1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:09,840 Welcome to the future, technologies and innovations that sculpt our industry. 2 00:00:09,840 --> 00:00:16,120 This episode brought to you by SmartAC.com, providing comfort without concern. 3 00:00:16,120 --> 00:00:23,160 Learn more at SmartAC.com. 4 00:00:23,160 --> 00:00:25,400 Well hello everyone, thank you for joining Did You Know? 5 00:00:25,400 --> 00:00:28,040 The ESCO HVAC Podcast. 6 00:00:28,040 --> 00:00:31,200 So today we're spending time with Andrew Fuselier from SmartAC. 7 00:00:31,200 --> 00:00:33,280 Andrew, thanks for joining us. 8 00:00:33,280 --> 00:00:38,680 So give us a little bit of background behind SmartAC and how it evolved because we're starting 9 00:00:38,680 --> 00:00:45,320 to hear a lot of buzz about the process, the equipment, the opportunity that it provides 10 00:00:45,320 --> 00:00:47,880 to the industry, especially with legacy systems. 11 00:00:47,880 --> 00:00:51,480 And we'd like to learn a little bit more about it today. 12 00:00:51,480 --> 00:00:58,360 Yeah, so it actually started right about six years ago. 13 00:00:58,360 --> 00:01:02,620 There was a company that existed that we had before this and we were primarily focused 14 00:01:02,620 --> 00:01:09,000 on energy efficiency around air conditioning and that was kind of the direction that we've 15 00:01:09,000 --> 00:01:10,800 been heading for a while. 16 00:01:10,800 --> 00:01:14,800 And through that process of trying to go through contractors and understand what brought value 17 00:01:14,800 --> 00:01:15,800 to their business. 18 00:01:15,800 --> 00:01:24,200 Certainly, a consumer loves the idea of paying less for their AC, but we had put in some 19 00:01:24,200 --> 00:01:30,660 ports into our monitoring system that allowed for additional health aspects of it. 20 00:01:30,660 --> 00:01:36,760 And that's really what the contractors started latching onto and said, well, that has value 21 00:01:36,760 --> 00:01:37,760 to me. 22 00:01:37,760 --> 00:01:41,700 To actually know what's going on has value. 23 00:01:41,700 --> 00:01:46,760 So that kind of put us on the journey saying, all right, well, is there anything out there 24 00:01:46,760 --> 00:01:47,760 like that? 25 00:01:47,760 --> 00:01:49,360 Like what exists today? 26 00:01:49,360 --> 00:01:53,000 So relying your mental clock back. 27 00:01:53,000 --> 00:01:56,800 Since he had a product out there that was doing something similar, there's a company 28 00:01:56,800 --> 00:01:58,240 called Alert Labs. 29 00:01:58,240 --> 00:02:01,800 So we tracked down people that had been using it and trying to figure out, okay, well, where's 30 00:02:01,800 --> 00:02:03,400 the value for you in this? 31 00:02:03,400 --> 00:02:05,160 And it was what we expected. 32 00:02:05,160 --> 00:02:10,160 It was like, look, my business relies on me being present in a home, but every truck roll 33 00:02:10,160 --> 00:02:12,480 has a cost. 34 00:02:12,480 --> 00:02:18,120 So we thought, okay, well, if we can reduce the cost, there's something there. 35 00:02:18,120 --> 00:02:23,000 But then another topic came up, which is, well, it takes me a lot of time to retrofit 36 00:02:23,000 --> 00:02:25,720 these systems to have the kind of data that I'm looking for that will drive value. 37 00:02:25,720 --> 00:02:28,080 So we said, all right, well, there's another one we got to check off the box. 38 00:02:28,080 --> 00:02:30,520 There's the unit economics have to work. 39 00:02:30,520 --> 00:02:33,160 But then also it's got to be really simple and fast. 40 00:02:33,160 --> 00:02:37,980 And then some contractors that were, I'd say early adopters of this, they might have 41 00:02:37,980 --> 00:02:38,980 three different portals. 42 00:02:38,980 --> 00:02:43,040 They had a Sensee portal, they had a Train portal, and they had a Linux portal. 43 00:02:43,040 --> 00:02:46,840 And they're like, okay, now I got to navigate how I do this across multiple different portals 44 00:02:46,840 --> 00:02:47,840 on this. 45 00:02:47,840 --> 00:02:52,660 We said, all right, well, it's got to work across every OEM, regardless of thermostat. 46 00:02:52,660 --> 00:02:58,440 And that's really what set us on the journey of how do we bring effective monitoring to 47 00:02:58,440 --> 00:02:59,440 it? 48 00:02:59,440 --> 00:03:00,880 And then where's the real value in that? 49 00:03:00,880 --> 00:03:04,740 And then we started at the homeowner because if the homeowner doesn't let it in the home, 50 00:03:04,740 --> 00:03:05,740 then you have no chance. 51 00:03:05,740 --> 00:03:06,740 Right? 52 00:03:06,740 --> 00:03:11,720 So the center of everything that we started creating was we need to have something that 53 00:03:11,720 --> 00:03:17,000 has just immediate value where the homeowner says, yes, I want it, but that it improves 54 00:03:17,000 --> 00:03:21,740 the overall economics of the contractor across all of the challenges that we uncovered with 55 00:03:21,740 --> 00:03:22,740 membership programs. 56 00:03:22,740 --> 00:03:28,600 And that was everything from the homeowner saying, yes, I want it to many of the traditional 57 00:03:28,600 --> 00:03:32,400 programs that existed were really built on the back of a day one discount. 58 00:03:32,400 --> 00:03:33,400 Right? 59 00:03:33,400 --> 00:03:36,560 So it's like you sign up for this membership, I'll give you 10, 50% off today. 60 00:03:36,560 --> 00:03:39,100 And that was a lot of the motivation for sign up. 61 00:03:39,100 --> 00:03:41,880 So the customer retention rate wasn't great. 62 00:03:41,880 --> 00:03:46,880 Once they had the discount, then they kind of fell off over time relatively quickly. 63 00:03:46,880 --> 00:03:49,740 And then we said, okay, well, what are the economics behind your program? 64 00:03:49,740 --> 00:03:50,900 How much does a truck roll cost? 65 00:03:50,900 --> 00:03:56,920 And as we dug in, what we found is that, yes, on the whole, a lot of these programs actually 66 00:03:56,920 --> 00:04:04,800 do return value to a contractor, but way, way, way less than what is possible if you 67 00:04:04,800 --> 00:04:09,160 enable a system to have communications and you open up those lines of communication to 68 00:04:09,160 --> 00:04:13,640 the homeowner and create just a fantastic customer engagement experience. 69 00:04:13,640 --> 00:04:19,360 And so that's really where we started six years ago is we started with feedback from 70 00:04:19,360 --> 00:04:23,460 the market, from the industry saying this is a hole and this is a problem. 71 00:04:23,460 --> 00:04:27,000 And it wasn't really anybody focused on it purely at that level. 72 00:04:27,000 --> 00:04:30,440 It was always just, yes, memberships are good, maintenance plans are good, I'm going to have 73 00:04:30,440 --> 00:04:36,560 one, but how well are you actually monitoring what that does for you? 74 00:04:36,560 --> 00:04:37,860 What's that returning to your business? 75 00:04:37,860 --> 00:04:43,040 So that really is the entire foundation fundamentals behind why we created the company and everything 76 00:04:43,040 --> 00:04:44,040 we've done. 77 00:04:44,040 --> 00:04:45,040 Yeah, absolutely. 78 00:04:45,040 --> 00:04:47,080 And that's what intrigued me about it. 79 00:04:47,080 --> 00:04:51,240 I've heard about SmartAC for a while, hadn't dove too deep into it, but as we're starting 80 00:04:51,240 --> 00:04:56,420 to work with our educational programs and encouraging our programs to start focusing 81 00:04:56,420 --> 00:04:57,920 on the technologies, right? 82 00:04:57,920 --> 00:05:01,480 The innovations that are happening in our industry, ways that we can become more efficient 83 00:05:01,480 --> 00:05:02,480 as an industry. 84 00:05:02,480 --> 00:05:07,520 You know, we all struggle with finding good help, whether it's an educator, whether it 85 00:05:07,520 --> 00:05:14,840 is a contractor, we're faced with a shortage of prepared and qualified technicians in the 86 00:05:14,840 --> 00:05:15,840 field. 87 00:05:15,840 --> 00:05:20,740 So anything we can do to help become more efficient is absolutely an asset to the industry. 88 00:05:20,740 --> 00:05:25,100 So we'll have a mix in our audience today and we'd love to know in the chat, are you 89 00:05:25,100 --> 00:05:26,100 an educator? 90 00:05:26,100 --> 00:05:27,300 Are you a contractor? 91 00:05:27,300 --> 00:05:29,320 Are you a student? 92 00:05:29,320 --> 00:05:32,200 And particularly if you're a student and have any questions. 93 00:05:32,200 --> 00:05:35,960 And so along the way, if you have any questions, any comments, let us know. 94 00:05:35,960 --> 00:05:36,960 We'll try to address them. 95 00:05:36,960 --> 00:05:42,680 And so I actually, SmartAC sent me a kit that I'll actually play a video here in a minute 96 00:05:42,680 --> 00:05:48,280 of walking through doing an installation monitoring my system because I actually, now I've got 97 00:05:48,280 --> 00:05:52,320 new technology, don't get me wrong, you know, here in the studio, in the shop and in the 98 00:05:52,320 --> 00:05:58,680 garage, I run a multi-port low ambient inverter from Deiken. 99 00:05:58,680 --> 00:06:05,880 But on the house, right, it was a new construction, came with a 14 sear single stage AC and a 100 00:06:05,880 --> 00:06:08,200 single stage 95 gas furnace. 101 00:06:08,200 --> 00:06:10,880 I would love to yank it out, but it's brand new, still under warranty. 102 00:06:10,880 --> 00:06:12,600 Nothing I can do about it, right? 103 00:06:12,600 --> 00:06:20,220 And so it intrigued me for having a new home and still being able to monitor what my system 104 00:06:20,220 --> 00:06:24,080 is doing and utilizing AI for preventative. 105 00:06:24,080 --> 00:06:31,080 When we first get introduced to a new company, and you know, whether they're small or they're 106 00:06:31,080 --> 00:06:36,960 large, we say, are these metrics that you can quickly pull up related to your membership 107 00:06:36,960 --> 00:06:37,960 program? 108 00:06:37,960 --> 00:06:39,240 Like how readily available are these? 109 00:06:39,240 --> 00:06:40,640 We know what the industry standards are. 110 00:06:40,640 --> 00:06:42,200 We've done a ton of research to know that. 111 00:06:42,200 --> 00:06:45,080 Well, what about you as an individual contractor? 112 00:06:45,080 --> 00:06:53,080 And I'm shocked at the data exists, but how far down we've got to dig to pull out these 113 00:06:53,080 --> 00:06:55,400 numbers. 114 00:06:55,400 --> 00:06:59,480 And it's not their fault, right? 115 00:06:59,480 --> 00:07:02,980 There hasn't been really a way to change it. 116 00:07:02,980 --> 00:07:07,480 But when you dig into the metrics and you realize your conversion rate, it is what it 117 00:07:07,480 --> 00:07:08,480 is, right? 118 00:07:08,480 --> 00:07:12,120 And so you think, okay, well, more training for my CSRs, better selling techniques and 119 00:07:12,120 --> 00:07:17,320 more on the techs, like we'll get a higher conversion rate, a higher churn or my retention 120 00:07:17,320 --> 00:07:18,320 could be higher. 121 00:07:18,320 --> 00:07:23,480 You know, like they all know that some of these things, but the big one to me is on 122 00:07:23,480 --> 00:07:26,200 the no fee truck rolls or low fee truck rolls, right? 123 00:07:26,200 --> 00:07:32,480 We say run every ticket at $150 or less that you receive from a membership standard visit. 124 00:07:32,480 --> 00:07:35,040 And it's unbelievable how many are out there. 125 00:07:35,040 --> 00:07:36,040 And so this is where we start. 126 00:07:36,040 --> 00:07:38,320 We say, well, look, this is what we're going to attack. 127 00:07:38,320 --> 00:07:42,680 This is what we are here to do is to take every one of these metrics and improve it. 128 00:07:42,680 --> 00:07:45,120 And there's a variety of different things that go behind this. 129 00:07:45,120 --> 00:07:49,360 On the conversion side, we spend a ton of time in the customer psychology aspect. 130 00:07:49,360 --> 00:07:54,640 What we say is why are they signing up and why are they leaving, right? 131 00:07:54,640 --> 00:07:59,120 It's primarily tied to the motivation of the day one discount. 132 00:07:59,120 --> 00:08:01,460 And that's okay because you want that conversion. 133 00:08:01,460 --> 00:08:04,680 But then what's the real value you're delivering past that? 134 00:08:04,680 --> 00:08:06,320 What's the homeowner perspective on this? 135 00:08:06,320 --> 00:08:12,200 So we've surveyed over a thousand homeowners on everything related to HVAC and these experiences. 136 00:08:12,200 --> 00:08:13,200 And this is what they felt. 137 00:08:13,200 --> 00:08:14,560 They felt, well, I got that. 138 00:08:14,560 --> 00:08:17,280 And then they showed up six months later and immediately they were trying to sell me something 139 00:08:17,280 --> 00:08:18,280 else. 140 00:08:18,280 --> 00:08:20,280 And then they showed up in six months and they're selling me something else again. 141 00:08:20,280 --> 00:08:25,560 And not only that, we talked to the technicians and we say, how do you feel about those visits? 142 00:08:25,560 --> 00:08:31,200 And almost across the board, they aren't thrilled, you know, especially if most of the technicians 143 00:08:31,200 --> 00:08:35,880 out there, they love doing a good job and solving problems, not drumming up ways to 144 00:08:35,880 --> 00:08:38,080 sell more stuff, especially to a homeowner. 145 00:08:38,080 --> 00:08:43,440 But they know the system is maybe it's not perfectly optimized, but it's still performing. 146 00:08:43,440 --> 00:08:49,160 And if the focus goes to the sales pressure, very quickly, the homeowner perspective says, 147 00:08:49,160 --> 00:08:52,760 you know what, this is not for me anymore. 148 00:08:52,760 --> 00:08:54,080 And they end up moving on. 149 00:08:54,080 --> 00:09:00,160 And so when we dig in and we really ask them, challenge them to look at the numbers, about 150 00:09:00,160 --> 00:09:07,760 15% of the visits were driving 99% of profit of the overall program. 151 00:09:07,760 --> 00:09:09,520 And a lot of people said, yeah, we know that, right? 152 00:09:09,520 --> 00:09:11,200 Contractors like, yeah, we know that. 153 00:09:11,200 --> 00:09:14,400 That's why we have to go to every home because we don't know where it's going to come from. 154 00:09:14,400 --> 00:09:16,840 And we're like, well, let's look at it differently. 155 00:09:16,840 --> 00:09:18,000 What if you did know? 156 00:09:18,000 --> 00:09:24,720 What if you knew where there was revenue opportunity and where there wasn't likely revenue opportunity? 157 00:09:24,720 --> 00:09:26,720 How valuable would that be? 158 00:09:26,720 --> 00:09:33,560 And so that's what we spend a lot of time looking at is we surface to contractors where 159 00:09:33,560 --> 00:09:38,400 there is opportunity, but it's opportunity based in need. 160 00:09:38,400 --> 00:09:40,920 And this is a different perspective because it's not need today, right? 161 00:09:40,920 --> 00:09:47,040 It's not a demand call, but it's a call to Ms. Jones to say, look, we know that you're 162 00:09:47,040 --> 00:09:48,240 probably comfortable right now. 163 00:09:48,240 --> 00:09:51,360 And in fact, we can see it's still 74 in your home and everything looks good. 164 00:09:51,360 --> 00:09:56,240 But what you don't see is that your system has been running much harder to maintain that 165 00:09:56,240 --> 00:09:57,640 comfort. 166 00:09:57,640 --> 00:10:01,800 So you will have a loss of comfort that will necessitate a demand call. 167 00:10:01,800 --> 00:10:04,000 We'd rather get ahead of it. 168 00:10:04,000 --> 00:10:05,760 Now homeowners don't, they're not used to this. 169 00:10:05,760 --> 00:10:07,160 It's a relatively new thing. 170 00:10:07,160 --> 00:10:09,600 And so a lot of times they'll go, you know what? 171 00:10:09,600 --> 00:10:10,600 No thanks. 172 00:10:10,600 --> 00:10:11,600 I'm fine. 173 00:10:11,600 --> 00:10:12,600 I'll see you later. 174 00:10:12,600 --> 00:10:18,760 And that's okay too, because all the system is designed to do, and I say system platform, 175 00:10:18,760 --> 00:10:22,560 we're designed to bring transparency and awareness to both sides. 176 00:10:22,560 --> 00:10:26,940 So the homeowner is now aware that the contractor is aware there's a problem. 177 00:10:26,940 --> 00:10:31,720 So when that thing breaks in two weeks or two months, they've gotten that phone call 178 00:10:31,720 --> 00:10:32,720 and we did our job. 179 00:10:32,720 --> 00:10:34,880 The system did its job, the contractor did its job. 180 00:10:34,880 --> 00:10:38,120 And that in the trust level goes up tremendously. 181 00:10:38,120 --> 00:10:42,440 And so we've developed now a sense of peace of mind for a homeowner that this is not about 182 00:10:42,440 --> 00:10:45,920 something that you're going to just use to come sell me stuff. 183 00:10:45,920 --> 00:10:49,280 This is truly something you're looking after for the comfort for my home. 184 00:10:49,280 --> 00:10:51,480 Yeah, that's exactly how I see that. 185 00:10:51,480 --> 00:10:54,240 I mean, I think about that from a homeowner. 186 00:10:54,240 --> 00:10:57,080 If I get that call, we all get those kinds of calls. 187 00:10:57,080 --> 00:10:58,460 Are you interested in this? 188 00:10:58,460 --> 00:11:01,600 Even if I'm part of a service, I'm going to be like, no, I'm happy right where I'm at. 189 00:11:01,600 --> 00:11:05,960 I may not even hear exactly what's being said, right? 190 00:11:05,960 --> 00:11:11,360 Until my equipment actually does break down and I go, wait a minute. 191 00:11:11,360 --> 00:11:12,560 I missed that. 192 00:11:12,560 --> 00:11:14,320 I had the opportunity. 193 00:11:14,320 --> 00:11:18,440 I was contacted about this and I've never experienced that before. 194 00:11:18,440 --> 00:11:19,440 You're right. 195 00:11:19,440 --> 00:11:20,920 It's a different mentality to think about. 196 00:11:20,920 --> 00:11:25,280 And that's why I think it's important for us to understand these types of technologies 197 00:11:25,280 --> 00:11:31,080 because this is going to change not just our perspective, but a lot of consumers' perspectives 198 00:11:31,080 --> 00:11:33,360 on a high value HVAC contractor. 199 00:11:33,360 --> 00:11:35,100 I mean, that's our goal. 200 00:11:35,100 --> 00:11:40,680 Our goal is to have programs that are teaching the students the things that they need to 201 00:11:40,680 --> 00:11:42,720 be prepared for the industry. 202 00:11:42,720 --> 00:11:47,740 And technology is one of those things that we are responsible for at least keeping them 203 00:11:47,740 --> 00:11:49,680 aware of and preparing them for. 204 00:11:49,680 --> 00:11:54,040 And these are the kind of things that I do believe will change our industry going forward, 205 00:11:54,040 --> 00:11:57,040 is that predictive diagnostics. 206 00:11:57,040 --> 00:11:58,040 Yeah. 207 00:11:58,040 --> 00:12:00,920 We, you know, it's a change. 208 00:12:00,920 --> 00:12:04,540 It's a change in the way that you interact with the customer. 209 00:12:04,540 --> 00:12:07,600 So there's some discomfort there, right? 210 00:12:07,600 --> 00:12:08,600 They're used to responding. 211 00:12:08,600 --> 00:12:12,160 They're used to being firefighters. 212 00:12:12,160 --> 00:12:17,120 And so the analogy we like to give, well, is imagine, you know, imagine driving a car 213 00:12:17,120 --> 00:12:22,000 100 years ago, it was running or not running, right? 214 00:12:22,000 --> 00:12:26,240 And then the dashboard came out and now you had initial indications of something that 215 00:12:26,240 --> 00:12:27,240 might be wrong. 216 00:12:27,240 --> 00:12:32,720 Well, now imagine partnering that dashboard with OnStar that's actively monitoring it. 217 00:12:32,720 --> 00:12:36,840 And you're getting a call while you're driving that says, hey, your tire's going to go flat 218 00:12:36,840 --> 00:12:40,580 in two miles, but there's a service shop in one mile. 219 00:12:40,580 --> 00:12:44,120 If you pull off the road, you can avoid it, right? 220 00:12:44,120 --> 00:12:45,900 It's wildly different. 221 00:12:45,900 --> 00:12:51,280 And so that's what we, we do a lot of training with CSRs on what we call the nurture cycle. 222 00:12:51,280 --> 00:12:56,160 Your job is no longer to just say, look, we need to be out there right now because we 223 00:12:56,160 --> 00:12:57,160 got to fix this. 224 00:12:57,160 --> 00:13:02,320 And that there's not a problem that's developed necessarily that's there. 225 00:13:02,320 --> 00:13:04,280 But your job is now to nurture. 226 00:13:04,280 --> 00:13:08,880 Your job is to bring transparency to what will become an issue. 227 00:13:08,880 --> 00:13:11,540 So it is a different mindset altogether. 228 00:13:11,540 --> 00:13:17,480 So the whole aspect of what we've done here is we call smart maintenance and that's just 229 00:13:17,480 --> 00:13:20,520 a new and better way to run your membership program. 230 00:13:20,520 --> 00:13:22,720 When we meet, we say, look, here are the goals, right? 231 00:13:22,720 --> 00:13:24,640 Here's what we're trying to help you fix. 232 00:13:24,640 --> 00:13:28,800 We want to increase your science, decrease turn, optimize your resources and margin, 233 00:13:28,800 --> 00:13:34,160 deliver more repeat services, but that's trusted services and improve that overall customer 234 00:13:34,160 --> 00:13:36,880 experience where they say, I am so thrilled. 235 00:13:36,880 --> 00:13:37,960 I have this. 236 00:13:37,960 --> 00:13:40,920 I'm so thrilled that you as a contractor brought me this. 237 00:13:40,920 --> 00:13:42,080 I'm never leaving. 238 00:13:42,080 --> 00:13:44,160 And that's, that's evident. 239 00:13:44,160 --> 00:13:50,640 We have through our platform across all of our contractors over a 97% retention rate 240 00:13:50,640 --> 00:13:52,260 in these memberships. 241 00:13:52,260 --> 00:13:57,780 So we've just completely changed the way people think about the contractors relationship from 242 00:13:57,780 --> 00:14:01,000 not just being a firefighter that shows up when the problem exists. 243 00:14:01,000 --> 00:14:06,440 It's someone who's watching to help prevent the future fires. 244 00:14:06,440 --> 00:14:12,040 And that's, that has been awesome for us and I'd say a big, big reason why we've grown 245 00:14:12,040 --> 00:14:13,640 as quickly as we have. 246 00:14:13,640 --> 00:14:18,400 As we start having these new generations of technicians that are very tech savvy, you 247 00:14:18,400 --> 00:14:21,240 know, they're going to be utilizing these tools going forward. 248 00:14:21,240 --> 00:14:26,280 I just now finished up with a webinar for us from some industry professionals discussing 249 00:14:26,280 --> 00:14:31,480 the changes and transitions in our industry as a contractor perspective. 250 00:14:31,480 --> 00:14:34,800 And I was very intrigued because I was curious to see what the business side was actually 251 00:14:34,800 --> 00:14:35,800 showing. 252 00:14:35,800 --> 00:14:42,180 And I hear from the distributors is very similar that equipment replacement is down, but service 253 00:14:42,180 --> 00:14:43,960 parts are up. 254 00:14:43,960 --> 00:14:48,040 And especially as we're going through these technological transitions and refrigerant 255 00:14:48,040 --> 00:14:53,400 transitions, I do believe we're going to see a lot more of a repair based service for a 256 00:14:53,400 --> 00:14:57,040 period of time over the next few years, as we're going through these transitions. 257 00:14:57,040 --> 00:15:03,880 And so to be able to adequately predict some of these potential failures is going to be 258 00:15:03,880 --> 00:15:06,120 extremely important going forward. 259 00:15:06,120 --> 00:15:07,920 Yeah, 100%. 260 00:15:07,920 --> 00:15:14,360 Yeah, I mean, that's, that's, I think that you bring up a good point in that the, the 261 00:15:14,360 --> 00:15:20,760 generation, I think that heard recently, the average age is 55 and the 50, 55 and the technician 262 00:15:20,760 --> 00:15:21,760 landscape. 263 00:15:21,760 --> 00:15:22,760 Yeah. 264 00:15:22,760 --> 00:15:27,800 We, we have to, we have to spend some time with the technician group for sure. 265 00:15:27,800 --> 00:15:29,200 It's a, it's a bit of a change. 266 00:15:29,200 --> 00:15:33,440 What we say is like, look, this is better for your customer, right? 267 00:15:33,440 --> 00:15:38,180 They will respect the options and the interactions you have with them in the future more when 268 00:15:38,180 --> 00:15:40,680 you bring this transparency in and it's better for you. 269 00:15:40,680 --> 00:15:44,740 You don't want to be running truck rolls that you know are going to end up. 270 00:15:44,740 --> 00:15:48,360 And what is a high pressure sale situation where there's not a lot of revenue? 271 00:15:48,360 --> 00:15:55,300 So how do we, how do we maximize your time on site and increase your overall effectiveness 272 00:15:55,300 --> 00:15:57,180 and hopefully, you know, overall income. 273 00:15:57,180 --> 00:16:04,160 So many of the contractors that we have utilize our system on new installations and there's 274 00:16:04,160 --> 00:16:05,820 a couple of reasons. 275 00:16:05,820 --> 00:16:11,600 Number one is that if there's a home with a single air conditioning home, right? 276 00:16:11,600 --> 00:16:16,000 Single sensor air system and you've just pulled a lot of the margin out of that relationship. 277 00:16:16,000 --> 00:16:20,400 You don't really want to go back that much because the big ticket's been had, but you 278 00:16:20,400 --> 00:16:23,360 want to service that customer and create, you know, customer lifetime value. 279 00:16:23,360 --> 00:16:24,360 How do you do that? 280 00:16:24,360 --> 00:16:28,240 If you put monitoring on to know when you need to go back and actually go back, then 281 00:16:28,240 --> 00:16:34,080 you can delay those visits to when there's something needed or at the request of the 282 00:16:34,080 --> 00:16:35,440 customer specifically, right? 283 00:16:35,440 --> 00:16:38,520 So there's some avoidance there that makes sense operationally. 284 00:16:38,520 --> 00:16:43,600 But the second benefit that we didn't actually envision this as being a strong use case, 285 00:16:43,600 --> 00:16:48,320 but has become is it's validation for the commissioner's job. 286 00:16:48,320 --> 00:16:53,720 And what's happened is usually we've characterized the system fully within 48 to 72 hours. 287 00:16:53,720 --> 00:16:55,760 We look at all the conditions associated with it. 288 00:16:55,760 --> 00:16:59,320 We're looking at outside air, we're looking at system operation, building environment 289 00:16:59,320 --> 00:17:02,920 conditions, homeowner behavior, and we can see what's going on. 290 00:17:02,920 --> 00:17:09,840 Well, imagine at 48 to 72 hours, the contractor knows that something's wrong before the homeowner 291 00:17:09,840 --> 00:17:11,160 does, right? 292 00:17:11,160 --> 00:17:14,960 So we've uncovered, you know, improper manufacturing fan settings. 293 00:17:14,960 --> 00:17:19,800 And I'll say improper, I'm not placing blame on anybody, but it just, it wasn't set up 294 00:17:19,800 --> 00:17:21,800 correctly, you know? 295 00:17:21,800 --> 00:17:26,000 So what we're seeing is, yeah, the customer is comfortable, but this thing's dehumidifying 296 00:17:26,000 --> 00:17:27,000 like crap. 297 00:17:27,000 --> 00:17:30,840 And when the conditions come up, the customer is going to know they're going to feel sticky 298 00:17:30,840 --> 00:17:31,840 and humid. 299 00:17:31,840 --> 00:17:34,880 So the contractor now knows and he's calling the customer and saying, hey, we hope you're 300 00:17:34,880 --> 00:17:36,240 enjoying your new system. 301 00:17:36,240 --> 00:17:41,000 We love to do a quality, happy visit where we just come back and recheck everything. 302 00:17:41,000 --> 00:17:45,640 What he's really there to do is to cover up what will be a callback. 303 00:17:45,640 --> 00:17:48,960 But that callback might happen in June, July or August when you don't want it. 304 00:17:48,960 --> 00:17:52,200 And so there's some really cool stuff that's come out of it. 305 00:17:52,200 --> 00:17:54,040 And it's all powered by the data. 306 00:17:54,040 --> 00:17:58,880 And I will qualify saying, yeah, I'm a mechanical engineer out of school. 307 00:17:58,880 --> 00:18:04,520 And early on, I was definitely a part of the concept and building it in the engineering. 308 00:18:04,520 --> 00:18:06,480 But we turned it over to experts. 309 00:18:06,480 --> 00:18:10,800 And so you guys are much more qualified to ask deep engineering questions than the answer 310 00:18:10,800 --> 00:18:11,800 and than I am. 311 00:18:11,800 --> 00:18:13,960 So I'll go as deep as we can. 312 00:18:13,960 --> 00:18:20,400 But what the system is doing, smart maintenance involves data collection, data visualization, 313 00:18:20,400 --> 00:18:21,400 customer engagement. 314 00:18:21,400 --> 00:18:24,000 The collection starts with how do we actually get the data. 315 00:18:24,000 --> 00:18:28,040 And this is where people tend to be a little bit blown away and they say, how do you do 316 00:18:28,040 --> 00:18:29,920 that with three sensors? 317 00:18:29,920 --> 00:18:33,480 And it really is just three sensors that create this experience. 318 00:18:33,480 --> 00:18:35,120 We have what we call the comfort sensor. 319 00:18:35,120 --> 00:18:37,880 It sits on the outside of the supply vent. 320 00:18:37,880 --> 00:18:41,400 And we're monitoring temperature and humidity in this case. 321 00:18:41,400 --> 00:18:46,440 So we're getting the output, but the output delivered to the actual environment where 322 00:18:46,440 --> 00:18:47,440 the comfort needs to be delivered. 323 00:18:47,440 --> 00:18:51,040 And the filter sensor, and this is on the return air input. 324 00:18:51,040 --> 00:18:54,680 This one is doing temperature and humidity, but it's also doing pressure, right? 325 00:18:54,680 --> 00:18:56,120 Downstream of the air filter. 326 00:18:56,120 --> 00:18:57,560 So we're looking at airflow. 327 00:18:57,560 --> 00:19:01,420 So we've got vent to vent delta T across those with temperature. 328 00:19:01,420 --> 00:19:05,760 But then we also have the static pressure that builds up as particulates build up on 329 00:19:05,760 --> 00:19:06,760 the filter. 330 00:19:06,760 --> 00:19:09,880 So we can see where levels shouldn't be that are high limit. 331 00:19:09,880 --> 00:19:11,560 And we can look at static. 332 00:19:11,560 --> 00:19:13,720 And this does several things, obviously. 333 00:19:13,720 --> 00:19:18,240 Like it's not only is the system running at a healthy level, like is there a problem needs 334 00:19:18,240 --> 00:19:25,400 to be addressed with airflow as a whole, but on a clean filter, as it builds up, the homeowner 335 00:19:25,400 --> 00:19:28,080 needs to be notified at some point. 336 00:19:28,080 --> 00:19:32,040 Tell me a homeowner that knows exactly when air filter needs to be changed. 337 00:19:32,040 --> 00:19:33,680 Like it doesn't exist. 338 00:19:33,680 --> 00:19:37,600 In our polling, 20% of homeowners have never, ever changed the air filter, ever. 339 00:19:37,600 --> 00:19:39,600 They didn't even know it existed. 340 00:19:39,600 --> 00:19:44,680 I mean, in our beta testing, I had people tell me, oh, my system doesn't need a filter. 341 00:19:44,680 --> 00:19:45,840 I'm like, oh, really? 342 00:19:45,840 --> 00:19:46,840 That's incredible. 343 00:19:46,840 --> 00:19:49,360 Show me what kind of system you have. 344 00:19:49,360 --> 00:19:55,940 And so that really gives us a great view of the actual delivered performance of the system. 345 00:19:55,940 --> 00:20:01,480 And then we also, during our research, looked at so much of the calls related to the dehumidification, 346 00:20:01,480 --> 00:20:02,480 right? 347 00:20:02,480 --> 00:20:03,480 And water, right? 348 00:20:03,480 --> 00:20:05,920 Should it be present and where should it be present? 349 00:20:05,920 --> 00:20:09,000 If it's in the drain pan, you've already got an issue. 350 00:20:09,000 --> 00:20:13,440 And so bringing that up and highlighting it, homeowners get this information, contractors 351 00:20:13,440 --> 00:20:14,440 get this information. 352 00:20:14,440 --> 00:20:16,360 And it's a way, you know, this is a big one, right? 353 00:20:16,360 --> 00:20:19,680 This is what people, because people know water leads to damage. 354 00:20:19,680 --> 00:20:22,240 And so this is a huge motivator, right? 355 00:20:22,240 --> 00:20:28,060 So you start stacking up the motivations on why people sign up for this. 356 00:20:28,060 --> 00:20:30,400 And it's not just because of a discount. 357 00:20:30,400 --> 00:20:33,840 There's all these other things like, oh, this will save me from water. 358 00:20:33,840 --> 00:20:35,200 Like that's a, that's a good thing. 359 00:20:35,200 --> 00:20:38,200 So the contractor, we simplify it, right? 360 00:20:38,200 --> 00:20:40,480 Data is not useful to anyone, right? 361 00:20:40,480 --> 00:20:44,840 So we've got a principle here that all data has to result in a recommended action because 362 00:20:44,840 --> 00:20:48,560 if it's not recommended action, then nobody gets any value out of it. 363 00:20:48,560 --> 00:20:53,480 So yes, we've got rich data, but from a contractor's side, we just want to let them know whether 364 00:20:53,480 --> 00:20:57,720 there's revenue opportunity and that the homeowners actually being cared for, but that's all done 365 00:20:57,720 --> 00:20:58,720 through our side. 366 00:20:58,720 --> 00:20:59,720 We'll let you know when there's an issue. 367 00:20:59,720 --> 00:21:03,560 We want you to be the hero to place that call to the homeowners. 368 00:21:03,560 --> 00:21:05,600 Say, hey, we're concerned. 369 00:21:05,600 --> 00:21:09,360 But behind the scene, there is immense amounts of data. 370 00:21:09,360 --> 00:21:11,920 We're collecting data every 30 seconds and we can see everything. 371 00:21:11,920 --> 00:21:14,560 We can see on off cycles of the pressure. 372 00:21:14,560 --> 00:21:16,040 We can see the temperature drop. 373 00:21:16,040 --> 00:21:20,760 We can see the space time to time, time between cycles. 374 00:21:20,760 --> 00:21:23,320 And then also the effectiveness of each cycle. 375 00:21:23,320 --> 00:21:24,880 That's measured against all sorts of things. 376 00:21:24,880 --> 00:21:28,440 Obviously outside of your humidity play a big difference or a role in that. 377 00:21:28,440 --> 00:21:33,680 And so we're constantly characterizing the system, not only what it's doing today, but 378 00:21:33,680 --> 00:21:39,400 the nameplate said it was capable of in a lab setting and also what it's doing against 379 00:21:39,400 --> 00:21:41,000 itself. 380 00:21:41,000 --> 00:21:46,320 So much of these failures in comfort, when we call a breakdown as a failure in comfort, 381 00:21:46,320 --> 00:21:52,020 not even necessarily a failure in equipment, so much of these failures in comfort result 382 00:21:52,020 --> 00:21:55,980 from things that get worse over time. 383 00:21:55,980 --> 00:22:00,360 And these trends are observable. 384 00:22:00,360 --> 00:22:03,120 And I don't want to say it's simple and it's easy. 385 00:22:03,120 --> 00:22:04,120 It's not. 386 00:22:04,120 --> 00:22:10,120 We worked on all of this for years, years before we ever brought it out into the public 387 00:22:10,120 --> 00:22:17,000 because we knew the hardest grades on this stuff are the guys like you that understand 388 00:22:17,000 --> 00:22:18,680 exactly how these systems operate. 389 00:22:18,680 --> 00:22:22,680 And if we came out saying stuff that wasn't true or we didn't fully understand what was 390 00:22:22,680 --> 00:22:26,640 going on, we get lambasted. 391 00:22:26,640 --> 00:22:31,120 So yeah, so we have data scientists. 392 00:22:31,120 --> 00:22:35,840 We've got people that literally have their masters in the design and implementation of 393 00:22:35,840 --> 00:22:37,520 HVAC systems. 394 00:22:37,520 --> 00:22:41,600 There's a lot of smart people that look behind the scenes and craft all of this data and 395 00:22:41,600 --> 00:22:42,600 turn it into actions. 396 00:22:42,600 --> 00:22:46,480 And that's on both sides, the homeowner and the contractor. 397 00:22:46,480 --> 00:22:48,760 Andrew, thank you so much for joining us. 398 00:22:48,760 --> 00:22:50,320 This was a good conversation. 399 00:22:50,320 --> 00:22:52,740 I'm glad that we got to discuss this. 400 00:22:52,740 --> 00:22:54,680 Look forward to diving deeper down the road. 401 00:22:54,680 --> 00:22:56,360 I don't need to get too far into the analytics. 402 00:22:56,360 --> 00:23:01,040 I got enough to nerd out on my side so far, but I'll definitely keep in touch. 403 00:23:01,040 --> 00:23:06,920 And if anyone wants to learn more, Andrew, how can they find out more about SmartAC? 404 00:23:06,920 --> 00:23:10,160 Well, it's in the name, SmartAC.com. 405 00:23:10,160 --> 00:23:15,400 If you go there and you're a contractor, you're looking to connect. 406 00:23:15,400 --> 00:23:18,280 There's a partner data collection area. 407 00:23:18,280 --> 00:23:19,840 We want basic information about you. 408 00:23:19,840 --> 00:23:22,920 We can reach out and have a further conversation. 409 00:23:22,920 --> 00:23:27,920 If you want to just connect with me directly, you can go to my LinkedIn. 410 00:23:27,920 --> 00:23:30,680 Andrew Fusilet, type that in. 411 00:23:30,680 --> 00:23:31,960 There's not a lot of us out there. 412 00:23:31,960 --> 00:23:33,960 I think there's one. 413 00:23:33,960 --> 00:23:38,360 And then ping me and happy to connect that way. 414 00:23:38,360 --> 00:23:41,440 Or my email is andrew.fusiletatsmartac.com. 415 00:23:41,440 --> 00:23:47,240 Yeah, there's a number of different ways, but yeah, love to connect with anybody that 416 00:23:47,240 --> 00:23:49,480 has an interest in it. 417 00:23:49,480 --> 00:23:52,400 And honestly, just figure out how to help your business. 418 00:23:52,400 --> 00:23:57,280 We've seen a lot of change in the last year or two with PE roll-ups and the cost of advertising 419 00:23:57,280 --> 00:23:58,280 increasing. 420 00:23:58,280 --> 00:24:00,400 So our whole goal is how do you take people out of the advertising pool? 421 00:24:00,400 --> 00:24:04,200 How do you reallocate to some of that budget to have revenue that's going to come back 422 00:24:04,200 --> 00:24:05,800 to you without competing for it? 423 00:24:05,800 --> 00:24:06,800 All right. 424 00:24:06,800 --> 00:24:08,120 Well, Andrew, thanks so much. 425 00:24:08,120 --> 00:24:14,040 We encourage everyone to reach out to smartac.com and we will see you all again next week on 426 00:24:14,040 --> 00:24:15,040 Did You Know? 427 00:24:15,040 --> 00:24:17,000 The Esco H-Back Show. 428 00:24:17,000 --> 00:24:18,000 Bye everybody. 429 00:24:18,000 --> 00:24:19,000 Awesome. 430 00:24:19,000 --> 00:24:30,640 Thank you guys.