Taking Our Brand Culture to the Customer

But how do we turn that into something the customer sees value in? We do that by documenting everything by creating something we call a portfolio. This portfolio is a collection of customer measurement data where we can show a percentage of improvement. Then we can market that to our team. What better way to explain why we do what we do?

‘Look at how we made these customers’ systems work better than if we had just changed out their equipment.’

Next, we plan to use this same information in our external marketing. This will help educate customers on the benefits of our approach.

By documenting it, we can show customers the facts. People are smart. If they see the average improvements we’ve made in other people’s homes, that will sell them.

We can say, “Here are all our clients who had similar problems to yours, and what our process did to not only correct the problems but truly improve comfort and save them energy dollars. Here’s what these customers chose to do and how it improved their systems.”

The portfolio also shows potential clients that other people are investing money and fixing these issues with solid results.
Think about those television commercials that promote numbers: ‘Nine out of 10 dentists recommend this because of that.’ They do the numbers because people buy based on trusted testimony.

For Lakeside, we promote our brand by sharing trusted testimony. ‘Your neighbors did this, and it worked. It’s up to you, but it’s worth doing.’

Branding Using Third-Party Endorsements

This portfolio approach is part of our marketing. We also discuss our brand culture using third-party endorsements and materials from organizations like National Comfort Institute. We use a lot of their collateral material to help raise consumer awareness by finding ways to get them to ask about high-performance HVAC before our team arrives at their house.

This collateral includes facts like 80% of duct systems are sized improperly. Again, third-party experts make a case for us.

We’re currently working on an email promotion for high-performance sales and installations. Anytime a customer sets an appointment for new equipment, we send an email explaining how long the installation will take and why. We present load calculations, recommendations from the Department of Energy, and so on.

The email positions our salesman to have a conversation with the homeowner. This is where the portfolio approach I am working on will come to play.

In the meantime, part of that conversation includes what makes Lakeside different. We go beyond showing our numbers and history.

Our third-party partnerships also help set us apart in our marketplace. These endorsements show how our brand culture benefits the consumer. For example, Lakeside Service partners with Pearl Certification. Pearl is an organization that makes high-performance home value visible to help homeowners, contractors, builders, energy raters, and real estate professionals. It’s a tool for homeowners who want to understand how their homes perform, showing them how to improve that performance.

Why do this? Because our competitors tell consumers they also do what we do, or some version of it. We’ve successfully used Pearl as a third-party validation body to prove what we say is true.

In our market, we’re the only Pearl Pro contractor. That means we get to tell consumers that a third party validates our work and puts it on a registry. The homeowner can then use that to help improve the value of their house.

In general, Pearl is raising the level of awareness that not all HVAC jobs are equal. There’s a significant difference between what Lakeside Service does and what other companies do.

Brand Culture Key Performance Indicators

When it comes to measuring how successful we are, we track opportunities. We track jobs that convert into money: revenue from a sale or installation, a service call, a plumbing call, or whatever.

When it comes to system performance, once we complete our installation and do the startup, we measure the system all over again. Those results are returned to the office, examined, and entered into our computer system.

Data is only good if it is used. At Lakeside, somebody is always touching this information. They may not be analyzing it, but it’s recorded and used. Our number one metric is the callback percentage. The lower that number, the better. Our Service Titan software tracks this.

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