How to Grow Your HVAC Business Through Customer Experience

The answer for how to grow a heating and air conditioning business is not marketing.

The answer, in fact, lies in offering a great customer experience.

Growing a heating and air conditioning (HVAC) business isn’t just about booking more jobs or having more employees. It’s about standing out in a competitive industry where customers often struggle to distinguish one company from another.

Let's face it: Every home service business and home improvement company claims to be "fast, reliable, and having a fixed hourly rate".

Just have a look at your own HVAC business website. Do you also claim all these things without any evidence from customers to back this up?

Let's go over how successful HVAC business owners have become the trusted players in their local area.

The Big Gap between Companies and Customers

Here’s a stat that might shock you:

• 80% of companies believe they offer excellent customer experience.
• Only 8% of customers agree.

That’s a massive gap. And it’s costing businesses real money. The reality is that customers will pay more for a better experience. What's worse is that they’ll leave immediately if they feel let down.

In fact, according to research:

• 80% are willing to pay more for a better experience.
• 64% say experience is more important than price.
• Customers who feel satisfied and valued are 25% more profitable, stay longer, and recommend more often.

This is also called social proof.

So, how do you get more recommendations and referrals? You create memorable experiences that customers want to talk about.

Review Statistics in the HVAC Industry (UK)

Want to know where you stand? Use Trustmary's UK review analyser.

Let's go over how you can build a feedback-driven growth engine that improves service, earns trust, and drives revenue.

Build Customer-First Mindset

Before you come up with an elaborate marketing strategy or hire more HVAC technicians, start with a mindset change.

Ask yourself: What kind of experience do you want every customer to have?

Many HVAC business owners focus solely on the technical side: show up, fix the system, move to the next call.

But the customer sees everything: how they’re greeted on the phone, how long they wait, how the tech behaves, and whether they felt taken care of.

It's surprisingly important to some people if your employees take their shoes off indoors.

Ask yourself:

• How do we treat customers when they first reach out?
• Are we friendly, punctual, and helpful?
• Would I recommend my own service to a family member?

This kind of thinking puts customer experience at the heart of your business, not just a side effect.

Examples of Great Customer Experiences

I recently spoke at an event about customer experience.

I asked the audience what they thought was the most important thing a restaurant has to do well.

You'd first think it's the food, right?

I then asked, would they rather eat five-star worthy food in a dingy and moldy basement or enjoy a hearty sausage soup while watching the sunset?

Even though we think it's enough we do a good job on site and our team operates efficiently, it's enough.

What matters more is how we do customer communications and make customers feel.

We used to conduct customer experience research for customers, where we called the previous customers to ask them how everything went. Here are a few examples of the things we heard.

High-End Renovation Project Ruined by Mess

Everything was going to plan: The workers were on schedule, cost estimates were accurate, and communication was smooth.

After the crew left, the customer noticed there were screws on the lawn, and their bushes were full of dust from the vents that had been cleaned.

They were happy with the quality of work, but very unhappy customers, as they needed to cleanup something that could've been avoided if the company culture would've been more customer-centric.

Moral of the story: Know what customers expect, and exceed the expectations to ensure you're recommended to potential customers.

To know what your customers liked, ask them with an automated feedback survey after the job is done.

Big Bathroom Renovation Ruined by a Gum

Employees had done a massive job, and the client was happy with the outcome.

Until they noticed that there was a bubble gum left on one of the door handles by a worker.

Yikes.

Despite the great end result, the customer will tell this story to everyone who'll listen. Most likely the potential customers will hear this as well.

And will turn to buy from a competitor instead.

HVAC Project that Went Over Budget, But Was Praised by Clients

Everything that could go wrong, went wrong.

Budget was exceeded, the timeline was off by weeks, the wrong HVAC systems were delivered, and there were leaks that caused further issues.

You'd think that the customers were unhappy at the end.

However, once the project was finally finalized and it was time to do the final inspection, the CEO of the company came to visit the job site and brought baked goods for the customers.

This became one of the biggest success stories, as the happy customers started to spread the word of what a great and caring CEO the company has.

Business owners take notes: Running a successful HVAC business, or any business, is about serving each customer as well as possible.

There will always be mistakes, delays, and problems, but how you react defines how you're spoken about.

After these practical examples of what makes or breaks a customer experience, let's move on to how to deliver that.

Map Out the Full Customer Journey

The easiest way to improve customer experience is to understand every step your customers go through. Here’s what that might look like:

1. Discovery – Your website, Google reviews, ads or a referral.
2. First contact – Phone call, online form, or live chat.
3. Scheduling – Is it smooth? Do they get reminders?
4. Service call – Technician arrival, communication, professionalism.
5. After-service – Billing, follow-up, satisfaction check, review request.

By mapping customer experience out, you can identify weak points. Maybe your scheduling process causes delays. Maybe the technician doesn’t communicate clearly.

Every improvement here makes you more memorable (in a good way).

You should also think about automating as much of these steps as possible to focus more on doing the work than doing HVAC business admin things.

For instance, sending a satisfaction survey at the same time as your invoice is a great way to collect more feedback. Trustmary has, for example, a Quickbooks integration

Create Memorable Moments in the Customer Journey

A good customer experience is like a good story, engaging, memorable, and something people want to share.

Remember those examples I told earlier?

Just like in a great story, there are high points and a happy ending, sometimes even a lesson learned. These emotional “peaks” in the journey are what customers remember and retell to others.

Four Ways to Create Memorable Moments

• Delight: Surprise customers with small, positive touches that go beyond what they expect. It could be a follow-up thank-you, a small freebie, or even just a technician going the extra mile.
• Respect: Show genuine appreciation for the customer, their decision to choose you, their time, or the condition of their home. Little signs of respect build trust fast.
• Insight: Give the customer helpful knowledge that changes how they see their system, their home, or even their own role in maintaining it. A well-explained tip from your technician can go a long way.
• Connection and community: Make customers feel they’re part of something more. This could be through a branded maintenance program, friendly interactions with your team, or simply treating them like valued partners, not just another service call.

When you build these peaks into your process, you turn routine HVAC service into something customers remember, and want to talk about.

It's about the peak-end rule: Make sure there are more positive moments in the customer journey, and that you end things on a high note.

The Power of the Peak-end Rule

Psychologically, people don’t remember every detail. They remember the emotional peaks and how it ended.

Even if the middle part of the experience wasn’t perfect, you can still win the customer over by:

• Fixing issues with empathy
• Ending the process on a high note
• Creating a lasting, positive final impression

Real example:

One customer loved their kitchen renovation so much, they made a full photo album and offered to mail it to our research team.

That’s what meaning looks like.

HVAC Digital Marketing Made Easy with Trustmary

Creating a great customer experience isn’t a one-time project; it needs to be built into how your HVAC business operates every day. The same goes for your digital marketing strategy.

The two go hand-in-hand: When your customer experience is top-notch, you'll need to highlight that as your competitive edge in marketing.

That starts with clear steps and a simple plan you can follow with your team.

Here’s how to bring it into your daily workflow:

1. Outline the ideal customer journey
   Break the journey into clear stages, from the first contact to post-service follow-up. Then define three things for each stage:
   • What’s the baseline (what customers expect)?
   • What actions will exceed expectations (small, above-and-beyond moments)?
   • What are potential pain points to avoid (anything that could hurt the experience)?
     This helps set the standard and identify where to focus.
2. Talk to your customers
   Customer interviews or informal chats can offer powerful insight. Compare their feedback with your ideal journey, are you on the same page? Highlight patterns in what they say and be ready to adjust your assumptions.
3. Start collecting continuous feedback
   Use tools like Trustmary to gather input at different points in the journey. Ask for a Net Promoter Score (NPS): “How likely are you to recommend us?”, and invite open-ended comments. Then match that feedback against your plan to see what’s working and what needs tweaking.
4. Make feedback part of company culture
   Don’t just collect reviews, talk about them. Share feedback with your team in meetings, use it to coach technicians, and celebrate the wins. When everyone understands the customer’s perspective, service naturally improves.
5. Use real feedback in your marketing
   Authentic reviews and testimonials are powerful. Feature them on your website, in social media, and in sales conversations. Let future customers hear directly from the ones you’ve already impressed.

By making customer experience a consistent part of your operations—not just a marketing tool—you build long-term trust, stronger relationships, and a business that keeps growing.

Once your journey is mapped, it’s time to listen. The Trustmary method helps you gather real feedback and get customer insights from your customers, then use it to build trust and improve operations.

What Does Trustmary Method Include?

• One survey for three goals: Get a customer rating (for example, by sending an NPS survey), ask open-ended questions to get honest feedback, and invite them to leave a review or testimonial, all in one go.
• Highlight your best reviews: Automatically publish testimonials on your website to increase trust and conversions.
• Identify trends in feedback: Use ratings and written comments to find what’s working (and what’s not).

The key? You’re not guessing what customers think, you’re hearing it directly, and showing that it matters.

Turn Feedback into Testimonials and Repeat Business

Reviews and referrals are the lifeblood of HVAC growth, and customer experience powers both.

• Use Trustmary to gather testimonials from happy customers.
• Feature those reviews on your site to build credibility for new visitors.
• Spot your top promoters (via NPS), then ask them for referrals or offer maintenance plans.
• Offer seasonal checkups to stay top-of-mind with past customers.

It’s easier (and cheaper) to keep a customer than win a new one. When you focus on experience, customers stick around, and tell others.

Track Right Metrics for Experience-led Growth

You can’t improve what you don’t measure. Don’t just track jobs completed or revenue. Track how customers feel.

Use tools like Trustmary to collect and monitor:

• NPS (Net Promoter Score): Would they recommend you?
• CSAT (Customer Satisfaction): How happy are they right after service?
• Customer feedback trends: What are they praising or complaining about?

Pair this with operational data like return visits, response time and technician reviews to see the full picture.

Scale without Sacrificing Quality

As your own HVAC business grows, don’t lose the personal touch. It’s tempting to focus only on efficiency, but customers still expect the same great experience.

To scale while keeping quality:

• Standardize your process for every job. Make sure every tech knows what’s expected.
• Use Trustmary to flag any dips in satisfaction as you expand.
• Keep training on soft skills like communication and empathy, not just tools and parts.

A growing and successful HVAC company that feels small and personal to customers will always outperform a big one that feels cold or rushed.

Real-Life Example: Share All Information Internally

One of the best ways to turn feedback into real business growth is to make sure everyone on your team sees it and understands it. That’s exactly what Hohdepinnoitus did, and it paid off.

Hohdepinnoitus, a surface treatment company in Finland, started collecting systematic customer feedback with Trustmary. But they didn’t stop at gathering data, they made sure the entire team had visibility into the results.

At Hohdepinnoitus, customer feedback doesn’t just improve service; it also impacts employee pay. In 2025, the company introduced a reward fund that directly links bonuses to customer satisfaction.

If an installer receives great feedback, they’re eligible for a bonus. And it’s not just the field staff, managers also receive rewards based on feedback from their own teams.

“Every employee knows their work matters and that it’s being assessed continuously. It’s the client, not the supervisor, who decides how well the job was done,” says Managing Director Jesper Eronen.

This system creates two big wins:

1. Motivation: Employees are more engaged because they know great service is recognized and rewarded.
2. Transparency: The company can easily spot if workflows need adjustment or if someone needs more training.

And the feedback keeps coming in.

“I just got a message while we were talking,” Eronen adds. “It said: ‘Good service at a good price. Does not push any extra services. Work done well in a day, followed by clear instructions after installation.’”

This kind of real-time feedback confirms that service quality stays consistent, no matter who’s doing the job or where it’s done. At the same time, it builds trust with new customers, because the praise is coming straight from the people who’ve already bought.

When great experience becomes a team goal, everybody wins, especially the customer.

Maybe it's time you started collecting feedback and sharing feedback internally with your employees?

Make Customer Experience Your HVAC Company's Competitive Edge

Most HVAC companies compete on speed, price or location. But none of those builds long-term loyalty the way great experience does.

Here’s how to stand out:

• Train your team to be friendly, honest, and communicative, not just skilled.
• Make it easy to do business with you: clear pricing, fast scheduling, upfront expectations.
• Follow up after every service call, not just to get reviews, but to show you care.

When customers feel cared for, they’ll call again and tell their friends.

“Every wow moment is money saved on marketing.”

That’s should be the core idea of your HVAC business plan.

When you focus on creating standout customer experiences, you reduce the need for expensive marketing—because happy customers do it for you.

• Understand the entire customer journey, it’s not just a technician’s job or a front office task. It’s a company-wide effort.
• Fix the process first, then focus on emotions and meaning.
• Identify the moments where you can exceed expectations, and remember the “strong finish” rule: the last impression sticks.
• Underpromise, overdeliver. Always.
• A great experience creates promoters, and promoters turn your investment into real revenue.
• And no matter what happens along the way, a strong finish can turn the whole journey around.

Customer experience isn’t just about doing the job, it’s about how you make people feel before, during, and after. When you get that right, growth comes naturally.

If you want to grow your HVAC business, don’t start with more ads or deeper discounts. Start with experience. Make every customer feel heard, cared for, and confident in your service.

Then use the Trustmary method to collect real feedback, showcase your best reviews, and improve every step of the journey.

Happy customers don’t just leave 5-star reviews, they come back and bring others with them.

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