HVAC Maintenance And Service Departments: Are You Setting Your Business Up To Succeed?

Successful HVAC businesses know that a winning combination of cost-effective marketing, superior technician training and a corporate mindset that promotes excellent customer service is a must for success. Another critical, yet often dismissed, factor involves having separate HVAC maintenance and service departments.

You see, even with the best business plan in place and detailed directives for marketing your business, a structure that fails to promote both maintenance and service leaves your firm open to failure.

There are proven reasons for having two departments. You’ll see why, as HVAC maintenance and service can actually work against each other.

• Mindset – While one or more customer service representative may field all calls coming into your business, the service/repair department's response to those calls is reactive. These technicians may have no repairs scheduled for the day, or they may have many. By nature, repair work is an on-call business. Maintaining equipment, on the other hand, is proactive. Appointments are typically scheduled weeks or months out, with the department helping both homeowners who have service agreements and those who don't.
• Work – The differences continue with the type of work performed. Service techs operate from a fix-it mindset, while maintenance techs operate from a keep-it-working mindset. These differences are significant and can be seen in the training programs designed for each team. Further, the latter group is often charged with the important task of keeping customers, promoting products and services and generating leads when conducting on-site visits, while service technicians are generally the ones who show up at a customer’s home after the sales or maintenance staff has made contact.

The competing mindset and tasks of HVAC maintenance and service technicians almost always requires two separate departments within a business.

If you would like more information about how to set up your business to succeed through separate HVAC maintenance and service departments, contact Ron Smith HVAC Spells Wealth. I’ve been helping HVAC contractors push the envelope when it comes to learning how to structure their businesses for growth, sales and customer satisfaction. Give me a call today, or visit my website for more information.

By Ron Smith