The New Customer

Late last week I took an afternoon and went out to visit some of my old contractor acquaintances from the HVAC industry in my area.  I figure that from time to time it is good to get the contractor perspective of the heating & air conditioning industry.  They deserve a voice in this as well.

One of the subjects that I fed for response was:  How has the internet changed the way homeowners shop for HVAC?  In addition, does the information that the homeowners get from the internet help or hurt the contractor when trying to make a sale?  The responses that I got were varied, but there was a common assessment that rang through.

•   Homeowners don’t understand enough about the products to make good decisions from internet information.

• The internet makes it harder to sell a homeowner, because it gives them too many brand options.  This makes it harder to sell our brand.  (Huh?)

•   Sometimes we won’t follow up on a homeowner who claims that they have been doing research on the internet.

•  We know more about what the customer needs then they do. (Really?)

So, if you look this over, it appears that the contractors are not very happy that homeowners are going to the internet to learn more before they make this very large purchase.

OK, so I told you that to tell you this.

This past Sunday I was at the grocery store doing one of those every isle major grocery shopping excursions.  Like most grocery stores, the isles could barely accommodate two carts passing in opposite directions.  So, I was constantly excusing myself to go around crowded areas.  What I started noticing while I was doing this, was that almost everyone was reading.  Not their grocery list to pick out their items, but the labels of the products that they were considering buying. DING!  The bell went off in my head.  I saw a correlation between these grocery shoppers and the homeowners that go to the internet to do research before they buy.

We are researchers.  It is what we do, and the internet has become our library, our consumer reports magazine.  So for HVAC contractors to wish that homeowners would not utilize the internet to do research before they hand over thousands of dollars to them is completely unreasonable.

This is another sign of how the HVAC industry is behind the times, compared to many other industries.  Many industries have, and with great success, had an about face and have embraced the internet as a vehicle for educating and soliciting future customers.

Never Stop Learning - As I often say at the end of my podcasts, “Knowledge is Power and this is Boyd at Askboyd.com giving you the Power”