The growth-stage audit answers one question before any money is spent on marketing: what is the single thing stopping this HVAC company from reaching the next stage? You get a written placement on the roadmap, the constraint behind it, and three moves in order. For most owners it is the first step, and it is what our 7-day free trial covers.
What the audit is
The audit is a structured review of how work reaches your company today and where it leaks. It isn't a list of 90 SEO errors; it's a diagnosis with a stage attached.
We look at the company from the customer's side first: how you show up when someone nearby searches for furnace repair or a heat pump quote, what happens when they call at 5:30 p.m., and what your reviews say about you. Then we look from the inside: where last year's jobs came from, how full the trucks were by month, and what each lead source cost.
The result is a short document, usually four or five pages, that you can read in fifteen minutes and act on even if you never hire us.
Who it is for
The audit fits any established HVAC company, but it's especially useful at three moments.
- Before a hire. You're thinking about a second or fifth technician and want to know whether the lead flow can support another truck.
- After an agency. You've paid for marketing before and can't tell what worked. The audit separates channel problems from execution problems.
- Before a new market. You're looking at a second city or a new division and want to know whether the home market is solid enough to fund it.
If you're starting a brand-new company with no jobs yet, this isn't the right tool; the roadmap assumes a working business with some history.
What is included
The audit covers six areas, each scored against what your stage needs rather than against an abstract ideal.
- Visibility: Google Business Profile completeness, map-pack presence in your main service areas, and how you appear for your core searches.
- Website: speed on a phone, whether each service and area has a real page, and whether a visitor can call or text in one tap.
- Call handling: answer rate in business hours and after, missed-call follow-up, and how quickly a quote request gets a reply.
- Reputation: review count, how recent they are, and whether you reply to them.
- Lead sources and cost: what each channel cost and what it brought in, using your data where it exists.
- Job mix and seasonality: repair, maintenance and replacement by month, which shows where the slow months hurt.
We finish with a competitor comparison against three or four companies your customers would also call.
Timeline
The audit runs over the 7-day trial window.
- Days 1 and 2: access set-up and data collection. You spend about 30 minutes on this.
- Days 3 to 5: review and analysis on our side.
- Days 6 and 7: a call to walk through findings, then the written roadmap.
If access takes longer, for example because a former agency still controls your ad account, the clock pauses rather than rushing the work. Recovering those accounts is often the first finding.
How results are measured
The audit itself is measured by one test: does it name a constraint you recognise, and three moves you can start on Monday? If you read it and think "that's not my problem", tell us, because a good diagnosis should feel obvious once it's written down.
If you go on to a monthly plan, the audit becomes the baseline. The numbers it records, such as answer rate, review velocity and cost per booked job, are the ones we report against each month.
Mistakes to avoid
Owners who skip the diagnostic step tend to make the same handful of errors.
- Buying the channel a competitor uses. Their stage and service area may be nothing like yours.
- Fixing the website first by default. A new site does little if half the calls it produces go to voicemail.
- Treating every month the same. A budget that is flat across January and May ignores how HVAC demand actually moves.
- Measuring leads instead of booked jobs. Leads are cheap to inflate; booked jobs aren't.
After the audit, most owners move into one of the stage services: the one-truck foundation, crew-stage lead flow, full-shop marketing or multi-city expansion. To place yourself before we talk, read how to tell which stage you are in, then call, text or email us.
Frequently asked questions
Is the audit really free?
The 7-day free trial covers a digital marketing audit, a website performance check, an SEO review and a comparison against competitors, and it needs no credit card. You keep the findings whether or not you continue.
What do you need from me?
Read access to your Google Business Profile, website analytics and ad accounts if you have them, plus a rough split of last year's revenue between repair, maintenance and replacement. If some of that doesn't exist, we note it as a finding.
Will you tell me if I don't need you?
Yes. Some audits end with a short list the owner can do alone, such as finishing the Business Profile and fixing call handling. We would rather say so than sell a plan the company can't use yet.
Can the audit look at hiring or pricing?
It looks at them only where they limit marketing, for example a booking rate that drops because no one answers calls after 4 p.m. We give business advice from a marketing angle, not HR, legal or accounting advice.