HVACRBUSINESS.COM SEPTEMBER 2020 / VOL.15 / NO.9
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Let’s Talk About Ventilation Pete Grasso 5
Enhance Your Lead Generation Kelly Borth 11
Employees Can’t Read Your Mind Erica Leonor 13
Back to the Basics: Heat Transfer and Insurance Tom Kaldunski 18
Positive Phrases For Your CSRs Tracy Robinson 20
HVACRBUSINESS.COM SEPTEMBER 2020 / VOL.15 / NO.9
BUILD YOUR MAINTENANCE PROGRAM Make sure your maintenance agreements are growing your business instead of crippling it. pg 6
ALSO INSIDE » Ruth King: Rules for Wealth................................16 Product Focus ............................................................... 21 20 Questions with Emily and Kevin McGrath, Owners of Comfort Cavalry Heating & Air ............. 22
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CONTENTS
SEPTEMBER 2020 / VOL.15 / NO.9
F E AT U R E S
6
Build Your Maintenance Program
D E PA R T M E N T S
Make sure your maintenance agreements are growing your business instead of crippling it. By Dave Squires
11
Enhance Your Lead Generation Marketing
13
Employees Can’t Read Your Mind
5
Seven tips to ensure valuable lead gen efforts are not wasted at your company. By Kelly Borth
21 22
Inspiring teams to not only do their job, but to do it with gumption and purpose, needs a particular style of leadership. By Erica Leonor
Editor’s Notebook During a pandemic where the disease is transmitted through the air, we should be talking more about ventilation. By Pete Grasso
Product Focus 20 Questions with Emily and Kevin McGrath, Owners of Comfort Cavalry Heating & Air in Antioch, Ill.
C O LU M N
16
Wealth Rule No. 4: Build a Great Culture
18
Back to the Basics: Heat Transfer and Insurance
20
Three Common Phrases Your CSRs Should Avoid
If your company has a great reputation, then people will want to work there and want to stay there. By Ruth King Insurance is a means to transfer risk away from their balance sheets to those who are in the business of handling risk: insurance companies. By Tom Kaldunski It’s never a good idea to tell a customer what your company can’t do for them. Focus on what you can do to help the situation. By Tracy Robinson
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HVACR BUSINESS SEPTEMBER 2020
www.hvacrbusiness.com
THE HVACR MANAGEMENT MAGAZINE
EDITOR’S NOTEBOOK
BY PETE GRASSO TERRY Tanker Publisher ttanker@hvacrbusiness.com PETE Grasso Editor pgrasso@hvacrbusiness.com MEGAN LaSalla Art Director mlasalla@hvacrbusiness.com BRUCE Sprague Circulation Manager bs200264@sbcglobal.net
ADVERTISING STAFF ERIC Hagerman National Sales Manager Tel 216-409-3246 Fax 440-731-8750 ehagerman@hvacrbusiness.com TERRY Tanker Publisher Tel 440-731-8600 Fax 440-731-8750 ttanker@hvacrbusiness.com
BARBARA Kerr Executive Assistant bkerr@hvacrbusiness.com
HVACR Business, founded January 1981, is a monthly national trade magazine serving contractors, mechanical engineers, manufacturers, manufacturer representatives, wholesalers, distributors, trade associations, and others in the heating, ventilating, air conditioning and refrigeration (HVACR) industry primarily in the U.S. The editorial focus and mission of HVACR Business is to provide business owners and managers with the very best business management concepts available. Critical topics covered include leadership, management, strategy, finance, sales, marketing, training, education, staffing, operations, human resources, legal issues, customer service and more. We are dedicated to helping contractors master these key management skills and provide them with the resources necessary to build strong, profitable companies. Every effort is made to provide accurate information, however, the publisher assumes no responsibility for accuracy of submitted advertising and editorial information. Copyright©2020 by JFT Properties LLC. No part of this publication may be reproduced or retransmitted in any form or by any means, including, but not limited to, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or any information storage retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the publisher. Unauthorized copying may subject violators to criminal penalties as well as liabilities for substantial monetary damages up to $100,000 per infringement, costs and attorneys’ fees. This publication should not be utilized as a substitute for professional advice in specific situations. If legal, medical, accounting, financial, consulting, coaching or other professional advice is required, the services of the appropriate professional should be sought. Neither the authors nor the publisher may be held liable in any way for any interpretation or use of the information in this publication. The authors will make recommendations for solutions for you to explore. Any recommendation is always based on the authors’ research and experience. The information contained herein is accurate to the best of the publisher’s and authors’ knowledge; however, the publisher and authors can accept no responsibility for the accuracy or completeness of such information or for loss or damage caused by any use thereof. Subscription Rates: Free and controlled circulation to qualified subscribers. Non-qualified persons may subscribe at the following rates: U.S. and possessions: 1 year $48; 2 years $75; 3 years $96; Canadian and foreign, 1-year $108 U.S. funds only. Single copies $8. Subscriptions are prepaid, and check or money orders only. Subscriber Services: To order a subscription or change your address, write to HVACR Business, 31674 Center Ridge Road, Suite 104, North Ridgeville, OH 44039 or call (440) 731-8600; or visit our Web site at www.hvacrbusiness.com. For questions regarding your subscription, please contact bkerr@hvacrbusiness.com. HVACR Business (ISSN 2153-2877) Copyright ©2020 is published monthly by JFT Properties LLC,31674 Center Ridge Road, Suite 104, North Ridgeville, OH 44039, Phone: 440731-8600. Periodicals postage is paid at North Ridgeville, OH and additional mailing offices. (USPS 025-431) POSTMASTER: Send address changes to HVACR Business, 31674 Center Ridge Road, Suite 104, North Ridgeville, OH 44039.
31674 Center Ridge Road, Suite 104 North Ridgeville, OH 44039 Tel: (440) 731-8600 Fax: (440) 731-8750 Web site: www.hvacrbusiness.com (ISSN: 2153-2877)
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Let’s Talk About Ventilation
A
few weeks ago, I stumbled upon an article in The Atlantic titled, “We Need to Talk About Ventilation.” Of course, it caught my eye and really got me thinking.
The article questions why, six months into a respiratory pandemic, we are still doing so little to mitigate airborne transmission? All the safety precautions, the author argues, focus mainly on what he calls “hygiene theater” — constantly deep cleaning everything — while paying little to no attention to the air we breathe. I suppose, when the pandemic first hit in the U.S., most offices closed and employees were sent home to work. Urging the public to wash their hands, keep a proper social distance and wear masks made sense. After all, why talk about ventilation if no one is actually occupying any of the buildings where disease can spread.
discussing these topics in depth with their service providers. Jake tells me, among the many challenges with getting buildings ready during the coronavirus era, is the increase of fresh air being brought into buildings and what effect that has on the HVACR system. Some clients, he says, are bringing in up to 60 percent outside air as opposed to the 30 percent they had been. It seems like a good idea to help combat an airborne virus in an enclosed space to bring in fresh air, but the mechanical systems need to work harder to condition that air — especially during these hot summer months.
During a pandemic where the disease is transmitted through the air, we should be talking more about ventilation.
But as states began to reopen and people started to populate offices (and schools) again, surely there would be a push for a greater awareness of the air we breathe! And, as it happens, just a few days ago I saw a story on NPR titled, “As We Return to Work and School During the Pandemic, Can the Air Inside Be Kept Safe?” It’s an interesting piece that really answers a lot of questions everyone should actually be asking. The author interviewed Kathleen Owen, an air filtration consultant in Cary, N.C., who works with ASHRAE, as well as another ASHRAE member, Dennis Knight, the founder of Whole Buildings Systems in Charleston, S.C. What caught my attention, mostly, were these two sentences: “And as the science on COVID-19 has been evolving, the right actions haven’t always been clear. Now, some building operators are intimidated or overwhelmed by the scale of the challenge.” After reading this piece I immediately texted my brother, Jake, for some insight. Jake is a senior sales executive with Siemens Building Technology and deals with this kind of thing every day. I must have struck a chord with him, because rather than text me back, Jake called me. To say we haven’t been talking about ventilation is a misnomer, because that has been the majority of what Jake has been talking about for the last six months with his customers. Sure, maybe the general population isn’t well-informed about the importance of proper ventilation and indoor air quality (IAQ), but building owners and managers are
The long-term affect this will have on the cost of running a building’s mechanical system has yet to be seen — and with winter right around the corner, you can bet building managers will run into similar issues as boilers begin to work overtime. Still, he says, mechanical systems have gotten much more sophisticated and efficient than they used to be, so it isn’t a total disaster. Rather, building managers and mechanical contractors simply need to rethink how a building operates. While there is no magic solution to eliminate the issues presented by the coronavirus or other airborne pathogens and viruses, ASHRAE experts agree there are several things that can be done to clean the air and decrease potential risk. ASHRAE has identified many strategies to help provide superior quality indoor air, including filtration, ventilation, relative humidity, and UV lights. This is the new normal, which I suppose is a phrase we can apply to just about everything we do from now on. An article on Forbes.com back in June summarizes this perfectly: “While people spend 90 percent of their time inside, indoor air quality has not been a large focus of attention for facilities management and tenants until recently. The coronavirus outbreak is bringing indoor air quality into the spotlight as hospitals work to mitigate the spread of disease and offices, retail, and education facilities are considering strategies to reopen safely and minimize infection.” Finally, IAQ and ventilation are getting the recognition they deserve when it comes to what we should be talking about. Sadly, it took a pandemic to bring this important topic to the forefront. As experts in this area, it’s up to you to get out there and ensure your customers have accurate information. Be the resource they need and let’s talk about ventilation. u
HVACR BUSINESS SEPTEMBER 2020
5
BUILD YOUR MAINTENANCE PROGRAM
Make sure your maintenance agreements are growing your business instead of crippling it. BY DAVE SQUIRES
W
hen it comes to creating and managing maintenance agreements, the execution for most companies when they finally decide to do maintenance agreements is based on the, “READY, FIRE, AIM!” approach to management. Here’s an example … Once upon a time, there was a company called ABC Heating and Cooling. ABC Heating and Cooling was a fairly new HVACR company that survived its first year in business. The company had heard from everyone they talked to that the key to success in HVACR is that “You’ve got to have maintenance agreements.” Unfortunately, ABC Heating and Cooling either didn’t hear (or weren’t told) the rest of the formula that says, “… the
6
Use your maintenance agreements to provide enough work during your slow months to keep your team intact and employed. agreements you sell need to be scheduled when you’ll need the work.” So, eager to be successful and get a lot of maintenance agreements, ABC Heating and Cooling goes back and “spiffs” their technicians a bunch of money to sell “agreements.” Now, as anyone in the business knows, the easiest time to sell a maintenance agreement is in the fall for heating equipment, and in the spring for cooling equipment. The reason it’s easier to sell maintenance at these times of year, is these are the
HVACR BUSINESS SEPTEMBER 2020
times when the customer may actually be focused on their equipment for the coming season. So, like every other contractor out there, ABC Heating and Cooling goes out and sells a boatload of maintenance during this time — all due for renewal 12 months-later, smack-dab in the middle of their easiest time of the year to sell tuneups to new customers. After a few years of this, ABC Heating and Cooling is mystified — why are they
not successful yet? After all, they have a lot of agreements now. Instead, they’re facing a logistical nightmare since all their maintenance agreements are now piled up during the same months every spring and fall. Because of this, they’re running ragged and paying their technicians overtime to try to get to them all. To make matters worse, since they’re spending all their time with customers where they had previously replaced the old and really bad equipment, ABC Heating and Cooling isn’t able to take on new customers. Since they’re now so busy doing maintenance on equipment where the “low hanging fruit” has already been picked, continued on page 8
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TM
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE August 13, 2020
nnifin Corporation RLS® LLC Ends Relationship with Parker Ha
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continued from page 6
Actively managing your maintenance by moving it to when you need the work can dramatically reduce your marketing costs.
their sales are tanking and their growth has stalled. As if having less sales opportunities wasn’t bad enough, ABC Heating and Cooling still has months in the winter where they don’t have enough work. Because of this, they get behind on their bills and lay their technicians off, since they can’t keep them busy.
TRUE VALUE
There are many contractors out there who look at their maintenance program primarily as a marketing/sales vehicle, since it gets them in their client’s home every year. But if you believe this is the primary purpose of having agreements, you’re settling for only one fourth of their true value. Maintenance programs are valuable to a contractor for these four reasons: 1. Creating potential sales opportunities and top of mind awareness by getting in front of the customer routinely. 2. Using your maintenance to provide enough work during your slow months to keep your team intact and employed. 3. A vehicle to provide “safe” routine service calls, allowing you to train up your own technicians where they can learn while pulling their own weight. 4. To put a fence around your “herd.” Agreements are meant to establish your company in the customer’s mind as the company who takes care of their equipment and the one to call when a need arises. Of the four reasons above, No. 2 is perhaps the most important if you had to choose only one on which to focus. The goal of everyone managing maintenance should be, “How do I move a customer’s maintenance visit to where it’s at my
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When it comes to maintenance, you need to understand the animal in order to tame the beast! There are two main ways maintenance is sold by contractors. The two methods are to bill once a year, or to bill for the maintenance plan on a monthly basis. For most small companies, the annual billing plan is typically their initial go-to method, since it requires slightly less complexity and overhead to manage. Although some companies do send an invoice out to renew an agreement, the preferred way is to do the tune-up at the end of the agreement period so your technician can ask for the renewal personally.
Every year, they lose a technician or two, who end up finding other jobs while laid off. Now, ABC Heating and Cooling has to go through the expense to find and train new technicians. This is especially irritating since they were told maintenance agreements were supposed to level off their workload throughout the year. Okay, so maybe the above fable is a little bit simplistic. But maybe, with all the companies that were in full panic during February and March because they had little work, there is a little truth to this tale.
marketing to when it is more effective, since the work you need when you’re slow is, then, already there.
Companies billing monthly incur more office overhead to run the billing every month, as well as the extra time it takes updating the cancelled or expired credit cards that don’t go through every month. convenience, rather than theirs?” There are times of the year when it’s easy to get work, and times of the year it’s not. So, why not run calls you’re already guaranteed to get (maintenance) during the times it’s not easy to get a call?
business is difficult is because of the feast or famine everyone experiences based on the weather. For years, people have said that if you’re marketing right, the weather doesn’t matter. This is nonsense. What they don’t tell you is that the cost of what it takes to “market right” skyrockets during non-extreme summers and winters.
Your marketing will be a lot more effective during the times when it’s the easiest to get a new customer call, because they’re already focused due to the weather or season. That is a key secret to being able to grow. Best of all, doing this doesn’t negate the value of the other three reasons, but it does have the potential to bring in work when you need it the most, not when you’re already slammed.
The fact that most every HVACR market has built-in down times is why there are so many small players out there who want to grow but can’t. The capital they need for growth gets sucked dry during the slow times, and they lose key employees when they can’t keep them busy. So, every year it’s like they’re starting from square one. It’s a vicious cycle that one must understand and manage in order to break it.
Because there are times of the year when it’s easier to get calls, every maintenance call you run during that time is one less opportunity to sell a tune-up to a new customer when they’re the easiest to get.
ACTIVE MANAGEMENT
MAINTENANCE SEASONS
This is especially beneficial since there is a greater potential of a “lower hanging” sale opportunity with a new customer than the ones you maintain every year. The beauty of this is that you didn’t forfeit the opportunity with your maintenance customer — you just moved it to a time when you need the work to keep your team employed. The reason running an HVACR
HVACR BUSINESS SEPTEMBER 2020
A popular management technique for solving your slow time is to market your way out of it by discounting. This can work but, as everyone knows, it’s harder (and more expensive) to get leads at the end of a season when the customer’s focus has shifted, than it is in the beginning of the season unless you’re giving away the job. The other option, however, is to actively manage your maintenance by moving it to when you need the work. Doing so can dramatically reduce your marketing costs by shifting much of your slow-season
There are, however, more upsides to billing monthly than there are to selling annual agreements. Here are a few of the reasons monthly billing is better if you have the tools and capability to manage it: • Monthly agreements are much easier to sell since a lump-sum payment is not required to enroll. • Unlike annual plans where the customer decides every year whether or not to renew, customers remain plan-holders longer since they are never asked again to make a decision to write a check in order to stay with the program. • Monthly plans create a more level cash flow for your business. • If set up right, monthly agreements are less of a negotiating liability on the sale of business because they do not constitute as great a long-term liability as does collecting the money a year in advance for services yet to be delivered. Most importantly, monthly agreements can be at least 5 percent or more profitable over time than an annual agreement will be, even if the net annual pricing of both is based on the same amount. The reason for this is that on an annual plan the agreement doesn’t renew (and you don’t get to collect) until the call is scheduled and the maintenance is performed. As any company running an extensive maintenance program can tell
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you, many times you will chase a client down for a month or two beyond when the maintenance visit was due, trying to get them to schedule. On an annual plan, this means you effectively lost 1-2 months of revenue by the time you renew the agreement for another year. With a monthly payment plan, no revenue is lost since you collect every month while trying to schedule the client.
If you use the word “annual” in conjunction with the word “tune-up” in your agreement, you’re setting yourself up for future grief right out the gate.
ADDITIONAL TIPS If you currently sell monthly agreements, or plan on moving to them, here are a few tips that you should consider for your program.
You’re cementing in your customer’s mind that maintenance always needs to be done at the beginning of a season when, in reality, it just needs to be done regularly. If you have the words “seasonal,” “preseason,” “spring,” “fall,” “winter start-up” or “summer start-up” anywhere in your program literature, lose them right now. You can get away with it when you first start, but it will haunt you eventually when you need to move your clients’ maintenance to your slow times. Also, look for a recurring billing system that lets you take ACH (direct bank withdrawal) payments as well as credit cards. ACH is, by far, the superior way to get paid because the fees are less and, unlike credit cards, the accounts don’t expire and rarely, if ever, change. This saves a lot of time tracking down new numbers as well as risking the customer quitting because, when you ask for a new card number, he has been put into a position where a decision is required to stay with the program. To achieve this, you need to train your technicians how to ask. Never, ever tell a customer that you can take the money out of their account every month — that’s the quickest way to get a “no.” Instead, we tell
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TIMING IS EVERYTHING Of the two types of programs sold, the annual maintenance plan is the easiest to move into your slow time, because it can be done right at the time of sale. And, like all marketing, it’s all about how you spin it! Obviously, telling the customer who has just gotten a furnace tune-up in October that you want to sell him an annual plan — but you don’t want to do the tune-up until a year from January — probably won’t get the sale. On the other hand, if I tell him, “We have a special offer this month that if you sign up for our maintenance plan you can get 15-months of benefits and coverage for the price of 12!” You’ll probably easily close that sale.
If you offer both monthly and annual agreements, make sure everyone in your organization only quotes it at a monthly price — not the annual price that the customer can pay in 12 equal payments. It’s easier to close the sale when you’re only quoting the smaller, less-scary number.
First, recognize that words have meaning. If you refer to your heating maintenance as a “pre-season tune-up,” or “Fall Tune-Up” — STOP. The same goes for your cooling maintenance if you call it your “Spring Tune-up.”
you still get to collect every month they put it off.
them you can get the bank to pay it every month for them. To do this, ask them to write a check for the monthly amount, and in the memo line write monthly maintenance payment. Then tell them to void the check and you’ll use the voided check to set up the payments. By doing this you accomplish two things. First, they feel they are in control of the entire process, and second, you get the voided check with the correct routing and account numbers to set up the bank’s monthly payment to you.
JOIN THE CLUB Another suggestion that will let you avoid problems monthly plans can create; is how you word the agreement. Too many times, companies sell the plan as simply 12 monthly payments going toward paying for an annual tune-up. This is just wrong on many levels and will bite you in the backend if you let your technicians get away with doing it this way. Instead of referring to them as annual maintenance agreements, call it a “Club Agreement” or something similar if you’re collecting monthly for it. Your plan’s value should always be sold based on the priority service, discounts and benefits that your members get — not an annual tune-up. If you let them think
of it as mainly an “annual tune-up” they’re paying for, you will get attrition simply because they can always find someone willing to do a tune-up for less. In fact, in a monthly agreement, if you use the word “annual” in conjunction with the word “tune-up” in your agreement, you’re setting yourself up for future grief right out the gate. Remember the example above where a customer might not schedule his tune-up but you’re still collecting every month? What will you do when he is angrily demanding a refund for the tune-up he was promised every 12 months that you never did? Are you going to offer him to do two tune-ups on the same equipment back-to-back? Instead use wording similar to this: “An additional benefit of being part of the ABC Company Club is that after 12-months from the time we last performed a tune-up on your covered heating or cooling equipment, as an ABC Company Club member you have the ability to schedule a complete maintenance tune-up and safety inspection on that same piece of equipment at no additional cost!” By wording it this way, your customer’s procrastination when it comes to scheduling is no longer a potential liability, and
If you do this for all your maintenance sales during the three months of fall, you’ll have effectively moved all your return maintenance visits into the months of January, February and March — right when you need them. The same strategy can be used for AC Club agreements sold in the busy months as well. Even though you take a slight hit for the three months you give away, it is the simplest and least costly way to do it if you are selling annual plans. The revenue lost will easily be made up by avoiding the overtime costs of performing the tune-ups next year when you’re typically busy with new customers. Unfortunately, this strategy doesn’t work with the monthly plans since you collect every month and there is no perceived benefit for the customer purchasing your Club Agreement in the fall to delay his maintenance 3-4 months to when you need the work. To accomplish this, you need to create a plan that does benefit the customer to have their maintenance performed in your off-months. To understand how to do this, simply look at the airlines — they are masters at maximizing their flights to meet their own capacity needs without their passengers complaining about it. The way they accomplish this is by simply adjusting the price or the benefits to get passengers to fill the spots they need filled. You can easily do the same with your maintenance program. continued on page 10
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7 REASON
Lower price per pound.
R-32 refrigerant historically has a lower price per pound than R-410A, and a much lower price per pound than most available proprietary low GWP blends.
continued from page 9
You can use price to motivate your members to have their maintenance performed in your slow months simply by offering them the same plan, but at two different price levels (it’s the exact same seat you pay the airlines $100 more for if you occupy it over the Christmas break vs. the 3rd week of September). So, why don’t you have an off-season and busy-season price for your plan? Rather than offer a lower price if the customer moves to your off-season, you write all your fall maintenance clients a letter saying that you need to raise the price of their existing maintenance plan because of added costs. At the time, you inform them that if they chose to let you schedule their maintenance in your off-months, from January to March, they could avoid the coming
lower-priced off-season model: • By keeping the price constant, it’s less confusing and easier for the technician to sell. • It allows you to later “upsell” the club member to off-season maintenance by offering the additional benefits whenever we need to balance our workload, without having to change the price or the billing. • It’s fairly easy to manage. If a service call is needed, the additional discount can be communicated to the technician by the office when dispatched, or simply communicated to the technician by use of a sticker on the furnace placed there by the tech who did the off-season maintenance, identifying the client as having the additional $20 service call discount for that year. Whichever way you build your maintenance program, you need to put
By moving 40 percent of your fall maintenance to your slow time, you effectively stabilize your work load over the entire year. increase and be billed at your off-season maintenance pricing, which would be the same amount they were currently paying. By moving 40 percent of your fall maintenance to your slow time, you effectively stabilize your workload over the entire year. Best of all, within three years you should be able to increase your sales and profitability simply because your spring and fall shifted mainly to marketing tune-ups to new clients, and you didn’t have to advertise heavy in your slow time because there was enough booked “Club Agreements” to keep everyone busy.
forethought into it so you can use it to regulate your workload instead of letting your program destabilize it — which it will naturally do — if not planned for. u
Dave Squires is president of Online-Access, a subscription-based company that works with HVAC & plumbing contractors throughout North America showing them how to utilize the web as more than an electronic refrigerator magnet. For additional information visit hvacwebsites.com.
OFF-SEASON OPTIONS T H I S I S J U S T O N E O F 3 2 G R E AT R E A S O N S TO C H O O S E R -3 2 R E F R I G E R A N T. S E E T H E M A L L AT R 3 2 R E A S O N S . C O M .
WITH MORE THAN 100 MILLION UNITS INSTALLED WORLDWIDE, R-32 IS ENDORSED BY:
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The other option you have to motivate customers you bill monthly to do their maintenance when you need it, is to have one plan at one price — but with additional benefits and discounts depending on when their maintenance is done. For example, if they chose the offseason maintenance option, they get $60 off any service call instead of the normal $40 dollars that all other Club Members get. Here are some reasons to consider adopting this model instead of the
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ENHANCE YOUR LEAD GENERATION MARKETING Seven tips to ensure valuable lead gen efforts are not wasted at your company. BY KELLY BORTH
F
inding new customers is the lifeblood of most businesses. Few of us have customers lining up at the door, so “hunting” for new customer leads is a critical component of generating revenue. It is an often-cited statistic that most companies never follow up on 70 to 80 percent of the leads they generate. With some strategic efforts, you can ensure that valuable lead generation efforts are not wasted at your company:
THE RIGHT TOOL Make certain you’re using the right methods if you’re trying to generate leads. Tactics like email newsletters, direct mail, trade shows and pay-per-click ads are designed primarily to generate leads. Other methods you might use to market to prospects with the aim of converting them into leads include search and site retargeting and geofencing. Other marketing tactics — such as print ads, public relations and social media — are better at creating buzz and brand awareness. Make sure you are using the right tool for the right job.
MAP YOUR PROCESS Marketing is expensive and you don’t
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Marketing is expensive and you don’t want to waste precious dollars on leads that fall through the cracks. want to waste precious dollars on leads that fall through the cracks. Create a written procedure that maps exactly what happens to every lead the moment it enters your database. For example, you might immediately send an email saying, “Thanks for attending our booth at a trade show. Here’s some news about our new product.” And then add them to your newsletter list. Or, you might send them a follow up email thanking them for downloading a white paper or acknowledging that they filled out a form on your site. You should be tracking all the sources of your leads and getting them into a formal process of follow-ups that happen on a regular schedule. You should also be tracking each follow-up, what happened, and then moving the lead to the next phase of the customer journey.
TRACK AND MEASURE Measuring and counting leads is one of the easiest metrics in the marketing
toolbox, as is tracking which marketing tactic does the best job of generating the best leads. Metrics like cost-per-lead are a good start, but lead-to-sale ratio is even better, because with a little effort you should be able to track a lead all the way to a sale. If you map out the entire journey a lead takes from introduction to sale, you’ll be able to start seeing which follow-ups seemed to lead to a close faster than others. You’ll be able to see which marketing tactics produced more qualified leads. All of this information can be compiled and analyzed regularly so that you can continually improve and evolve your lead-generation efforts.
DEFINE GOOD VS SO-SO Work with your sales and marketing teams to describe the ideal customer in terms of demographics, job title and job function. Are the decision makers who buy from you usually purchasing managers? Or the CFO? Do you focus on small to medium,
privately owned companies? Or are your prospects large publicly traded firms? Do you serve a certain geographic area? Listing out all the possible characteristics of a good lead is important, because you can better target your marketing and capture better qualified leads with each marketing push. You might also develop characteristics that deal with the customer’s needs, desires and concerns. For example, you might target users of your competitor’s products, because perhaps you have a specific advantage over that product. Or you might target users who have not replaced their product in a certain period of time and would be ready to replace it. Whatever the characteristics for your specific sales opportunities, capture those in a list. Armed with this information, you can tailor your messaging to the customer’s specific needs.
DEVELOP SCORING SYSTEM Once you’ve defined a good lead, develop a lead scoring system based on demographics, as well as actions the customer takes. Visiting your website, stopping by continued on page 12
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continued from page 11
your trade show booth, attending a webinar or downloading a white paper from your website, for example, can all increase the lead score assigned to a potential customer.
% 6 1 ! MER M I L S
The higher the score, the more likely the customer is to make a purchase. Assigning scores like this can help you determine the best way to follow up. Lower scores likely need a more structured program of touchpoints (also called lead nurturing), while higher scores will likely respond better to more powerful closing actions and can be given to the sales team.
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Work with the marketing team to develop a “funnel” where the leads enter at the top with a simple engagement and then are led through a series of interactions that end in a purchase. For example, say you have a list of leads from a trade show. The sales team follows up, and several of them are interested in a proposal. Many of them say no for a variety of reasons — budget, timing, etc. Those leads would go back into the marketing funnel. They would start getting your email newsletter regularly. If they click on a link in the email, they would then get a different piece of marketing collateral — say a white paper or a product benefits infographic. Then, you might follow up and send them a video clip describing a different company benefit or a podcast episode with your company leadership talking about key differentiators of your firm. Each interaction they take impacts their overall lead score. Over time, the leads are nurtured and become more educated about your products.
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MARKETING, SALES ALIGNMENT Make sure the sales and marketing teams are on the same page when it comes to leads. Sales should be giving feedback to marketing consistently about which leads ended up buying and which follow-ups and nurturing actions worked best. The marketing team should continue to nurture leads, refining the tactics used in the process until the lead achieves a certain score in your lead scoring system. The reasons a lead would acquire a certain score need to be agreed upon with sales. Signals of a prospect’s readiness to buy
Whatever the characteristics for your specific sales opportunities, capture those in a list.
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can come in numerous forms, and both sales and marketing can offer examples from their experience. Once the lead hits the threshold score, it is ready to be turned over to sales. Both teams need to agree and align on this process. Taking these simple steps will improve your efforts to attract new customers. They also will help you properly vet each valuable lead before turning it over to your sales team. More importantly, you’ll be able to determine which of your lead-generation marketing tactics performs the best, and then you can adjust accordingly. u
Kelly Borth is the CEO and chief strategy officer at Greencrest, a 30-year-old marketing, advertising, public relations and digital marketing agency. You can reach her at 614885-7921 or email kborth@greencrest.com. For additional information, visit greencrest.com.
When they do get budget approved, or their current solution stops working, your company will be top of mind in the consideration set, and they will be much more likely to call you. Or, when their score reaches a certain level, thanks to all
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HVACR BUSINESS SEPTEMBER 2020
Malco HVACR BUSINESS 4.5x11 Sept. 2020.indd 1
their different engagement points with you, they can be passed on to engage in a more productive conversation with one of your salespeople. So, keep trying. Keep nurturing.
8/19/20 9:05 AM
EMPLOYEES CAN’T READ YOUR MIND
Inspiring teams to not only do their job, but to do it with gumption and purpose, needs a particular style of leadership. BY ERICA LEONOR
O
ne contractor said to another, “People just don’t have common sense anymore.”
“I know, right! Why can’t people just do their job?” was the response.
If you clearly and effectively set your expectations, practice over and over, you will begin to see that your team is able to work autonomously.
“For real! I mean, how hard is it to just do what you’re supposed to do? Show up on time, work hard, get paid,” the contractor continued.
their employees did that drove them crazy, hoping for a better day tomorrow.
“Dude, it’s like I have to hold their hand through everything.”
LEADERSHIP
“They knew what they were getting into when they came to this industry, but they always fail to meet my expectations. How hard can it be? Geez, just suck it up and do your job. Put your big boy (or girl) pants on,” finished the contractor. And then they went back to work, begrudgingly putting up with all the things
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Just to have it repeat itself all over again. THE END. Inspiring teams to not only do their job, but to do it with gumption and purpose, needs a particular style of leadership. There is a consistent conversation going on about how to get teams to do what needs to be done while still being understanding and empathetic. It’s a fine line to navigate. It starts with accepting that your employees can’t read your mind — your common
sense isn’t their common sense. For example, when I was younger, my mom would tell me to go clean my room. How do you think I cleaned it? Well, I threw everything under the bed or in the closet. In my mind, the room was clean. In my mom’s mind, I made it worse. It wasn’t until she came into my room with me, literally put her hand over mine, and showed me how to pick up my toys and where to put them. She practiced with me on how to fold my clothes and make my bed. She demonstrated to me what she expected and made sure she did it with me.
After that, I always knew what she meant when she said, “go clean your room.” It’s the same thing with our employees — Leaders will tell their technicians, “Go clean your truck.” Result: It rarely gets cleaned. This is because your idea of a clean truck and your technician’s idea of a clean truck is different. If you don’t personally show them how to clean a truck, which products to use, where to dispose of the trash, how to organize it, then don’t expect them to do it. You have to do the work with them, show them exactly how you want it done, before you can expect them to even scratch the surface. Another example: I’ve heard many continued on page 14
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We all love to vent. It feels good to get something off of our chest. But it isn’t necessarily helpful or productive.
contractors say, “How hard is it to book a call? You just say yes and care about the customer.” Just because your CSR has a positive personality doesn’t mean they will be amazing at call handling. You have to practice and demonstrate with them exactly what you want them to do. So, in a sense, you might indeed feel like you have to hold their hand. But that is only at the beginning. If you clearly and effectively set your expectations, practice over and over, you will begin to see that your team is able to work autonomously. And that is exactly what you want. After that, if they fail to meet those expectations, it’s easier to hold them accountable because you’ve consistently tracked these interactions and can enforce consequences. There are several principles that when applied, will change behavior. And as behavior is changed, so is culture. So please, don’t let these next “ideas” just be good ideas. Do something with them to
make a difference for yourself and your team.
POSITIVITY AND CONFIDENCE We could talk all day long about how to have a positive attitude. But I would rather focus on something that can destroy positivity in the workplace. It’s called venting. We all love to vent. It feels good to get something off of our chest. But it isn’t necessarily helpful or productive.
what you want to say. If it really has no point other than to make you feel better, find another way to get it off your chest (like exercising, journaling or cleaning). Then, when your employees come to you to vent, you will be more equipped to change the direction of the conversation rather than feeding into it.
Venting usually involves complaining about someone or something. It then usually generates gossip, which creates drama in the workplace.
For example, if an employee comes to you to vent, perhaps you could respond with something like this to redirect the conversation: “Thank you so much for bringing this to me. That sounds frustrating.
Venting is different than talking about your feelings. Venting doesn’t offer solutions. It is mostly word vomit you spill onto another person. So, first I want you to check yourself. When you feel the need to vent, ask yourself if there is a point to
I’m wondering what we could be doing to help Person X? Perhaps we should invite them in and talk personally so we can find an efficient and easy solution for us all. When would you be available to do that?”
LISTENING AND CARING Who loves those yearly reviews with employees? It seems like they are one of the most dreaded meetings ever. And to be honest, having just one big meeting once a year to review performance and/ or promotions isn’t the best way to hold your team accountable and grow in the company. Accountability should be done in small increments. If you want better performance and employee engagement, it would be wise to set a recurring meeting with your employees, or those who are directly underneath you, for 30 minutes every single month. Do not reschedule it because you get busy. You show up, every time. This needs to be a formal meeting, not a conversation in the truck on your way to your next call. This will build loyalty and trust more quickly than almost anything else you could do. Use this time to listen to them and ask them questions. Practice (role play) with them different scenarios they need to perfect. Set
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HVACR BUSINESS SEPTEMBER 2020
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We shouldn’t be scared of feedback, whether giving or receiving it. We just need a good process to deliver it. expectations and give feedback. As you do this, your yearly reviews will be so much easier. Your team will more clearly understand your expectations because you’ve consistently talked about them, recorded their goals, and tracked their performance. Be consistent. *If you need ideas of things to talk to your employees about during these one-on-one meetings, please text “100” to 385-247-3714
GIVING AND ASKING Most people are horrible at giving feedback. That is because they use the “sandwich method.” The concept that you tell someone a positive, negative, positive doesn’t work anymore. We all know what is really happening — you’re trying to soften the blow. At least that is the intention. But what really happens is your employees feel like you aren’t being sincere in your two positive compliments. All they are focusing on is the negative.
FEEDBACK POWER METHOD We shouldn’t be scared of feedback, whether giving or receiving it. We just need a good process to deliver it. I want to share with you the Feedback Power Method that Stephen Dale and I created, which will help you feel confident in having these conversations that can sometimes be awkward or difficult. Ask permission to speak & state your intention for having this conversation and the desired result or outcome. Example: Employee X, do you have a few minutes to talk? I would like to discuss with you something I’ve noticed. I probably should have brought it up sooner and I apologize I didn’t. My goal is that each one of my employees is happy working here, successful in what they do, and that it is easy to work together. Explain the observed behavior and the impact/influence it is having.
REASON
every day. Because of this, others have to cover for you, we start our meetings and calls late, people are waiting on you, and it sets us back. 15 minutes might not seem like a big deal, but it affects the entire outcome of the day. Ask “What are your thoughts on that?” Example: Do you have any thoughts on that? (this is where they will then tell you their reasoning) Acknowledge their reasoning.
Example: Thank you for sharing with me some of the reasons why being consistently late has been a pattern for you. I appreciate hearing your side of things.
Build an agreement/solution and say thank you.
Example: What can I do to help support you in getting here on time? (set your expectations and commit to a plan of action moving forward to get the desired outcome. As much as you can, ask your employee enough questions so your plan of action is their idea, not yours.) Thank you so much for taking the time to speak with me. I really appreciate it and I am excited to see you continue to grow and be successful.
Easy to install. R-32 refrigerant’s efficiency and capacity can allow for light units in certain applications, making those units easy to handle and install.
It is the small things you do, consistently over time, that will make the big difference. Your biggest gift to your team is your time. If you do not have enough time to spend with them, helping them grow, then you will probably always be working in your business, not on it. u
Erica Leonor is a customer experience coach and sales trainer at Power Selling Pros. She has been a mentor, coach, trainer, public speaker and facilitator for more than nine years. Erica is also on the board of directors for Women in HVACR. For additional information, visit powersellingpros.com or womeninhvacr.org.
T H I S I S J U S T O N E O F 3 2 G R E AT R E A S O N S TO C H O O S E R -3 2 R E F R I G E R A N T. S E E T H E M A L L AT R 3 2 R E A S O N S . C O M .
WITH MORE THAN 100 MILLION UNITS INSTALLED WORLDWIDE, R-32 IS ENDORSED BY:
Example: I’ve noticed that you are frequently about 15 minutes late to work
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HVACR BUSINESS SEPTEMBER 2020
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FINANCE
BY RUTH KING
Wealth Rule No. 4: Build a Great Culture Editor’s Note: Ruth King is continuing the Wealth Rules series which was suspended after No. 3 in April to cover critical financial issues related to COVID-19. These rules are excerpted from her book, “Profit or Wealth? Simple Rules for Sustainable Business Growth.”
If your company has a great reputation, then people will want to work there and want to stay there.
T
o build wealth, your business has to survive without you. Can you take a vacation without worrying about your business? Can you go to a conference, a trade show or another business meeting for a few days without worrying about the business? Do you have a great management team who can run the business in your absence? Can your employees run it without destroying it? Do your revenues stop when you stop working? And even more important: Do you have to have control? This is probably the largest wealth destroyer. As your business grows there will come a point in time when you cannot do everything yourself. If you try, you will be miserable and the business will suffer because things are “slipping through the cracks.” I call these “no man’s land” scenarios. I’ve written about No Man’s Land in previous columns.
NO MAN’S LAND John built his HVAC company from the ground up. He started working out of his house and grew the business. It was operating in a 5,000 square foot building with eight employees. At that point, all the decisions were still made by him even though he had a hard time getting everything done. Mistakes started to happen and no one wanted to tell him about them because they knew he would “blow up.” In addition, his personal life was a mess. He didn’t have time for his wife and kids since the business was consuming him.
16
John was in “no man’s land.” He got help. Policies and procedures were put in place. He learned to let go and give a few of his employees the responsibility, accountability and authority to make decisions. He made them managers. Not all of them survived as managers. He found others who could help grow the company. Now the company has 35 employees with a great team of managers. The company is not dependent on him. He has a better relationship with his wife and children. And, with the wealth that he built, he is planning to sell the business to the employees at some point.
BUILD YOUR CULTURE You can build a business with no employees or hundreds of employees. The choice is yours. If you choose to build a business with employees, you must build a great culture as it grows.
HVACR BUSINESS SEPTEMBER 2020
Building a great culture means building a team of people who can manage the business without you being there every minute. Once you have a great team in place, you can manage from afar, if you’d like, and do other things. Building a great culture means people will be attracted to working in your business because they heard it was a great place to work. When this positive word of mouth spreads, you can find people even in an economy where the job market is tight. If your company has a great reputation, then people will want to work there and want to stay there. You as the owner lead. You leave the management to others who are probably better at it than you are.
charge” and should leave the day-to-day details to the management team. The leaders keep in touch using key performance financial, sales and operational indicators. When any indicator starts trending the wrong way, the responsible manager must fix the issue. If the business is dependent on you, then it does not have as much value as a business that is led by you and can survive if you are not there. The toughest transitions can be from parents to children. The parents build the business and the children want to take it over. The parents don’t want to let go. And, many times the children feel privileged or are forced to take over a business they don’t enjoy and don’t want to be a part of. This is why most family businesses rarely make it to the third generation and beyond. If you are going to sell the business, then it has to be not dependent on you. For example, if you are the top salesperson for the company, when you leave, sales will fall because your customers are buying from you rather than the company. This lowers the value of your company. Build a great culture and a business that is not dependent on you. This will build your business and personal wealth. u
Ruth King has more than 25 years of experience in the HVACR industry and has worked with contractors, distributors and manufacturers to help grow their companies and become more profitable. Contact Ruth at ruthking@hvacchannel.tv or call 770-729-0258.
LET GO Most owners are not great managers. They are better visionaries “leading the
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RISK MANAGEMENT
BY TOM KALDUNSKI
Back to the Basics: Heat Transfer and Insurance
D
ay one and lesson one of the class on the refrigeration cycle starts with one fact: there is no such thing as “cold.” We learned that “cold” is a subjective term and means nothing to the HVACR task of creating “cold” temperature in a certain space.
Insurance is a means to transfer risk away from their balance sheets to those who are in the business of handling risk: insurance companies.
Cold feels like and actually is a lack of heat. What we deal with every day is heat, and what the refrigeration cycle does is allow us to transfer heat from one area to another. We are taught that what happens inside of Granny’s 1954 Frigidaire in her garage that keeps beverages cold is the same thing that takes place in the largest meat packing warehouse. We are transferring heat from one space and putting it elsewhere. Business owners, this is exactly what you do with insurance. Savvy owners and managers of businesses understand that insurance is a means to transfer risk away from their balance sheets to those who are in the business of handling risk: insurance companies.
complex yetTAX simple. They know and utilize THE NEW SITUATION FOR LIFE can price the policy accordingly (you pay their own cycle. They use premium dollars more to insure the knucklehead). You do this by swapping a premium for SETTLEMENTS pay agents, their overhead claims proceeds a promise. Your hard-earned money for toIt’s important to realize that lifeand settlement Spreading the risk is a straightforward while investing the capital along the way. an insurance policy. When you grasp this are taxable (unlike death benefits to beneficiaries). concept. If you’re moving $100M of concept and apply it you are miles ahead They apply two accepted concepts, the law equipment across the ocean, is it safer to The good news: Thanks to the Tax Cuts and Jobs of your competition. of large numbers and the spreading of risk, putyou it in 10 separate boats or just one? Ten Act of 2017, the tax rules on a life settlement to hopefully come out in the black when In the case of insurance, be it general receive separate are now the same rules that apply if you sur- boats with $10M of equipment done. liability, auto, work comp, property or render your policy to the insurance company. Thisthe severity of a large loss. What is limits any other, you are trading a small known can The of large numbers reveals thatthe life makelaw it more tax-effective to choose the setchance of all 10 boats sinking? amount of capital, your premium, to avoid tlement option. when we have a large enough sample of Insurance companies collect premium a large unknown, a claim, that allows you something there is a predictable outto keep things manageable from day to come. It is the pressure/temperature chart from policyholders spread all over the place and pay claims when required. It is day. of insurance. The size and capability of the age-old concept, do not put all of your You are doing via a policy what you the condenser depends on the outdoor eggs in one basket. do every day via the refrigeration cycle, temperature. The complex insurance cycle uses a moving heat. You pay a property policy So too with insurance, the measurpremium to avoid losing all that you have able risk will affect the premium. Who is multitude of ever-moving pieces to offer if your building burns to the ground. You most likely to cause an auto accident, the you a policy for a premium and pay out can afford the premium, but you cannot 18-year-old knucklehead or the 50-year- when there is a claim. They exploit the law afford to buy a new building and all that old surehanded veteran? The accuracy of of large numbers and the spreading of risk to their — and your — advantage. is inside of it. the statistics behind this are astonishingHow the insurance companies do this is ly precise, hence the insurance company The local convenience store owner
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HVACR BUSINESS SEPTEMBER 2020
knows nothing about a compressor, condenser, evaporator or TXV. She just wants the ice cream case to work and she knows you make that happen. If she knew just a bit about how the ice cream case worked, however, she would keep the condenser clean and be less apt to hire an incompetent technician. Now, not every insurance agent has spent hours in a large warehouse freezer setting super-heat or an eight-hour day cleaning roof top condensers but your agent should help you manage risk in the way explained above and not simply be about price, price, price. Most of the types of insurance and the limits you purchase are mandated by others, either the government, vendors or manufacturers. This leaves most of those responsible for the insurance program to think price, price, price. But what happens with the HVACR customer that only thinks price, price, price when they choose service, repair and replacement of equipment? They are the ones who complain when the product or service they chose did not meet their expectations and then lay the blame at your feet. Make sure your insurance program is crafted by someone who understands their cycle as well as you understand yours. If they only talk about price, price, price then treat them like you do a customer that does so with you, with certain caution. u
Tom Kaldunski has been a commercial lines insurance agent since 2003, and before that spent more than a decade as an HVACR technician. He specializes in designing insurance programs for the HVACR industry. For additional information, email tkaldunski@hartinsurance.com.
www.hvacrbusiness.com
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HVACR BUSINESS SEPTEMBER 2020
19
CUSTOMER SERVICE
BY TRACY ROBINSON
Three Common Phrases Your CSRs Should Avoid
I
f you listen in carefully during a call with one of your customer service representatives (CSRs), you may be surprised by what you hear.
You might pick up on a few ingrained bad phone habits. Here are three phrases you should have your CSRs avoid so they can provide your customers with
the best experience possible.
“I CAN’T …” It’s never a good idea to tell a customer what your company can’t do for them. Focus on what you can do to help the situation. Offer options to your customers. Be the solution to their problem, not another roadblock or hurdle. Avoid: “Mrs. Customer, I can’t tell you what time our technician will be at your home.” Use: “Mrs. Customer, our technicians are extremely thorough and pride themselves on taking excellent care of our customers; sometimes this may take a bit longer than initially expected. I can keep you updated on our technician’s progress until he is available to come to your home and address your concerns. Is 555-1234 the best number for us to reach you on? Great! I can definitely keep you informed as to the progress being made, and his expected arrival.”
“THIS IS HOW WE DO IT.” Please don’t have your CSRs tell customers how “we” do things or what “we” do during a process. Who is “we” to the customer? Why should they care what your processes are? Customers don’t want to hear that they’re just another number; they want to feel special. They want to be included in the process. The phrase, “This is how we do it,” excludes the customer from the decision-making process and puts them on the defense. They want to know that you are concerned about them and about their personal situation. Invite the customer into your world, create an experience, and let them be a part of it. Avoid: “Mr. Customer, what we do is we send out a technician and we come
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HVACR BUSINESS SEPTEMBER 2020
directly to your door, and then we do this, and then we do that.” Use: “Mr. Customer, might I share with you what you can expect when a technician arrives at your home today to service your furnace? He’ll do a thorough evaluation of your furnace and heating system, Mr. Customer, and then he’ll discuss all your options. He’ll provide you with upfront pricing, in writing, so that you can make the best decision for you and your family.”
“YOU NEED TO …” Customers don’t want to be told what to do. Frankly, not many people like to be ordered around or have someone demand anything from them. They would prefer to be informed or have us inquire about their preferences. Customers expect us to ask about their needs and wants, instead of telling them what they need. Avoid: “You need to speak with someone in billing or our sales department.” Use: “Ms. Customer, I want to help you get this resolved. Let’s speak with our billing department, as I believe that they’ll be able to help us with your account. Let me get Carla on the phone so that we can resolve this.” Once you listen for these three little phrases, you’ll likely find them everywhere. Wipe these phrases from your CSRs’ conversations; you’ll see an uptick in customer satisfaction. u
Tracy Robinson is a Customer Experience Coach at Nexstar Network. She brings direct experience from several PHCE-industry roles, including call center representative, dispatcher, call center manager, corporate trainer and employee development manager. To learn more, visit nexstarnetwork.com or call 888-240-7827.
www.hvacrbusiness.com
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A.O. SMITH
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T H I S I S J U S T O N E O F 3 2 G R E AT R E A S O N S TO C H O O S E R -3 2 R E F R I G E R A N T. S E E T H E M A L L AT R 3 2 R E A S O N S . C O M .
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HVACR BUSINESS SEPTEMBER 2020
21
20QUESTIONS >>
with EMILY & KEVIN MCGRATH
We sat down with Emily and Kevin McGrath, owners of Comfort Cavalry Heating & Air in Antioch, Ill. The McGraths, who are 2020 Tops in Trucks Fleet Design Contest winners, discussed starting a business out of necessity, figuring out how to grow and their winning truck design. 1. What’s your background?
Kevin: I started out as a union pipe fitter in Chicago, working for a contractor up until the time of the recession in 2008.
2. What made you go off on your own? Emily: When the recession hit, Kevin lost his job and of course no one was hiring. At the time, we had a newborn and a 2-year-old, so it was really hard on us. He started to do side work which turned into a full-time job for him. It just happened organically … the demand was there, and we really had no idea what we were doing but went along with it.
8. How do you ensure quality service?
Kevin: We have a system and process in place for everything from where the technician parks to how he walks up to the door to how he introduces himself. I spent 20 years on my own learning. I had no sales training or anything like that. I said, “Okay, this works, this doesn’t work, this works, this doesn’t work.” And basically, I built a system around that that I could duplicate.
9. What motivates your team?
Kevin: We started working out of an old, beat up minivan and just kept chugging along. And that went on for nearly 10 years.
Kevin: In our shop we have a 70-inch screen that acts as a KPI board for the service technicians. It’s not a competition, it’s a tool. If they see they’re doing really well on demand service, but lacking on maintenance compared to everybody else, that’s where your focus needs to be. They see what they’re doing wrong or what they can do better.
3. What was it like in the beginning?
10. How did your role take shape, Emily?
Kevin: We never set out to start a company. There was actually a point in time where I told myself, “I’m not going to advertise anymore because the more I advertise means the more I have to work and I don’t get to spend the time on the jobs.” I was really pushing, pushing, pushing and it was just not beneficial.
4. And then you started to grow?
Emily: We weren’t really planning on ever growing. In fact, before we were Comfort Cavalry, we were Antioch Heating, because we wanted to emphasize that we were local and small. Kevin found out he had some pretty bad back issues. At that point we realized that we couldn’t sustain him doing it alone forever, so we hired our first employee and we grew very rapidly from there over the course of about two and a half years. Now, we have 13 technicians and installers.
5. So, you grew out of necessity?
Kevin: We never really wanted to be a business, but my spine is deteriorating and we didn’t have a choice. We had to bring on people to sustain the business.
6. How did you adjust?
Emily: I could see Kevin was going to need that support and I’m the type of person who can’t stand by and watch. I’ve done everything from coming here to do pack outs and unload garbage to helping take conditioners off the backs of trucks. I’m always here to support them and have been since day one. When this first started, I figured out how to make a website, and how to work QuickBooks.
11. How valuable was that help?
Kevin: I was always a very poor paperwork technician. I always handed all my invoices in late; I wouldn’t settle them up completely and all that stuff. So, when we saw an opportunity to go paperless back then, we seized it. Emily lead that effort and has been a tremendous asset.
12. Do you enjoy working together?
Emily: We’re all very close and so we do take a lot of it home. It has become our life and there’s no denying that we spend a lot of time talking about the business. Our employees are our family. It’s difficult to separate work from personal life because of that family culture.
13. How important is company culture? Kevin: It’s the most important thing you can do. As far as cultivating it goes, we do weekly meetings, weekly training. We do one on ones where we bring them in … I call it the Judgment Free Zone. I say, “Does anybody want to talk, or anything we can work through?”
14. Has the pandemic affected business? Emily: It has not affected our business, I don’t think. Kevin: We’ve had the busiest summer.
15. What’s your safety protocol?
Kevin: Right off the bat we made it clear that we’re going to do non-contact service calls for the coming season and trucks are sanitized on a daily basis. Technicians are wearing masks, they’re wearing shoe covers, they’re maintaining the distancing … they’re not going to be in a house any longer than they need to be. Emily: If a customer doesn’t feel comfortable with them in their house, they’ll communicate with you via phone or text messaging.
16. How did you prepare?
Kevin: March 13th is when I saw the blood in the water and we just stopped. We had pre-season orders I canceled purchase orders for. I called the distributors, said, “Hold on.” It took like a week or two weeks; we were doing daily meetings on Zoom. Emily: Yeah, we took two weeks. Then, in April we hit the ground running and we haven’t looked back since.
17. When did you decide to rebrand?
Emily: As we got bigger, people from further out wanted us to come and they were not sure if we did. We always wanted to work with Dan (Antonelli) at Kickcharge Creative, and as we got bigger we decided it would probably be the best time to do it. We reached out to him and his first question was, “Have you ever thought about changing the name?” We weren’t expecting that, but it made sense to us to do it.
Emily: We worked very hard for this, and to think that we could’ve lost it due to Kevin’s health circumstances … when we realized we had to bring people on, we never took for granted that these guys are here every day showing up for us and without them we would not be where we are today.
18. Where did the new name come from?
Kevin: I said if I have to build a business, we’re going to build a business that, if I were an employee, I would want to work for.
19. How has this new design paid off?
7. What’s your recruitment strategy?
Kevin: We hire people with zero industry experience but have good customer service. I spend most of my days training them from the ground up on how to do HVACR and we compensate them really well. We get them in a van and get them certified and then they’re out the door.
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HVACR BUSINESS SEPTEMBER 2020
Emily: We wanted to make it into something that represented who we were as a company and all of our employees too. Some of them are veterans, and Kevin is a veteran. We support our local Honor Flight and other organizations that support veterans and first responders.
Emily: Yes, we were up 114 percent after the first six months. We have people call all the time … it has helped a lot with recognition.
20. What’s your favorite aspect?
Emily: I love that Dan incorporated the nautical star in the design. This is kind of sappy, but Kevin got a tattoo of the nautical star when we first started dating and he always said it was a representation of what I was to him. www.hvacrbusiness.com
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