Tag Archives: advertising

I speak with plumbers all the time. The biggest question I ask is what are you doing differently to grow your business? Maybe when starting a business the most important consideration is the technical aspect of getting the job done and doing it right. That remains to be an important aspect in business, however as the business grows and matures many other aspects become equally important. Sales, Marketing, advertising, brand identity; Fleet Management, etc just to name a few. It reminds me of a restaurant I went to once. It had just opened and the food was great! The next time we decided to go there, it had closed. We never saw any local ads, coupons, etc. That just goes to prove, you can have the best {fill in the blank}, but if no one knows about it, the business will not grow. In summary having a great technical skill is just one aspect of running a business.

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Gauging what customers think of you is a fundamental business duty. The card attached is part of the back cover of our job ticket forms. It is printed on perforated postcard stock, enabling the customer to tear it out and drop it in the mail. The backside is a postage-paid self-mailer. This makes it simple for customers to respond. We generally receive between 125-150 of these replies each month, about 5% of our total customer calls. They help us monitor the job done by our telephone service employees, as well as tell us things every businessperson ought to know about his/her firm. By reading between the lines you also extract useful information about customer psychology. Here’s a summary of some of the more important things we find out:

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Summer is the time most contractors back off from marketing for new customers. The reason is the phone rings on its own when the mercury spikes north. During heat waves the need to market doesn’t go away, the focus changes. The focus is increasing the average ticket.

It’s not uncommon for the average ticket (i.e., revenue per service call) to fall during the summer. If this happens with your company, you’re leaving money on the table. Here’s how to boost your average ticket during the summer…

Leave Aheads

Most brochures are designed to be left behind. The homeowner is supposed to read and review the brochure and decide to call after the technician has left. Why? Create a series of brochures for the technician to pass out at the start of a service call. Each brochure should focus on one add-on accessory or service in an informative manner. The idea is to give the homeowner enough information to arouse curiosity.

Temporary Air

When an air conditioner is DOA and your installation crews are backed up, the use of temporary air conditioners might save the installation. Save old units from planned replacements that are still functioning or buy dry charge condensing units. Be sure to stencil “temporary air conditioning” in large bold letters on the condensing unit to keep homeowners from trying to turn temporary to permanent.

Service Agreements

A service call is an excellent opportunity to sell a service agreement. While the service agreement revenue should be credited against the maintenance, it still represents an add-on sale.

No Breakdown Guarantee

Offer customers a no breakdown guarantee through the rest of the season for an extra $50 to $100, provided you perform a full tune-up. A comprehensive tune-up will identify additional repairs for some homeowners, generating more business and will ensure that a breakdown over the remainder of the season is unlikely. While you will inevitably need to make some free repairs under this program, your costs will be a fraction of the added revenue.

Simplify Your Spiff Program

Many contractors offer technicians spiffs or incentives to sell add-ons, service agreements, and so on. Spiffs have a tendency to multiply, eventually making the program disjointed, unfocused, and confusing. Simplify it. Focus on service agreements, leads, and one or two accessories. Your spiffs will be more effective and your add-ons will increase.

Increase the Amount of Your Spiffs

In the 1980s, the average spiff for a service agreement was $10. A quarter of a century later, most contractors still pay $10. Bump your spiff to $20 or $30, increasing the price if necessary. You’ll be surprised how many sales will result.

Production Pay

When you switch to production pay (think flat rate pay), you will also see your average ticket increase. Technicians will have an incentive to perform more comprehensive diagnostic and seek the root cause of a problem, rather than treating the symptom and moving on in a scramble to complete as many calls as possible.

Production pay offers additional efficiency benefits since techs and paid to produce, not to make a parts run. They tend to be more organized. Since technicians are compensated more like entrepreneurs with production pay, they tend to start thinking and acting in an entrepreneurial manner. Both the technicians and you tend to make more money.

As first run in Contracting Business.com magazine June 15, 2011.

Matt Michel is the CEO of the Service Roundtable, HVAC’s largest contractor business alliance. Learn more at www.ServiceRoundtable.com. For a free tour of the members only site, call toll free 877.262.3341      .

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Have you been to www.Pinterest.com? If so, odds are you spent a lot of time there, compulsively looking at just-one-more page of beautiful images.   If not, ask a few people in your life about Pinterest.  You’ll get some animated responses, particularly from women, as they talk about their boards and pins and exactly how they are going to re-do the bathroom, travel through Italy or layout the garden.

What is Pinterest? It’s a virtual corkboard, upon which you can “pin” images and words.  If you like something someone else has pinned, you can re-pin it on your board.  You make friends by following other “Pinners” and they can respond to or re-pin your images and well, you start to get the idea.

What’s in it for you? I’m a big fan of visualization and have always put “vision boards” together to help me set goals and make things happen.  You,too?  Then you will love creating boards for “Vacations” or “My Dream Home” or “Family Reunion.”  So far, only 13% of Pinterest users are men.  (There is a new site called http://gentlemint.com/ for the dudes!)

On a personal level, Pinterest can be a fun, positive way to clarify your vision and intentions.  Cool, right?  From a business standpoint, Pinterest may be the next best social media community and an opportunity to connect with your customers in a powerful way.  If women are your target market, you are in the right place.  A flat out sales pitch is not a good first approach. Consider instead how to make friends and influence people.  Social media is replacing the backyard fence.  Relationships first.  Then, add some relevant, entertaining images of what you do, why and how.

What to Pin? If you do bathroom remodeling, you could pin before and after photos of your projects.  Re-pin and upload other’s images, too…and comment on cool images they put on their boards.  Ask for Pinners to share their best bathroom ideas with you…and see what emerges creatively.  Start a board that illustrates the community outreach work you do, or tips for do-it-yourselfers.  Pin pictures of clients and include their glowing testimonials.  Remember to include your website address as, according to Inc.com columnist, Marla Tabaka…

“I heard from more than 50 small businesses when I reached out for Pinterest success stories. Most of them indicated that Pinterest is among their top-10 referring sites. These entrepreneurs feel that their consumers are expressing higher levels of loyalty due to the community being built around the brand. And, many claim that traffic generated from Pinterest far exceeds traffic numbers from Facebook and Twitter combined—not bad for a newbie forum!”

What’s not to like? Here today, no-where tomorrow.  Remember myspace and prodigy?  What connects people today may be gone in a heartbeat.  Right now, it’s free to pin on Pinterest…but can ‘Pay for Pins’ be far behind?  Also, there are copyright issues brewing on all these social platforms.  Pinterest offers some good guidelines on their site, however laws are being crafted in the decidedly un-hip halls of Congress to limit sharing.  And all social media can be a colossal time waster if you don’t set some time limits.  One more thing.  You have to be invited to join Pinterest by someone who is on it.  Maybe that’s how they keep computers from “spybot” accessing the site?  Don’t know, but I am happy to send you an invite.  Leave me a message at www.facebook.com/ellenrohr

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That’s Right, 2 cents a contact! What is it? Email Marketing. The fastest, easiest, and most effective way to communicate with your customer base is also the least expensive. Creating a customized campaign is not as difficult as you may think.

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I picked up my phone, “Welcome to Bare Bones Biz…ready to make more money?” That’s our standard greeting. “Yes, I am. I called you because you may be able to help me achieve my goal.” “Why, I would be happy to help you reach your goal,” I replied. Then, we introduced ourselves and visited for a few minutes about life and weather. “OK, what’s your goal?” I asked. “To be the biggest plumbing company in the world,” he replied. “Great. Good for you. How many employees do you have now?” I asked. “It’s just me. My wife helps with the bookkeeping.” “It’s a start. Let’s set up a time to visit for a half hour. I’ll send over a brief Questionnaire. Just fill it out and fax it back and that will help me get an understanding of your business as it stands now. Please, send over your financial reports, too, and we can hit the ground running when we visit on our next call.” I do this so that I don’t get caught up in the heat of the moment. If he is committed to his goal, he’ll do this much.

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Once again Service Roundtable will be hosting our exclusive seminar, Brand U, the first day of HVAC Comfortech. The seminar will be held in the Baltimore Convention Center making it convenient for our members to attend. Keynoted by Drew Cameron of HVAC Sellutions, we've assembled a panel of contractors who have taken their companies to the next level through branding and they are ready to share their insight and wisdom with you!!

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You may remember seeing Benjamin Franklin Plumbing®, Mister Sparky, America’s On Time Electrician®, and One Hour Heating & Air Conditioning® appear on The Celebrity Apprentice recently. In their episode, the first ever featuring a service company, wily project manager Bret Michaels came up with catchy and creative jingles that won Mr. Trump’s challenge and the hearts of the company’s executives. These catchy jingles are now being used nationwide by the brands.

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Is your furnace, boiler or air conditioning on its last leg or costing too much to operate? Then let Blau come up with the solution. Our installation department can replace your present equipment with Space Age technology at down-to-earth prices. Make an appointment today with our customer service assistant who will be with you in just a moment. This is an one of one of eight messages our customers hear when they get put on hold after calling our company. Here’s another: Thank you for calling. We’re proud to be the only company in town serving over 24,000 satisfied plumbing, heating, and air conditioning customers yearly. Please hold just a moment longer.

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Serendipity: The faculty of happening upon fortunate discoveries when not in search of them. I love the moments that take me completely by surprise. When I expect one thing and find another. The other day I received a call from a woman named Cathy… “Hi Ellen, I read your article in the local business journal and I would like to invite you to our association meeting.” “Well, how thoughtful of you,” I replied. “What is the name of your group?” Proudly, Cathy answered, “The Home Based Businesses of the Ozarks.” Immediately, I pictured a room full of good ol’ boys in overalls. “Hi I’m Billy, owner of Hillbilly Billy’s Moonshine. Try a snort of this!” I collected myself and replied, “Gosh, thanks, Cathy. When do you meet?” I was stalling for time, trying to think of a gracious way to decline. “We meet the second Tuesday of every month. In fact, Ellen, we would really like you to come and speak to our group about how to make more money. Profitability is always a hot topic in our break-out discussion groups.” Now, I am all about helping people make more money. Cathy was asking me to do just that. Sigh. I agreed to go to the next meeting as a guest, and get a feel for the group. I could do my presentation the following month. “OK, Cathy, I’m in. Where do you meet?” “You know the Smitty’s grocery store at the corner of National and Republic? There is a little coffee shop in there. That’s where we meet.” Sure it is.

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