HVACBossPro Blog — HVAC Software

The HVAC Customer App: Live Route Map, Service Requests and Online Payment

Most HVAC customers have two questions: when will the tech get here, and how do I pay? Every phone call the office takes on those two questions is a phone call that could have been answered by the customer's own phone. That is what the customer app is for.

The Customer's Side of the Tech App

The HVAC Tech App: What Your Technicians See on Their Phones covered the tech's view of the day. The customer app is the same day from the other side of the front door. As the tech works the route, the customer can see where they fit in it, and when the job is done, the invoice is waiting for them.

The Live Route Map

On their service day, customers can open the app and see today's route on a live map with their place in line, something like: “You're stop 12 of 20 — the crew is 5 stops away.”

For HVAC this matters more than for most trades. Almost every heating and air visit needs someone home: the thermostat is inside, the furnace is in the attic, the air handler is in a closet. A customer who can see the tech is a few stops away can head home from work, open the side gate or put the dog in the bedroom. That turns a likely skip into a finished job.

Alerts the Customer Chooses

Customers pick which alerts they want:

• The night before their visit, so they can plan to be home.
• When they are next on the route, so they have a few minutes' warning.
• When the tech arrives, so they know someone is at the door or in the yard.

Letting customers choose keeps the texts useful. Someone who works from home might only want the arrived alert; someone who commutes might want all three. The office-side texting tools are covered in Two-Way Texting and Automatic Alerts in HVAC Software.

Requesting Service and Signing Up

Customers can request service from the app instead of calling. A homeowner whose upstairs is not cooling can send a request at 10pm, and it is waiting for the office in the morning.

They can also sign up for services and pricing you offer, such as a maintenance plan. If you sell a twice-a-year tune-up plan, a customer who just had a repair can sign up from their phone on the way back inside. Once they are on the plan, their visits come due on the Waiting List on their own.

Cards, Invoices and Payment

The customer app is also where the money side lives for the customer:

• Update their card. When a card expires or gets replaced, the customer updates it themselves instead of reading numbers to the office over the phone.
• See invoices. Every invoice, with line items, is there to look at, which cuts down on “what was this charge?” calls.
• Pay online. Customers who do not keep a card on file can pay an open invoice from the app.

For a property manager with many rentals, the same app shows their invoices across every address, and a monthly statement brings them together. That setup is covered in Monthly Statements for Property Managers: One HVAC Bill for Every Rental.

Ratings and Referrals

After a visit, customers can rate the job and refer a neighbor. Word of mouth is how most small HVAC companies grow, and asking at the moment the customer is happy, right after their air is cold again, is the best time to ask.

Ratings are also useful inside the company. A low rating is a reason to call the customer back the same day, while the problem is fresh and fixable.

What the Customer App Saves the Office

Think about the calls a small HVAC office takes in a week:

• “What time is the tech coming?”
• “Can I give you my new card number?”
• “Can you resend that invoice?”
• “I want to sign up for that maintenance plan the tech mentioned.”
• “Can someone come look at my upstairs unit?”

Every one of those can be handled by the customer in the app. The office still talks to customers, through two-way texting and the phone, but the routine questions stop eating the morning.

Getting Customers Onto It

Customers sign in by text, so there is no password to forget. The easiest way to get them using it is to mention it at every touch point: in the confirmation text, on the invoice, and by the tech at the door. Customers who use it once to watch the map usually come back to pay.

To see how the customer app fits with dispatch, the tech app and billing, visit the HVAC software page.