HVAC Customer Success: Does Your HVAC Business Offer The Top 4 Factors Customers Are Looking For?

HVAC customer success is fairly easy to accomplish — if you follow the right rules. Every business should have a two-fold mission for customer success, and this mission involves four key factors that your business should build on to entice new customers and keep existing ones.

• Timeliness – Keep your word, and show up at your customers' homes at the time you promised. This goes for services from replacements to tune-ups. And if a team of technicians is involved, make sure you all arrive in a timely fashion. Your customers will begin to count on you and consider your timeliness a quality contractor value for products that you can cross-sell and up-sell.
• Quality – This should be a given for any owner looking to build HVAC customer success. But think of quality in the eyes of the homeowner: If you’re selling a particular product, and you tout it as being able to perform in a variety of ways, that’s the quality your customer will expect. Make sure the product or service delivers —every time.
• Ethical – It goes without saying, businesses that don’t operate on ethical principles won’t last long. Word gets around. But that word can work both ways. Build your business on ethics, and the good word will get around. This ethical behavior should cover every facet of your business, from your technicians’ appearance and your pricing to the behavior of your representatives and your business documents.
• Convenient – What does a company that is convenient to do business with look like? And can you deliver that convenience in the three most important areas? Service and replacement systems are a retail business, and for HVAC customer success, you need to structure your business hours like other retailers, not contractors. Convenient means evening and Saturday hours. Convenient payment terms are important, too. This means offering low monthly payment options, as well as simple explanations of payment terms. Finally, examine your communications from a customer’s point of view. Does a live person answer the phone? If you have an automatic phone system you're operating as a contractor, not a retailer. At Ron Smith Consulting & Coaching, www.ronsmithhvac.com, we’re here to help HVAC owners succeed in all facets of their business.

By Ron Smith