HVAC Buyer’s Journey
The HVAC Buyer’s Journey
What is the HVAC Buyer’s Journey?
The HVAC Buyer’s Journey is the process that all customers go through when purchasing heating and air conditioning services. This includes all their decisions, actions, and interactions from when a customer first realizes they have a problem to when they book a job with you for your services, to when you’ve successfully completed the job.Why is the HVAC
Buyer’s Journey Important?
As an HVAC business owner or leader, understanding the process your customers go through when deciding to purchase heating and air conditioning services is critical to the success of your HVAC marketing efforts. Understanding the journey of your HVAC buyer empowers you to infuse AI and machine learning technology into your marketing to give you a decisive competitive advantage in your market and supercharge your results. By implementing this technology, you will be able to:
- Identify when someone is in the market for your services based on their pre-purchase behavior, so you can reach them with your value proposition early in their decision-making process.
- Reach prospective customers before your competitors even know they are looking and follow them with your advertising through each stage of their buyer’s journey: awareness, consideration, and decision.
- Advertise only to those consumers who are in the market for your services at the right time, in the right place and with the right message.
- Know which customers are more likely to purchase from you vs customers who are just kicking the tires.
- Target your advertising to specifically what your prospective customer is looking for. Capture consumers who are shopping for a second opinion, vs a first search for equipment repair, with exactly the right message, for instance.
- Virtually take the right prospective customers who are likely to purchase from you by the hand and lead them to your HVAC business to book a job.
Being the first HVAC company to reach a prospective customer via advertising when they are in need of air conditioning or heating repair services is crucial for several reasons:
- In today’s fast-paced digital world, consumers often make quick decisions based on the first options they encounter. By being the first to advertise, a company can capture the attention of potential customers before they have a chance to explore other options.
- Being first establishes a sense of credibility and reliability in the minds of consumers, as they may perceive the first company they encounter as being more established and reputable.
- Securing the first interaction with a prospective customer allows the HVAC company to build rapport and trust early on, increasing the likelihood of conversion and fostering long-term customer loyalty.
Overall, being the first HVAC company to reach a prospective customer during their search for HVAC services can significantly impact brand visibility, credibility, and ultimately, increased booked jobs and revenue.
Performed Online Search Before Buying
Do My Existing HVAC Customers
Have a Buyer’s Journey?
Yes! We would all like to think that customers who have purchased from us in the past will remember our company when they need us in the future – but data shows that this is far from the reality.
There are many reasons that your existing customers go on a buyer’s journey – from simply forgetting your company name, to price shopping, to needing a related service that you sell (such as plumbing, for instance) when they only know you as the company that replaced their air conditioner five years ago.
It is just as important to know when your existing customers are re-entering the buyer’s journey again, as it is to know when new customers are beginning their journey.
Buyer’s Journey Attribution
vs Last Click Attribution
Last click attribution is a marketing model that assigns all the credit for a conversion or sale to the last touchpoint a customer interacted with before making a purchase. In other words, the last click or action taken by the customer is given full credit for the conversion, ignoring the previous touchpoints that made them aware of a particular company and influenced their decision-making process.
While last click attribution is a simple way to track your lead generation efforts, it fails to capture the complexity and nuances of the buyer’s journey. In the HVAC industry, where the decision-making process involves multiple touchpoints, relying solely on last click attribution can lead to misguided marketing efforts and missed opportunities, making this an outdated attribution method.
With sophisticated tracking technology available today courtesy of AI and machine learning, we can do so much better!
What is Pre-Purchase Behavior?
Pre-Purchase behavior refers to the actual steps your prospects take from the moment they become aware that they may have a problem, through their research into what the problem may be, and they choose a solution to their problem and then experience your service on the phone and when a technician visits their home.
What Are the 4 Stages of the HVAC Buyer’s Journey?
There are 4 stages to the HVAC Buyer’s Journey:
Awareness
During the awareness stage, a prospect has become aware that they may have a problem. At this juncture, all possibilities are under consideration – how big of a problem do they have? Can they fix it themselves or do they need help? Is it really a problem? How quickly does it need to be resolved? They will begin researching their options online to enhance their understanding of the problem.
Consideration
During the Consideration phase, prospects have decided that they do have a problem that needs resolving, and they begin actively researching solutions with an intent to fix the problem.
Decision
In the Decision phase, prospects believe they have identified the right solution to their problem and will choose a company to solve it at the right price.
Booked Job
Once a prospect has made the decision to hire you, now your work begins! Everything must go flawlessly with the phone call or schedule request and the technician visit to the home. If it does not, the prospect reverts to the Consideration stage and the cycle repeats again.
How MAVERiiiCK Can Help You
Leverage Your HVAC Buyer’s Journey
We model and detect your prospective customer’s pre-purchase behavior and reach out to them before your competitors even know they are looking.
We identify which customers are more likely to purchase from you, vs customers who are just tire kickers, and place relevant messaging about your company in front of the right customers at the right time.
We virtually take the right prospective customers by the hand and lead them to your HVAC business to book a job – and help you dominate in your market as a result.
