If you‘re an entrepreneur in the HVAC or plumbing industry, you know the passing of each season. When they come, you‘re overwhelmed with calls about air conditioners and heating units. In between, the phone seems to go silent in comparison, allowing you to focus on other aspects of your business. The slow seasons don‘t need to be slow in terms of income however. Increasingly, contractors are finding the solution in ringless voicemail for sales.
Ringless voicemail enables you to deliver a pre-recorded message directly into a caller’s voicemail without even ringing the phone. No phone call, no embarrassment, no way for them to hang up mid-sentence. Instead, your former clients, prospects, and leads receive a courteous, professional message regarding your services whenever it’s most convenient for them. HVAC and plumbing professionals know that this soft sell gives a long lifetime of value for the off-season.
Why Slow Seasons Hit HVAC & Plumbing Businesses So Hard
While not like retail or restaurants, home service firms are high demand businesses. One cold snap or heat wave and they are busy, but then no one needs services and the technician‘s schedules go empty.
The problem isn‘t that homeowners aren‘t potential customers. It‘s that they‘re not being reminded. The truth is most people really do want to set up that yearly air conditioning service tune-up or drain cleaning, but they forget. That‘s the gap ringless voicemail campaigns are meant to fill.
How Ringless Voicemail Works for Home Service Companies
No phone calls (instead of calling with no guarantee of a pickup): Ringless voicemails text their messages directly to your home’s virtual inbox. When a message arrives, you get a missed call notification and can check your message whenever it is convenient for you.
For HVAC and plumbing companies, this opens up several practical use cases:
- Seasonal tune-up reminders can trigger past customers to book springtime air conditioning maintenance, or fall heating system surveys, ahead of the rush.
- Slow-season promotions Promote special pricing on maintenance plans, financing programs, or bundled packages during these times of lower demand.
- Re-engagement campaigns Customers who have not booked service in over a year will be targeted with a lighthearted, friendly inquiry.
- Emergency preparedness messages Motivate residents to have their systems checked prior to severe weather events, encouraging proactive scheduling instead of reactive emergencies.
- Review and referral requests Offer a free Google review for happy clients, or a refer-a-friend mailer.
Since the message is not going to disrupt the recipient‘s day, response rates are generally much higher than a traditional cold call and the campaign is nowhere near as intrusive as another typical sales call in the middle of dinner.
Building a Campaign That Actually Converts
A good ringless voice mailing campaign for your HVAC or plumbing business hinges on a handful of key ingredients.
1. Break your list into different groups- You shouldn‘t be sending the same message to everyone. Divide your past customers into categories by type of service performed, date of last appointment, type of property (residential vs. commercial). If you installed a furnace for a homeowner last winter, you should be speaking to him or her differently than someone who just called for an estimate.
2. Short and human- The most effective voicemail drops are those that actually seem to be from a real person, say a technician or office manager and not some sort of pre-recorded commercial. Keep it 20-30 seconds long, mention the name of the potential patient if you can, the offer you are calling about, and a clear call-to-action (call back or schedule online, etc.).
3. Use seasons to your advantage- Get homeowners feeling guilty a few weeks in advance of the busy season by providing tune-up notices during the mid- to late part of the year instead of right before the season begins. This will ensure that they get appointments early enough in their busy schedule, and your slow time becomes full of appointments that normally sit vacant until an emergency causes you to visit.
4. Make a clear call to action- This could be “press 1 to connect” or “call the number back to book your appointment.” Just make the next step obvious. Confusing your prospects kill conversions.
5. Track your results – Know your callback, booked appointments and sales per campaign so you can fine-tune your messaging and targeting over time.
Why It Works Better Than Traditional Cold Calling
Outbound calling to homeowners for home services is extremely costly and ineffective. Service technicians and office staff only have a finite number of hours to spend dialing, and the vast majority of calls are answered by an answering machine. Ringless voicemail eliminates the cost of waiting on the phone in the first place, and delivers the message directly to the customer, freeing your team to focus on work that is already scheduled.
It also acknowledges the value of the customer‘s time. You don‘t want a customer to get a sales call in the middle of their workday about duct cleaning. A pre-recorded message that they can hear at their convenience is much less aggressive and will usually earn a lot more long-term goodwill for your business.
Getting Started
If you want to overcome the seasonal swings in revenue then the fastest way would be to select dependable ringless voicemail software that can work with your current customer database and enables you to schedule, categorize and monitor campaigns without a time consuming learning process.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is ringless voicemail legal for HVAC and plumbing contractors?
Yes, as long as it is used properly. Messages should be delivered only to those customers who have given permission to be contacted, or to a customer with an existing business relationship with your company, and all telemarketing rules should be followed.
What makes ringless voicemail unique from a normal sales call?
It delivers messages directly to the customer’s voicemail box without ringing their phone, so they are not constantly interrupted during their day. Customers then get to listen to it at their leisure, which is usually a lot less invasive of their time.
How frequently should I be running these campaigns?
Many of our HVAC and plumbing clients have seen the most success by running a campaign for a few weeks ahead of the change of each season, as well as for some re-engagement campaigns during quieter periods.
Can I customize the voicemail messages?
Yes. Many systems enable you to add the customer‘s name, last service date, or special offer, so the message sounds more personal and less like a herd of texts.
