An HVAC company's year is shaped by the weather. The first cold snap in October and the first 90-degree week in June bring more calls than the office can answer, and the shoulder seasons leave technicians underbooked. In between, replacement quotes go cold, maintenance agreements lapse and invoices for commercial work sit unpaid.
InTheory acts as your fractional AI and technology lead. We would choose one expensive recurring workflow, such as overflow call handling or replacement quote follow-up, measure it in ServiceTitan, Housecall Pro or whatever you run, and improve it with your CSRs, dispatchers and comfort advisors. People still approve prices, diagnoses and anything that commits a truck.
On a hot July Monday or the morning after a freeze, calls arrive faster than CSRs can take them. Callers who reach voicemail ring the next company on Google. Each missed no-cool or no-heat call is a service ticket lost, and sometimes a replacement or a maintenance agreement customer lost for good.
Comfort advisors present good, better, best options at the kitchen table, then the homeowner says they will think about it. Without disciplined follow-up, many of those quotes simply expire. A system replacement is the largest ticket in residential HVAC, so a weak follow-up habit is costly.
Spring and fall leave technicians with gaps while summer and winter overwhelm them. Maintenance agreement tune-ups are the natural way to fill shoulder weeks, but scheduling them is often left until the phones are already busy, so visits slip and members feel neglected.
Call tracking, the field service platform, QuickBooks, the financing portal and marketing dashboards each hold part of the picture. Owners end up building a spreadsheet on Monday to see booking rate, average ticket, close rate and agreement count, or they run the business without those numbers.
We fix one at a time, starting with the one that costs you most. Each page shows the steps, the tools, what stays human and what we would measure.
Answer overflow and after-hours calls, capture the equipment issue, address and membership status, book from real availability and escalate no-heat emergencies to the on-call technician immediately.
See the workflow →Match calls to the right technician by skill, location and parts on the truck, keep customers informed of arrival times and reduce the dispatcher's day of phone calls and reshuffling.
See the workflow →Turn a comfort advisor's home visit notes, load calculation and photos into consistent good, better, best replacement options with current equipment pricing, rebates and financing for the advisor to review.
See the workflow →Follow up on every open replacement and repair quote with timely, personal messages and calls, so homeowners who said they would think about it hear from you before a competitor's offer arrives.
See the workflow →Ask satisfied customers for a Google review or a referral at the right moment after the job, and route any unhappy response to a manager before it becomes a public complaint.
See the workflow →Schedule maintenance agreement visits in shoulder seasons, remind members before renewals and flag aging equipment for a replacement conversation, so agreements renew and members stay members.
See the workflow →Collect at the time of service for residential calls and follow up on commercial and builder invoices on a fixed schedule, with the office manager deciding on payment plans or holds.
See the workflow →Show booking rate, close rate, average ticket, agreement count and technician revenue in one view refreshed automatically, so owners and managers stop rebuilding a spreadsheet every Monday.
See the workflow →How we deliver this: AI automation for small business or fractional CTO leadership, scoped in writing and run over 90 days. See pricing or the sample scope.
We start with what you already pay for. New tools have to earn their place.
HVAC companies hold customer addresses, gate codes, phone numbers, call recordings and payment details. Call recording consent, text message consent under the TCPA and secure handling of card data are the main concerns. EPA Section 608 refrigerant records and manufacturer warranty registrations also need to be kept accurately. Any AI tool listening to calls or texting customers should run under your agreements, store data in your systems and not train on it. This is general information, not legal advice.
General information, not legal advice.
Defaults are illustrative for HVAC companies (system replacements sold per month). Change them to your numbers.
a month in staff time, before any lost sales
Illustration only, not a forecast or guarantee. Recovered staff time becomes a cash saving only if spending actually declines or the time goes into paid work. Tool costs are an assumption; we replace every number here with yours before recommending a scope.
It can if it is set up loosely. A good setup books only from your real availability in ServiceTitan or Housecall Pro, follows your call-type rules, escalates no-heat calls and anything involving gas smells to a person, and is reviewed daily at first. CSRs keep handling complex or upset callers.
You may not. Many contractors use a small share of what their field service platform offers, such as follow-up campaigns, membership tools or dashboards. A typical first step is configuring what you already pay for, and only adding a separate tool where there is a real gap.
Spring or fall shoulder seasons. Diagnosing and building in April or October means the improvement is tested before peak heating or cooling demand. Starting in the middle of a heat wave is possible for a narrow fix, but your team will not have time to adopt anything bigger.
We agree measures before building, such as booking rate, missed calls, quote close rate or agreement renewals, and take a baseline from your own data. At the end of 90 days we compare against that baseline. If the numbers do not move, we say so and change course.
We focus on established contractors, roughly 5 to 150 people, with a measurable bottleneck and the budget for a 90-day engagement. A three-truck shop may get more from a few settings changes in Jobber or Housecall Pro than from a paid engagement, and we would tell you that.
In 30 minutes we look at one recurring workflow, what it costs you today and whether there is a credible case to improve it. If there is not, we will say so.
30 minutes with Phil or Martin. No technical brief, no pitch deck. Phil or Martin replies personally, usually within one business day.