Bring up millennials to an older HVAC contractor and there might be a few eye rolls and certainly some opinions given. And that is fine. Complaining about how the younger generation goes about things is a time-honored tradition in this country.
However, what if I was to let you know that millennials were going to be the key to growing your residential HVAC business? And I am not talking about as employees — I’m talking as customers.
For HVAC contractors, we have a favorable demographic shift happening rather quickly. First off, more millennials are buying houses. In fact, 2022 was the first year that more millennials owned instead of rented. Over the past five years, about 7 million people in this generation have joined the ranks of the homeowners. That brings the total up to about 18 million, and it is only increasing.
According to a recent industry white paper by William Blair Equity Research:
“Millennials now represent what is the largest generation in U.S. history, comprising more than 72 million Americans born between 1981 and 1996. In addition, this age cohort continues to take share from baby boomers in terms of aggregate expenditures and is expected to remain the largest age cohort in the United States over the next several decades. Accordingly, we believe that millennials are a critical customer base to engage with, especially as these individuals continue to form households, establish families, and consume more residential services.”
So this generation is certainly going to be making more homeowner decisions — like when to repair or replace their HVAC system.
But wait… there’s more! When it comes to home projects, this generation is the opposite of the DIYers. And DIYers have been taking a fair amount of money out of the contractor’s pocket.
In fact, millennials have been labeled DIFM, which stands for Do It For Me. I must be ahead of my time because that has been my philosophy for years.
This is where the HVAC contractor comes in. You have a large block of people looking to purchase homes, and they want to contract out all the items the older generation would do themselves. They do this because they value their free time, and let’s be honest … a lot of them simply do not know how to get the job done.
What does this mean for the HVAC contractor? You should be thinking of helping these folks with the changing of filters, installing of a new thermostat, and other such low-hanging-fruit items. The William Blair research showed that 88% of millennials surveyed would likely seek out professional help for their renovation needs. That is a high percentage.
One more piece of good news from the research is that millennials are more inclined than previous generations to consume recurring residential services for convenience. For HVAC contractors, that means selling service agreements to these individuals.
So there is the opportunity presenting itself to the HVAC contractor. The next logical question is how you make sure those folks become your customers instead of working with your competitor.
Make sure your marketing plan is targeting these individuals. You need to be authentic with this group of people. Old-school ads will not resonate with them.
HVAC contractors need to be creating authentic content that will help millennials while also introducing them to your company. Thought leadership items and native advertising are tools that can be used to accomplish this goal. Be an “advisor” to this younger generation. Considering how much they share on social media, there is a good chance they will do some of the marketing for you by sharing the content.
Oh, and make sure you are entertaining and can be found on social media. In other words, this next generation is going to make you get out of your comfort zone. That’s just part of the deal. You have had to change some of your management style and rules to bring them into your business as employees, and now you need to do it to bring them in as customers.
Be prepared, make the correct changes, and start counting the cash.
