‍Aire Serv Boosts Conversion Rates Using Real-Time Coaching from Rilla‍

Customer: Aire Serv of Tipton County, TN

Industry: Residential HVAC

Result: 40% pp conversion increase for flipping replacement opportunities

No matter what the customer needs, Aire Serv technicians claim, “We can do it.” They’ve provided home HVAC services to Tipton County, Tennessee, and the surrounding area for more than a decade. In addition to making homes more comfortable, the company is deeply engaged with the community, supporting local schools and charities and participating in community events. To continue being a strong community and industry leader, Aire Serv needed more support for their sales team.

The challenges

“If you don’t have sales, you don’t have revenue. And if you don’t have revenue, you don’t have anything,” said Lee Downing, CEO of Neighborly Companies and owner of Aire Serv of Tipton County.

When leads slow down, Lee knows getting the most out of every customer interaction is even more important than usual. He also knows it isn’t always realistic—or effective—for sales managers or trainers to be on every sales call.

“When you’re along on a call, sometimes people freeze,” said Corporate Sales Trainer Shan Erickson. “It creates an artificial situation.” The leadership team wanted to discover the true nature of sales calls while encouraging salespeople to behave naturally.

Another issue was the company’s struggle to get online reviews. These are often the first step in consumer research, and Aire Serv didn’t have a consistent method for requesting reviews from existing customers.

Immediate coaching means immediate improvements

Rilla offered a way to record and review calls to surface near real-time insights and coach more effectively.

“It’s call by call management,” said Lee. “You don’t have to wait until you’re having a one-on-one with a service manager to find out you’re not doing something right. You know it at the end of that call, and you can course correct right then.”

Shan added, “Within minutes of finishing a customer call, you can literally stop, get yourself a cup of coffee, and go over your Rilla. It even gives you four or five key points instantly on what you could have done to improve that call.”

The results

Aire Serv has seen a notable increase in conversions since adopting Rilla. “Our average tickets have gone up significantly—not because we’re charging more, but because we’re simply giving the customers what they need,” Lee said.

They’ve also improved another important metric: the flip. “When a technician notes that a customer needs a new system, these customers are ‘flipped,’ or converted to the sales department,” explained Lee. “Our flip rate is about 27%, almost triple the industry standard. We’re also able to track replacement opportunities and flip about 70% of those, whereas previously, we were only flipping 20–30%.”

Using Rilla also helped Aire Serv solve the review problem. “The first step to getting a Google review is simply asking,” said Lee. “It turned out we were only asking 6% of our customers.”

There’s a lot to get through in a home visit, and technicians didn’t always feel they had time to ask for a review. They’ve since made the ask a standard part of their process, which has led to receiving up to 52 Google reviews in a single month.

Technicians find Rilla just as valuable as the leadership team, and they’ve come to appreciate having the extra ears in the field with them. Shan recalls a salesperson whose close rate went from 20–30% to a 53% close rate and who experienced a 275% increase in in-home sales after embracing Rilla and fine-tuning their approach.

Apart from improving the bottom line, the company uses Rilla to help them improve the customer experience.

“Rilla allows me to slow down and explain the product better,” said Service Technician Tyler Sherman. “It allows me to make sure the homeowner understands everything because, at the end of the day, we’re trying to treat them like family.”

Lead Service Technician Jonathan Pippel believes Rilla can help anyone, regardless of industry, become a better tech or service provider.

“I think Rilla is perfect for any service professional that enters the home or a business anywhere in the world,” he said, adding that having complete, timestamped conversations also protects technicians against dispute. “It is that guardian, that protector, that helps save a technician from he said/she said situations.”

More than anything else, Rilla provides a comprehensive understanding of any sales call anytime, which benefits everyone. “When you listen to the calls, you can hear when the customer is asking for something, and the technician didn’t understand the question,” said Lee. “Now we’re able to return to those customers and give them what they need.”

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