What an HVAC company needs live before the first hot week

For a lot of heating and cooling companies, the first properly hot week arrives sometime in May. That week starts the stretch of the year that pays the bills, and almost everything that decides how it goes has to be built before it gets here.

The equipment side of the trade plans for this already. AHRI’s monthly shipment figures show distributors stocking up well ahead of the heat: roughly 636,000 central air conditioners and air-source heat pumps shipped in February 2025, about 819,000 in March, and about 862,000 in May, the biggest month of the year. Demand from homeowners runs a few weeks behind. In EIA’s Monthly Energy Review, population-weighted cooling degree days went from 58 in April 2025 to 127 in May, 278 in June and 391 in July.

So the window for marketing work is March and April. This is what we would want live by the end of it.

The badge takes longer than the weather gives you

If you are not running Local Services Ads yet, apply this month. Google’s help pages put the average screening time at three to four weeks after documents are submitted, and the HVAC checks are among the heavier ones: background checks on the business, the owner and the technicians who go into homes, proof of general and professional liability insurance, state licenses where your state requires them, and a public, verified Google Business Profile.

Apply in March and the Google Verified badge should be on your listing before the heat. Apply in late May and you may spend the busiest weeks on pre-badge ads, which Google places below fully verified companies.

While the checks run, tidy the profile itself. Make sure the hours say what the office really does in summer, the service area matches the towns your trucks actually reach, and the photos show your own vans, crews and installs rather than stock images.

Tune-ups are the reason to call before anything breaks

ENERGY STAR’s maintenance checklist tells homeowners to “check the cooling system in the spring and the heating system in the fall”, and gives the reason in plain words: contractors get busy once summer and winter come. The Department of Energy’s Energy Saver guidance adds that a regular maintenance schedule “can help reduce your heating and cooling costs by 10% or more and will prolong the life of the equipment.”

That is the most persuasive message a heating and cooling company has in March, because it comes from the government rather than from you. Put it in the reminder to past customers, on the tune-up page and in any spring ads.

Spring is also the time to sell maintenance agreements. A homeowner survey for ACHR News, with data from 2024, asked what people expect from a plan: most were looking at about $100 a year, along with discounts on parts and labor, priority service and two inspections a year. Whatever you charge, build the plan around those four things and describe it in those terms.

A simple spring sequence covers most of it:

• A reminder to every past customer in March, naming the tune-up and the reason to book before the heat.
• A second message in April to anyone who has not booked, with real dates offered.
• A maintenance-plan offer to everyone who books, made by the technician on site and followed up by text the same day.

Last summer’s reviews are already old

BrightLocal’s 2026 Local Consumer Review Survey, published last month, found that 74% of consumers only care about reviews written in the last three months, and 32% look for reviews from the last two weeks. For an HVAC company, the reviews collected during last summer’s rush count for very little by the time this summer begins.

Spring tune-ups are the easiest reviews you will get all year. The visit is unhurried, nothing is broken, and the homeowner is usually standing right there. Ask after every one, by text, with the direct link, and reply to each review in your own words rather than with a template.

Fix the replacement copy before the replacement calls

The first hot week also brings the systems that will not start again, and some of those turn into replacements. Check three things on your replacement pages and ads while there is still time:

• The federal tax credit is gone. The 25C credit does not apply to equipment placed in service after December 31, 2025, so any page still promising money back on a heat pump installed this year has to change.
• Refrigerant claims have to be accurate. EPA’s rules, as they stand, require new split systems installed from January 1, 2026 to use a refrigerant under 700 GWP, and the newer refrigerants cannot go into equipment that was not designed for them. Existing R-410A systems can still be repaired with similar R-410A parts for the rest of their useful life. Telling a homeowner their working system is illegal is wrong, and they can check.
• Financing needs its disclosures. Under Regulation Z, an ad that names a monthly payment or a number of months must also show the APR, the down payment and the repayment terms.

Test the phone before June does it for you

None of the above matters if the calls go to voicemail. Before May, ring your own main number at 6 pm on a weekday and at 10 am on a Saturday, and write down exactly what happened. If the caller reached a recording, decide now what will happen in its place in June: an answering service that can book, a technician on call, or software that answers and schedules the visit.

What to do this month

• Start or finish the Local Services Ads application so the checks are complete before May.
• Send the spring tune-up reminder to every past customer, quoting ENERGY STAR’s spring and fall advice.
• Rewrite your maintenance-plan offer around price, discounts, priority service and two visits a year.
• Ask for a review after every spring tune-up and reply to each one personally.
• Take down any federal tax credit claims and reread the refrigerant and financing wording on replacement pages.
• Call your own line after hours, then fix whatever you hear.

How the rest of the year runs for heating and cooling companies, from the summer peak to the November cold snap, is on our HVAC marketing page. The reminders, plan renewals and review requests above are the kind of follow-up we build in GoHighLevel, so they go out on time without anyone in the office remembering to send them.