If you think you have a hard time keeping up with technology, maybe you should ask your children for advice. That was part of the message in a speech to attendees of a special seminar at the Sheet Metal and Air Conditioning Contractors National Association (SMACNA) meeting in Las Vegas recently.
Did you ever have a business idea that was so good you felt you just had to share it with others? Fortunately for readers of The NEWS, some HVAC contractors who entered our Best Business Tips (BBT) contest were generous with their success and willing to impart some of their wisdom on others.
In this first in a series of articles about how the HVAC industry is addressing the labor shortage issue, The NEWS looks at the problem from the contractor's point of view. The first step is recruitment. Contractors discuss the best ways to attract quality people. The second step is retention - doing what they can to keep that person.
Our parents are to blame for the lack of interest in the HVAC trade. That thought was reinforced by a very good book that I just finished reading, titled boys adrift by Leonard Sax, M.D., Ph.D. I thank my friend, Mike Beaver, an HVAC contractor from South Carolina for the recommendation.
Now you see it, now you don’t. I’m talking about copper. One minute the tubing is there and the next minute it is not. Copper thieves are as common as bees on honey, as flies on… Oh well, you get my drift.
HVAC contractors who focus on attracting new customers to their business often spend a lot of time and money with unsatisfactory results - sometimes money losing results. According to Terry Nicholson, president of Success Group International, keeping existing customers happy and nurtured is time better spent.
If you choose service over replacement sales, you are only making a living. But if you choose replacement sales over service you are making a healthy profit. That’s according to Terry Nicholson, president of Success Group International and a regular columnist for The NEWS. Nicholson was talking to members of AirTime 500 at the group’s fall meeting in Orlando, Fla.
It was billed as Crain’s 2007 Cool Places to Work awards and it turned out pretty cool, too. I was handed a pair of sunglasses as I entered the theater where the award ceremony was being held. I felt cool. And so did 60 other companies who were there to pick up their awards handed out by Mary Kramer, publisher of Crain’s Detroit Business magazine.
Jeff Ford has tried a lot of different ways to market his service and replacement business. The president of Columbus/Worthington Air of Hilliard, Ohio, has used some successful strategies and some not-so-successful ones.
To understand how Smith Services, founded in 1974, has enjoyed its meteoric rise in recent years, The NEWS asked company president James Brann to explain the various marketing and advertising tools he has used to set his business apart from competitors and retain-acquire a strong customer base.