With high temperatures and muggy weather dominating the forecast, the summer season presents an opportunity to grow your HVAC business. With almost 90 percent of Americans using air conditioning in their homes, maintenance and service calls will only increase.

A higher demand means more and more people seeking your services – and quickly. Before you know it, your business can experience a spike in job requests. How you handle these calls will affect your long-term success.

Without careful management, sales mistakes can cost you big. You’ll miss out on new opportunities, jobs, and even the ability to maximize profits. By making the wrong decisions now, you also affect the profits needed to support your slower seasons.

The summer season boasts significant potential for your business – but only if your business is ready. To capitalize on the earning potential, avoid the following HVAC sales mistakes. 

1. Taking too long to respond.

When business is booming, it’s easy for calls and emails to go unanswered. And when that happens, the potential customer won’t give you a second chance. Instead, they’ll likely move on to another potential service provider – and hope for a timelier response.

Yet home service businesses miss 27% of their calls. Each missed call is a golden business opportunity and a chance to build a solid reputation and customer trust.

Another crucial misstep is acting on online leads too slowly. Lead generators like Angi make finding potential customers easier for HVAC businesses. However, the tool is only effective if your company responds to leads promptly. If you’re too slow, your competitors will beat you to it.

Solution:

A great solution to ensure no lead is left behind is to create a solid plan. When you plan for vacations, holidays, and after-hours, you have someone in place to respond to customers quickly.

Create a process for your team members to handle customer inquiries effectively. Outline the information they need to gather during calls and ensure timely follow-ups.

Tools like inbound call scripts can empower your team to get comfortable tackling new leads and ultimately win more jobs. 

2. Overpromising and underdelivering.

During a heat wave, many people are desperately looking for cooling solutions. While you likely want to provide solutions for as many customers as possible, you need to be careful. Although you might win the job in the short term, the potential fallout can harm your business.

Overpromising service times or product availability can lead to customer frustration or, even worse, a loss of trust in your business. Unsatisfied customers may leave bad reviews, costing you valuable time dealing with annoyed customers.

Rushing jobs to fit more work into your day can result in costly mistakes, including if you need to return to finish the job. Fixing errors will inevitably take time that could have been spent elsewhere on more profitable work.

Solution:

Customer satisfaction will increase when you communicate with clients and ensure your team meets deadlines. Be open and realistic about your capacity and commitments. Of course, you want to provide the quickest turnaround times. But if you feel stretched thin, be upfront with the client. 

Another good option is to ask customers when they’re looking for the job to be done. You’ll be surprised how many will say a time further in the future than you were thinking, this can give you the breathing space you need to get a job onto the schedule. 

3. Not listening to customers.

As tempting as it is to take on as much work as possible, you need to be realistic. If you rush the sales process, you’ll compromise the overall customer service experience. You may hastily manage phone calls and provide terrible service – something your customers will notice.

Instead of getting more clients, poor customer service can:

  • Frustrate customers,
  • Lead to people ignoring your calls
  • Reduce opportunities to upsell more services. 

Some customers may even leave bad reviews.

Solution: 

The key to avoiding this sales mistake is to prioritize listening. By listening to what customers and leads are saying, you’ll discover more about their immediate and underlying needs. Focus on always delivering five-star customer service, especially during difficult situations.

Active listening can help you determine a customer’s desired timeline for work completion. After all, only some jobs are as urgent as you think. When you learn that a customer’s not in a rush, you have more time to fit them into your schedule accordingly.

Listening well can also help you find out if a client has sought your services before. If they’re an existing customer, they likely already have a level of service they expect to receive. You may also be able to identify whether they will be responsive to an upsell on-site.

By taking the time to truly listen to your customers, you receive an invaluable opportunity to grow your HVAC business. 

Conclusion: Maximize summer demand by avoiding HVAC sales mistakes.

The summer season presents a prime opportunity for HVAC businesses to thrive, with increased demand for cooling solutions. But to capitalize on this potential, businesses need to efficiently manage their operations and avoid common pitfalls by:

  • Responding promptly to inquiries,
  • Setting realistic commitments to prevent disappointment and unmet expectations, and
  • Listening attentively to gauge explicit and implied customer needs.

AnswerForce can help you avoid the three costly sales mistakes discussed above. Learn more about how our 24/7 answering for service professionals can grow your HVAC business this summer!