HVAC Estimating: Helping Customers Understand Value

Your customers are not HVAC experts. They may have trouble comparing proposals and understanding why they should pay more for one company’s services vs. another. Especially if you provide high quality and/or specialized services that may cost more than some competitors, you need to factor that obstacle into your HVAC estimating and sales process.

In this article, we’ll explain how you can help customers to understand the value they get from the work you do and why it’s worth the cost. 

Factors that impact HVAC estimating & the value of your work 

For any type of project, there are several factors that work with and against each other to determine the value of the work and the outcome for your customer: TIME, SCOPE, QUALITY and COST. 

Each of these factors impacts the other, and together they determine how well your work solves your customer’s problems and meets their expectations.

TIME (response, labor, completion)

TIME includes how fast you can respond to your customers’ needs, how much labor time is needed to complete the job, and how quickly you can complete the work. 

The TIME you factor into an estimate affects how much work you can complete (SCOPE), the QUALITY of the work, and ultimately, its COST. 

SCOPE of work

SCOPE is about the tasks that need to be done for a successful outcome. The more tasks (or more complex tasks) included in a proposal, the TIME and COST must increase. 

Also, if the SCOPE is too much for the TIME allotted, the QUALITY of the work will suffer. For example, an installation may be rushed and cutting corners can lead to performance problems later. Or, diagnostic work may be rushed and the underlying problem overlooked, leading to a recurring problem requiring a repeat visit.

QUALITY of work

This is one of the most difficult things to explain to a customer. Sometimes showing photos of poor quality work can help the customer to see the difference. For example, show them what properly cleaned coils look like vs. a condensing unit using that has merely been hosed off. 

Of course, QUALITY work definitely tends to add more TIME and add COST to the project. 

COST of project

It’s no surprise that customers often go straight to the bottom line when comparing proposals: the COST. So even before you deliver your estimate, explain to the customer that if a competitor’s cost is lower, they can expect one or more of the following:

• The provider will spend less time working on equipment.
• The provider will use less experienced technicians, potentially reducing the quality of the work.
• The provider will leave out tasks that can impact the quality and reliability of the work
• The provider will use less expensive and lower quality parts that might not last.

Also, encourage your customer to think about more than the price of the work when comparing COST estimates. Because the true cost of a job, especially for commercial projects, can be much higher. Restaurants and retail stores can lose revenue, and offices experience declines in worker productivity, while they wait for a new AC system in the hottest part of the summer. That’s how TIME can impact COST.

Also, customers need to look at the details of the proposal to compare the SCOPE of the work. 

When you explain this concept to your customers, it becomes easier for them to understand that their project COST may be higher when they get a larger SCOPE, better QUALITY and a faster TIME for completed work. 

HVAC estimating based on your customer’s priorities

Using the factors explained above can improve your HVAC estimating by allowing you to offer choices to your customers. By prioritizing what matters most to your customer, you can balance TIME, SCOPE, QUALITY, and COST to create an estimate that truly meets your customer’s needs.

Prioritizing TIME: When what your customer cares about most is response time and getting the job done as quickly as possible, you can charge more for priority service, top equipment brands, and your most experienced technicians. 

Prioritizing COST: Sometimes price is the top priority, and the customer may need to wait longer for service and possibly reduce the scope of the work to meet their budget. In your estimate, you can make certain tasks optional (for example, coil cleaning may not be needed on every maintenance visit) to give the customer an option that reduces cost.

Prioritizing QUALITY and SCOPE: When it comes to HVAC, quality work equates with reliability. Customers want to be sure that they are getting the top experts and that their problem will be solved right the first time. Some are willing to pay more for the peace of mind they get from working with your most experienced technicians. They might also need to wait longer to get the technician they know and trust, and that may be worth it for them.

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