Want a few quick marketing ideas for the summer? These come straight from the HVAC Marketing Toolbox, available as a FREE app for Android or Apple.
Heat Index Magnet
The secret to real estate is location, location, location. It also applies to demand service calls and emergency replacements. The location is the refrigerator, where your name will be front and center. For a magnet to gain and maintain valuable space on the refrigerator, it has to earn the space. Instead of just another refrigerator magnet, give your customers a heat index magnet. Mail these to prospects. Distribute them at home shows. Pass them out at service club meetings. The Heat Index Magnet is the perfect magnet for paranoid parents.
Remind Customers to Check Up on Elderly Neighbors
Whenever you experience extreme weather, send your customers an email to implore them to get out and check up on any elderly friends or neighbors nearby.
You might want to include a short checklist of things a good neighbor would want to inspect for the elderly friend to make sure they're comfortable and safe.
These should be sent strictly as a Public Service Reminder. There's no call to action, but you should brand the emails.
Rent-a-Yard
Take your local presence to a new level by renting your customers’ yards. Purchase low cost, disposable, corrugated plastic yard signs. Purchased in bulk, a 2-sided color yard sign is less than $5.
At the end of a service call, instruct your technicians to inform customers, “We would like to rent your yard for a month.”
Pause for the homeowner to react – usually with a perplexed or skeptical look. Laughing, say “It’s not what you think. We would like to pay you $10 to put a small sign in your yard by the curb. All you have to do is promise to leave it up for a month before disposing it.”
Spiff the technician $5 for every sign placed. The total cost per house to place these signs is less than $20. For a company running four calls be truck, with five trucks and a 75% acceptance of your customers, that’s a potential for more than 300 yard signs placed in any given month. This is a HUGE marketing opportunity.
Employee Discount
The employees of your commercial customers are prospects for your residential service. People believe that you will treat them better if you are doing work for their employer. People also know that you can be trusted since the company they work for trusts you. It's an inherent testimonial.
Use an employee discount flyer with your commercial customers. Offer the same discount you provide to service agreement customers. This is high return marketing. All else being equal, your relationship with the prospect's employer, combined with a slight discount will result in your selection when the prospect needs your services. Aside from the offer, your only cost is printing the flyers.
Refrigerant Charging Port Tags
With the increased use of R410a refrigerant, your technicians need to be very aware when adding refrigerant to an unfamiliar system. It's easy to make the mistake of adding R22 to a R410a system or vice versa. There's no obvious way to tell them apart-until now.
Now you can tag any system you work on with a simple label that attaches to the charging port on the condensing unit or heat pump. This color-coded tag makes it simple for someone to quickly recognize what type of refrigerant the system uses. Just affix it to every system you work on with a small zip cable tie and you'll not only be attaching a useful service reminder, you'll be branding that unit with your name and contact information as well.
Of course this creates an opportunity to give the customer some unexpected added value. Make sure the technician builds up that value before 'giving away' your tags. Your customer should understand the issues that could arise if someone mistakenly adds the wrong refrigerant and how easy it is to make that mistake. Your tech can then 'waive' the fee he would normally collect for applying these exclusive Color-coded Weather-Resistant HVAC System Refrigerant Charging Port Identification Tags. Your customer will love you for it.
Use a printer to produce these tags or make them yourself with a photo and badge laminator, available at any office supply store.
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Want more simple marketing ideas? Download the FREE HVAC Marketing Toolbox for app for Android or Apple. Want pre-designed, easy-to-use templates to produce your own heat index magnets, postcard or email reminder for your customers to check on their neighbors during hot weather this summer, employee discount flyers you can leave with your commercial customers, and/or templates for refrigerant charging port tags? They are available at the Service Roundtable, along with hundreds of other templates, a free buying group for members, and the industry’s biggest and best Roundtable. You can get it all for just $50/month without a long term commitment. Check out the redesigned site or ask for a free, no obligation tour by calling toll free 877.262.3341.