Should you allow customer scheduling on your HVAC website?

From flights to tee times and from doctor's appointments to dinner, customers are booking online. Consumers have traded in phone calls for online reservations at a higher rate than ever before. With a growing section of consumers looking online to book or buy products and services, you risk missing out on a lot of business if you don’t offer these possibilities.

The travel industry went from primarily phone-based bookings to online bookings in what felt like overnight. Think about the last time you booked a flight, hotel, and rental car... you likely did this all done online, and possibly even all from the same website. Online bookings offer a much simpler path to getting what you want.

Booking Online in the HVAC Business

How can you offer online booking in the HVAC vertical? Simple: the HVAC scheduling software Smart Service 365. Smart Service 365 offers a one stop shop for your clients to book estimates and/or service calls, review work orders and invoices, and even pay invoices, outstanding balances, or prepay for service calls when they book online. Smart Service 365 gives you all of these options with personalized parameters to make sure everything is set up exactly how you want.

How can I trust that customers won’t book a service call when a technician isn’t available

Ah, the dreaded double booking, a real concern for any HVAC business. Setting up the scheduling options the way you want them in Smart Service 365 will prevent this. Smart Service 365 only offers times to customers that coincide with your technicians' availabilities. You can also choose to offer same day service calls while including a minimum buffer window that will allow your technician to review the job on their device and travel to the customer's location in time to perform the service.

What if someone books an online service call for a technician that can’t perform that specific type of service?

Smart Service 365 can prevent this from happening by only allowing customers to book specific employees for specific types of events. You can also select availability by departments, crews, or even a specific skill set. You'll never have to worry about an HVAC technician getting scheduled for a plumbing issue they can't handle. You can set up the parameters and permissions for your online reservations in a way that makes sense for your HVAC company.  

How can I ensure that a job booked online isn’t just a waste of time and a trip for my technician?

Smart Service 365 allows you to set up prepayment or partial payment in advance at the time of booking. You can collect the entire fee or just take a deposit for a job, and you can set these options individually for each service you offer. After taking a deposit, the new job can go directly to the technician’s schedule, or you can set up an estimate to go onto the waiting list, and wait for one of your representatives to reach out to the customer and find a time with them that works for everyone. During the conversation, your dispatcher can verify that the customer really exists and really needs your service. You create the rules for what you want to offer online.

More Smart Service 365 Features

Smart Service 365 will help you generate new revenue and grow your customer base. You can create an online reservation option for a new quote only available to new customers. From there you can use that reservation URL in social media posts, email blasts, or even on your website. Set a message in the customer's booking confirmation email that a representative will reach out to them and discuss scheduling their appointment for a quote on a new service or installation. When was the last time you could use your scheduling and dispatching software to generate new business? This feature allows you to grow your customer base and bottom line! 

Consumers in all business verticals are trending to buying products and booking services online. Moving some of your HVAC offerings to an online gateway will ensure that you capture the business of customers looking to the web for HVAC services. Smart Service 365 gives you the ability to meet these growing demands for online booking, online payments, and even booking new business from your website. Smart Service 365 takes into account the most common objections to moving to online scheduling, so you can utilize this option and rest assured that your techs have ample time to arrive and complete services, and that your customers know that they have a viable and reliable option to book online.