Mister HVAC Contractor, "Do you have a computer based scheduling system?"

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Mister HVAC Contractor, "Do you have a computer based scheduling system?"
by Thomas Persha

Seventy-five percent of all HVAC contractors that I have posed this question to have responded with a resounding no. When asked why, most have shouted back at me that "It is not worth the cost". It is easier, I guess, to take the caller information down on a small notepad and then type up a work order for the technician to use the next day. For those of you interested enough to read this article let me ask you a question and then allow me to answer it.

What is infrastructure?

Infrastructure is the basic physical and organizational structures needed for the continued operation of our towns and cities. It is the services and facilities necessary for our economy to function. Without the roads, water pipes and electrical wires that weave through our cities like a spiders web life as we know it would cease to exist. Some people think that living without these threads would be better. Most of us however do not even realize how important they are. Essentially we take these threads for granted. The better that our infrastructure is the easier it becomes to facilitate the production of goods. The easier it is to deliver services. Good roads enable the fast transport of raw materials to a factory They also allow for the finished goods that those factories make to be distributed to us. The term infrastructure refers to the buildings, installations and procedures necessary for the support, deployment, and operation of our lives.

Without a solid infrastructure there is no economy. Without a solid infrastructure in your business you have no business. A computerized scheduling system is the necessary infrastructure for a successful HVAC contractor in today's marketplace without it they can function but will soon be gone. With a good computerized scheduling system calls can be scheduled for any service technician in any open time slot by your phone operators without putting the phone down. Calls can be easily moved from one technician to another whenever conditions necessitate such a change. This should be done by simply clicking on the call to move then drag it to the new technician that will be reassigned the call.

With a good computerized scheduling system your phone operators can view the entire days activity for each of your technicians or service personnel at a glance. They can color code each call to indicate what type of call it is, for example, yellow for warranty work, green for service and purple for maintenance. With this kind of state of the art infrastructure available to your staff is becomes easier to deliver your services to your valuable and loyal customers.

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In any system that you are considering your dispatch operator should have a convenient way of entering who called, their phone number, address and whatever work has been requested. When the dispatch operator sets the type of repair the color of the dispatch cell should change to reflect the kind of work to be done. In addition to the items discussed, the dispatch operator should be able to record the description of the repair after the call was completed, the amount of the sale, check number and date and whether or not the call was completed. Your system should be set up to send and receive text messages from each of your service technicians in the field. The call message being sent to your service technician should provide at the minimum the customer's name, phone number and location. No more missed calls or excuses. When the technician arrives at the customer's location they simply reply to the call and the system will automatically record the arrival time in the dispatch record.

As checks or payments are received for each of the service calls, it should be a simple matter to update the dispatch with a record of the payments. In addition to flagging the dispatch as having been paid the enter cash receipts function should be able to make automatic postings to your integrated accounts receivable system. A fully integrated good computerized scheduling system is the best infrastructure investment that you can make for your HVAC business.

I know that many of you have a computer system and that most if not all of you have your accounting and some other functions installed; but are your sales where you would like them to be? Are your customers satisfied with your service and response times? Is your service operation profitable? Can you even answer these questions? Without tracking your calls efficiently you can not begin to answer these questions and, if you are like all the other service contractors in my area, how you respond in the field determines how much you are going to make and ultimately how profitable you will be.

Do you have a yellow pages ad? These ads can be very expensive. I know of one HVAC contractor that spends almost $5000 per month for just such an ad. Ask them a simple question. Do they know where most of your sales come from? The yellow pages, referrals from the field, existing customers, your web site? With the proper system you should be able to track and identify how you got the lead, the sale, and all functions related to customer service. This single feature alone would allow you to evaluate the effectiveness of money that you spend on advertising. It would allow you to change the way that you acquire your customers. This single benefit alone can pay for this investment in your business infrastructure.

Without a solid infrastructure there is no economy. Without a solid infrastructure in your business you have no business. A computerized scheduling system is the necessary infrastructure for a successful HVAC contractor in today's marketplace without it they can function but will soon be gone.
Thomas Persha is the president and owner of Bcc, Inc. and has been in business since 1976 selling software to a variety of users. His programs have been installed in locations nationwide with the greatest concentration in Michigan. When Tom first started Bcc there were no PC’s, no Microsoft and no computerized accounting software. No Internet, no CD’s and windows were something that you cleaned in the spring and fall.