part of your values, part of your inherent DNA,” she says. “At my company, we have four values: family, integrity, excellence, and gratitude. With excellence, it’s in everything we do. We’re going to be excellent in our performance, in our learning, and our growth. We’ve built different levels of growth — I see a lot of contractors do this. There’s a career path for technicians to grow. So when a technician can see a future for themselves, they see a growth plan. And there will always be some technicians who are like, ‘You know what? I'm happy being a level one, level two tech.’ I'm fine with that, I’m always going to level one and level two technicians, But for those technicians who want more, you need to provide a plan and make that part of your business model, part of your culture.”
And doing so can even help with some retention problems contractor owners see.
“There are obviously a lot of other factors that play into retention, such as benefits, pay, and more, but an ultimate plan for career growth for improving their learning and knowledge in the industry but also their pay scale and performance which can eventually lead to leadership on the team is absolutely a great way [to help with retention],” Snow says.
