Richmond-area HVAC businesses get innovative

Hugh A. Joyce thought James River Air Conditioning needed to "cut through the clutter" of bad economic news to spur customers to act and help keep the business going.

Joyce's "declutterer" was a $29 service-call offer during James River's slack winter and spring season.

"We thought about doing it for free," the company's president said, "but that would be too cheap."

"It drove gobs of business to us," Joyce said: More than 350 customers took advantage of the discount.

The deep discount for the diagnostic visit is gone now. "That $29 is $99," Joyce said.

But "we'll probably do the $29 service call again in the fall," packaging it as an energy-efficiency check on home cooling and heating systems, he said.

Joyce pointed out that even now, his company's service calls cost almost $30 less than last summer, when they were $127.

James River Air Conditioning's markets are residential service and equipment replacement, commercial HVAC work, and design-build for new commercial construction.

"We're a little flat," Joyce said of his company's results this year. "That's the new 'up' in this economy."

The commercial sector -- 60 percent of James River's business -- is "real soft," Joyce said. As John Carr, James River's new construction general manager, put it: "There's a lot of activity, but a lot's not getting built."

At his $22 million-a-year company, "we're trying to create value for our clients," Joyce said. "Even in the recession, construction's expensive, labor's expensive."

Providing service for free or reduced rates in large doses isn't a surefire business model, but the nation's groggy economy has made for new business agility.

Other companies are also innovating to generate business and help recession-racked consumers:

• For Woodfin Oil Co.'s residential services department, "Saturday is just another workday," said general manager Rob Bailey.

Beginning this spring, Woodfin dropped overtime charges for Saturday. "Our prices are the same on Saturday as they are on the other days of the week," Bailey said.

• Eveready Service Experts in Richmond offers satisfaction-guaranteed work, or customers get their money back.

"That 100 percent satisfaction guarantee is a big thing," said Mark Weaver, the company's general manager.

• Kelleher Heating & Cooling has cut its service-call charge from a 30-minute minimum at $98 down to a 15-minute minimum at $78, said the firm's president, Joe Kelleher.

"We're trying to speak to people who don't need a technician there for a half an hour," Kelleher said. "People who are very sensitive about money . . . get full value."

. . .

The federal stimulus package's tax credits -- up to $1,500 for energy-efficient heating and air-conditioning systems -- are "giving clients excuses to go ahead," the nattily dressed Joyce said.

"Our deal is to be the early bird -- and get the worm," he said. "We want them to use [the tax credit] on HVAC."

So far this year, Joyce said, James River's HVAC equipment-replacement business is up 15 percent.

And the stimulus package is having some of the effect desired nationally at his firm, he said.

"I've hired people here, probably 10, directly because of that program," Joyce said. "Whether you agree with it or not, it's driving business to us."

The company also tries to create value for itself.

For instance, James River's fabrication shop and warehouse area is heated in winter by wood-burning stoves the company's workers built using old metal barrels. "We extract all the heat," Joyce said happily.

Joyce's father, Hugh E. Joyce, started the firm in 1967. The younger Joyce went on his first installation job when he was 16 years old.

Today, Joyce holds master tradesman certifications for HVAC, gas fitter and electrical work. "Every once in a while, I'll suit up and go with a crew."

Looking around his fabrication shop, he said, "I can do anything those guys can do."

The company has its own house brand of heating, air-conditioning and heat-pump equipment, manufactured for it by United Technologies. "We order from our vendors yesterday what we need tomorrow," Joyce said.

James River emphasizes doing work correctly.

Every technician carries a digital camera, and a wall in the headquarters is covered with before and after photographs of each job its service technicians do, "just for quality assurance," Joyce said. "We're going to stand by every job."

The HVAC industry is traditionally heavily technical and not retail-oriented, he said. Joyce, however, describes himself as "a retail marketing guy."

The upshot is that Joyce's Westmoreland Street building has a showroom with HVAC units arranged around the floor, and a digital sign on the building flashes messages to drivers on Broad Street. "We wanted to give the HVAC business a different look."

"At the end of the day," Joyce said, "what is allowing us to be viable is a positive mind-set: Get out, do our job, do our work." In his advertising, he said, "I tell everybody it's going to be OK."

"We want to do a great job, have some fun," Joyce said, "and make a little money."

Contact Peter Bacqué at (804) 649-6813 or .