Arguing about insulation never stops, and certainly one of the livelier and better-informed debaters is Allison Bailes of Energy Vanguard. In his terrific blog on August 10, Bailes continued his series about radiant barriers with a reminder that a great way to render them useless is to apply spray foam to them. “If you're thinking of radiant barrier roof decking and spray foam insulation, make sure you understand that radiant barrier roof decking does not work with spray foam insulation on it. It's an either/or choice.”
Seeing red over green roofs. Joe Lstiburek can sniff out the BS in any suspect building science case, and in this BuildingScience.com post on August 15 he wrote that while he likes green roofs (because “they can look beautiful”), they’re expensive and do not save energy better than well-insulated roofs do. Read why he is adamantly against making green roofs bylaw requirements, as some cities have recently done.
Speaking of Joe Lstiburek, Michael Chandler was one of the lucky building science pros to get a coveted invitation to the annual “building science summer camp” Lstiburek holds at his house each summer. In this post on Green Building Advisor, Chandler describes the many things he learned about tankless water heaters, including what can go wrong.
Affordably achieving net zero. Martha’s Vineyard isn’t just a summer-vacation destination; it’s also a year-round laboratory for building science experimentation. Check out this account in daily5REMODEL of eight affordable, single-family homes that were designed to achieve net-zero energy use. Designed and built by South Mountain Company, the super insulated, solar-electric-powered homes just celebrated their first full year of habitation; extensive data analysis shows that two of them produced more energy than they used, and two others very nearly did.
Retrofitting 10,000 homes. August was a banner month in Massachusetts, where officials announced that 10,000 homes have been weatherized using federal economic stimulus (ARRA) funds over the last two years. They expect to double that number before the state’s $125 million in federal funds runs out. Story here.
Beefing up WAP. While we’re on the topic of weatherization, here’s a broad overview from the July/August Home Energy magazine about the federal Weatherization Assistance Program (WAP), and the massive training initiatives that lie ahead to equip a qualified workforce.
Passive house organizations, actively divorcing. Green Building Advisor provides an ongoing account of the rift between the Passive House Institute US and the European-based Passivhaus Institute, whose founder on August 17 declared that “breaches of contract and good faith” forced it to sever ties with the U.S. satellite organization.
Events ahead:
New York Contractor Exchange, Tarrytown, NY, September 13-14
KEAA Energy Efficiency Conference, Harrisburg, PA, September 20-21
Solar Decathlon, Washington, DC, September 23-October 2
Remodeling Show 2011, Chicago, IL, October 12-15
Leah Thayer is the founder and producer of daily5Remodel, a weekday news and business intelligence feed for remodeling professionals. She was a senior editor at Hanley Wood’s Remodeling magazine from 2004 – 2010, and has 20 years of experience as an award-winning business writer, editor and content producer.
Look honestly and objectively at your website and Internet strategy in general. Does it work? A website that works is one that makes, or helps you make, money. It delivers leads and sales, and it decreases your overall cost per customer acquisition (CCA).
Cost per customer acquisition (CCA) is the key metric for all of your marketing efforts. A low CCA means your marketing strategy is working and you are inexpensively attracting more leads and closing more business.
Starting at the Beginning – Why People Go Online
There are four reasons why people go online:
To get information or get educated – There’s a reason why search engines are the most oft-visited sites on the Internet. You should remember that every search that someone conducts is a question, and it’s important to understand what your customers and prospects are searching for in order to ensure that you are meeting their needs online.
To transact business – People will often go online to directly transact business. Think Amazon.com. Sometimes the original intent of going online is to conduct business, while other times the seeking out of information is the pathway to converting them (the web term for a lead or a sale).
To communicate and network – Facebook. LinkedIn. Hundreds of other social media sites. And let’s not overlook email communication. People are online to communicate, network, and talk to one another.
To be entertained – Leave this one to the pros. Your website should not serve as a source of entertainment with games or irrelevant videos. Nobody is coming to your website for fun. They are coming to your site to get information, possibly to transact business and if you are really forward-thinking, to communicate via social media, blogs, etc.
Understanding search - Every word or string of words that is entered into the Google search bar is really a question. If a homeowner types in “energy efficiency” (and by the way, more than 800,000 people did so in the month of July) they could really be asking “How can I make my home more energy efficient?” or perhaps “Who do I call to make my home more energy efficient?”
Does your website have the answers?
The devil in the details - analytics
As I mentioned previously, the goal of any website and online marketing campaign should be to achieve the lowest CCA. In order to convert people to sales, you need to attract them to your site so they become leads first. And your analytics reports will show you how your search engine optimization campaign is performing because it answers these questions: Is my site is working? And if it’s not, what should I do about it?
Here are some key metrics that your analytics will measure for you:
- Unique visits-
the number of visits to your website, counting each person only once, no matter how many times they’ve visited - Traffic source-
how the user got to your site, e.g., Google, link from a referring site, typing the name directly into the address bar of their web browser, etc. - Keywords-
a list of keywords used to find the site and the number of visits for each - Content-
which pages your users visited and how long they stayed on each page - Ranking-
how high your keyword is ranked on a search engine’s results page (if it’s not in or close to the top 10, it’s not working for you)
Understanding your analytics is the key to generating traffic to your website, and ultimately converting them. To illustrate why this is so important, let’s look at energy efficiency. From our keyword research, we know that it generates hundreds of thousands of searches. If your analytics tell you that you are not generating traffic from that phrase, then you need to optimize a page that will. The headline, Your #1 Source for Energy Efficiency Repair in (your town), might just do it!
Conversely, imagine that you are generating traffic to your site from the keyword phrase energy efficiency, but your analytics tell you that you have a very high “bounce rate” (users land on the page and leave immediately). This means that your prospects aren’t finding the information they are looking for and are leaving right away instead of spending time on your site. And worse, it also means that the search engines will rank you lower because high bounce rates tell them that you’re not answering their users’ questions.
Search engine marketing (SEM)
Done right, search engine marketing can be an important part of your online marketing mix. The most common form of SEM is pay-per-click advertising. You can drive traffic to your website by buying ad space on the search engine results pages. The price you pay is determined by the going rate for the keywords you select (it’s like an auction) and how many times the ad is “clicked.” You don’t pay for appearing on the page; you only pay when somebody clicks on your ad.
Pay-per-click advertising can be highly effective, because you get exactly what you pay for and tracking the results is an instantaneous process.
Websites that DON’T Work
Once you’ve worked hard to get prospects to your site, you want to make sure you don’t lose them by committing design mistakes that will cause your prospects to leave quickly. Take an objective look at your website and make sure you aren’t employing any of these common mistakes:
Site is too busy: Confusing color schemes and overuse of buttons and links can overwhelm your prospect.
You’re over-using images: While pictures are important to support your copy and relieve the eye, they are not searchable and too many can lower your ranking results.
Too hard to navigate: Inconsistent drop-down menus, excessive fly-out buttons, and links that don’t change color all make it easy for the user to “get lost” in the site.
The text is confusing: Use the four-second rule: visitors should understand what your site is about in four seconds or less. Look at your own home page. If it weren’t your company, would you understand instantly what it is that you do and what services you offer?
Your site annoys the prospect: Auto-play music and video, and moving backgrounds or pictures that serve no purpose is intrusive and interrupts the user experience.
We’d be happy to take a look at your website and give you some pointers to make it work for you. You can send an email with your website address to bfox@warmthoughts.com. Next issue, I’ll focus on direct mail strategies for selling energy audits and home performance services.
Blaine Fox, Vice President of Warm Thoughts Communications, is a recognized expert on the residential mechanical services industry and is accredited as a LEED-AP. He is currently working with some of the nation’s leading energy efficiency contractors to improve their marketing, fine-tune their operations, and grow bottom-line profits. Previously, Blaine was general manager of ServiceMark, an HVAC contractor with more than 25,000 service agreement customers. Blaine is a sought-after speaker and frequent contributor to such publications as the Journal of Indoor Comfort Marketing and the “HVAC-Talk” e-newsletter. 
Month after month, you review your maintenance agreement numbers and find that they are dwindling each time you look at them. The last few years may have been tough in a lot of different areas of your company, but in many cases, your service department got hit twice. First, when all those customers who renewed their maintenance agreement year after year decided not to renew their agreement last year. Then, even though you ended up visiting them more with service issues because their systems were not properly maintained, you again saw reduced revenues because some of the parts were under extended manufacturers’ warranties. You could not charge for the parts or recognize the material profits that could have been.
We May Be Part of the Problem
Did you ever think that maybe the way you look at maintenance agreements may be a part of the problem? As contractors, we tend to look at this part of our company and focus on the HVAC tune-up. That’s the wrong approach. It doesn’t matter what trade you specialize in – the house is a home performance system. This complete system is made up of several different components including the HVAC system, insulation, windows, doors, electrical system, etc. These are all sub-systems of the home. You know that when the system is properly maintained, it will cost less to operate. Your clients will use less water, have fewer drafts, be more comfortable, draw less electricity, heat for less, and the list goes on and on. That needs to be a major part of your message.
They May Not Really GoneThe past few years have been rough for most people. Everyone was reconsidering where they spent their money. For many, that meant that they did not renew the maintenance agreement with your company, even though they recognize the value that it (and your company) provides. It was all about calculated risks for your customers. They were gambling that their system could go one year without a check. Once their financial picture improves, they will likely be back.
Now is the time to be talking!
Now is the time to reconnect with these customers who opted to drop out of your maintenance agreement program. We are fast approaching the new heating season, and a reminder will bring some of these lost customers back into the fold. Send them a letter letting them know that you want them back. Offer a "returning customer” discount. Remind them of the benefits of owning a maintenance agreement and that a properly maintained system works better. Keep in mind that many of your customers who did not renew their agreements over the last couple of years my even be embarrassed that they dropped the program and simply need an invitation to come back.
Improve your payment options … and your work-flow
This is a great time to change your payment options. Offering the ability to pay monthly allows your customer to ease the hit on their cash flow if you offer monthly payments. It's much easier to handle $22 per month than it is to cough up $266. You are always looking for ways to level out your cash flow. Why wouldn't your customers want to do the same thing?
There are several other benefits to offering monthly payment terms for your maintenance agreements. Let's look at a few of them.
Better cash flow - By allowing your customers to pay monthly, you now have a steady stream of revenue coming every month. Level out some of those cash flow peaks and valleys.
Fewer cancellations - Once your customers are set up on monthly payments for their maintenance agreements, they will tend to just let it go. Add verbiage to your agreement that, after the first year, the program will remain in effect until the customer notifies you that they no longer wish to participate. You will find that most will just let the program in place indefinitely. All you have to do is continue to call and schedule their check-ups.
More effective scheduling - One of the limiting factors for any maintenance-agreement program is your ability to schedule the system checks on a regular basis. You know how it goes - you have called every customer at least three times to schedule agreements and never got a call back. You owe them the check because they paid for it; you struggle with the fact that you collected the money but are not able to provide the service. Many contractors are realizing a major benefit to monthly billing here as well. It is not uncommon that after placing at least three calls to every agreement customer to schedule their seasonal check, they have only been able to get out to about 70% of those who pay annually. At the same time, they typically get a response and get put to see about 93% of those customers who pay monthly. Do the math. How much does it cost to have your staff call your customers over and over only to leave another message?
Automate the process
Talk to your credit card processor and sign up for Automated Recurring Billing (ARB). Most have this available. If they don't, consider changing processors to one who does. With ARB, you simply log into your account on their website and set up a subscription for your customer. For example, you tell the system that you want to charge them for $22 on the first of every month for the next 12 months or until you manually cancel the subscription. Once done, the system will automatically charge the customer on the assigned day and send you an email with the confirmation number. I recommend that you set all of your charges to the same one or two days each month. That way, you only have to post payments to account on one or two days as opposed to doing a few each day. If you need a recommendation of a processor to use, send me an email. Mine works great.
The economy is slowly healing, and step by step, our industry is making progress. It's time to bring back those customers who were forced to drop out of your maintenance agreement program due to the recession. Welcome them by extending the invitation and making it easy to return.
Bill Kinnard is Vice President for the North Region of Grandy & Associates. He has 26 years experience in HVAC Sales, Service Management, Sales Management and Customer Service, and has been recognized for “Best Practices” by Carrier Corporation for technical and customer service training. He has conducted over 10,000 student hours of technical training and over 2,500 student hours of customer service training. Grandy & Associates provides business training exclusively to the service and trades industry. The firm has trained over 16,000 contractors across the US and Canada on how to run profitable businesses.
Joel Key (pictured right), General Manager of Healthy Home Diagnostics, was quick on the draw for last month’s game – he hit 'send' on the right answer within 20 minutes of newsletter publication! Readers will recall the problem was with a newly built house that didn't pass the building airflow standard. The blower door test revealed that the band joist area between the first and second floors, which by rights should have been inside the house, was directly connected to the outdoors. Joel’s answer: “My thoughts would be that the heated garage is below a vented attic and the plywood sheathing, while going below the insulation, is not extending all the way to the bottom of the band joist and or blocking was not added to each joist bay. Air was being pulled in thru the attic vents (eve, soffit, ridge, etc) through the insulation and gap under the sheathing right into the interstitial space between the floors.”
Thanks also to Macon Parker of Charlotte, NC, who sent us his solution to the problem: “Install a pressure boundary (with plywood or rigid foam) and air seal with spray foam. Additionally we have found that the insulation beneath the floor is often falling down and inadequate and we have dense packed this area with cellulose to act as a partial barrier, as it is often very cost prohibitive to remove drywall, air seal the band joist and install adequate supports for the insulation in the floor above the garage.”
Joel Key has over 19 years of experience in the home building and service industry. His interest in building science began ten years ago when he assisted NAHB in a study determining the total energy efficiency of various types of construction. Most recently Joel served as a Building Science and Weatherization instructor at Wilson Technical Community College and on the BPI National Committee for forced air duct standards. Opened in 2007, Healthy Home Diagnostics’ purpose is to help customers have more energy efficient, comfortable and healthier homes. The firm specializes in energy audits and retrofits of existing homes, offering everything from geothermal HVAC and solar water heating systems to home weatherization.
Below is this month’s puzzler, a test of your home performance know how. Figure out what is going wrong with this house, write it up along with your prescribed solution, and send it to us at lmcdowell@bpi.org . If you’re the first person to get the right answer, we’ll feature you, your company and your answer in the next issue of Performance Matters!
The Problem:
Thanks to Jason Spratley, a Quality Control Field Manager for Conservation Services Group, for this month’s stumper! The exterior walls of a two family colonial in Worcester, Massachusetts were insulated with dense packed cellulose. The home was approximately 60 years old, vinyl-sided, with forced hot air heating and central cooling. Four months after the work was completed, the homeowner called to report an area of mildew growing on the outside of her house. An inspection confirmed that there was a nearly circular area of wetness and mildew staining on the exterior siding. The area was about three feet in diameter, at eye level, and only one spot on the house was affected. An infrared scan of the wall revealed no apparent voids, and a blower door re-test confirmed that the installer achieved a significant decrease in draftiness. Think you know what the problem is, as well as the solution? Send it to us at lmcdowell@bpi.org.
Send us your stumpers!
You know - that problem house, symptom or combination of symptoms that confounded the homeowner and challenged all your building science savvy to solve. Send us a description of the problem – and the solution, which we’ll keep a secret. If it’s a genuine stumper, we’ll publish it in the next Performance Matters e-newsletter. Send to lmcdowell@bpi.org, or call 202-223-9510 x208 to phone it in, and we’ll write it up!
| New York Contractor Exchange |
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"Growing Your Business in a Difficult Market" The goal of the New York Contractor Exchange is to help contractors grow their business in the emerging home performance and clean energy markets. The Exchange will also highlight the opportunities available through the Home Performance with ENERGY STAR® program. |
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KEEA Energy Efficiency Conference 2011 At this two-day conference focused on Pennsylvania, hear about industry developments from utility representatives, industry leaders, and state and federal officials. Gain insight into existing programs and pending legislation to find out how one can take advantage of opportunities to reduce energy consumption. Network with others in the energy efficiency industry and help KEEA accelerate the pace of market transformation in the Keystone State. Click here for further informationAdditional ACI events listed below: ACI Home Energy Trainer Conference 2011 Colorado ENERGY STAR Summit 2011 New York ENERGY STAR for Homes Conference 2012 ACI National Home Performance Conference 2012 |
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