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When you run an HVAC business, inventory represents an area of everyday concern. In fact, your success can come down to how you manage your inventory and how you utilize the information your inventory management system provides. While you can keep detailed records by hand, using HVAC software for inventory management can increase efficiency, eliminate mistakes, and even provide new marketing opportunities.
Create More Thorough Work Orders
A detailed work order can save you time and money by preparing your technicians for what to anticipate on an upcoming service call. Ordinarily, a dispatcher will create a work order heedless of your company’s actual inventory situation, simply because they don’t have the relevant information handy. With HVAC software like Smart Service, users can see the inventory on hand, as well as the inventory in each service vehicle:
HVAC software makes it easy to assign inventory to a job. Smart Service goes a step further, preventing users from assigning a product to a job if you don’t have that product in stock. This lets you rest assured that you go into each job prepared and ready to work. (Remember those back and forth trips you used to make because you forgot a necessary piece of equipment? Yeah, with inventory management software, that’s a thing of the past.) You can even easily adjust pricing so that equipment prices are uniform and billing is completed correctly!
Know What to Order More Of
When supplies of a certain piece of equipment run low, you can receive alerts to remind you to order more of that item. Set individually specified thresholds on your HVAC software so you are never left short-stocked. Smart Service allows you to set restock points for each item in your inventory:
There’s nothing worse than realizing you’re missing just one piece and realizing it’ll take at least a few weeks to get a replacement shipped out to you. Don’t lose customers to scenarios you can avoid!
Don’t Lose Money
When you run a business, you can lose potential profits in a stunning variety of ways. Pricing your HVAC services well is one of the most basic ways you can make sure you’re not missing out on possible cash. If you are priced too low, you could be going all Robin Hood on yourself. So, listen up! Managing inventory through HVAC software allows you to see what you paid for a part in relation to what you charge for it. Each invoice should reflect positive cash flow for your HVAC business. Because Smart Service gives you a snapshot of where your inventory is stored, you can also avoid making bad purchasing decisions. You might think you’re out of 9V batteries, but an untapped stockpile may just be sitting in a technician’s truck. Your inventory is taxed, and the last thing you want to do is pay more in taxes than you have to due to stagnant inventory. (Sorry, Uncle Sam.) Start cleaning out those old stockpiles!
Understand Customer Behavior for HVAC Sales and Marketing
When managing your HVAC inventory, you can attain good insight into your customers’ behavior. This helps you develop more strategic marketing and sales efforts. When it comes to selling HVAC equipment, your inventory activity can tell you which items and services to sell more of. This helps you decide to push low-selling items or items that have gotten a good response from your customers. You can also use previous purchases to predict future ones and anticipate upcoming trends. You thought ripped jeans were trendy? Ha! Try air filters—now those are cool right now. You know what else is cool? You can apply inventory management data from Smart Service to various marketing platforms. For example, you can run a report in Smart Service that isolates customers who purchased a particular HVAC unit:
Once you have this list, you can target an email marketing campaign to these customers, asking them to start a maintenance package for their new investment. Targeting campaigns makes them more personal, thereby yielding better results. You can even use trends in inventory supply to create coupons for items in demand.
Keep Track of Your HVAC Equipment
HVAC software with GPS capabilities allows you to manage your inventory even when it’s not at home base. With HVAC businesses, inventory is rarely stored in a warehouse; each truck in your fleet contains a portion of what you have in stock. Even though your inventory is on-the-move, you should still be aware of its whereabouts, along with the whereabouts of your other assets: your techs. If they’re taking one too many breaks on the company dime, HVAC software with GPS functionality can let you know. (Or it could just be that Bob, your lead tech, has a bladder infection and can’t stop taking bathroom breaks. Get it together, Bob. Be better about drinking water.) This Smart Service screen shows the whereabouts of a company’s technicians:
Thanks to the mobile component of the Smart Service HVAC software system, office users know the whereabouts of company assets at all times. This allows for the easy location of misplaced items and an assurance that nothing goes missing right under your nose. While you should trust the work that your technicians do, sometimes even our best workers make mistakes. With Smart Service, you don’t have to worry about that. You can easily see who ordered what product to correct any issues with your inventory.
Conclusion
When running a successful HVAC business, it can be easy to lose track of all your moving parts (literally). HVAC software like Smart Service makes things easier for you by allowing you to manage your inventory digitally. A central hub for inventory and other administrative tasks gives you an easy way to keep your business in a constant state of growth. If you would like to learn more about managing inventory with HVAC software, call us at 888-518-0818 or schedule a demo today!
