How Can You Best Market Your Furnace Services During the Warmer Months?
If you're the owner and operator of a furnace maintenance or repair business, you may find yourself dealing with more work than you can handle mid-winter but twiddling your thumbs each summer. While this type of seasonal schedule can provide you with plenty of time off for summer vacations, it can also impede your cash flow and make it harder to keep employees on the payroll year-round. What can you do to market your services during the off-season and provide you with a more robust portfolio of annual business? Read on for some tips and tricks that can help you boost your summer business.
Emphasize cost savings
As you see firsthand, failure to perform regularly scheduled furnace maintenance can result in hefty emergency repair bills when a furnace stops working mid-winter – so capitalizing on your light summer schedule and pointing out to consumers how much they'll be able to save this winter if they invest in a tune-up this summer can appeal to many cost-conscious consumers.
You'll likely be able to find hard data on the average cost of certain furnace repairs in your region (especially helpful if these averages are above the prices you charge!) that can provide your customers with some concrete evidence of the cost of deferred maintenance.
Demonstrate DIY repair and maintenance tips
You may worry that the proliferation of DIY furnace repair and maintenance websites is harming your business by encouraging consumers to perform these repairs on their own rather than call in the professionals; as such, it may not seem to make much sense to promote your own business by encouraging DIY.
However, there are a number of small repair and maintenance tasks that most homeowners find to be too minor to hire out, and will either ignore (until they develop into a more serious problem) or investigate their own DIY methods online. Holding free "how to" courses on these basic repair and maintenance tasks can boost your presence and reputation in the community while providing your customers with some actionable ways to save money on repair or maintenance jobs you weren't likely to be hired to perform anyway.
You can also get more bang for your figurative buck by offering promotions in conjunction with these DIY learning sessions. For example, offering a dollar or percentage discount on a tune-up or other service for anyone who has taken one of your DIY courses can get these customers in your door when they may otherwise have gone to someone else.
Branch out into minor A/C work
If you live in a part of the country where most homeowners get plenty of use out of their air conditioning, but you don't handle A/C repair or maintenance yourself, you could be missing a lucrative opportunity. Although you may not want to invest in all the equipment (or training) you'll need to perform manufacturer-specific A/C repair, there are a number of minor maintenance procedures and simple repairs you should be able to perform with your existing tools and knowledge. You'll also be able to rely on your current customers (including those who might otherwise call a dedicated A/C service company) to use your comp instead.
Depending upon the success of your initial foray into A/C repair, you may want to consider adding this to your permanent repertoire or expanding into warranty or certified repair work to maintain a consistent volume of work all year long. This expanded service could allow you to bring other workers on board and take you from "buying a job" as a repair contractor to owning a thriving business in the service industry.
To learn more, contact services like Shakley Mechanical Inc.