The Boiler Season Prep System
Client identity withheld.
Results
$49K
Booked and signed revenue in 90 days, at the shop's own prices
65
Pre-season checks and repairs booked from past customers
52
Visits booked from forecast alerts
2
Boiler replacements signed from the aging-system group, worth $21K
78% → 88%
Maintenance plan renewal rate
59% → 81%
October schedule capacity filled
Company Profile
Company
Residential heating and cooling shop serving older housing stock with boilers and furnaces. ~$1.15M revenue, 4 service techs, the owner, and 1 office manager. ~2,000 past customers and ~210 maintenance plan members.
Stack
Field-service management software, payment processor with cards on file, Google Local Services Ads.
Operating Need
Move heating work into the fall, and catch failing boilers before they leave families without heat in January.
The Challenge
Milwaukee's older homes run on boilers and furnaces that often fail on the coldest nights, when they're hardest to repair. The shop knew which customers had aging equipment, but nobody had time to contact them before the season. October ran well below capacity, then December and January brought emergency calls the shop struggled to reach. Membership renewals slipped quietly when cards expired.
The Audit
We reviewed the service history, two years of fall capacity and the membership records.
Patterns Found
- October capacity averaged about 59% over two years
- About 800 customers were overdue for a boiler or furnace check
- About 190 homes had boilers or furnaces 20+ years old
- Emergency no-heat calls clustered in the first two weeks of hard cold
- About 1 in 5 members lapsed each year, often after an expired card
- The shop had never sent a pre-season message
The shop's winter emergencies were predictable. It needed to reach those homes in October, before the equipment quit.
The Architecture
Three systems working as six parts, built around heating season.
Past-Customer Wake-Up
Cleaned 2,000 customers to 1,700 reachable numbers and texted overdue boiler and furnace checks in batches sized to open slots.
Aging-System Outreach
Sent homes with 20+ year-old boilers and furnaces a personal message offering a free replacement estimate before winter.
Weather Trigger
Texts members first, then aging systems, 5–7 days before a major cold swing.
Surge Warning
Alerts the owner to expected call volume so he can plan on-call coverage.
Plan Renewals
Reminders 30 and 7 days before renewal, instant card-update links, and one plan offer to every non-member after a check.
Monday Recovered Revenue Report
One page every Monday with bookings by source, estimates and renewals.
How the System Operates
The system books ahead and warns before the cold. The owner does every replacement estimate and sets every price.
- Members are always contacted first before a forecast cold swing
- Texts go out only in batches the schedule can absorb
- Replacement pricing is always handled by the owner in person
How It Flows
- 1Open slots and the forecast are checked daily
- 2Overdue checks, aging systems and members are texted
- 3Checks and estimates are booked before the cold
- 4Every booking and signed replacement is logged on the Monday report
The owner reviews each aging-system home before its estimate.
Implementation
| Stage | Focus | Key Results |
|---|---|---|
| Stage 1 | Season audit | 800 overdue checks and 190 aging boilers and furnaces flagged |
| Stage 2 | Setup and approval | Customer list cleaned to 1,700 reachable numbers; heating messages approved |
| Stage 3 | Fall launch | Wake-up and aging-system outreach matched to October openings |
| Stage 4 | Forecast-driven | Weather trigger and Plan Renewals live; Monday reports every week |
Ownership
The shop now has a repeatable heating-season plan built on its own customers.
A customer list sorted by equipment age and last check
Approved pre-season and forecast messages
A live member list with renewals and payment status
Every Monday report
Operational Impact
Heating season now starts in October instead of the first emergency. Overdue boilers and furnaces get checked before the cold, and the oldest ones get replaced on a planned day instead of a freezing night. Members are covered first, and the owner knows each surge is coming.