HVAC On Hold Messages: Case Study
HVAC On Hold Messages Case Study: Central Cooling & Heating Corp
Central Cooling & Heating is a family owned and operated company that has been serving their community since 1970. They pride themselves on customer service and a commitment to fairness, honesty, and ultimate customer satisfaction. They simply desire to be the very best heating & air conditioning contractor possible.
The Challenge:
They wanted to focus on inbound marketing opportunities to effectively support their other marketing efforts in order to gain new customers, increase sales and brand awareness as well as retain current customers.
Prior to using Original On Hold Inc., Central Cooling & Heating relied heavily on traditional marketing tactics such as cold calling, postcards/direct mail, billboard ads, door knob hangers, yellow-pages, etc. While these strategies helped to maintain steady business, the business wasn’t really growing, so they decided it was time to update the company’s marketing mentality – they didn’t want to be “old school” any more.
The Solution:
Competition is constantly on the prowl to pull business in their direction. It is the nature of the beast in a competitive marketplace. While traditional marketing approaches are necessary to keep the business afloat, we looked at the various goals of the business to develop an effective inbound strategy with professional on hold marketing messages.
Here’s How We Did It:
First, we researched numerous competitors in their local market in order to create compelling messages that would demonstrate “value” for prospective customers. Then we crafted messages to engage and educate callers on additional services that complement the core of their HVAC business.
This included:
- service maintenance agreements
- energy audits
- indoor air quality and air-duct cleaning
- efficiency products, etc
We did this to broaden their service offerings and blend the lower margin services with higher ones.
Because HVAC companies need to focus on different offerings according to the season, the on hold messaging is routinely updated with information based on the seasonal heating and cooling needs of customers and prospects such as: pre-season system tune-ups, special financing and rebate offers, and season specific products and services (radiant heating during winter, backup generators during summer, etc.)
Positive word of mouth and online reviews both are essential to winning new business for HVAC dealers, so the messaging also had a focus on being proactive to engage callers and provide favorable reviews on various sites such as Yelp, Angie’s List, Yahoo Local and others.
Now time to focus on customer retention! How? Callers were encouraged to sign-up for their monthly newsletter with valuable tips and exclusive discount offers, as well as to join them on Facebook and Twitter, as well as to check out their YouTube channel for DYI videos and basic maintenance tips. By being proactive, customers would join their social channels, and allow them to keep communicating with them long after the phone call had ended.
Brief Sample:
The Result:
Central Cooling & Heating’s CEO Dominic Antonelli says: “I wish I would have implemented the Original On Hold’s services a long time ago. It’s been one of the best investments I have ever made. This technique proved very successful and helped us increase our average price per ticket dramatically. In the end, our tracking data showed an increase in our complementary services, more equipment replacement jobs, additional new customers and more sales that we would not have gotten otherwise. Their on hold messaging service works, it’s a no brainer.”
