With your customers spending more time at home and in enclosed spaces, they’ll be looking to experts for improved residential HVAC solutions to keep their homes healthy and clean. Stay ahead of your customers’ needs as you educate yourself on residential HVAC needs, how HVAC and COVID-19 are related, and how you can give your customers peace of mind.
Take advice from Wolseley’s own HVAC experts. “Now is the time to educate yourself on HVAC solutions,” says Chris Hann, National Category Manager of HVAC/R at Wolseley.
“Yes, it’s technical, but you’ll need to learn it to sell it.”
Selling HVAC solutions goes well beyond what a customer may call you for. Perhaps your customer has a furnace issue they would like you to fix. You can go beyond that specific work and ask the homeowners some extra questions about their HVAC and health while you’re there.
To help you upsell to your customers and create a healthier home environment, you can ask if they have pre-existing breathing problems or allergies. This opens the conversation and allows you to suggest products to help them understand what they need in their home.
“For example, we sell little kits,” says Hann, “IAQ kits...almost like Petri dish. You can leave it sitting out and it tells you what the pollution rate of your air is...and tell you what’s in your air. You leave that in a homeowners’ place for three days.”
This gives you a reason to return to the residence to examine what the kit has picked up. Hann says that it’s easier for a contractor to use the kit, tell a homeowner the findings and potential health issues, and then initiate the conversation about equipment to clean the air.
Shop the Indoor Air Quality Test Kit from Canadian General Filters
While you’re talking to homeowners about their Indoor Air Quality, you can also open the conversation to air filtration to improve the air inside. The most common way to improve is with pleated filters, but the maintenance on this will vary between each customer.
“If it’s a newer home and [they] don’t have pets, you can go once every six months [to change the filter],” says Hann. But if they have pets, someone smokes indoors, or they have breathing problems, the filter should be replaced more often.
“You can also go a step further by putting in a HEPA filter, which is a combination of a pleated filter, charcoal and electrostatic filters, which takes out smells, mould and viruses.
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Shop the Electro-Air Whole House Duct Mount HEPA Air Cleaner
Of course with the upcoming fall and winter season, people will be looking to eliminate viruses circulating in the air as much as possible, so offering homeowners this upgrade may be in their best interest. HEPA filters are contained units and are extremely effective in removing even the smallest of particles from the air.
“If you want to take it [even] further, you put UV light in”, says Hann. “UV light inserts go into the top of the furnace. That ultraviolet light...kills everything. It kills 99.9% of everything.”
Shop the Sanuvox R MAX In-Duct UV Air Purifier 4000 sq. ft.
When talking to customers about UV lights, it’s important to note that it works best in unison with HEPA filters to filter out particulate matter in addition to viruses. Many UV air filtration systems are already designed with HEPA technology so it makes it an easier sell to your customer.
The best piece of advice when it comes to tackling indoor air quality and filtration? “Educate yourself or find someone that can educate you,” remarks Hann. This is especially true when thinking about how COVID-19 has affected the HVAC industry.
“I think [everyones’] eyes have been opened about [air quality],” adds Hann. “But we’re coming into the heating season, and that’s where we sell most of our filtration anyway.” It’s the best time to address air, heating and other indoor concerns.
Regardless of how COVID-19 plays out in the upcoming months, customers will take a heightened interest as HVAC and indoor air circulation headlines pop up in news stories as schools and workplaces continue re-opening. Take note of what people are questioning and find the right solutions for your homeowners as they need it.
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