It’s no secret that HVAC contractors—even very experienced HVAC contractors—often use a patchwork of solutions to manage their interactions with customers: answering machines, phone services, file folders and Excel spreadsheets, and a whole lot of pen and paper.
Plenty of small businesses, and some larger ones, too, have turned a profit with this approach for many years.
Until relatively recently, of course, no one had much of a choice: There simply weren’t many solutions available to help business owners improve upon their existing processes.
But HVAC customer relationship management has many moving parts. Without a holistic system to keep them working seamlessly together, the processes can become a serious headache. And the results can be costly, leading to problems such as:
Workflow inefficiencies: Time wasted on tracking down customer information (e.g. work orders, estimates, invoices), and entering and re-entering the same information into multiple HVAC apps, spreadsheets, etc.
Poor communication & customer experiences: Failing to correspond with customers in a timely manner, or lacking the ability to communicate with customers through their preferred channels (text, email, phone, etc.).
Lost revenue opportunities: Difficulty tracking sold and unsold estimates, and failing to follow up and convert on open opportunities.
To help avoid these and other pitfalls, HVAC companies are increasingly turning to Customer Relationship Management apps, or CRMs. Meanwhile, companies that stick with the old-fashioned way of doing things are struggling to compete.
In this article, we’ll share 9 HVAC CRM software apps to consider for your HVAC business.
First, we’ll explain how our HVAC software, ServiceTitan, can help service businesses optimize their process for managing interactions with customers. Then, we’ll share 8 other HVAC CRM software apps on the market.
In total, we’ll cover:
If you’d like to learn more about how ServiceTitan can help your HVAC business become more efficient and grow revenue through improved customer relationships, schedule a call today.
1. ServiceTitan
How ServiceTitan Streamlines Customer Relationship Management
There are many different features within ServiceTitan that support customer relationship management. To simplify things, we’ll focus on the six basic categories that have the most customer-specific touchpoints:
Call Booking and Customer Pages: Collect and Access Customer Information on the Fly (And Automatically See Detailed Job Histories of Existing Customers)
ServiceTitan begins working to optimize customer service from the moment a call comes into the office.
Before a customer service representative even picks up a call, they can see the customer’s name and phone number—which the software provides via an automated process. That way, the CSR can greet the customer by name, setting them up for a personalized experience.
ServiceTitan can automatically provide details about the caller’s property, like the age and size of their home or commercial facility (e.g. office, school, government building, etc.), furnishing valuable clues about potential sales opportunities.
For example, if you run an HVAC and plumbing business, your CSR might be able to see that the caller likely has an aged air conditioning or heating system that’s due for replacement—a big-ticket item that represents a potentially lucrative sale.
If the caller is an existing customer, CSRs and dispatchers can see their customer page with their complete service history, including:
Name, service location, and billing information
Scheduled appointments and jobs
Estimates, outstanding work orders, and invoices
Status of maintenance agreements
And more
As such, CSRs and dispatchers are 100% up-to-date, able to save time and improve workflows by handling calls expertly and efficiently.
But whether the caller is a long-standing client or brand new to your business, all of their customer information is automatically logged and stored in one location—rather than in a disjointed system of spreadsheets and file folders.
As we’ve noted, ServiceTitan seamlessly links all of the core elements of an HVAC business:scheduling and dispatching, work order management, job management, and more.
When it comes to customer relationship management, all centrally stored, cloud-based customer data is easily and instantaneously accessible for use in marketing, follow-ups, and service agreement management, to name just a few possibilities.
Our Call Recording feature also provides field service technicians with access to recordings of homeowners’ conversations with CSRs and dispatchers. Before they arrive at a job site, they can listen to those recordings, arming themselves with all of the detailed information they need to provide the best possible customer service and do their best work.
Follow-Ups: Track & Close More Unsold Estimates
Whether you’re an electrician, a plumber, a general contractor, or an HVAC specialist, following up on unsold estimates is essential. As service industry veterans know, business owners often leave a lot of money on the table simply by forgetting—or lacking the time—to pursue those potential jobs.
Trying to track and follow up on bids, which are often delivered to different customers in different formats—by hand or mail, or as a PDF, via email—is challenging, particularly without the assistance of a CRM.
ServiceTitan addresses obstacles related to estimate follow-ups in several ways.
Like all documents created in ServiceTitan, estimates are printable, but the majority of our users deliver their bids via email. And when a customer opens an email containing a proposal, our HVAC service software sends an automatic notification to the contractor and/or their staff. That way, they can touch base with the homeowner, answer questions, and close.
Naturally, some estimates don’t get opened at all. ServiceTitan has an answer for that, too, by automatically reminding contractors and their employees to follow up. If an email bounces back, that generates an alert, so that misspellings and any other errors can be corrected.
But unsold estimates aren’t the only place where follow-up reminders come in handy. ServiceTitan also gives users the ability to automate SMS text reminders for upcoming recurring service events.
By using this feature, contractors can free up their CSRs to book more jobs and eliminate the need to call customers to remind them to schedule the service visits they’ve paid for as part of their maintenance agreements.
Text notifications are a great way to make sure those visits don’t fall through the cracks—guaranteeing to keep customers satisfied they’re getting their money’s worth.
The frequency, content, and audiences for automated text reminders are fully customizable and easy to set up, allowing ServiceTitan users to reach precisely the right segment of their customer base with the right message at the right time.
Reminder campaigns, delivered via text and/or email, can also be created to notify customers about upcoming maintenance agreement renewals and expirations, helping contractors to maintain steady revenue flow over the course of the year, even during relatively slow seasons.
For the majority of ServiceTitan subscribers, these follow-up features help produce higher close rates and a more reliable stream of revenue, leading to increased profitability.
Customer Experience: Modern Communication Features for Modern Customers
ServiceTitan provides robust functionality to allow users to keep customers engaged, informed, and comfortable on the day of a job.
Contractors can set up automatic SMS text notifications to remind homeowners of a scheduled consultation or HVAC job according to their preferences: the day before, 12 hours before, an hour before, etc.
The content of text notifications is fully customizable. But many of our users like to provide a relatively tight arrival window. That way, customers don’t have to wait around indefinitely, gradually losing their patience—and potentially becoming less inclined to do business with whoever is wasting their time.
Many ServiceTitan users also use pre-arrival text notifications to introduce the assigned HVAC technician to the customer with a quick bio. Generally a paragraph or two, with a photo attached—tech bios provide customers with a greater sense of comfort and security, allowing them to learn a bit about the person who will be working in or around their home. Plus, this gives your customer a way to confirm their technician's identity.
Our software’s GPS tracking feature provides additional day-of customer relationship management improvements.
From mobile devices including Android, iPhone, iPad, and other iOS products, homeowners or business owners can opt to track their tech’s arrival in real-time. This feature provides them with the most precise, up-to-date scheduling information possible, drastically enhancing their overall customer experience.
Customer Portal: Empower Customers to View Invoices, Make Payments, and More
ServiceTitan offers an array of features to help users get the most out of their customer relationships remotely, centralized in our Customer Portal.
Many of our users like to encourage their clients to make use of the customer portal by providing a link on their invoices. Once they’ve signed up, homeowners can use it to view and download invoices, upload credit card information, make payments, and view work and billing history.
Through the portal, customers can even view membership agreements and check on appointment times for upcoming visits. HVAC contractors can set up their portal to allow existing customers to submit requests for new appointments.
Marketing Pro: Reach the Right Customers at the Right Times to Drive More Revenue
For service business owners, creating effective email marketing campaigns can be an especially thorny task—a time-consuming and often confusing process of sifting customer data and trying to sync up email platforms with CRM software. For contractors attempting to run email marketing manually—without a single, centralized platform—the results are frequently imprecise: spray-and-pray rather than precisely targeted.
To solve these and related problems, ServiceTitan offers Marketing Pro, an upgrade to our HVAC business software that gives contractors the ability to quickly and easily generate professional, fully customizable, narrowly tailored email marketing campaigns.
Marketing Pro campaigns can be created for any purpose, but some of the most popular options for HVAC contractors include unsold estimate follow-ups, membership agreement renewals, and equipment replacement (for high-value items like air conditioning systems).
Unsold estimate and membership renewal campaigns often drastically reduce the amount of time that office employees must spend making phone calls, freeing them to answer incoming calls and book more jobs.
Proven, prebuilt templates for these and other purposes—like seasonal equipment service calls—are available to all Marketing Pro users, and can be further customized to meet the needs and preferences of individual HVAC shops.
Drawing on the centrally stored well of customer data housed on their ServiceTitan account, HVAC contractors can quickly and easily build target audiences based on conditions like: Memberships Expiring within 30 Days, Unsold Estimates within 5 Days, or Air Conditioning Systems Turning 10 within 6 Months.
Once they’ve selected a corresponding template, HVAC contractors can program their campaigns to land in recipients’ inboxes at exactly the right time. They can choose to send a one-time message, or set up their campaign as a recurring mailer, dictating the terms under which a campaign will continue or stop. For example, they might have it stop when an email has been opened, or only after a customer has renewed their membership, booked a job, or inquired about a quote.
Altogether, Marketing Pro features have boosted users’ membership renewal rates by 15%. Subscribers have also seen a 10% increase in conversions for unsold estimates and 12% growth in year-over-year revenue.
Transform Customer Relationship Management with ServiceTitan
In addition to the CRM features we’ve outlined in this post, ServiceTitan can help HVAC businesses with much more, including:
Job scheduling and dispatching
Customer support
Inventory management
Estimating and invoicing
Accounting software (Intacct and QuickBooks integration)
If you’d like to learn more about how ServiceTitan can help your HVAC business become more efficient and grow revenue through improved customer relationships, schedule a call today.
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Other HVAC Software with CRM Features
Understandably, many HVAC contractors want to explore multiple apps and software options before choosing one for their business. However, when looking at the software available, it’s difficult to tell the differences between products because—on the surface—they tend to offer the same sets of features.
So, to help you understand the differences between ServiceTitan and other popular HVAC software on the market, we’ve written detailed comparison articles on many of our top competitors, which you can find here.
In this next section, we’ll share 8 of these competitors, a brief description of the differences between our products, and a link to read the in-depth comparison article.
2. Jobber
Jobber is a field service scheduling software that also offers a wide range of other features for running a field service business. Like ServiceTitan, it offers functionality for estimating, quotes, scheduling, invoicing, and more.
However, when compared to Jobber, ServiceTitan offers:
More robust, native pricebook functionality
In-app access to top industry supplier equipment catalogs
Extensive marketing functionality that reduces the need for third-party marketing hires
More flexibility and customizability for membership plans and recurring services
Offline functionality for our mobile app that allows techs to work seamlessly (even when they’re out of cell service zones)
Deeper reporting capabilities that allow business owners to drill down into the sources of their data
For more details on these differences, check out our complete comparison article:Jobber vs. ServiceTitan
3. HouseCall Pro
Housecall Pro is a mobile field service management software solution for home service businesses. Similar to ServiceTitan, it offers a wide range of features outside of invoicing, such as scheduling and dispatching, estimates, QuickBooks integration, and more.
However, when compared to Housecall Pro, ServiceTitan offers:
Deeper native pricebook functionality
Ability to drill down further into reporting metrics and trust your numbers
Automated tagging features that help increase revenue
Gated work sequences and customizable forms to facilitate accountability across the organization
Offline functionality that allows techs to use our mobile app when out of cell service zones
For more details on these differences, check out our complete comparison article: Housecall Pro vs. ServiceTitan
4. Service Fusion
Service Fusion describes itself as an “All-In-One Field Service Management Software.” Like ServiceTitan, it offers a wide range of features, including estimates, invoices, customer management, scheduling and dispatching, and more.
However, ServiceTitan offers the following as a part of our base product (while Service Fusion charges extra for many of these features):
Robust membership billing capabilities (bulk membership billing, and automated monthly or annual billing options)
Scheduled report automations
Call booking automations for easier job booking and better customer experiences
Property data to spot sales opportunities and drive revenue
For more details on these differences, check out our complete comparison article: Service Fusion vs. ServiceTitan
5. FieldEdge
FieldEdge is a field service management software and field service app for service businesses. It offers a wide range of features like ServiceTitan, including functionality for quotes and invoicing, scheduling and dispatching, service agreements, and more.
However, ServiceTitan offers more for:
Residential Service Businesses
Integration with Google Local Services Ads
Seamless access to membership information during call booking
Adjustable capacity planning to optimize schedules for max profitability
Real-time technician tracking
Greater customization and drill-down capabilities for reports
Commercial Service Businesses
Ability to create customer-specific pricing
Built-in customer portal with base subscription
A suite of project management and project tracking tools for longer-term projects
Dynamic form capabilities that ensure staff follow best practices and improve data quality
Native equipment tracking and inventory management
For more details on these differences, check out our complete comparison article: FieldEdge vs. ServiceTitan
6. Successware®
Successware® is a business management solution for the trade industry, serving HVAC, electrical, plumbing, and other trade businesses. Their platform offers features such as call booking and CRM, dispatching and scheduling, a mobile app, and other tools for running a service business.
However, when compared to Successware®, ServiceTitan offers:
Integrations with top accounting software used by service businesses such as QuickBooks and Intacct
Clean, reliable, easily accessible data through practical and customizable reports (e.g. employee performance scorecards, service agreement reports, call conversion reports, etc.)
Robust customer experience features such as technician GPS tracking, technician bios, and SMS text updates that can be automated or managed through the dispatch board
Marketing ROI reports that show which campaigns, geographic areas, and incoming calls are generating the most revenues
A customer support team focused on building businesses—not just answering software questions
For more details on these differences, check out our complete comparison article: Successware® vs. ServiceTitan
7. Kickserv
Kickserv is another field service management software offering a variety of tools for large and small businesses. Like other FSM software, they provide a mobile app as well as desktop features for job management, scheduling, managing your workforce, and more.
However, when compared to Kickserv, ServiceTitan offers:
Mobile app with customer convenience features and stable offline functionality
Customizable forms and pricing tools in the field
Two-way SMS texting for customer inquiries and scheduling changes
Pre-appointment GPS Tech Tracking for accurate arrival times
End-to-End presentation mode: A visual pricing tool and estimate builder with good, better, best options
And more
To view these and other differences, check out the feature comparison chart on our comparison page: Kickserv vs. ServiceTitan
8. ServiceTrade
ServiceTrade is a field service software specializing in supporting commercial service businesses. Like other FSM software, they offer tools for scheduling and dispatching, a mobile app for field technicians, analytics for business management, and a variety of other tools for running operations.
However, when compared to ServiceTrade, ServiceTitan offers:
Robust features for residential service businesses whereas ServiceTrade is primarily commercial-focused (i.e. we’re more suitable for hybrid shops)
Greater capabilities to drill down into reporting data
A more streamlined call booking process with additional features such as access to property data
Deeper pricebook functionality that’s natively built into our software
For more details on these differences, check out our complete comparison article: ServiceTrade vs. ServiceTitan
9. ServiceMax
ServiceMax, like other field service solutions, is designed to provide better visibility into your field service operations. They offer a number of products, such as Asset 360 for Salesforce, ServiceMax core, ServiceMax FieldFX (their mobile app), and ServiceMax Engage (for customer engagement).
However, when compared to ServiceMax, ServiceTitan offers:
The ability to toggle smoothly from one feature to another without the hassle of opening multiple windows, programs, or add ons, which can disrupt workflow
Advanced customer communication features included in our base subscription (ServiceMax requires an add-on fee)
Highly customizable visual pricebooks that help grow average ticket prices and increase close rates
Service agreement features that are more tailored for service businesses
For more details on these differences, check out our complete comparison article: ServiceMax vs. ServiceTitan
ServiceTitan HVAC Software
ServiceTitan is a comprehensive HVAC business software solution built specifically to help service companies streamline their operations, boost revenue, and achieve growth. Our award-winning, cloud-based platform is trusted by more than 100,000+ contractors across the country.
