Generating New Customers

10 years ago

John, having not enough customers is a symptom of other things going on in your business.

Like...
Advertising message not effective
Media used not profitable
Not answering the phone right
Not having a system in place to bring back existing customers
Not collecting performance data

First and most important thing is to collect data on those 4 areas
so you know what's working and what's not.
This enables you to cut the losses and do more of
what's working.

Secondly you work on those 4 areas together so you'll get exponential growth.
It starts from more phone enquiries, more booked appointments, more repeat business flowing through.

Each of those 4 areas have had whole books written about them.

Needn't be so daunting when you think of 5 or 10% improvements in each
of those areas compounds to a big lift in your bottom line profits.

Best,
Ewen

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Johnny Kash

10 years ago

Originally Posted by ewenmack

John, having not enough customers is a symptom of other things going on in your business.

Like...
Advertising message not effective
Media used not profitable
Not answering the phone right
Not having a system in place to bring back existing customers
Not collecting performance data

First and most important thing is to collect data on those 4 areas
so you know what's working and what's not.
This enables you to cut the losses and do more of
what's working.

Secondly you work on those 4 areas together so you'll get exponential growth.
It starts from more phone enquiries, more booked appointments, more repeat business flowing through.

Each of those 4 areas have had whole books written about them.

Needn't be so daunting when you think of 5 or 10% improvements in each
of those areas compounds to a big lift in your bottom line profits.

Best,
Ewen

Ewen,

Maybe my question wasn't direct enough, but no worries I appreciate your input and reply, the information you provided is definitely closely related to customer base (growth and decline).
Everything within my business is running smoothly, no issues on my end. Was wondering if other warriors have found success with any other methods not listed above. Looking for more advertising avenues or more effective ways to generate long term customers. Growth rates haven't been too bad considering my area is saturated with HVAC contractors. I know being on angies list or homestars definitely helps pull customers your way or even Craig's list or kijiji.

Cheers!
John

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vndnbrgj

10 years ago

Right now you should be swamped with ac startups, and installs.
If you're not, somethings wrong.
If you don't want to expose your business, shoot me your number via PM.
I know the HVAC industry. My family is involved in it, I got EPA certified as well.

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Johnny Kash

10 years ago

Originally Posted by vndnbrgj

Right now you should be swamped with ac startups, and installs.
If you're not, somethings wrong.
If you don't want to expose your business, shoot me your number via PM.
I know the HVAC industry. My family is involved in it, I got EPA certified as well.

Thank you for your post, everything is going well within my business. Installs are booked and my service technicians are busy. I am in a super saturated area for HVAC contractors and was looking for other ways to boost my business and maybe even "steal"a few customers from other companies. Ive released deals in previous years to first time customers such as; half off your first service call, free second opinion, as stated above in my original post, using wagjag or groupon.

Have you found any other ways to generate new business?

Cheers!
John

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jamesfreddyc

10 years ago

Originally Posted by Johnny Kash

I am in a super saturated area for HVAC contractors and was looking for other ways to boost my business and maybe even "steal"a few customers from other companies
Have you found any other ways to generate new business?

John

Since you are looking for some alternatives, here's an idea: If you want to steal some customers then you are going to have to offer not just better service/value, but I think you will have to establish a way to make those customers appreciate you. In other words, you need to be the prize not them.

So... How? (this is not THE answer, or "the one", or solution to all of your problems! It's just a single idea).

Maybe take a cue from another industry: medical/dental. These operations rely upon their customers to show up to appointments in order to generate revenue, so it is critical that they mitigate cancellations and no shows. They do this by sending alert messages (it could be a simple text message, an email, a dang phone call) --- just to remind their customers of an appointment. This type of activity is something that is highly appreciated by customers.

My guess is that you and your competitors are not doing this in your service department operations. Now, you may very well NOT have any issues/problems with no shows or cancellations, but the act of sending your scheduled service customers a quick text for each day's list of scheduled jobs is something that they might very well appreciate. This is something (a very small thing) could be exactly what helps you stand out from your competitors.

As your database grows you can utilize SMS/Text to help build referral business and even supplement your existing marketing by connecting with existing/established accounts.

Maybe a decent idea, maybe not. But I have a feeling that this type of thing just isn't being thought of in your industry.

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Johnny Kash

10 years ago

Originally Posted by jamesfreddyc

Since you are looking for some alternatives, here's an idea: If you want to steal some customers then you are going to have to offer not just better service/value, but I think you will have to establish a way to make those customers appreciate you. In other words, you need to be the prize not them.

So... How? (this is not THE answer, or "the one", or solution to all of your problems! It's just a single idea).

Maybe take a cue from another industry: medical/dental. These operations rely upon their customers to show up to appointments in order to generate revenue, so it is critical that they mitigate cancellations and no shows. They do this by sending alert messages (it could be a simple text message, an email, a dang phone call) --- just to remind their customers of an appointment. This type of activity is something that is highly appreciated by customers.

My guess is that you and your competitors are not doing this in your service department operations. Now, you may very well NOT have any issues/problems with no shows or cancellations, but the act of sending your scheduled service customers a quick text for each day's list of scheduled jobs is something that they might very well appreciate. This is something (a very small thing) could be exactly what helps you stand out from your competitors.

As your database grows you can utilize SMS/Text to help build referral business and even supplement your existing marketing by connecting with existing/established accounts.

Maybe a decent idea, maybe not. But I have a feeling that this type of thing just isn't being thought of in your industry.

James,

Thank you for your post, this is something I haven't looked into. But I have recently installed GPS systems in the company vehicles. I am in Canada but I have heard of a few companies in USA that have that GPS tracker hooked up to a website where the customer can track their service person or delivery order. Now within the computer system that the technicians use, they must receive the ticket (service order) from the dispatcher. Once they receive the ticket, they must acknowledge the ticket by placing it "EN-ROUTE". This is when the customer would be able to than track their service person straight to their front door. I'm sure it would be easy enough to hook up an SMS message to that system as well, to notify the customer that the technician is en-route. This would be something that I have not heard of any HVAC company in my area ever do before. Not even the biggest competitors!

Cheers!
John

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jamesfreddyc

10 years ago

Originally Posted by Johnny Kash

James,

Thank you for your post, this is something I haven't looked into. But I have recently installed GPS systems in the company vehicles. I am in Canada but I have heard of a few companies in USA that have that GPS tracker hooked up to a website where the customer can track their service person or delivery order. Now within the computer system that the technicians use, they must receive the ticket (service order) from the dispatcher. Once they receive the ticket, they must acknowledge the ticket by placing it "EN-ROUTE". This is when the customer would be able to than track their service person straight to their front door. I'm sure it would be easy enough to hook up an SMS message to that system as well, to notify the customer that the technician is en-route. This would be something that I have not heard of any HVAC company in my area ever do before. Not even the biggest competitors!

Cheers!
John

Perhaps. Maybe not -- you'd have to get with the vendor that built/maintains the GPS systems for you. As a software developer I can tell you from experience that if it is a mature product then it will be difficult or costly to have it altered just for you.

You may have to go with a cloud based solution instead. This of course means less automation and more "work" or process steps to incorporate. But...

What about simply sending out reminders all at once for each day's or the next day's list of customers (recipients)? This would be just an office process that someone would have to perform each morning, but the costs would likely be minuscule in comparison to your existing GPS apps altered and the job time to perform it would be quite small.

Cheers back to you and good luck!

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Johnny Kash

10 years ago

Originally Posted by jamesfreddyc

Perhaps. Maybe not -- you'd have to get with the vendor that built/maintains the GPS systems for you. As a software developer I can tell you from experience that if it is a mature product then it will be difficult or costly to have it altered just for you.

You may have to go with a cloud based solution instead. This of course means less automation and more "work" or process steps to incorporate. But...

What about simply sending out reminders all at once for each day's or the next day's list of customers (recipients)? This would be just an office process that someone would have to perform each morning, but the costs would likely be minuscule in comparison to your existing GPS apps altered and the job time to perform it would be quite small.

Cheers back to you and good luck!

James,

The cloud based solution sounds like the easier/cost effective way to go. I could easily have my dispatcher confirm the appointments by sending an SMS message or even email reminders? There is so many possibilities to explore. Half of the battle is deciding what to go with and how you will have it set up. I do have a programmer in the family im sure he could be of some help if I decided to automate it.

Thanks for your advice!

Cheers,
John.

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jamesfreddyc

10 years ago

Originally Posted by Johnny Kash

James,

The cloud based solution sounds like the easier/cost effective way to go. I could easily have my dispatcher confirm the appointments by sending an SMS message or even email reminders? There is so many possibilities to explore. Half of the battle is deciding what to go with and how you will have it set up. I do have a programmer in the family im sure he could be of some help if I decided to automate it.

Thanks for your advice!

Cheers,
John.

Just think of it this way: if your office staff had been manually calling customers to remind them of their upcoming service appointment, you would be able to significantly reduce the time that effort took by going with a cloud solution. Here's how I'd frame it:

How many hours each day is spent on manually calling?
What is the hourly wage being paid for that staff person to do this?

2hrs/day * $15/hr = $30/day or $180/wk or $9000/yr

There are cloud soultions that if you switched to sms delivery instead you could perform this same exact task in 10mins or less each day for WAY less cost.

Anyway -- good luck!

Thanks
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Johnny Kash

10 years ago

Originally Posted by jamesfreddyc

Just think of it this way: if your office staff had been manually calling customers to remind them of their upcoming service appointment, you would be able to significantly reduce the time that effort took by going with a cloud solution. Here's how I'd frame it:

How many hours each day is spent on manually calling?
What is the hourly wage being paid for that staff person to do this?

2hrs/day * $15/hr = $30/day or $180/wk or $9000/yr

There are cloud soultions that if you switched to sms delivery instead you could perform this same exact task in 10mins or less each day for WAY less cost.

Anyway -- good luck!

James,

Excellent idea, and quite cost effective.

This will be the way I go, hands down.

Sorry for such a short post but the phones are ringing and moneys calling! Lol

Stay in touch,

Cheers,

John

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Harry B

10 years ago

The million dollar question...

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Johnny Kash 10 years ago

Originally Posted by Harry B

The million dollar question...

Exactly
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ChrisWrok

10 years ago

Originally Posted by Johnny Kash

Hi Warriors,
I am new to this forum, and I am interested to know what methods did you find work best to generate new customers or gain perpetual customers.

I opened an HVAC company about 5 years ago, these were a few of the methods I used to generate new customers and perpetual ones.

1. Fridge Magnets/Door Hangers/Calenders
2. Local Newspapers/Advertising Deals For Local Customers Within Your Community (Signage at your local community centre or your local recreational areas)
3. Deals at Your Own Website/Deals Advertised By Companys For You (Groupon, WagJag) when advertised PROPERLY
4. Making Sure of Customer Satisfaction and Advertising Satisfaction Guarentees on the Work Completed/Asking them to Post Satisfaction Surveys on the Internet and my Own Website.

You can spend thousands on tv advertising or radio. But most new start up business' or even semi established business' don't have cash like that to spend on ads such as these.

I am interested to know how else you warriors have generated perpetual customers, or new customers.

Cheers!
John

Hi John and welcome...
do you have a website ?
If so then you might investigate SEO services to get your site ranked well locally.
There's been a few WSO's here that specialize in that very thing.
Make some youtube video's as well, and try to get them ranked.
again, plenty of folks here offering those kinds of services at ridiculously cheep prices.

Have Fun!
let me know if I can help.

Chris

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ChrisWrok

10 years ago

I am thinking that you could try to partner with another home service company,
as in; trade leads (if you have any)...
send their offer to your database, and vice-versa.
as long as you compliment each other and don't directly compete, it should be a win-win.
duct cleaning, new construction, renovation companies etc...

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Johnny Kash

10 years ago

Originally Posted by ChrisWrok

Hi John and welcome...
do you have a website ?
If so then you might investigate SEO services to get your site ranked well locally.
There's been a few WSO's here that specialize in that very thing.
Make some youtube video's as well, and try to get them ranked.
again, plenty of folks here offering those kinds of services at ridiculously cheep prices.

Have Fun!
let me know if I can help.

Chris

Originally Posted by ChrisWrok

I am thinking that you could try to partner with another home service company,
as in; trade leads (if you have any)...
send their offer to your database, and vice-versa.
as long as you compliment each other and don't directly compete, it should be a win-win.
duct cleaning, new construction, renovation companies etc...

Chris,

Thanks for the reply, I do have an active website that I have been looking after. I am currently looking into seo and have noticed the companys that are ranked well. I will take a look at some of the previous wso's and see if anything suits my needs. I have not gone down the youtube avenue but if this would be worthwhile maybe I will do some research. I love your idea of the database sharing, that would be very cost effective in the sense that it would not cost you anything upfront for these perspective leads. I have been in talks with new construction home builders in the past but never did sign a contract with any of them but im sure it could be lucrative.

Cheers,
John,

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Angle Warrior

10 years ago

Hi Johnny, I see your just down the highway in the GTA, where in Hamilton, I'm been working with a local plumbing company in a market that is saturated with both small and some and large companies so competition is fierce we compete against large marketing budgets from the big boy's and kijji budgets from the one man band companies, but we see growth every year on our mid-range budget. I see you mentioned wag jag, we ran them twice and we won't do it again, all we attracted were people that we really didn't want as customers, tire kickers!

We have had great success with a $25 off coupon on our site, we collect there email address in exchange, we also have run a donation of a food item or clothing drive for charity for a $25 off coupon on our site, this was amazing, the phone rang off the hook, we used the media to get the message out about the drive and they will run ads for free, we had TV, radio and newspaper ads all over the place.

We also offer a referral program, if your existing customers refer someone to you we reward them with a discount on their next call, keeps them coming back and brings in new customers, we also give the new customer a discount too!, the key to this is to comp your techs for the referral, you need to have them really push it to make it work.

We have taken are yellow page ad down to just the smallest ad you can get, need to be there but very few calls call from it mostly the web, repeat and referrals are our traffic sources, we track it all when the call in. As you know the key to success is GREAT CUSTOMER SERVICE or its all a waste of time anyway but putting that aside we have seen growth beyond our annual targets, we went from 1.2 million in one year too 1.8 and this year were on target to do 2.2 or better.

If you want to work together at all pm me anytime.

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Johnny Kash

10 years ago

Originally Posted by Angle Warrior

Hi Johnny, I see your just down the highway in the GTA, where in Hamilton, I'm been working with a local plumbing company in a market that is saturated with both small and some and large companies so competition is fierce we compete against large marketing budgets from the big boy's and kijji budgets from the one man band companies, but we see growth every year on our mid-range budget. I see you mentioned wag jag, we ran them twice and we won't do it again, all we attracted were people that we really didn't want as customers, tire kickers!

We have had great success with a $25 off coupon on our site, we collect there email address in exchange, we also have run a donation of a food item or clothing drive for charity for a $25 off coupon on our site, this was amazing, the phone rang off the hook, we used the media to get the message out about the drive and they will run ads for free, we had TV, radio and newspaper ads all over the place.

We also offer a referral program, if your existing customers refer someone to you we reward them with a discount on their next call, keeps them coming back and brings in new customers, we also give the new customer a discount too!, the key to this is to comp your techs for the referral, you need to have them really push it to make it work.

We have taken are yellow page ad down to just the smallest ad you can get, need to be there but very few calls call from it mostly the web, repeat and referrals are our traffic sources, we track it all when the call in. As you know the key to success is GREAT CUSTOMER SERVICE or its all a waste of time anyway but putting that aside we have seen growth beyond our annual targets, we went from 1.2 million in one year too 1.8 and this year were on target to do 2.2 or better.

If you want to work together at all pm me anytime.

Hello Angel Warrior,

Thank you for taking your time to make this post.

We have also not had very good "luck" with wagjag, LOL - "tire kickers".. exactly right. That's why I mention when done right, because I did have a few successful campaigns.

We do also offer a few different deals VIA our website, ranging from 50% off first service call, 25% off annual maintenance (only in NON-peak season), and a zero interest financing plan. I do find certain offers convert better than others but they go on a rotation based on time of year.

The charity drive sounds like it would have given great exposure to the - business at fairly low cost - little to nothing on advertising, and your employee's donating some time possibly - Also not to mention doing something good for the community and helping those in need. Always important to play a role in your community - we sponsor a few youth baseball, soccer, hockey teams as well.

We do offer referral programs as well, a special points based program that you can turn into $ off on IAQ products or even new installations. Special employee pricing - 1/3 of original price - keeping your customers and employee's happy is definitely an integral part of any successful business.

Sounds like you folks are doing well, keep up the growth and hard work!

Thank you again, and if I ever find myself expanding out that way ill shoot you a PM,

Cheers,
John

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ewenmack

10 years ago

Johnny, what percentage would you say is emergency work?

Best,
Ewen

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Johnny Kash

10 years ago

Originally Posted by ewenmack

Johnny, what percentage would you say is emergency work?

Best,
Ewen

Ewen,

By emergency work, I could classify a few areas of "emergency service". Such as; after hours calls of course at a premium rate, day-time "no heat"/"no cool" calls, emergency situations such as a furnace being legally shut down due to a code violation, just to name a few...

To hazard a guess at it without looking over the books - 25-50% is on call work (after hours), no heat and no cool repairs, and the installations generated by code violations that would be too costly to repair. Most of this is generated by the service department. But there will always be fluctuation..

It's hard to determine due to circumstances such as weather in the summer (as the technicians do not service or install A/C's in adverse conditions - rain, sleet, hail, snow) OR warm winters / cold summers. The seasonality of this trade is ever changing, we had a killer winter this year and we definitely saw an increase from last year.. This summer hasn't been too "hot or humid" yet, but I'm sure it's coming and as soon as it does we will see a major increase.

Cheers,
John

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ewenmack

10 years ago

Originally Posted by Johnny Kash

Ewen,

By emergency work, I could classify a few areas of "emergency service". Such as; after hours calls of course at a premium rate, day-time "no heat"/"no cool" calls, emergency situations such as a furnace being legally shut down due to a code violation, just to name a few...

To hazard a guess at it without looking over the books - 25-50% is on call work (after hours), no heat and no cool repairs, and the installations generated by code violations that would be too costly to repair. Most of this is generated by the service department. But there will always be fluctuation..

It's hard to determine due to circumstances such as weather in the summer (as the technicians do not service or install A/C's in adverse conditions - rain, sleet, hail, snow) OR warm winters / cold summers. The seasonality of this trade is ever changing, we had a killer winter this year and we definitely saw an increase from last year.. This summer hasn't been too "hot or humid" yet, but I'm sure it's coming and as soon as it does we will see a major increase.

Cheers,
John

Ok, here's the thing about service businesses there is a common complaint by home owners that's universal,
and that is they don't turn up on time. That's the biggest one.

They want you to turn up when you say you are going to...no ifs no buts, no excuses.

I recognized that early on in my lawnmowing business.

That's the reason why clients left their other one.

They went with me because I offered a $1,000 penalty to me,
payable to them if I didn't do what I said I would do.

Now your average sale would be a lot greater than mine was.

Yes lawnmowing was a very crowded market,
but not one answered the clients number one complaint.

They were saying 5 star service, best service, best price, lowest price.

The market was immune to that talk,
knew it wasn't true and realized it was a lottery as to who was
going to follow through and actually do what they said they would do.

Just freaking basics that mature industries players don't do.

I tell you, the threat of paying out $1,000 keeps you on your toes, so you never get complacent.
You now have a client centric business.

And nobody wants to be held accountable, therefore if you do,
you'll stand out like a lighthouse in your market.

You can raise your prices a result, like I did.
I always made a point in charging more than the previous guy.

This is not a marketing tactic, it's the core of your business.

Are you up to the challenge and look for ways to make it work.

Best,
Ewen

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Johnny Kash

10 years ago

Originally Posted by ewenmack

Ok, here's the thing about service businesses there is a common complaint by home owners that's universal,
and that is they don't turn up on time. That's the biggest one.

They want you to turn up when you say you are going to...no ifs no buts, no excuses.

I recognized that early on in my lawnmowing business.

That's the reason why clients left their other one.

They went with me because I offered a $1,000 penalty to me,
payable to them if I didn't do what I said I would do.

Now your average sale would be a lot greater than mine was.

Yes lawnmowing was a very crowded market,
but not one answered the clients number one complaint.

They were saying 5 star service, best service, best price, lowest price.

The market was immune to that talk,
knew it wasn't true and realized it was a lottery as to who was
going to follow through and actually do what they said they would do.

Just freaking basics that mature industries players don't do.

I tell you, the threat of paying out $1,000 keeps you on your toes, so you never get complacent.
You now have a client centric business.

And nobody wants to be held accountable, therefore if you do,
you'll stand out like a lighthouse in your market.

You can raise your prices a result, like I did.
I always made a point in charging more than the previous guy.

This is not a marketing tactic, it's the core of your business.

Are you up to the challenge and look for ways to make it work.

Best,
Ewen

Ewen,

This is something that a lot of the service based industry and can from, offering that gaurentee because your customers time should have just as much value to you as your own. If they didn't take the time off work to have you in to complete annual maintenance or part replacements (mind you I'm sure they'd rather have their appliance fixed and working rather than working themselves).

Also charging a slight premium helps your bottom line and shows the customer that although they are paying slightly more they are receiving top notch value and service for their hard earned bucks. This must have been a smart move that put your business ahead of the game in that sense.

Ewen thank you for your input, I plan to have something along these lines put in place for my business. Always a pleasure chatting.

Cheers,
John

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AmericanMuscleTA

10 years ago

Long term customers eh? Send out newsletters to all of your current customers. Make them an offer in every newsletter.

Ask for referrals.

Use EDDM to send out mass mailings for dirt cheap to the areas you want to target (you can mail postcards up to 11" x 14" for $0.175 per postage).

Check out the recent door hanger thread in the Offline Marketing section of WF.

Post ads in the Automotive Section of the Yellow Pages. "Just Repaired Your Car? Bring Us Your Receipt and Get $47 off Your House's Furnace and A/C Repair!"

Just think outside the box.

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Johnny Kash

10 years ago

Originally Posted by AmericanMuscleTA

Long term customers eh? Send out newsletters to all of your current customers. Make them an offer in every newsletter.

Ask for referrals.

Use EDDM to send out mass mailings for dirt cheap to the areas you want to target (you can mail postcards up to 11" x 14" for $0.175 per postage).

Check out the recent door hanger thread in the Offline Marketing section of WF.

Post ads in the Automotive Section of the Yellow Pages. "Just Repaired Your Car? Bring Us Your Receipt and Get $47 off Your House's Furnace and A/C Repair!"

Just think outside the box.

Hey American Muscle.

We do send out newsletters to our perpetual customers to remind them that their current agreements are about to be due up for renewal. Although we do not send them any "offer" on anything per say. They do receive special 15% discount from regular cost on service calls, parts & labour for being an agreement holder.

I did post a response in the door hanger thread but haven't been back, will have to check back. Was some good information throughout that thread as well as a few other threads I stumbled across.

And that is something that I would consider pretty out of the box! Would be very eye catching, maybe I will put out a test and see what kind of results that would generate.

Cheers!
John

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Joe J

10 years ago

Originally Posted by AmericanMuscleTA

.........

Use EDDM to send out mass mailings for dirt cheap to the areas you want to target (you can mail postcards up to 11" x 14" for $0.175 per postage).

Check out the recent door hanger thread in the Offline Marketing section of WF.

................

Just think outside the box.

If you check out the door hanging thread, they (if I'm referring to the same thread) were leaving a bottle of cleaning solution supplied by partnering up with the manufacturer at the house.

Maybe you can figure out something of the same but with filters. I'm sure all filters are not the same but maybe you can get a roll of generic filter material and leave a piece there, either with your sales copy or getting your company name somehow on the piece , and offering it as a temporary replacement filter for lost, ripped or just while the regular one is being cleaned out, letting them know, along with other tips, how important it is to keep them clean.

I don't know much about the hvac industry but maybe you can get some ideas flowing.

Joe

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Angle Warrior

10 years ago

Hi Johnny,
Reading your responses it sounds like you have all the bases covered, growth should come naturally to you then, if we move in any different direction marketing wise and it clicks I'll shoot you a pm. When we move towards the GTA core I'll let you know, where already starting to service in Mississauga so it shouldn't be long, Talk To You Soon,

Angle Warrior

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Johnny Kash

10 years ago

Originally Posted by Angle Warrior259647

Hi Johnny,
Reading your responses it sounds like you have all the bases covered, growth should come naturally to you then, if we move in any different direction marketing wise and it clicks I'll shoot you a pm. When we move towards the GTA core I'll let you know, where already starting to service in Mississauga so it shouldn't be long, Talk To You Soon,

Angle Warrior

Sounds great angle warrior, I look forward to hearing from you!

Goodluck and Cheers !
John
I

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JohnRussell

10 years ago

Johnny..I have some experience with HVAC in the GTA.

I wrote a report you might find useful called:

"HVAC Farming – How To Legally Steal Repair And
Install Calls Away From Your Competitors And
Become The Only Game In Town"

Happy to send it to you - pm me your email if you want to take a look.

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frettcarla

10 years ago

The best way to get the target customers is to promote the product or service what ever you are into in a such a manner in forums where ever the end user persists.

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ChrisWrok

10 years ago

GTA eh? didn't see that...we should get together and chat
I'll send u a pm...

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Angle Warrior 10 years ago

Originally Posted by ChrisWrok

GTA eh? didn't see that...we should get together and chat
I'll send u a pm...

Were you located Chris? I'm in Hamilton
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- ChrisWrok 10 years ago
  
  Originally Posted by Angle Warrior
  
  Were you located Chris? I'm in Hamilton
  
  hey...east...scarb/pickering border
  
  Thanks
  
  Signature
  
  My Traffic Club
  REAL TARGETED TRAFFIC
  FROM 1/2 A CENT EACH!
  
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Peter Lessard

10 years ago

You have had some great responses and are obviously doing a good job.
I assume all your vehicles are wrapped so they are very visible when working in any neighborhood?

A great angle for publicity and one that would bring great Karma would be to accept donations of units or give some sort of credit for an upgrade/donation and place those units where people cannot afford them and really need them. Its sad that when we get a heat wave some people end up in hospital or worse. I am thinking seniors, vets, people with disability, perhaps homes or shelters etc...

At this point in your business the direction left to go in is to become the perceived expert in your field and to be the most recognized in your community. Great place to be.

Good luck with your business.

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Johnny Kash

10 years ago

Originally Posted by plessard

You have had some great responses and are obviously doing a good job.
I assume all your vehicles are wrapped so they are very visible when working in any neighborhood?

A great angle for publicity and one that would bring great Karma would be to accept donations of units or give some sort of credit for an upgrade/donation and place those units where people cannot afford them and really need them. Its sad that when we get a heat wave some people end up in hospital or worse. I am thinking seniors, vets, people with disability, perhaps homes or shelters etc...

At this point in your business the direction left to go in is to become the perceived expert in your field and to be the most recognized in your community. Great place to be.

Good luck with your business.

Plessard,

Thank you for the kind words.

All the service and install vehicles are wrapped, sales and management only have a window advertisement on the back windshield. I could look into wrapping those vehicles as well. (Was more cost effective at the yime not to wrap them).

It is a hairy situation when you get into giving away old units. I would never want something to happen to the unit (breakdown) and see the cm have the unit but no $ for repair. I think for my situation I wouldn't mind donating a few new units to the needy (installation included). But I'm not sure how to go about this... surely ads in paper or on net maybe even ask around to some of the local salvation army's maybe an add or two there or at goodwill.. but whose to say who is really needy and who isn't I'd have to make a visit over to the residence prior to approval for sure.

I am a firm believer in karma, what goes around comes around. Always treat others as you wish to be treated. There are so many in need yet the rich get richer and the poor get poorer.

Great idea to give the company a little bit of good press and " feel good" feeling for all involved from myself to my technicians all the way to the customer.

Thank you for taking your time to make this post!
All the best,

Cheers,

John

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JohnRussell 10 years ago

Originally Posted by Johnny Kash

I am a firm believer in karma, what goes around comes around. Always treat others as you wish to be treated.

Maybe you shouldn't be in the HVAC business
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kapilsharma01

10 years ago

Try a new marketing technique: Like any small business, you likely have some marketing tricks that work. And, also like most small businesses, I bet you use them again and again.
No wonder they get stale.If you try something new, you will reach new people, and that increases your chances that someone new will check you out.

Venod Sharma Poltician : Latest News, Videos, Photos

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misterme

10 years ago

In his book, "Sticking Point Solution" Jay Abraham gives the example of a HVAC company which he came up with a profitable promotion for them.

The way he figured out the promotion was to first look at what the majority of the business was being driven by. Because he wanted to increase that.

In this particular case, this company was mostly getting calls to have equipment checked out. And 80% of those calls needed repairs.

So they ran a promotion twice a year, in summer and winter, offering what they called a "tune up and seasonal readiness package" for $19, losing $11 on the front end because they were paying the technicians $30. The average repair ticket they were writing was $800. I don't know what year that was so I can't put it into today's dollars, but the principle remains the same.

They got a lot of new customers that way.

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JohnRussell

10 years ago

Originally Posted by misterme

In his book, "Sticking Point Solution" Jay Abraham gives the example of a HVAC company which he came up with a profitable promotion for them.

The way he figured out the promotion was to first look at what the majority of the business was being driven by. Because he wanted to increase that.

In this particular case, this company was mostly getting calls to have equipment checked out. And 80% of those calls needed repairs.

So they ran a promotion twice a year, in summer and winter, offering what they called a "tune up and seasonal readiness package" for $19, losing $11 on the front end because they were paying the technicians $30. The average repair ticket they were writing was $800. I don't know what year that was so I can't put it into today's dollars, but the principle remains the same.

Just to add to this...

With the HVAC companies I have worked for, 1 in 16 tune-ups turn into installs. And since the OP is in Toronto, the next point is relevant...

He can do tune-ups spring and fall (for AC and for Furnaces respectively). 1 in 16 will turn into new installs as I said. But...about 50% of the people change both Furnace and AC at the same time.

So a $19 tune-up could turn into a $8,000 install.

BTW - when emailing to a house list we saw no decline in response when the offer was a $99 tune-up.

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misterme 10 years ago

Originally Posted by JohnRussell

So a $19 tune-up could turn into a $8,000 install.

BTW - when emailing to a house list we saw no decline in response when the offer was a $99 tune-up.

That's an in-house list.

I think the OP's looking for new customers? Might need to be more aggresive to swipe people from the guy they used last time.
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- JohnRussell 10 years ago
  
  Originally Posted by misterme
  
  That's an in-house list.
  
  I think the OP's looking for new customers? Might need to be more aggresive to swipe people from the guy they used last time.
  
  Yeah, I was just pointing that out...a lot of people neglect their in-house list. Ludicrous to me.
  
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