Why Have a Service Agreement for Your Air Conditioner?

Many of you think that a service agreement contract is just a scheme for heating and air conditioning contractors to generate excessive profits. If TIME translates to the COST to SERVE (which should impact the PRICE of service)…

HVAC Service Agreement

I ask you to apply your logic to the following…

How much PROFIT does a heating and air conditioning contractor make with each service agreement?

How LONG will it take someone to drive to your home to provide service? 15 minutes? 30 minutes?

How much does it cost to STOCK A VEHICLE with the tools, supplies, and a basic inventory of parts to perform “common” repairs, should any be discovered during an inspection? (Remember that since the system IS running there is NOT an expectation that repairs are needed.) The business owner MUST pay for the cost of the providing the vehicle to provide the service.

How much does it cost to pay a SKILLED TECHNICIAN to drive the vehicle and provide the service? The business owner MUST pay labor cost that are above and beyond the hourly pay of the employee (payroll taxes, unemployment, workman’s compensation, vehicle insurance and possibly a portion of health insurance premiums).

How many trips per year are included with the service agreement?  2?  I suggest doing some quick arithmetic. Divide the PRICE of the service agreement by 2. Now divide that amount by the number of systems to be serviced. Do you think there could be much profit is performing this service? Sure, the service representative should make more than 1 call per day and there are some economies of scale involved, but even so, does this service appear to you to be a real profit maker for the owner?

If a customer pays for the service and doesn’t receive the service, it may be a profit maker for the owner because he/she got by getting paid for a VALUE that wasn’t delivered! (How many times should a service provider get away with this?)

If a service agreement provides very low profits (if any) for an air conditioning contractor, why would any air conditioning contractor sell service agreements?   Is this type of service NEEDED?

My response is YES. We live in a highly-specialized world. No one grows their own food anymore – not even farmers.  Without specialized computers, no one can repair their vehicles anymore.  Home remedies are not sufficient to ensure a healthy life expectancy.  Neither can one prevent a virus on their computer without a specialized application.  In today’s world, no one can be expected to know enough to prevent the need for assistance in just about every facet of life.

Heating and air conditioning systems are dependent on the operation of electrical and mechanical components. They must have a stable supply of refrigerant to enable the pressure differences that generate heat transfer to perform properly. (Do you ever have to put air in your vehicle tires?) An HVAC system is NOT an appliance that can be replaced by “plugging it in” with a new one purchased from Lowe’s or Home Depot. Heating and air conditioning systems require a professional installation so that they supply indoor comfort. Since statistics reveal that people are spending more time indoors, indoor air quality is becoming more of a concern. HVAC systems can have a huge impact to indoor air quality.

Is COMFORT to a HOME Similar to the Heartbeat of the Body?

Now consider YOUR expenditures – mortgage, health, kids, vehicles, college, entertainment, comfort… COMFORT may not be the highest expenditure, but it’s in the list. How important is your comfort when it is MISSING?  We consider your comfort as the heart-beat of your home!  What if someone living in your home has health issues that make comfort even more important? (My mother, who is now deceased, had COPD. She experienced greatly restricted breathing capacity if the indoor temperature was not maintained at or below 70 degrees during the summer.)

I think it is safe to say that service provided to any mechanical device helps ensure continued performance and longevity of that device.  And I think that it is safe to say the mechanical devices lose efficiency, will fail and the failure probability is higher without maintenance.  Does this remind you of your vehicle?

If maintenance is NEEDED, why do we offer Service Agreements with such little expectation of PROFIT?

HVAC technology has been around for many years. Heating and air conditioning pioneers first began developing systems during the beginning of the 20th century.  And regardless of what manufacturers would want us to believe, I don’t foresee any significant spikes to technology in the coming years. In a mature market such as heating and air conditioning, those  heating and air conditioning service companies that continue year after year, must do so on the SERVICE LEVEL provided.

If our PRICE exceeds the VALUE of the services provided, you will not be our customer very long.

• If we don’t show up as expected, we don’t exhibit the VALUE the we expect to deliver;
• If we were to arrive in poorly identified and maintained vehicles with minimal parts to repair common problems, our VALUE is negatively impacted;
• If we don’t exhibit the knowledge and experience that YOU would expect our VALUE is diminished;
• If we exhibit inconsiderate behavior that you deem inappropriate for YOUR service provider, then our VALUE is diminished.

I suggest that the PRICE of the SERVICE reflects the EXPECTED VALUE of the service to be received. When you evaluate products or services, is PRICE the only variable that is predictive of the VALUE of the service/product to be received?

Competitive quotes from respected heating and air conditioning contractors establish “market” prices for services rendered. Competitive quotes from other contractors that are less than respected and less skilled CONFUSE “market” prices with the implication that equivalent VALUE is consistent among ALL contractors.

Our PLEDGE, if you select us to be your heating and air conditioning service provider… “Professional service through values of HONESTY, TRUST, and INTEGRITY

Our SERVICE AGREEMENTS include… (in everyday language, without an attempt to impress you with technical jargon, or the NUMBER of steps performed);

1. A REVIEW of repairs since the last check-up as compared to the current operation of the system(s). (INCLUDES energy cost since the last check-up.)
2. COMPLETE and THOROUGH TESTING of mechanical systems based on quality testing procedures as recommended by manufacturers and engineers in the HVAC industry;
3. OPTIMAL maintenance of the INSTALLED EFFICIENCY of your systems. Please note that the efficiency rate of your systems is likely to diminish with age. The corrosive environment (depending on how far your location is from the ocean) in our geography has a negative impact to manufacturer’s expected life cycles. Your systems contain metal and moving parts. Our salt-laden environment increases the corrosion rate of metal components. Moving parts wear out. Even plastic deteriorates at the beach!
4. Experienced and Knowledgeable recommendations to replace PARTS, if COMFORT is likely to be compromised before the next check-up.
5. IDENTIFICATION of systems that should be replaced BEFORE they fail. Our staff has the knowledge of guiding you with replacement options, and there are many. Options for replacement include precise temperature and humidity control that can result in optimum COMFORT and ENERGY SAVINGS. Options for the replacement of a heating and air conditioning system can be compared to the options of replacing your vehicle…will a KIA do or are you interested in learning about the BMW/Mercedes models?
6. PRIORITY SCHEDULING should an un-expected disruption to your COMFORT occurs.

If you are like many of those who take for granted the COMFORT provided by your heating and air conditioning systems, and our services do include those items in 1 – 6 above, there is a good chance we could minimize the occurrence of a “LACK OF COMFORT” event. If we do that, then there is an additional “priceless” VALUE in our service.

WE think we can!

Maybe your COMFORT is on your worry-free list of objectives yet to be accomplished…

WE wish we could guarantee that too… but heating and air conditioning systems can “jump-off-the-tracks” at times and at the most inconvenient times. If this weren’t the case, there wouldn’t be much of a demand for heating and air conditioning service providers. When YOU have done all YOU can do to minimize an unwanted occurrence, isn’t that all you CAN do?

And if we didn’t live in a “corrosive” environment (near the beach), expected life cycles of heating and air conditioning systems wouldn’t be what they are.

Doctor of COMFORT

In CONCLUSION, I want to leave you with 1 last analogy. If you happen to be one of the lucky ones who have discovered a doctor and have utilized his/her services for a number of years, then you have identified a VALUED service…

1. When you go to your doctor, do you think he/she is QUALIFIED to make observations from his knowledge, access to testing devices, and your medical history that best maintain your health?
2. Do you think he/she could also detect an unknown concern that could be detrimental to your health? And if you haven’t discovered such a doctor, aren’t you searching for one or hoping that you will discover one?

I suggest that if you select the “right” heating and air conditioning contractor, he/she can provide a similar type of service that best maintains your COMFORT.

Tri-County Mechanical IS the RIGHT Choice!

You can click on the PDF image (on right) and get a copy of our Service Agreement.  We highly recommend signing it and sending the executed version back to us.  ( Send to: [email protected] )

Or you could go here and get more details regarding our Energy Savings Agreement Program.

Energy Savings Participation Agreement

If you SEE something that looks like a duck, walks like a duck and sounds like a duck, it’s probably a duck…