Case study

How I would run an HVAC company.

Pellwood Heating & Air fixes and replaces heating and cooling for homes outside Columbus, Ohio. I mapped how a company this size really runs, every role, tool and handover, then worked out what I would automate and what stays with a person.

Made up company · sample data

$10M: a year
58: people
26: vehicles
3,000: homes on a plan

Who they are

Ray Kowalski started Pellwood in 1998 with one van and a pager. His daughter Erin took over in 2019.

It grew from word of mouth, then from Google, and now covers a 30 mile radius across three counties. Summers are hot and winters are cold, so the phones ring all year.

Where the money comes from

New systems: About 510 a year
Repairs: About 6,200 calls a year
Commercial: Small offices, shops, restaurants
Plans, 7%: Two tune ups a year

The team

6: Call centre
2: Dispatch
18: Service
14: Installs
4: Sales
3: Commercial
3: Accounting
8: Owner, managers, plans, warehouse, fleet, marketing, HR

17 people work in the office. The other 41 are on the road, in the warehouse and in the yard.

Vans and stock

17 service vans, 4 install trucks, a delivery truck, a pickup and 3 cars.

Every service van carries the same list of about 300 parts, from capacitors to refrigerant. New systems are ordered from the supplier for each sold job and staged the day before the install.

Shelves of parts inside a Pellwood service van

Their tools

The one record

ServiceTitan

Customers and homes
Jobs and dispatch
Quotes and invoices
Maintenance plans

RingCentral: Phones
CallRail: Which ad rang
QuickBooks: Books and bills
ADP: Payroll
Lender portal: Customer financing
City websites: Permits, three of them
Manufacturer site: Warranties
Utility site: Rebates
A spreadsheet: Commissions, rebuilt every pay period
Group texts: Team messages

A normal day

	July weekday	April weekday
Calls in	260	110
Repair calls run	55	18
Tune ups	6	30
Sales visits	9	4
Installs	4	2

One customer’s path

Sunday, 9pmThe Hendersons’ air conditioning stops. The answering service takes a message and books Monday.
MondayMarco diagnoses a failed part on a 14 year old system, repairs it, signs them up for a plan and flags the system as old.
ThursdayDana, the advisor, shows three new systems with monthly payments. They sign.typed again: finance
The next weekThe coordinator orders the system and books a crew. Installed in a day, inspected, invoiced.typed again: permitwarrantyrebate
Every year afterTwo tune ups. Fifteen years later, the next system.

Keep the one record. Connect everything around it.

Pellwood keeps ServiceTitan. Moving 58 people off it would cost more than it fixes. The work is in the steps that happen outside it, the messages nobody has time to send, and the numbers someone rebuilds by hand.

One record: Everything reads from ServiceTitan and writes back to it.
A person decides: Emergencies, prices, the diagnosis, the sale and money going out.
Prep, then hand over: Each automation does the chasing, then gives a person one thing to check.

Calls after 8pmAn AI receptionist answers, asks what is wrong and books the first slot. No heat in winter or a gas smell rings the on call tech straight away.Replace the tool

Missed calls in a rushA text goes back within a minute with a booking link, and the call lands in a rep’s queue.Automate

Web and ad leadsChecked against existing customers, sorted by urgency, answered within a minute, then a rep calls.Automate

Finding business customersCommercial work comes from word of mouth. Every Monday, a list of nearby offices, shops and restaurants, checked against existing customers, each with a short first message drafted. The commercial lead picks who to contact and sends it.Automate

DispatchNothing. Moving jobs on a busy day is judgement.Keep a person

The repairNothing. Marco diagnoses, prices and fixes.Keep a person

Quotes nobody answersReminders on day 2, 7 and 14 with the options. No reply after that becomes a task for the advisor.Automate

Finance, permit, warranty, rebateEach form is filled in from the record. The coordinator checks it and presses submit.Cut the retyping

Tune ups and renewalsMembers get a booking link each spring and autumn, and a reminder before the plan lapses. Anyone who does not book goes on a call list.Automate

CommissionsThe sheet builds itself from sold jobs. The controller reviews it before payroll.Replace the tool

Monday numbersCalls, bookings, open quotes and plans due, in plain words on Erin’s phone at 7am.Automate

Where a person steps out

Taking messages after hours, typing the same customer into four websites, building the commission sheet, ringing members to book tune ups. Nobody’s job is cut. The time goes back to the calls and visits only a person can do.

What stays human on purpose

The emergency decision, the diagnosis, the price, the sale, ordering equipment and any money leaving the company. AI never quotes a price or promises a time a person has not set.