Guides
More referrals for an HVAC contractor business: what actually works
HVAC contractor referrals traced to the six moments that actually produce them, with an audit of each moment and the rules on what you may offer.
What to take away
- Referrals are produced by specific moments in a job, not by a general impression. Audit the moments and the rate moves.
- Six moments below. Four of them happen before the work is finished.
- The strongest referral in this trade comes from a customer who was told something inconvenient and honest.
- Anything you offer in exchange for a review or a recommendation is regulated. Check the rules before designing a program.
- Referrals from other trades and property managers are steadier than homeowner referrals and almost nobody asks for them.
Why moments rather than programs
Most referral advice starts with an incentive scheme. That is the wrong end of the problem, because a customer who was not going to recommend you will not do it for a discount, and one who was does not need paying.
What actually changes the rate is whether the job produced a story worth repeating. Stories come from specific moments, and there are six of them in an HVAC job.
Moment one: the phone is answered
A referral often starts before anyone visits. Somebody was recommended, called, and got through.
Audit the answered call
- How many calls go unanswered weekly
- When do calls go unanswered
- Who answers outside normal hours
- What the answerer actually says
A missed call is not a lost job, it is a lost recommendation as well, because the person who gave your name hears about it.
Moment two: the arrival
Being on time is not the point. Being predictable is.
Audit the arrival
- Customer knows an arrival window
- Customer told when window changes
- Technician arrives with needed stock
- Site protected before carrying in
Audit: does the customer know a window, and are they told when it changes? Does the technician arrive with what the job needs, per the stocking described in the equipment and setup guide? Is the site protected before anything is carried in?
Customers describe these details to their friends with surprising accuracy, and they describe the absence of them with more.
Moment three: the honest inconvenient sentence
This is the highest value moment in the job and it is entirely free.
The free highest value moment
Free: the honest inconvenient sentence
Tell the customer something that costs you money
Customers repeat it when a neighbor asks
It is the sentence where you tell the customer something that costs you money. The repair is not worth doing on this equipment. The duct system limits what any new unit will deliver. This will last another season and there is no need to replace it now.
Customers cannot judge your workmanship. They can judge whether you told them something against your own interest, and that is what they repeat when a neighbor asks.
A customer cannot judge your workmanship. They can judge whether you told them something that cost you money, and that is the sentence they repeat when a neighbor asks who to call.
Moment four: the handover
The end of the job is when the customer forms the version of events they will retell.
Audit the handover
- Readings explained in plain language
- Something left in writing
- What you deliberately did not do
- Filter guidance and who to call
Audit: were the readings explained, in plain language? Did they get something in writing, including what you deliberately did not do? Do they know what to do about filters and who to call? Where this sits among the other kinds of demand a firm receives is described in the marketing and growth guide.
A handover that takes five extra minutes converts a completed job into an explainable one, and only explainable jobs get referred.
Moment five: the follow-up
A short call or message a week later, asking whether everything is behaving as expected.
It catches small problems while they are cheap, and it puts you back in the customer's mind at a moment when they are not annoyed. Keep it factual and separate from any review request, because those two conversations have different rules and different purposes.
Moment six: making it easy to hand you over
A person who wants to recommend you needs something to send. A name, a number, and a sentence about what you do.
Make handing you over easy
- A name to send
- A number to send
- A sentence about what you do
- Forwardable without effort
- Public profile matches what you told them
Audit whether a customer can forward that without effort and whether what they find when they look you up matches what you told them. The local SEO checklist for HVAC contractors covers business information consistency, and your public profile is where a referred customer verifies you before calling.
The Google Business Profile help documentation describes keeping that profile accurate.
What you may and may not offer
Review solicitation and incentives are regulated, and the standards are set out in the FTC guidance on soliciting and paying for online reviews.
What you may and may not offer
Allowed
- Asking
- Ask every customer the same way
- Incentives
- Offer nothing for a review
- Writing
- Let customers write their own
- Filtering
- Do not filter who is asked
- Payment
- Check disclosure before designing
Not allowed
- Asking
- Ask only the happy ones
- Incentives
- Pay or reward positive reviews
- Writing
- Write or commission reviews
- Filtering
- Filter out unhappy customers
- Payment
- Pay for recommendations without disclosure
Practically: ask every customer the same way rather than only the happy ones, offer nothing in exchange for a positive review, never write or commission reviews, and do not filter who is asked. Where an arrangement involves any payment or benefit for a recommendation, disclosure obligations can apply, so check before you design a scheme rather than after.
The safest referral program is not a program. It is a consistent request, made to everyone, after a job that went well.
| Moment | The audit question | Cost to fix |
|---|---|---|
| The answered call | How many go unanswered, and when | Coverage during peak evenings |
| The arrival | Does the customer know a window | Nothing, it is a habit |
| The honest sentence | Do technicians ever say the inconvenient thing | Nothing, and it may cost a sale |
| The handover | Was anything left in writing | Five minutes per job |
| The follow-up | Does anyone call a week later | Minutes per job |
| Being handed over | Is there something to forward | One page, written once |
The referral sources nobody asks
Homeowners are the obvious source and the least reliable, because they need a system to fail before they can help you.
Four steadier ones. Property managers and landlords, who have repeated need. Real estate professionals, whose transactions generate urgent questions. Other trades, particularly electricians, plumbers and builders, who see your work and get asked for names. And supplier counter staff, who know who is competent.
None of these responds to a campaign. They respond to seeing a job done properly, and to being able to reach you afterward. What you are able to offer them depends on capacity, which is a hiring question worked through in the hiring and training guide.
Measuring the rate
Ask every new customer where they came from, at booking, and record it in the same field every time.
Then watch one number: the share of new customers who came from an existing one. A falling share is a service signal long before it is a revenue signal, and it is more useful than any survey.
Where referrals fit alongside the other kinds of demand a firm receives is covered in how to win more HVAC contractor customers.
Common questions
Should I pay customers for referrals?
Be careful. Disclosure obligations can apply, and a paid recommendation is worth less than an unpaid one precisely because it was paid for. A thank you after the fact avoids most of the problem.
When is the best time to ask?
After the handover, when the customer has seen the work and the document. Not during a fault, and not attached to an invoice.
What if a customer refers work we cannot do?
Refer it onward with a name, and tell the person who sent it. Referrals returned to their source come back, and being trusted to say no is part of why people recommend you.
How long before referrals become significant?
Longer than most firms expect, because it depends on your customer base growing. The moments above cost nothing to run in the meantime, which is the argument for starting them on the first job.
