Consumer education??

[bayoubaby456]

I am the owner of a small hvac company in North Texas. I have an HOA who has opened there meeting for me to come educate their home owners on their hvac systems and why they should use my services …

Now I am looking for ideas to put together an agenda and power point show for the meeting in a few weeks. Can any of you offer any ideas of topics that I should cover???

Thanks

[energy_rater_La]

do you do anything that sets you apart from other companies?
load calcs, duct testing, blower door testing all come to mind.

what can you offer that other hvac companies don't?
do you do a better than average install of ductwork/returns?

show them something that you offer that they can easily see
wasn't done on their installs.

as I do these presentations on efficiency I always have some
wall of shame & wall of pride pics.
mastic seal vs failing duct tape 'seal' air tight returns vs leaky retuns...
ductwork badly installed, not mastic sealed then the after pictures
of the work done correctly.
strapped ductwork is easy to see in attic vs ducts just lying in big curves
on attic floors.
as flex on top of insulation condensates where it touches the insulation..
proper strapping of ducts not only promotes air flow, but also stops
condnesation.
somwhere I had pics of a house where the ducts had sweated thru insulation
and sheetrock ceilings. you could see everywhere ducts were run from looking
at ceilings in the rooms below.
as this is a common problem in both our climates I'd look for things that
a homeowner can easily see have or have not been done.

best of luck.

[Carbon]

Anything that can save them energy.

[air1]

How about unethical business practices of some companies. I think educating the customer about how to avoid companies that use high pressure sales,bait and swap tactics, and commissioned service techs would be good.

[timebuilder]

How about providing real numbers that contrast the cost of a brand new high efficiency system with the value of repairs of an existing system, and then compare the amount of money that would actually be saved by spending all that up front money on a new system.

You can present the facts about the real number of dollars that would actually be saved over the life of that brand new system, and then present real scenarios where a new system should be installed, and how frequently that really isn't necessary. Also, explain government mandates for efficiency, and how regulators are forcing consumers to spend more money than they normally would have had to spend, including the sky rocketing cost of refrigerants.

You can quickly distinguish yourself as a person is not going to be bending them over.

[Carbon]

Bashing a competitor can backfire. Had a huge chain come to see me about taking over the service for a bunch of stores. They did their homework and knew who we were. During their interviewing process they visited several of my competitors. One asked who else they were speaking to and they told him. He started bashing everyone on their list. When they gave me the contract they told me what happened and said as soon as the guy started bashing everyone he was taken off the list of possible vendors.

[air1]

How about providing real numbers that contrast the cost of a brand new high efficiency system with the value of repairs of an existing system, and then compare the amount of money that would actually be saved by spending all that up front money on a new system.

You can present the facts about the real number of dollars that would actually be saved over the life of that brand new system, and then present real scenarios where a new system should be installed, and how frequently that really isn't necessary. Also, explain government mandates for efficiency, and how regulators are forcing consumers to spend more money than they normally would have had to spend, including the sky rocketing cost of refrigerants.

You can quickly distinguish yourself as a person is not going to be bending them over.

Good advice!

[air1]

Make sure to emphasize how important proper airflow is. Many believe that brand of equipment is important but in fact the brand is the least important part of a HAVC system. The duct work is the most important part.

[bayoubaby456]

Thanks for the input!! I do have some before and after pics we will use those for sure

[bayoubaby456]

Anything that can save them energy.

speaking with an electric company co-op now to help us bring more of the this into the discussion
Thanks!

[bayoubaby456]

How about providing real numbers that contrast the cost of a brand new high efficiency system with the value of repairs of an existing system, and then compare the amount of money that would actually be saved by spending all that up front money on a new system.

.

I think I have a worksheet to help so the contrast of repair vs replace. I will fit that into the slide show
Thanks!

[bayoubaby456]

Bashing a competitor can backfire. Had a huge chain come to see me about taking over the service for a bunch of stores. They did their homework and knew who we were. During their interviewing process they visited several of my competitors. One asked who else they were speaking to and they told him. He started bashing everyone on their list. When they gave me the contract they told me what happened and said as soon as the guy started bashing everyone he was taken off the list of possible vendors.

Yep never bash a competitor even if asked I stick to my "I cant speak for another company I can only tell you how we do things..."
Great Point