How One HVAC Contractor is Selling Smart Monitoring Over the Phone (And Why Customers Love It)

Hey, Derek, good morning. How are you, man?

Mm-hmm. It's summer down now.

Let's go. Let's get a little background. Tell me a little bit more about yourself and some of the origin story, man. How'd all this start?

Well, it was It was a dark stormy— no, I'm just kidding. I've been doing it for over 20 years. So I started in— my dad actually started as a coverage advisor here in the '90s. And he became a partner in 2000. And during that summer, I worked in install between high school and college, and then realized that— or he realized that they don't really have a good inventory. System at that period. So I spent the next couple years developing our inventory program, part numbers, pricing, and then started getting better pricing on products and actually tracking what we're spending and who we're buying it from and all that fun stuff. So that was my start. So between college, I worked here part-time and then when I graduated, I convinced my father he does need me full-time, you know, family. I don't know about everyone's family, but my family, they're a little more harder on you than everyone else. Dad was, he coached me in most, most sports all my life, and I was held to a higher standard than everyone else on the team. Here was no different. Basically had to sell him on why they needed a full-time inventory person. So I pretty much guaranteed that, you know, The savings I would get the company would pay for my salary. Uh, I'm a loss leader. I'm not going to—

that's a bold statement.

Yeah. Like, uh, I'm just going to be a leader. I'm not going to lose you money. So all that came true. Then from there, just graduated into office manager, eventually taking over residential, pulled in for a code advisor when they were out. So I've been doing it. I've done everything but service technician. I'm not very technical. So it's been a long journey, but yeah, it's been, it's been fun. And I really found my passion for it pretty early on, especially when I would be a company advisor going out to houses. I hated mowing grass as a kid, but I loved the before and after, you know, the yard looks terrible and then after it looks great. Okay. I actually, Hated doing the work, but I loved the before and after. And to me, HVAC was like that same thing because you had a customer with a problem, immediate problem, or allergy issues or asthma issues. You had solutions. So seeing that customer the day after or the week after, whatever it is, I was actually comfortable and saving money on energy or being off medication. I mean, that was, that was rewarding for me. So I found my passion pretty quick. I was like, I actually kind of like doing this. You know, even though I graduated college pre-law, international studies, doing HVAC.

Big switch.

Yeah.

Yeah. That's a, yeah, that's a different, that's a different switch. Tell me about the, tell me about that, that, that kind of mentality, uh, change in college from where you're, you joined, you know, to go do pre-law, and then what, when during that path did you realize that you, you actually had the passion for the business and that, that you wanted to pursue that?

Early on, uh, it was just to get my foot in the door, you know, get something going. I met my now wife in college. She was from Lumberton, which was about a few miles away from Pembroke, but not too far. So I realized pretty quick she's not really going to go too far away from home. Yeah. So I was like, nah, CIA, FBI, probably not in the cards. So what's plan B that I would be happy with and content doing? And you know, I started diving in this little more. I kind of liked it. I like negotiating. I like pricing. I like saving money for the company. Um, and then that kind of fit into, you know, actually helping homeowners. Uh, so I really dug in. At that point when I saw that was, that was the case. And you know, this can be a career, this can be a life. There's nothing wrong with it.

That's awesome, man. There's a, you, you like, there's so many things that you brought up that I could, I, I wanna dig into. Let's talk about the family thing first because so many of these businesses are family, you know, family oriented, right? Either passed down from generations or, um, or, or just, you know, multi-generational operated. So tell me about when that transition time came up, right? Because obviously your dad was running the business and took many years. It was harder on you, so it took years for you to prove yourself. Like, what was that dynamic like? And, and you know, how's that, how's that torch passed?

Yeah, it, it goes deeper than that. 'Cause my brother, older brother, 3 years older, is a professional engineer. So he went to NC State with a mechanical engineering degree. Got his PE after 4 years, or I think it's 4 years of experience before you can get it. So the plan was for him to always come back home to the business and run it with dad. I was the, you know, youngest wild card. So it was a different dynamic. I was kind of a, you know, no one planned for me to do this. You know, I didn't show interest in it. You know, put math in front of me and I'm definitely not mathing. Yeah, I'd much rather not do that. But, um, the proving ground for me was probably a little bit steeper, uh, because I was a, I was the unknown, you know, what, what is he doing here? Well, I mean, is he, is he serious that we're gonna do this? And then, so I just had to keep proving myself that, yeah, you can rely on me. I'm serious. I do this. So today, I mean, Dad's Semi-retired and, you know, Scott, my brother's running the commercial side of the business, which is the Simmons portion of it. I'm running residential, which is Simmons 1 Hour. We kept the Simmons name because it's been around for over 70 years. So there's no reason to change that aspect of it. But, um, we got a good dynamic. Me and my brother, I mean, we butt heads like brothers do. But, uh, we always have the same intent, uh, for the business, for the customer, for the future. We just have different paths that we are passionate about how we're gonna get there. Uh, so pretty much he does his thing. I do my thing. If we, you know, overlap, we do our thing. But there's, uh, there's not much, uh, anymore. We're in our forties now, so there's not much fighting anymore.

Right.

Yeah, I've got a brother who's 2 years older, so I understand the dynamic of the sibling rivalry, yet also being great friends, you know, like, yeah, because when, I mean, as you get older, you learn that, you know, we go head to head and battle and compete, but end of the day, I mean, when the chips are down, you know, someone's, somebody's got your back and it's not going to be anyone else, but your brother is going to be there.

So it sounds like he's the technical one. Has he, has he done the field service work? Does he dig in on the machines?

Oh yeah, 100%. I mean, um, they do a lot of big stuff on commercial as far as, uh, controls, tillers, you know, he gets his hands in. Uh, it can also, is rare cause he can actually, you know, he's a PE, so he can actually do prints and can actually, uh, you know, the problem with some PEs is You know, it's on the drawing, but there's no concept of how to actually install it, but he has that concept. So we have that, we have that, uh, rare gift of having the best of all worlds. Yeah. If I have a very technical question, if William can't help me, who is our ops manager, kind of does both sides, ask Scott, he tells me, but then I break it down into layman terms so I can understand it. Yep. He's like, well, not really, but yeah. I'm like, I'm just trying to get the average homeowner to understand, okay, we're not, we're not trying to split that in here.

So what about your dad? What, what, how did he get the start? Was he on the technician side coming into the business or was he one of the—

No, uh, actually he was in real estate. He was a realtor and he came to Ralph who owned the company back in the '90s and pitched him on being a straight commission salesperson. Person. And Ralph was like, I don't need a salesperson. And Steve's like, well, you got like 3 jobs in the book. Yeah. I think you need a salesperson, but I'll be straight commission. You don't have to pay me unless I sell. So that grew into, you know, the next 10 years of him saying, let's partner up because you're making more than I am. So let's partner this out and work it out. So that's how he got into the the business, the Simmons name, his stepfather worked in this stall back years ago. So it's always been in like in the family known, uh, this business was here. So, uh, I think that's why, you know, he came to him at that time when he was looking for something and, uh, Ralph said, let's give it a shot. And I'm glad he did. Cause here we are.

Yeah, no kidding. So tell me a little bit about your market. Operate in. I mean, I've been to North Carolina, beautiful state. Um, all I know about it is, uh, is what it looks like. Tell me about how that, how your seasons are, how the, how the business dynamic changes throughout the year and how you guys adapt to that.

Yeah. Um, well, and too, before we get too far, I do have multiple sclerosis. So if you start hearing me kind of slur a little bit, it's because of that. It's not because of, you Anything I'm thinking or drinking. Yeah. So, uh, so the market, I mean, uh, Southeastern North Carolina, it's, uh, we have probably, we, we own Fayetteville, North Carolina, all the way up to Sanford, North Carolina. And if you know anything about Fayetteville, Fort Bragg, Fort Liberty, our territory has grown immensely in the last 15 years. Of military bases and military operations and personnel. And so that's been— it's kind of, it's kind of a, it's kind of like two different markets. I mean, you got this market we're in down here in Lawrenburg, which is kind of— we know it's in his name. Sims has been around 70 years. We know about them. But then you go up to the Rayford, Fayetteville area. It's very new marketing techniques, whereas this I would classify this home base as very traditional marketing techniques, you know, word of mouth and, and, you know, taking care of your neighbor. Uh, when you get up into, into the more transient places, it's more of a, you know, can you get there fast enough? You know, I'm not, I'm not borrowing a cup of sugar from my neighbor. I don't even know who they are. They moved last week. You know what I mean?

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah.

That's interesting.

Less of that, less, you know, more transit market up in our Fayetteville place. And you know, I love it because Fayetteville, Sanford, that's a, that's a different beast than Lumberg, Lumberton, whereas, you know, somebody buys a house and they're here for, they're here. Okay. Whereas it's just in and out of that place. And yeah, it's a different dynamic, but. Keeps you on your, on your toes.

So yeah. Tell me a little bit about the marketing side then. Then how does that, how do you, how do you guys change that? Do you, I mean, you really do market differently to the different locations because they're, they react that differently to something, you know, you're doing like what, you know, billboards and little league teams or whatever in one market and then all Facebook in another, you know, how's that work?

Yeah. So here locally we'll really be on the high school football team, sponsorship, scoreboard sports. We do quite a bit of, um, with the Optimist Club, Little League sponsorships, those things play, play down here. Not saying they won't play up there. I'm just saying that it's more, there's not as much loyalty because you're in and out. It feels like up there, you know what I mean? Uh, it's more of a Facebook, radio, Google AdWords, pay-per-click kind of a deal. Than traditional down here, old school, you know, uh, you know, in my neighborhood, I got two yard signs at the exit of the neighborhood because I mean, that's just where we are. I mean, no one's, I mean, people might be moving, rarely are they moving away.

Right.

Right. You know what I mean?

Yeah.

Um, whereas the markets are, you know, up north are a little more give and take and that's changing a little bit. Some people are putting down roots and staying here now that everything's kind of stable. Cable, still it's different. It is a different animal.

So, um, I mean, just given my background and obviously Smart AC Everything, I've got a passion for technology. So you've been in the business for a while. How much have you seen technology change the business? I mean, obviously you came in inventory side looking at systems and putting that in place. Like how was the business even running? Did you have field service management back then? And what were you guys operating on?

Uh, no, we're operating on, uh, MS-DOS and the black screen and, uh, It was, it was rough. So I'll tell you a story too, because back then we had our, we didn't call them club members. What do you call them? I think we might have called them service agreements. Anyway, so I'm part-time. So the office manager, you know, hands me a stack of blank invoices and some names. She was like, we need to do renewals. So just write the name on the envelope, how much they owe. And then we'll mail it. So I did a couple of 'em. I was like, this is, this is terrible. What, what are we doing? So, I mean, even back then I graduated to, all right, let's do a Word document. Let's do a blank. Everybody's got the same price, it looks like. And let's just fold down the envelope and mail it like this. We save an invoice, at least, you know, get a little more efficient. I mean, let's speed this up a little bit. I'm not. I'm not lazy, but I'm not gonna just do extra stuff because it makes sense. So it was, it was that kind of stuff back then. But yeah, technology has changed quite a bit. I love it. One of the reasons we jumped on SmartAC after a little bit of research was always looking for that next, next step, next level, next, you know, how can we be ahead of what we're doing? We always, we've always been. Ahead of the curve in this market, which I like. I like staying ahead and changing things and not always doing things the same way. If we can do 'em better and it helps out the customer and it's less, let's do it. What do we have to do to get it done? Let's test it. All right, let's do it. Let's roll it out. Boom, boom, boom.

Yeah, it makes sense. Different, different people have different motivations. Um, you know, we get to I'm fortunate that I get to work with, you know, hundreds and hundreds of contractors, right? Just, and I love it because I love the origin stories. I love the motivations. We love, like, like you like helping people from a comfort, you know, comfort advisor standpoint. I like helping businesses and it's the same thing, but I'm always curious because like what you just said, I like, I want to be on the forefront of things. I like seeing technology and I want to figure it out and I want to be first. Like that's, we, we run into that. We also run into people are just trying to fix a problem and our pain point, right? Like they're like, all right, our memberships absolutely suck. Right. And we're just, we're not good at it. We're not selling it. Like we have, what's, you know, and so there's some people come up from that way. And then some people just, it's literally somebody told them at a conference, whatever, hey, like you should be doing this, right? Like, you know, ServiceTitan is a great example of that. Word of mouth on that is just tremendous. And it's now, it's just kind of expected that most businesses operate on it. So yeah, so it's always, I'm always curious to talk to people, but tell me about what your memberships were doing before. Were they going well? And you're just like, hey, I want to amp it up even more.

Yeah. Yeah. Our memberships have been going well for a while. This was an avenue When I first saw it, I was thinking, we always tell folks to change their filter. So we have an app now that tells them to change their filter without me telling them to change their filter. But you can also, you know, go a step further and actually have something in place that watches the performance or detects a leak and lets you know ahead of time. The customer doesn't have to have us come out, but we do have to reach out, make sure they are aware of it. Had a conversation with a lady the other day and, you know, you get under that, you know, some people think you're just trying to come out to charge me.

Yeah, that's it. You're coming out to sell.

No, I mean, this is why you got this is for these alerts. I'm not getting these. Yeah, you know, I'm good. Every alert we get, because that would be, you know, that would drive me crazy, but we don't have to come out and check it. But you're having a cooling performance problem. So just want you to be aware that you're supposed to be at like 15, you're at 7. So that's because it came to my house a lot. Okay. That's fine. Keep out. Just wanted to give you a heads up.

Yeah.

Very cool with it. We're cool with it, man. Yeah. We still wanted to communicate the problem. So, so when I saw this on the app and I was like, our memberships have been going strong for a while. I was like, this is just something, you know, now we have the Legacy Comfort Club. And now we have the Smart Comfort Club. So we have the same plan, but now we got smart added to it. So people can tape that on if they want to, have a few questions if they have a few questions, see it, whatever is the case. The first time I thought about it, I was like, look, this, just thinking about it as a homeowner, I would not buy this over the phone. I would have a technician, it would have to explain to me. Well, I was completely wrong. They're buying it over the phone. If you got, if you got the right script and the right story and you're following the points, they're buying it over the phone, which is, you know, I give the guys, the technicians we meet, uh, once a week on Monday, I give them flack. I'm like, they're, I said, imagine they're not even at the house and they're selling it and you guys are in their face and not doing as good. No, I was like, What's happening there? But it's some, some people are hungry for it. Some people, they just want to do what they want to do, and that's fine too. But, uh, to have the option and to have the ability and the technology here that's actually reliable, it can actually do what it says it's going to do, was the— it's a big thing.

What do you think it is over the phone? What? Sorry. Yeah, sorry to interrupt. What is it over the phone? That's catching people's interest? Because we hear that a lot. A lot of people sell it over the phone and different people say different things. I'm curious, in your market, what do you think resonates?

What I've heard so far, so yeah, basically two camps. Some people jump on it immediately. Yes, I want that. Yes, yes, yes. As soon as you explain to them. And some people are a little more, let me see, we'll think about it. And then the technician can close it from there. But I was surprised how many people over the phone were just like, yeah, yeah, let's do it. Yeah. Yeah. I want that. Like, okay. Uh, all right. I mean, we're prepared to do it over the phone. We got the scripting for it, but, uh, to me it was something that took me a little bit by surprise. Like I didn't think it was gonna be that smooth over the phone. I knew once in person and once they saw the thing and saw the sensors and saw the technician, I was like, okay. That's cool. But, uh, I was, I was kind of surprised over the phone.

That's, that's awesome. How'd you, when you, when you rolled this out, how'd you, how'd you set it up? Like, uh, commission-wise, how'd you structure it to motivate your phone people and your technicians? What, what sort of plans you guys set in place?

Yeah, I did it, uh, basically $5 extra.

Okay.

If you did Smart versus Legacy, we're not comfortable with Legacy, you know, say you was get You know, $15 for lazy, you're able to get $20 for smart.

Uh, awesome. I, I, I think that's great, by the way. What, why did you decide to do more for that? Just to, for the motivation side? Yeah.

Yeah. And then, and if you're doing more smarts than lazy, uh, I had to clarify for the guys, they're like, look, either one's fine with me, by the way. Yeah. We just want them off the free agent list. But if they have the app and we're on the app and they see our logo and they see it once a month over and over, that's a lot more valuable than just being, you know, who do I call? What, we got a plan with, you know, it's a little more sticky on the smart AC.

Yeah. No, no, I appreciate you saying that. We definitely agree. That's yeah. So, and I could ask you many questions on that. So when, when you first rolled it out to the technicians, were they a, were they a harder sell than the phone Comfort Advisors Commission? Was it harder to turn the techs over that, hey, this, this simple sensor set can actually tell you what's going on?

And we showed them the data. Yeah. They're in, you know, it wasn't a, I've, I've got no concept what's happening here. I'm just taking the word for it. No, we got actual. And we told Miles, these are the actual temperature readings. Here's your problem. Here's your sensor. So once they saw that, it was, it was done. There wasn't any more. I had to, you know, one of our meetings, I had to say, look, it's fine if you don't sell Smart. We just want them on something.

Yeah.

Legacy or Smart. And since then we've, it's probably been, you know, we've, we've done pretty good on conversion. It's over 70% this month. But it's a few more of the legacy, which is, it's fun. It's fun, man. I'm always of the mindset, if live to fight another day, I'm always of the mindset we're going to be back in 6 months. We're going to be back in a year. We can talk about then. We can talk about then. We can talk about, you know, versus that customer that, you know, calls in the first time you probably never ever see them again. Yeah. Yeah.

How are you, uh, who, uh, are you the one that, that digs in, uh, heavily on ServiceTitan in terms of like business performance and metrics and all that stuff? How do you guys, uh, handle that inside your organization?

Yeah. So I got, I'm on the list, but all the call takers get the alerts as well. So as soon as they get an alert, they text the customer or call them to tell them what's going on.

No, I mean like your, your top line business performance, like, like the, like your sales revenue, like all, like, are you the one that digs in on that or do you have a ServiceTitan specialist that pulls those reports for you or how, how did you get, how do you guys set all that up? Do you have like a, a success group you work with that helps set all that stuff up that you still interact with? How, how do you, how do you run that side of it?

No, I don't. No, I send our, uh, I do, I do the daily management report myself.

Okay.

She's on the 1HR side. So I'm a pulse on everything. And then with the monthly financials, uh, dig into those and then, uh, I send them to our coach over at 1HR and he'll dig into it and actually send me some more metrics on those financials compared to my DMR. So we got quite a bit of help on that side because, you know, he could throw a spreadsheet in there like in 2 seconds. I'm like, just tell me what I need to work on, man. Just tell me where I'm losing at. Let's pick it up.

Can you, can you, oh, can you imagine running your business today without that stuff? Like, what would you, would you do, you know, what would you do 15 years ago? You're doing hourly reports on where things are going and looking at things daily.

Yeah. I mean, it's, uh, I mean, I was talking to them about, uh, dispatching. I said, back in the day we had a yellow pad and we're just like, check. We got done. Next one is Louise. I'm like, what are we, what were we doing? Yeah. But now it's just, you didn't know what you didn't know. I mean, you didn't have what you didn't have. So now to have this data and have this ability, yeah, you don't want to go back to not having it. Uh, you know, the daily management report, I do it by hand from server side. Like, how do you have time for that? How do you have time to not do that? I want to look at every call. I want to read every call and make sure we're picking up on it. And then every now and then. I'll go back there to the call center dispatch. I'm like, hey, we got a follow-up for this. We got to follow up for that. Yeah, I got it right here. Right here. Right. Okay. Just make sure we're not missing the ball because it can happen. You know, 30, 35 calls a day, you know, something's going to drop.

Did we, when, when, when we helped you launch our product, did we help you set up reporting in ServiceTitan? How do you, how do you set up tracking? Like how all that's going, like Like lead opportunities, revenue conversion, sales conversions. Like how do you, how do you do all that?

As far as the SmartAC, we got the service time connection. So it goes back and forth, but the girls in the call center, they use the dashboard, uh, for all the, you know, alerts and all the unresolved things. That goes, you know, that talks back and forth. We just found, found their— to, yeah. Yeah. I get on the dashboard every day and see that home screen with the, with the how many installed. So yeah, I emailed Mary. I was like, has anyone ever installed this many this fast? She's like, no, not that I've seen. I'm like, okay, thanks.

That's awesome. That's, I'm glad. I love to hear that you're actually using the features too, cuz that's, you know, obviously that's why we built them, but that's great. Well, I appreciate that. I want to figure out how we can help. Set up a lot more reporting in ServiceTitan for you. Because I mean, I want it to be as simple as the way you're running your business today, right? Like for your entire membership program, right? Just the metrics should hit you every day of here's how many offered, here's how many sold, conversions, revenue associated with the, you know, with all that. Like that's our, that's our goal. That, so it's just like delivered back to you. You don't have to guess.

Yeah.

Um, so tell me about other technology. What, what other stuff have you, have you adopted? In the, in the recent past that, uh, that you really like that's helped your business?

Yeah, we, um, we really like the Sensi thermostat, the, the, the Wi-Fi Touchscreen 2.

Okay.

Um, that's a really sleek looking, not crazy priced thermostat for the homeowner. So they got app on their phone. I love when the day comes where they can control that thermostat from their smart AC SIMS OneAir app. That would be even sweeter. But I know it's, you know, probably coming.

Yeah, you know, you know us too well. Actually, you could help with that. We are in talks with Cincy. I'd love for you to place a call to them saying, hey, get this thing connected because we're on their roadmap, but I don't think we're a priority right now. But yeah, that is the plan. You're right, man.

Well, I mean, I, you know, obviously Michael was at the last convention and I was I was kind of like, he was not busy. I mean, he was getting people in there. I'm like, we got to get this story out somehow better. I mean, all these franchisees should be on, but should be looking at this platform. I don't know what that looks like for you guys as far as getting a bigger presence in a convention or even doing a breakout, or I don't know the backdoor to all that, but I think it's something that when enough franchisees know about it for real, they'll jump on it. You know what I mean? Yeah. Be more than happy to help tell, tell a story, tell, tell what we did, and I'll be glad to help.

Awesome. Wow. Thanks, man. I, I'd love that. That'd be great. Um, all right. Well, we're, we're definitely gonna track down Scentsy again cuz, cuz I, I, I want, I want that integration with them for sure. What, um, what, what else? There's a lot of, um, There's a lot of talk about AI tools that are out there. Have you, have you experimented any of those? Do you have anything that, that you're, you're using right now? Yeah.

I've, I've been using Jasper for a while.

Okay.

Uh, to help write some blog posts. Recently I switched to ChatGPT.

Okay.

Just because, uh, it knows me at this point and it's pretty easy.

Yeah.

So, uh, if you go to our website, simis1hour.com. You actually see Derek Cole.

I've been there. I saw it.

You can, you can ask any HVAC question and it's going to take my 927,000 words of content, everything uploaded into there and answer the question the way I would answer the question.

Wow. That's incredible.

What has surprised me is, was we really haven't promoted this little tool, but I mean, just last week we had, You know, 6 messages, you know, crazy. But it's like, all right, all right. We're picking up a little bit more. We're asking questions. You know, basically it's like having me right beside you. What would you want to know? How often to change my air filter? Ask away. Derek AI is gonna answer the way I would answer.

That's interesting. You give me a bunch of ideas too, but so we use, we use an AI tool on the, on our side, on our, uh, from our support teams, right? When a homeowner chats in, like, it starts with an AI interaction, because we've got, I don't know how many, 50,000+ unique interactions, right? And if you take that times the number of words and, you know, all that stuff, like, we've got a, like you said, huge learning database. So AI handles the first round. And then if it gets to where it can't, then we have real live people on the other side to pick that up. But I was just thinking, I I wonder if we could somehow embed Derek AI on the, uh, into your app, into the Simmons app for you and be on the other side of the app interactions. That would be, yeah, that would be cool. I'm gonna talk to my product team about that.

Yeah, that would be interesting because I tell the girls in the call center too, you know, they don't have too much HVAC experience. So I'm like, so they ask me questions every now and then and I keep drilling them. Yeah, Derek, yeah. So now they've started using it. They're like, yeah, you answer my question. I was like, yeah, that's what he does. Yeah. That's how he knows what to do.

Your own support tool for your own employees. Uh, that's, that's a cool use. I hadn't thought about that.

And homeowners. How, how often do I change the UV light? And then boom, got your answer.

That's really cool. Are you, are you doing any of that? Um, Uh, like, uh, with your, uh, outbound communication to customers, like you have AI email or text message interactions or anything like that?

No, not yet.

Okay.

I haven't found one that I like yet. I've tried a few.

Okay.

Um, it was just too clunky at that point for me to like it. Okay. Because there, I do want a really good experience. I want it to be seamless.

Yeah.

I've even tried, you know, outbound to Expired clubs are outbound to, you know, it's time for your maintenance, but still it came off as you could tell it was, it was not, you know what I mean?

It wasn't quite there.

Yeah. But you can tell it's getting close and it's definitely something I'm going to employ as soon as it's ready and meets our standards. I'm going to, I mean, why wouldn't you?

Yeah.

1,500 texts or calls in minutes. Versus all these hours.

We're, we're, we're experimenting with a number of them. I mean, these, you know, these are, these are fairly proven technologies, sometimes not actually heavily used in, in, in our HVAC service industry, but other industries. So if we, if we come across something we really like, I'll let you know.

Yeah. Thank you. We had a tool we were using for a kind of a follow-up, which is AI follow-up, and finally stopped using it because it really wasn't I mean, it wasn't designed for this space, but I was trying to make it work because I need some kind of follow-up, follow-up, follow-up, you know what I mean?

Yep.

So, um, still, you know, trying to figure it out. Uh, until then we're doing it manually.

Yeah.

Which I hate because, you know, like last night I got a lead at 2:30. I would love for a chatbot to be Boom, hitting them with employment time. Book it, book it, book it. Ads available.

Yep. All right. Well, I'll keep you posted on that and see, um, what we end up coming up with, uh, or what we run across.

Yeah. We're, we're a strange mix of old school and new, new, new, new school. So, uh, I have fun with that technology. I mean, our website, um, I do all that stuff in-house. It's me doing it. Uh, blog posts or articles.

Yeah.

It's me uploading it. And the copywriter came in last week and said, you probably saved a lot of money by doing this. I'm like, well, yeah, but I said, my problem was the reason I did it is not really to save money because that was annoying. I'm like, if I want an article out, I want it out right now.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

You know, why, why is my, why is my AC running all the time in this heat? Okay. I want the article out like now, not.

Yeah.

2 weeks from now. I want to talk to somebody right now. This is why I want to put that on Facebook. I want to promote it because everyone's having this question as it gets hotter. Is my AC supposed to turn off? I said speed is a lot better than being perfect. You know, I want it out there.

I've got a couple, couple last questions. I'll, I'll let you go. One is around, what do you, what tools, support, consulting, what are you using to help train your people and improve the business? How do you, how do you work on the business? What support is there for that?

Yeah. So, um, we have meetings every week with every different, every day with the install guys, every week with service techs, every week with office people, every week with the call center. It's just constant communication, constant communication. As soon as you feel comfortable, I've learned, as soon as you feel comfortable That's when you're about to get bit. So constant communication, constant training. Most of us in-house, like we did, we did— good thing about William is he's kind of like Scott. He's a lot more technical. So we did an hour of customer service training and then an hour of soldering and brazing, whatever that. So that was, you know, Monday, that was a good day. So we can all— you can't always get the technical that deep every single time, but we try to hit it as often as we can. But mainly it's talking about the process. Every single week, every single week, we talk about the 8 steps and we talk about what the goal is to get a customer off the market. I said, the number one goal is not to sell a paint treatment or a coil scrubber, or it's not anything. Number one goal is to get 'em off the market. That is the goal. Get them on the club membership. Smart Club, even better, but at least Legacy. At least get them on Legacy Club so we can see them in 6 months. We can see them next year. We can talk about when it's not 95 degrees outside because don't— I mean, I said, guys, it is a grudge purchase. Okay. No one is saving for the AC to break. No one's excited to see a yellow truck pull into the driveway. They're pissed. They're hot. It's not a good situation. At least revisit them when it's, you know, 60 degrees and it's not so much of an interruption, inconvenience.

Yeah, for sure.

Just constant training, constant communication. But we got a, we got a great team. They know what we're doing. They know the goals. Uh, we do make mistakes. We're humans here. Tell them all the time, look, you're going to make a mistake. Don't beat yourself up about the mistake. But it's how you react to the mistake that makes a difference. We all make mistakes. I promise you, you're gonna make one. If you're on the field, you're gonna make a mistake. The only one not making a mistake is the guy on the bench. He's fine. He's not gonna play. He's not gonna make a mistake. I said, but we're gonna react to it. Our intent is always the same. It's always for exceptional customer service. That is our intent. We might, you know, fall down every now and then, but is how you make up for it.

How big is your team now on the resi side?

On the resi side, we got about 18, 20. I think overall we're right at 50 company-wide. So we got some, got some, some good, good team members there.

That's, yeah, that's a good size group. So obviously you're trying to grow, right? Like everyone's always trying to grow. So of course, how have you seen the cost of marketing change? Like, cause obviously growth goal, like you said, the goal is to take them off the market and if they're not off the market, you're paying for them again.

Right. Yep.

So how, as you're trying to grow and you see marketing, like what's that trend been like for the cost?

We try to stay around 10% of sales and that's, you know, obviously being aggressive with that growth. But we do a lot of things in-house. Again, how are you going to cut costs? Well, the current, the current TV commercial is a 30-second radio ad that I uploaded pictures of me and Scott in the ChatGPT. Make them a baby with a podcast. And then I went to one of the AI apps and uploaded the audio, upload the picture, made the video. So that is on OTT everywhere for hundreds of dollars of cost. Obviously it costs a lot to, you know, bring the advertising out, but I said, guys, instead of spending thousands on the radio, on the TV ad, spending hundreds Or if you go to a movie theater and see me up there, you know, this, this is the ad. It's got some, you know, we've cut it up and, you know, sent it to a company to make a better edit. I mean, the majority of it is me talking to the phone. We all have the technology right here. No reason to overpay for fluff. Look, I just got 30 seconds. Hey, I know you're at the movies. No big deal. Have your energy bills been a problem? You know, I got Beetlejuice in there. Does your energy bills make you do a Beetlejuice? You know, as soon as the Beetlejuice and that thing come on. Go to simmons1air.com, click on the link for live streaming or movie theater ads, download the free guide. That's all there is.

That's cool.

Yeah, that's great. Yeah. Give them information, give them education, give them free stuff. Give them the education. It doesn't always have to be sell, sell, sell, sell. We have, $25 off of whatever, $250 off of this thing. Like, no, I mean, the customer's not home saying, you know what, that's a good idea. It's like, I don't think that's happening. It's not happening in my house.

No, no, no, no, no. I think you're right. I think I've seen, you know, I've seen some very effective local ads that do more than just what you say. It's not just, we got a special, right? Like it's, it's, it is a let us help you offering free advice on energy savings is like, yeah, check it out. Like not asking you for money. We're trying to, trying to help. I think people appreciate that.

Yeah. I mean, we, we went old school when it got slow. I did it myself. I hung door hangers the whole street myself. I had the metric for, okay, it was about 20%. If I knock on 5 doors, 1 person gonna actually come to the door. All right. You gotta know that otherwise you're gonna be pissed off and like, yeah, you talk to 2 people unless you know what you're looking for. You know what I mean?

Yeah.

Out of that, you know, we're trying to get a metric on how many people's gonna download or QR code the free guide. It's just, it's just a, a conversation. Hey Andrew, just wanted to let you know if you hear some noise down the street, we're doing Mary's new system. Uh, I just wanted to come by and say, hey, if you got any problems, please feel free to call us if we're making too much noise or whatever. Also wanted to give you this little door hanger here, has a QR code, free energy guide. I don't know if you're like Mary, but have you had really high energy bills this past season? Yeah, well, download this free energy guide, might help you out. No problem. And then we're gone. We're not, yeah, hard selling, which, you know, making that impression, impression, impression. I said, guys, you're already there. You know, they're driving down the street. What is Mary doing now?

Yeah, that's right.

What are they doing over there? Well, let's just go tell them what we're doing.

That's right. Especially the smaller the town or the tighter the neighborhood, the more intrigue, right? What's happening over at that house?

Yeah, a guy came to my house after we moved in, telling insurance or something. It's like, yeah, I told this and that. I was like, dude, I just told you I don't know anybody. You can keep referencing Cliff. I don't know who that is. I don't know, Clint. That's gonna be a harder thing, um, you know, in other markets. But if you got a truck there and they're making noise, that's the easiest thing to point to. I don't know if you know, Mary, but our trucks are here. For some reason we caused a problem or anything, please, that's not our goal, but please let us know. And by the way, if you got a minute, happy— Yeah. Take, take, take 2 minutes, take 5 minutes, just talk to 'em because it's fun. Cause they're driving over and they're like, how's he doing something else?

That's good. That's good stuff, man. You, you've been at it a while. Hey, congrats on all your success.

Thank you.

I, I mean that, man. I, I, you know, from somebody else who, who's, um, helped start a business, it's not easy. You know, you gotta want to every day. So congrats on all your hard work and what you've accomplished, man.

Thank you. Yeah, I was talking to the call center yesterday, or like, uh, it was Monday, kind of dragging a little bit. You know, it's Monday, bad to work. Hey man, I get up every morning and I'm excited to see you guys. I'm like, I cannot wait to see the call center. They said, no way. I started laughing. I was like, all right, now we're in the groove.

Let's go.

Like, I get up and I'm like, I can't wait to get to work. Actually, I do, because I'm weird. Uh, you know, it's fine. We're humans. We're, we all got us, we all got stuff happening. You know, you just gotta make the best of it. It is what it is. Yeah.

We all have our days, man, but, but, but you're right. When you enjoy it and you like the people you work with, it's fun. You know, it becomes a game you enjoy playing.

Yeah. We told them before you hire them, like, you spend more time here than you spend with your family. Yep. So, uh, We're gonna get along. We're gonna have fun. We're gonna be serious when it needs to be serious, but we wanna have fun because if you don't laugh, you cry.

That's what would you say to another contractor that's not using SmartEC or they're considering it?

What's holding you back? Apples. Have you installed it? Have you installed it in your house? You can't deny the metrics you wanna see. So it, if this is beneficial. For your base, for your company, for your technicians. What's holding you back? Are you worried about— what are you worried about? It was almost like, uh, I went to a conference one time and we're having success with tune-up postcards. And they were like, you need to tell them about tune-up postcards. Like, dude, I don't even know if they need the tune-up postcards. Are they even answering the phones correctly? Will you wait? I mean, is this gonna be a waste of money? You know what I mean? You know, before we get to C, let's talk about A and B before we get there. But As far as SmartAC goes, I mean, if they have a good club base and a good conversion on club base, there's no reason to not offer this to their existing members to upgrade, to get this technology, because people are hungry for it. They're— they know it exists. They know it's out there. They've read about smart homes. They've heard about smart things. They've had Alexa. They've had Siri. How does it benefit them though? That is the difference. So if it benefits your customers, you'd be crazy not to do it because our only goal here at this company is to make it benefit the customer with less friction. So if we get, I don't think, I don't think one customer, might be one. I don't really think one customer has hit us before we hit them. With that alert, us reaching out to them saying, Andrew, by the way, I saw you got a low cooling performance. Uh, do you want to send a technician to go check it out? I didn't know that I had a problem. That's why you have the SmartEC. We're trying to catch it before you know you have a problem. Right.

So that's cool, man.

That's one of the benefits.

You think, and you've seen customers appreciate that when you let them know that you're watching?

I think so. I mean, we had that one that was a little salty, but I mean, lower averages, lower averages. You will have somebody not be happy. I'm like, fine, don't. I mean, I don't know. It's fine. And Miles is fine. I mean, I don't know. We're just doing what we said we're going to do. But yeah, I think for the most part it's— we haven't tested out in the heating season. I'm really looking forward to that because we go to so many people that heat strips are on and they don't know about it until they get the high light bill. I'm really interested to see how many of those we can hit all before it becomes a problem. You know what I mean?

Yeah, man. That's a good— I had not even thought about that. You're right. Yeah. We have gas heat for most of the heat down here in Texas. And, but, uh, but you're right, man. This heating strip stays on, they're cooling and heating at the same time.

Yeah. And that's, that's one of those that everything feels fine until you get the power bill and you're like, whoa, what happened? Then they call us and we check it out. Your boards are bad. It was sitting, yeah, something like that. So I'm interested to see how many, I'm interested to see how many we can get to before he gets to that point. Awesome. Because that's one of those things that I've been trying to figure out. I mean, until SmartAC, there is no good option. I mean, we don't know. You don't know. We did the maintenance 3 months ago, everything was fine. 4 months later, you got an $800 bill and we didn't know this thing failed.

Well, I mean, Thank you for, thank you for that. Thank you for the kind words and, uh, thanks for your time more than anything, Derek. It was, it was awesome getting to know you. Thanks for giving me your story. If there's anything we can do, let me know.

Thank you so much. Appreciate you asking me to be on.

Yeah, of course, man. Of course.