How HVAC and home services companies can keep leads coming when the weather isn't extreme

Category: Leverage · By Lead Leap Marketer

A heatwave isn't a marketing plan.

It feels like one. The first scorching week of summer, the phones don't stop. The first hard freeze, you're turning work away. Then the weather settles, the schedule opens up and someone in the office asks where all the leads went.

Most HVAC and home services owners call that "the season". It isn't. It's what happens when the weather has been doing your marketing for you, and the weather takes a break.

The short answer

HVAC and home services companies keep leads coming in ordinary weather by giving customers a reason to book before anything breaks. When it's scorching or freezing, demand finds you. When it's mild, demand has to be built: from the customers you already have, the equipment you already know about and the comfort problems people live with all year. If you're wondering how to get HVAC leads in mild weather, start with the people who already trust you, not with strangers searching in a panic.

Extreme weather is a spike. Ordinary weather is where you find out whether you have a system.

Your customers are already being told to call you in the quiet months

Here's something plenty of owners have never read. ENERGY STAR, the government-backed efficiency programme run by the US Environmental Protection Agency, tells homeowners to have a contractor do annual pre-season check-ups. It says contractors get busy once summer and winter come, so it's best to check the cooling system in the spring and the heating system in the fall. It even suggests planning the check-ups around the spring and fall clock changes.

Read that from your side of the counter. The advice homeowners are given points them at you in exactly the months you call quiet. The demand is there. Most companies just never ask for it.

Replacements work the same way. ENERGY STAR's guidance on when it's time to replace heating and cooling equipment says it may be time to call a contractor if a heat pump or air conditioner is more than 10 years old, or a furnace or boiler is more than 15. Its list also includes rooms that are too hot or too cold, humidity problems, excessive dust and a noisy system. Those homes are out there right now, and you've probably been inside some of them.

And comfort doesn't take a season off. The EPA notes that Americans, on average, spend approximately 90 percent of their time indoors. The dusty living room and the upstairs that never quite cools are problems in April and October too.

Five reasons the phone goes quiet when the weather does

Your only offer is "call us when it breaks"

If every ad, every page and every van says emergency repair, you've trained customers to think of you once something has failed. Failures follow the weather. So does your diary.

Your maintenance plan is a discount, not a diary

Plenty of companies sell a plan, take the money and wait for the customer to ring. That isn't a plan. It's a coupon. A maintenance plan earns its keep when every visit is booked ahead, by you, into the weeks you want filled.

Your past customers haven't heard from you since the invoice

Every customer you've ever served is in your software somewhere. Most hear nothing until something fails. Then they search, and they call whoever shows up first. A list you never contact is a list your competitors will happily contact for you.

Nobody knows how old the equipment is

Your technicians have been in hundreds of attics, basements and back yards. Somewhere there's a record of what's installed and when. If nobody has turned that into a list of ageing systems, the replacements you could have planned arrive as emergencies instead, usually in the worst week of the year.

You've nothing to say unless it's hot or cold

Humidity, dust, uneven rooms, noise and rising energy bills are all reasons to call that have nothing to do with a heatwave. If your marketing never mentions them, your mild weeks have nothing to talk about.

This isn't only an HVAC problem. A plumber with a list of ageing water heaters or an electrician with a list of older panels is in the same spot: known customers, known equipment and a reason to talk before it fails.

Try this this week: the mild-weather demand audit

1. Find your quiet weeks. Look at last year's booked work week by week and mark the weeks that dropped off once the weather settled. That's the gap you're filling, in your own numbers.
2. Pull your past customers into one list. Name, address, what you did, what's installed, when it went in and when they last heard from you.
3. Sort it by equipment age. Flag the systems ENERGY STAR would call candidates: heat pumps and air conditioners more than 10 years old, furnaces and boilers more than 15. If the age isn't recorded, that's your first fix.
4. Pre-book the next season now. Contact plan members and past maintenance customers to book spring cooling check-ups and fall heating check-ups, on dates you choose, in the weeks you just marked.
5. Give the ageing-system list a reason to talk. Offer a no-pressure system check and an honest repair-or-replace conversation in a mild month, not the week it dies.
6. Write one comfort-led offer. Pick one problem from ENERGY STAR's list, such as humidity, dust or rooms that are too hot or too cold, and build one email, one text and one web page around it.
7. Put a date and an owner on it. Decide when each list gets contacted and who does it. Put it in the calendar for every shoulder season, not just this one.

If the list is thin or the ages are blank, you've found the real issue. You don't have a weather problem. You have a records problem.

What steady demand in ordinary weather actually needs

Keeping the schedule full when the weather is mild isn't about louder ads. It comes down to four things:

• Customers you can reach. A clean past-customer list with contact details, installed equipment and permission to get in touch.
• Maintenance booked into your quiet weeks. Visits scheduled ahead by you, not left to the customer to remember.
• Reasons to call beyond breakdowns. Comfort, air quality, efficiency and planned replacement, explained plainly and often.
• Visibility that doesn't need a crisis. Reviews, a strong Google Business Profile and useful content, so you're the obvious name when someone does start looking.

Where Lead Leap's L.E.A.P. Formula™ fits

Lead Leap's L.E.A.P. Formula™ is a done-for-you marketing and customer acquisition system with four stages: Leverage, Engage, Acquire and Profit. Demand in ordinary weather is a Leverage problem first.

• Leverage: Put Your Reputation to Work. SEO, local SEO, Google Business Profile visibility, reviews and useful content, so the reputation you earned in the busy season keeps you visible between the spikes.
• Acquire: Win the Job or the Case. CRM, email, text and lead nurture, including appropriate reactivation of past customers, so your list hears from you before something breaks.

Engage turns that interest into calls. Profit shows where enquiries came from and what they turned into, so you can see whether the quiet months are filling. Leverage is where the trust you've already built does the work the weather used to do. See how Lead Leap's L.E.A.P. Formula™ works.

It won't change the weather or promise you a full diary. Nobody honest can. What it gives you is demand you build on purpose, instead of waiting for the next heatwave.

If most of your work still comes from word of mouth, read why referrals alone can't give you growth you can plan around. If the enquiries come in but don't turn into conversations, see why good leads go cold after the first enquiry. For more on how this works for your trade, see HVAC marketing, plumbing marketing or electrical contractor marketing.

Frequently asked questions

How do I get HVAC leads in mild weather?

Start with the customers you already have. Pre-book maintenance visits into your quiet weeks, contact past customers whose equipment is getting older, and give people reasons to call beyond a breakdown, such as comfort, humidity or dust. New-customer marketing still matters, but your own list is usually the quickest place to start.

When should HVAC maintenance be booked?

Ahead of the busy seasons. ENERGY STAR advises homeowners to check the cooling system in the spring and the heating system in the fall, because contractors get busy once summer and winter come. Booking those visits in advance helps fill the months either side of your peaks.

Should I only advertise when the weather is extreme?

Not if you want steady work. Advertising only in a heatwave or a freeze means fighting everyone else for the same urgent searches. Building visibility, reviews and a customer list you can reach all year means you're not starting from zero every time the weather turns.

Does this work for plumbing and electrical companies too?

Yes, the principle is the same. Any business with past customers and installed equipment, such as water heaters or electrical panels, can keep track of what's ageing and get in touch before it fails, instead of waiting for the emergency call.