Back to all BlogsHow to grow your HVAC business
The need for HVAC services is only going to increase as the UK returns to office spaces and retail units. Here’s how to grow your HVAC business and tap into that increased demand.
Key things to consider when you want to grow your HVAC business:
- How the commercial market is creating opportunities
- Grow your HVAC business by upskilling your team
- Switching to Preventative Maintenance over Reactive
- Give your clients remote access to jobs you’ve got with them
- Chase lost causes to grow your HVAC business
- Use Google Reviews to your advantage
How the commercial market is creating opportunities for HVAC businesses
Colliers reported the commercial property market is expected to grow by 6.4% in 2021. Despite the backdrop of remote working and the reluctance of some workers to return to ‘normal’, the need for commercial office space and the services that go with them is expected to grow.
That’s UK wide demand too as a lot of investment is being made in towns and cities outside of the capital. Learn More
“Investors are increasingly looking at assets outside of London and in May only one of the ten largest single asset deals was located in the capital”.
John Knowles, Head of National Capital Markets at Colliers
Changes to the Minimum Efficiency Standards in heating, cooling and refrigeration units are coming into force from 2023 and will put even more strain on your resources.
Grow your HVAC business by upskilling your team
The demands of the HVAC engineer have always been changeable but we are about to enter an era where the environment and how we get our heating options from will be under more scrutiny.
Share insight on environmental impact and tech
You’ve got to embrace change and those HVAC businesses who have a team of engineers who understand the alternatives to HVAC systems will be a step ahead.
Understanding the impact on the environment gives you the edge and your team can be on the frontline for change.
Re-consider your HVAC product range
Start reviewing the portfolio of the products you have to offer your clients. This is particularly important if you’re not completely focused on IAQ products and you offer a range of options.
Consider where you get most of your work and review what products best suit your clients’ needs. Perhaps you could look at adding heavy commercial, light commercial, laboratory, pharma or biotech product solutions.
Where to get specialist HVAC training
The likes of the CIBSE offer excellent training and advice. Even some manufacturers such as Daikin offer free training on new tech and products.
Most of the key suppliers have their own training programmes, a lot of these are free and many can be completed online. Check out your suppliers websites or do a Google search for training schedules on those manufactures. Ensure the training comes directly from the manufacture or an approved partner.
Switching to Preventative Maintenance over Reactive & why you should switch to Preventative to grow your HVAC business.
It’s a simple change but it’s one that could prove to be very successful for you and your clients. The aim is to regularly schedule maintenance works rather than react and repair when the equipment breaks. Of course the ideal is a nice blend of both, as you’re going to get emergency call outs but a regular pattern of servicing is predictable revenue for your business.
Predictable revenue helps you better plan for the future, it allows you to invest knowing what you’re expecting to earn and it eases the burden of a team who would appreciate the consistency of work.
How to switch to preventative maintenance
The point of this method is to identify issues, eliminate them, build in better user behaviour and grow the customer’s account. Here’s what to focus on:
1. Fault elimination
Find what’s causing the faults in the first place. Document this and see if there’s patterns in breakdowns.
2. Identify the cause
Identify if there is a way of stopping the pattern of faults entering the system. There’s often a root to an issue and if that’s removed you can focus on upkeep and regularly service inspections.
3. Train in good behaviour
A lot of the time it’s user behaviour that’s the root of the problem and that’s one of the easiest things to address. If you’ve discovered a pattern of abuse then record it and create a usage agreement with the client to reduce further breakdowns. Communication between you and the end user is vital with this step.
4. Reduce careless use
Highlight the importance of using the equipment correctly with your client. This is your opportunity to be seen as a business partner that cares for them and the equipment. You’re effectively saying you’ll save them money if they have to come out less often.
5. Picking the right equipment
It’s no surprise it keeps breaking down, it was never built for the task you’re asking it to perform. Putting a system under extra strain or placing it in a location which isn’t suitable is a sure fire why of causing downtime. Advising the client on the correct equipment is a key part of your partnership role.
How Deva Medical manages so many assets over multiple locations
You’ll find it easier to anticipate the needs of your client when you’ve got all of your data in one place. Here’s how Sarah Betteley from Deva Medical uses Klipboard to predict needs, review the assets of their customer and advise how to replace units.
Give your clients remote access to jobs you’ve got with them
Putting in a preventative maintenance plan requires extra organisation and management of your clients account. You’ll need to ensure you can give greater visibility of job status, quoting and invoicing.
Klipboard have come up with a great way to solve this for you with a shareable link you can give to your client that shows them a real-time overview.
Using the Client Portal to grow your HVAC business
The Client Portal can display your client’s assets, the live and completed jobs you have scheduled and even online quote acceptance. Go above and beyond your competition with a portal clearly displaying everything about their particular location and which assets need serving.
The Client Portal helps you get paid faster by automatically notifying your client of invoices requiring payment. That means you can concentrate of performing more preventative servicing and spend less time in the office chasing invoices.
Follow up inactive opportunities to grow your HVAC business
Not every non-response to a quote is lost business, sometimes your potential client just needs a little nudge or reminder.
The problem that’s stopping a lot of HVAC business from growing is the time it takes to go back through all quotes and see if there’s any point in chasing these up.
There’s most likely a job in that list but you need to organise yourself to find it.
1. Standardise where your quotes are kept
Keep a consistent location for your finance admin. Quotes should be held in a location your sales team have access to so can revisit them.
2. Develop a templated response
You’re going to try and reach back out to these clients but you don’t want to write a new email everything time. You also won’t make much of an impression if you just write ‘have you looked at this yet?’ Come up with a standard email with a clear and direct message but followed by a compelling reason to contact them. For example:
“We’ve noticed you haven’t responded to our quote and we’d really like an opportunity to work with you, please reply to this email to speak to a member of our team to arrange your service. Here’s a couple statements from our customers we’ve done similar work for recently…”
(You could include Google Review quotes here).
3. Agree a routine
Yes it’s going to take a bit of admin but the extra work will be worth it, Consistency will be important, agree a day or couple of days in a month when your team chases these non-responsive customers. Set a day of the month as prospect day where you and your team focus on the leads that haven’t been responded to and create well thought out proposals to their enquiries.
How Klipboard can help you follow up quotes and grow your HVAC business
Field Service businesses who use Klipboard can easily gather all the quotes they need to chase by using their accounting dashboard.They can filter their data by ‘Sent quotes’ and export that data including email address and contact information.
This greatly speeds up the process and gives you an opportunity to filter out customers or even segment your lists for different emails if you want to add a personal touch.
Use Google Reviews to your advantage
Google Reviews can impact how well you rank in Google search results, they can influence how likely people are going to click on your adverts and helps build trust. Before you can start benefitting from them you’ll need to correctly set up your ‘Google My Business’ account.
Here’s our quick and helpful guide to setting up your Google My Business account: Learn More
How using Klipboard can encourage more Google Reviews for your business
In the automated client feedback forms you can set up in Klipboard, you can add a link to your Google Reviews page. Sending these emails out at the very moment a job is completed and the client is satisfied is the perfect time to capitalise on that good will.
Summary: How to grow your HVAC Business with a little help from Klipboard
There’s a few ways you can grow your HVAC business including upskilling for the future, pivoting to preventative maintenance and using Google Reviews to your advantage.
You can also make a huge impact on your business by reducing the amount of admin you have to do, improve the experience your client has working with you and gain greater visibility of your operation with Klipboard Job Management Software for HVAC businesses.
