As HVAC professionals, we have a special opportunity to make a real impact on our clients’ health and wellbeing, their overall comfort, and even the durability of the structures they own with indoor air quality services. That said, indoor air quality is a facet of our skillset that often gets overlooked. In our latest podcast, we talked with John Ellis and Rodney Koop, both Indoor Air Quality experts, about how contractors can expand their businesses and improve their clients’ quality of life with indoor air quality assessments and solutions.
What is Indoor Air Quality?
Simply put, Indoor Air Quality is the purity of the air in a space as it pertains to the occupants’ comfort. We might add that indoor air quality also has to do with protecting the health of a building and its occupants. For example, if a building’s humidity level is too high, the building and its occupants’ health can rapidly deteriorate. For this reason, assessing and maintaining IAQ is an important element in any HVAC professional’s work.
How to Price Indoor Air Quality Assessments and Solutions
Pricing for HVAC service and repairs is usually straightforward. But how do you price assessing a building for problems and offering solutions that will keep people healthy? It can be tricky, but we’ve come up with an easy-to-follow system to help HVAC contractors navigate the process.
It starts with putting a price on your expertise and wisdom as an experienced professional. A paid discovery process will require quite a bit of listening and exploring on your part, but it will offer a real solution to people who may have been told they should just accept their new health condition (for example, asthma) or worse, that they are simply imagining things.
You can finally offer your customers pricing options by following this three-tiered Indoor Air Quality discovery process.
IAQ
-INVESTIGATE
– ANALYZE
-QUOTE
With this discovery process, we can give hope to our clients. Giving practical solutions to control the air in their environment can go a long way towards restoring their health and comfort. Health and comfort are two factors that customers will always prioritize in their homes, and by taking the time to truly understand their circumstance, validate their concerns, and offer them real solutions, you will be able to provide them with renewed health and comfort.
When to Recommend or Hire a Subcontractor
When it comes to IAQ, you can develop skills to set yourself up as the expert. But, you need to know when it’s time to ask for help. From roof repairs to installing insulation, there are many projects that don’t fall specifically under the “HVAC” category. Your clients will likely prefer to entrust these to you – a contractor they already know and trust. Still, it’s important to know local regulations and only complete projects you are legally allowed to be working on. As you get into more and more IAQ projects, you will develop a network of these subcontractors whose work you can trust, and you will be better equipped to efficiently solve problems for your customers.
For example, if your client is complaining of poor health and you suspect mold, but aren’t able to identify the kind of mold or the extent of its growth in the house, it’s a good idea to call in a Certified Industrial Hygienist (CIH) to write up a full report. When you are armed with all the information, you can come up with permanent remediation solutions for your client.
To hear more about how you can incorporate indoor air quality solutions into your HVAC company’s repertoire, listen in as John Ellis and Rodney Koop discuss the topic on The New Flat Rate’s Podcast.
Show Notes:
- Defining indoor air quality with Rodney Koop and John Ellis. [2:00]
- The role of HVAC contractors in maintaining indoor air quality. [3:17]
- Why pricing is so important when it comes to IAQ. [4:33]
- Offering improved quality of life by finding indoor air quality solutions. [8:52]
- A three tiered discovery process: investigate, analyze, and quote. [12:10]
- Deciding what to sub out and what to do in-house. [17:08]
Links and Resources:
- The New Flat Rate
- Danielle Putnam
- John Ellis
- Rodney Koop
- IAQ Beta Test Program
