Shamrock Industries

In HVAC when we DO HAVE business volume... we do just fine. It’s those SLOW POCKETS OF DEAD TIME that pull down our total profits!
Are your company profits finally in line – only to suffer poor business volume? Are your closing rates finally decent – only to get stalled by too few sales opportunities?

You are not alone!

If scant HVAC business volume is a concern of yours, you are not alone! There are probably more than a few answers to this dilemma. But hang on.... Here is a GREAT one!

More and more we are seeing how Mega-Retailers are carving out their own piece of the HVAC pie. Even worse is the fact that many of our old favorite HVAC brands (hopefully now, our EX-Brands) have joined forces directly with these Mega-Retailers. Many now are calling this major shift within our industry, the “Silent HVAC Epidemic.” Silent, because other virtually no one is taking a position to even try to oppose such runaway Mega-Marketers bulldozing their ways into our playing field! And to make things tougher, everybody seems to be in the “Direct Mail Marketing” game! Competitors that in years past merely put out seasonal coupons, now are producing or copying fairly effective marketing campaigns!

What Can You Do To Get Back A Bigger Piece Of The Pie?

Well, consider this – Maybe you can’t! Maybe you won’t! And most of all – Maybe You SHOULDN’T!!

More Pie! More Pie! Are we even eating the pie we already have? We clamor for more marketing so we can get more customers! More! More! Well, just STOP!

STOP and think. Is it more customers we need to service? Or is it that we need to service the customers we already have much more effectively? Haven’t we all pretty much already learned that lesson anyway? Haven’t we already learned that there is far better profit in serving fewer numbers of clients to higher levels of satisfaction than to just ‘hit’ lots of service calls in a day?

So why are we asking questions that we already have answers to? I have a thought on this, so please bare with me. What if it is our human nature to want things NEW? We want NEW answers! We want NEW ways! And we want NEW marketing to get NEW customers! If that is our nature, then we have to decide who is in charge …‘our own will’, or ‘our nature’? Can’t we as individual HVAC company owners and managers amass the personal discipline to go beyond first inclinations and impulses and rise to our feet and TAKE CHARGE?

OK, here is what I’m getting at. I’m Tom O’Connor, and I’m the inventor of “The Inspector” infrared video inspection camera. I’ve put on training for hundreds of companies. Training in the form of “Dream Team” group training sessions, and video training tapes. I’ve seen many companies take that training and really have things in their business take off!

I’ve seen these companies and their technicians take to heart the concept of using the Inspector camera on every single call and by every single technician. These companies use the training tapes to review with their technicians how to generate replacement sales leads (Training Video: Scoring A Triple Win with the Inspector) while doing safety inspections on client’s home heating and cooling systems. Technicians now have the great advantage of learning how to incorporate the Inspector camera right into their electrical and mechanical troubleshooting (The Inspector DREAM TEAM Technical Training Video). Now here is the payoff question! The challenge of this article is this single question!

Are YOUR technicians currently using the Inspector camera every time they are in a client’s home? Every technician on every call?

If and when the day comes that you can truthfully answer that question with an “absolutely”, I promise you that your days of “Oh We Need More Leads! – We Need More Marketing” will be gone! OK, well not completely gone. You’ll still need your marketing to get your technicians into homes. But the point is this…In my company we’ve cut our marketing for equipment sales down by 74%! We’ve trained to become and have become the “Service and Maintenance Technician Gurus” in our county! I don’t mean to sound too “hokey” with my words, but we service the DAYLIGHTS out of our customers!

When our technicians complete their jobs, we have an extremely good client! We most likely have them happily involved in our company’s maintenance plan as well. And they certainly have personally spent time doing a safety inspection of their equipment right along with their FST (Family’s Safety Technician) and have a real appreciation of the importance of ongoing furnace and air conditioner safety awareness! We leave NO MONEY ON THE TABLE, and we do it ethically! And that’s not just lip service. I really mean…WE DO IT ETHICALLY!

Let me give you our company stats, and offer you several GREAT options for you to STAND UP, GRAB THE REINS OF YOUR COMPANY and truly position your entire company to absolutely TAKE OFF with business volume and profitability this FALL, and mostly from the customer base you already have!

Article 2

NEVER make false claims
A technician should never violate his professional ethics by making false or exaggerated claims concerning the condition of a furnace or heat exchanger. On the other hand it is important to remind the customer that it's dangerous to wait too long before replacing a furnace that is unsafe. The most important thing for a responsible technician to remember is this:

Bring all the facts about the condition of the heating system to the customer's attention and then let them choose from the available options.

When this practice is followed, we call it a Triple Win because customers, technicians and companies all can benefit.

1st the Customer wins
The Inspector and the water spray test enables the customer to see the real condition of their heating system. When customers can see dangerous cracks in their heat exchanger they realize they are compromising their comfort and safety by not having their furnace replaced immediately. Even if they only see evidence of minor rust and corrosion they realize the importance of regular safety inspections to make certain they are not jeopardizing their family’s safety.

2nd the Technician wins
The Inspector and the water spray test also enable technicians to win because it dramatically increases the ability of the technician to do what's best for his customer, while increasing his own earnings as well.

3rd the HVAC Company wins
The Inspector and water spray test also represent an important win for repair companies because when used properly as part of the customer service process, safety inspections can result in more satisfied customers, more service and sales opportunities and more top line revenue without additional marketing or advertising costs.

Article 3

Is it possible that the answer to all of your business woes is right under your nose?
Many HVAC contractors in today's very competitive business environment end up scrambling for new business. In some cases, paying far too much of their hard earned dollars in marketing for new customers when in reality – the answer to their business woes is right under their nose.

HVAC contractors must learn to develop the business they have before they go in search of more business. The answer lies within each of our company's existing customer base. What I'm speaking of is a comprehensive safety examination of your customer's furnace heat exchanger. This safety inspection is probably the most important function your technician will ever perform for your customer and for your HVAC company. Amazingly, some technicians breeze right on past this inspection by shining a flashlight up into the opening of the burner chamber and then proclaim to the unsuspecting home owner that their furnace is just fine for operation.

Now a new process involving The Inspector and water spray test is revolutionizing the way heating industry technicians are serving their customers and building their business.

Thanks to The Inspector infrared heat exchanger camera, which is based on technology developed for U.S. Forces during the Gulf War, it is now possible to see deep inside heat exchangers to search for and verify the presence of cracks, holes, or even rust and corrosion.

When The Inspector is used in conjunction with the water spray test even hair line cracks can be captured on video tape. This gives customers and their family members visual proof that they should take immediate action to prevent the possibility of deadly carbon monoxide poisoning. But not all companies that perform safety inspections using The Inspector and water spray test are fully realizing all the advantages of this amazing new system. Some are utilizing The Inspector or water spray test as helpful diagnostic aids but not as powerful lead generators or business development tools.

Herein lies the problem. Many companies are loosing vast amounts of business because their technicians are not trained to seize and develop the opportunities at hand. You don't need more business, you need to fully develop the business opportunities you have with the customer at hand before you hurry off to the next customer.

Look at this example: your doctor talks to you in order to gather information and then he does some preliminary tests before he offers a treatment or even a health maintenance plan. When in front of a customer, we would do well to take this lesson from doctors and find out the whole story as far as what condition the furnace is truly in before we offer a professional opinion. It might be helpful for HVAC company owners to consider this question: Who will be coming in after your technician to make sure he is right about the condition of a furnace? The answer is...Nobody. So your tech better make sure he is accurate in his assessment of the safety factor of anyone's furnace.

Shamrock Industries, Inc. has a new training video that will show you how to use The Inspector and water spray test more productively and more profitably. (Details on page 6 & 7). However you do it, you need to develop a relationship with your customers in order for them to trust you. There simply isn't a better way to develop this relationship of trust than to be diligent in your professional assessment of your customer's safety by doing a complete safety check-out of their furnace every time you are in their home.