The Texas HVAC Owner’s Real Problem: It Is Not Marketing
The Premise
If you own or run an HVAC shop in Texas, you do not have a “leads” problem. The phone rings when it is 102 degrees.
Your real problem is what happens inside the business once those calls hit your board. You are fighting three things at once: People who are tired, Processes that live in your head, and a Seasonality pattern that burns out your best techs.
Why your HVAC company never feels caught up
In North Texas, HVAC is not a nice to have. It is life support.
When a system dies in August, indoor temps can hit the high 80s or low 90s in a matter of hours. Families do not “shop around.” They call the first company that sounds like it can get there now.
That creates a brutal pattern:
- Summer spikes: The board is overloaded, everyone is working overtime, and dispatch is triaging disasters.
- Shoulder seasons: Things slow down and cash is tight, but everyone is too tired to fix systems.
Owners feel like they are always reacting and never building. There is never a clean “off season” to step back and redesign how the operation works.
The people problem
The business is bleeding out in the middle.
The service manager is the bleeding neck
The service manager role is often a revolving door. You promote a sharp tech into management with no training. Now they are stuck between your financial goals and the techs’ physical reality.
On top of that, there is a generational clash. A younger, software-fluent manager trying to hold veterans accountable through KPIs often leads to “I have been doing this since you were twelve” moments.
The training paradox
“What if I train them and they leave?” vs “What if I do not train them and they stay?”
If managers avoid structured training to protect themselves, you get callbacks, damaged equipment, and a new crop of techs who never really grow up into trustworthy lead producers.
The side work and trust fracture
Side work is a reality in DFW. From the tech side, a Saturday changeout can net thousands. From the owner side, it feels like theft. Paranoia and sting operations solve nothing; they just convince good techs that management does not trust them.
The process problem
Your systems are half built or half hated.
“Thrown to the wolves” is not a training system
Most techs learned the trade the hard way. They were sent on jobs they were not ready for and blamed for mistakes. From the outside, it looks like a labor shortage. Inside, it looks like an industry that refuses to teach its own people.
Software that feels like a digital leash
Tools like ServiceTitan are marketed as the way to level up. In practice, many shops end up with drained tablets, techs turning off GPS, and half-built workflows. The tool is not the problem. The process and the rollout are.
Dispatch as a constant emergency room
Ask any dispatcher in DFW what summer feels like. It sounds like “combat medic.” When dispatch and field are at war, you pay with wasted hours, extra fuel, and higher attrition.
The seasonality problem
DFW’s climate amplifies everything.
When the heat index looks like a phone number, there is zero room for sloppy process.
Seasonality amplifies:
- Training gaps: Green techs crack under pressure.
- Leadership gaps: Weak managers crumble when everyone is angry.
- Process gaps: Missing checklists cost you hours.
Then winter comes, and instead of fixing systems, everyone goes into recovery mode. The chaos you just survived becomes the new normal.
What a real fix looks like
The point is to make the real game visible.
1. Turn tribal knowledge into training ladders
Build 30, 60, and 90-day ladders for every role. Tie each rung to specific skills. Document "this is how we do a call" in plain language.
2. Redesign dispatch before summer
Set clear cut-off times and triage rules. Create scripts that protect your people. Do not improvise in a heat wave.
3. Create an adult side work policy
Draw clear lines between acceptable work and theft. Back it with fair pay and transparent communication. Remove the gray area.
4. Use software as an amplifier
Treat implementation as a project. Involve field leaders. Start with core flows. Use data to coach, not micromanage.
Why this matters more than “getting more leads”
In a market like DFW, the shops that will own the next decade are not the ones who shout the loudest. They are the ones who build crews that want to stay, train people faster than the competition, and turn their company into an asset they could actually sell.
Stop pretending it's a marketing problem
Book a working session and we will map out your people, process and seasonality problems, then design a training system that actually fits DFW reality.