{"id":830,"date":"2020-03-17T14:34:55","date_gmt":"2020-03-17T14:34:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ebandlmarketing.com\/blog\/?p=830"},"modified":"2020-03-22T18:22:48","modified_gmt":"2020-03-22T18:22:48","slug":"coronavirus-how-your-hvac-company-responds-matters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ebandlmarketing.com\/blog\/coronavirus-how-your-hvac-company-responds-matters\/","title":{"rendered":"Coronavirus:  How Your HVAC Company Responds Matters"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><strong>Coronavirus and HVAC\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p><strong>How Your Company Responds Matters<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Interesting times, aren&#8217;t they?\u00a0 Coronavirus is here and we\u2019re all being asked to practice \u201csocial distancing,\u201d and work from home. Easy to do when you\u2019re an accountant, but we all know HVAC is a little harder to do from your couch. We\u2019re watching our schools and local restaurants close down, public gatherings banned, and big HVAC industry events canceled, one after another. We\u2019re also seeing a lot of chatter on social media about what it all means for your family&#8217;s health, and the health your HVAC businesses. Techs are getting sick. Staff need to stay home with their kids. Customers are putting off service. Contractors are worried. Not just about their health, but about the long-term effect this all will have on their livelihoods.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Focus on what you can control<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>As you work to keep your family, staff, and your customers safe, it can start to feel like things are spinning out of control.\u00a0 At times like this it helps to focus on the things you CAN control.\u00a0 Including how you respond to this national health crisis.\u00a0 Should you find yourself with some unwelcome downtime, here are a few marketing tasks you can do to stay productive and keep yourself focused on the end game.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Communicate<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Get on social media and let your customers know if you&#8217;re open, and what your hours will be until further notice.\u00a0 Or that you&#8217;re closing temporarily, but available for emergency service by calling X number.\u00a0 Either way, strike a positive and reassuring tone.<\/li>\n<li>Clearly communicate what you&#8217;re doing to keep your staff as well as your customers safe. Like, booties, gloves, respirators, sanitizing equipment and frequent hand washing protocols.<\/li>\n<li>Send out an email newsletter with all of this information, and other tips, like what to do if AC goes out while caring for an ill family member.\u00a0 And invite customers with health concerns to call the office so you can discuss how to approach their service call in a way that is comfortable for them.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Market<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Don&#8217;t make the mistake of halting your marketing.\u00a0 Staying visible may not make your phone ring right now, but it will make a huge difference as things come back online.\u00a0 People remember the businesses who stay top of mind.<\/li>\n<li>Promote your IAQ products.\u00a0 Just as storms make generators very popular, this health crisis gives you the opportunity to create awareness of how IAQ products can improve health.\u00a0 Send a postcard out.\u00a0 Support it with a social media post.\u00a0 Blast out an email to your customers. Mention IAQ on calls.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Market clean &amp; checks<\/strong> &#8211; remind folks to get them done right away in case they need to isolate in the near future.\u00a0 Be sure to mention the safety protocols you&#8217;ve put in place.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Go the extra mile<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Bring a mask for the customer when you arrive at their home<\/li>\n<li>Order small gel packs of hand sanitizer customized with your company logo, and leave a few with the customer.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Make good use of your time<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Catch up on writing blog posts for your company website<\/li>\n<li>Review your marketing plan and see what you can get a jump start on while things are slow.\u00a0\u00a0While you\u2019re working on your spring postcards, might as well get those summer postcards designed and ready now, and they will be ready to drop in the mail when the time comes.<\/li>\n<li>Work on your marketing plan.\u00a0 If you don&#8217;t have an annual plan in place, now is the perfect time to create one.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Ethics and integrity matter<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>This is the time to come together to help our neighbors. This is not the time to price gouge on IAQ equipment.\u00a0 Or make false or unproven claims about the benefits of IAQ equipment. Instead, educate.\u00a0 An educated customer will always spend more.<\/li>\n<li>People remember and reward the businesses that went the extra mile in times of crisis. Think\u00a0Anheuser-Busch. After Hurricane Harvey they\u00a0halted beer production at their Georgia plant to produce 50,000 cans of water to send to Red Cross shelters in Louisiana.<\/li>\n<li>The opposite is true also. People remember the businesses that take advantage of people.\u00a0 Think Turing Pharmaceuticals, led by convicted felon Martin Shkreli, who raised the price of a desperately needed drug by 5000%.\u00a0 You remember that colossal jerk, right?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>This too shall pass.\u00a0 Stay positive, focused, and visible, and your services will be in high demand when it does. Hang in there, HVAC heroes!<\/p>\n<p>Need to get an IAQ postcard out to your customers, or need help with a promotional item?\u00a0 Want help putting a marketing plan together?\u00a0 EB&amp;L can help.\u00a0 Call 315-685-9500 today!\u00a0 Or email\u00a0<a href=\"mailto:info@ebandlmarketing.com?subject=Spring%20HVAC%20postcards\">info@ebandlmarketing.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Coronavirus and HVAC\u00a0\u00a0 How Your Company Responds Matters Interesting times, aren&#8217;t they?\u00a0 Coronavirus is here and we\u2019re all being asked to practice \u201csocial distancing,\u201d and work from home. Easy to do when you\u2019re an accountant, but we all know HVAC is a little harder to do from your couch. We\u2019re watching our schools and local restaurants close down, public gatherings banned, and big HVAC industry events canceled, one after another. We\u2019re also seeing a lot of chatter on social media about what it all means for your family&#8217;s health, and the health your HVAC businesses. Techs are getting sick. Staff need to stay home with their kids. Customers are putting off service. Contractors are worried. Not just about their health, but about the long-term effect this all will have on their livelihoods. Focus on what you can control As you work to keep your family, staff, and your customers safe, it can start to feel like things are spinning out of control.\u00a0 At times like this it helps to focus on the things you CAN control.\u00a0 Including how you respond to this national health crisis.\u00a0 Should you find yourself with some unwelcome downtime, here are a few marketing tasks you&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":833,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[89,57,85,11,61,47],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ebandlmarketing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/830"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ebandlmarketing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ebandlmarketing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebandlmarketing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebandlmarketing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=830"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/ebandlmarketing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/830\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":840,"href":"https:\/\/ebandlmarketing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/830\/revisions\/840"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebandlmarketing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/833"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ebandlmarketing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=830"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebandlmarketing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=830"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ebandlmarketing.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=830"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}