The message comes in from the receptionist: “Mrs. Jones wants someone to come back out and check on the new furnace we installed yesterday. She says the house is still too cold and there is a funny noise coning from the furnace.”

No HVACR contractor wants callbacks. They lose money on return trips to customers, and if the customer is not satisfied — or just plain ornery — contractors may lose out on word-of-mouth referrals. That’s why it is important to keep the callback percentages to a minimum.

The News asked its Web site visitors about callbacks in a recent informal survey. Participants reported their callback percentages, listed the typical reasons behind callbacks, and detailed the measures they have taken to reduce service errors.

Survey Results

When it came to the reasons for callbacks, one survey respondent said it wasn’t defective equipment or poor installations that caused problems — it was gremlins.

Others were more forthcoming. Several people identified the root of the problem as a lack of “thoroughness.” One respondent to the survey said, “In a rush to keep billing hours down and in order to make other calls, we don’t spend enough time on a complete diagnosis.” Several other participants in the survey agreed that “misdiagnosis” is the main reason for callbacks.

Patrick T. Clark of Anchorage, Alaska, put it simply: “Techs do not follow proper procedures and make mistakes.”

Bruce Kintz from Sarasota, Fla., reported a callback percentage of 1.5 percent, but he lamented that it was still not good enough. He noted that problems occur when employees “don’t take the time to look at the whole system.”

“Most of our callbacks are from technicians who do not perform all the necessary tests and checks associated with the service,” said Jeff Krawic of East Hartford, Conn., a distributor who subcontracts startups and service agreements to local contractors. “Simple things like not checking the fuel oil pressures or manifold gas pressures, not adjusting the linkages as accurate as they are capable, etc. Also, some of the techs are just plain not educated enough.”

A full 50 percent of respondents pointed to defective products as the main reason for callbacks. The other responses included poor installations and problems with customers.

Drew Cameron, founder of Kennett Square, Pa.-based Supernova Selling Systems, listed several typical causes for callbacks. “Callbacks happen for a variety of reasons and could be avoided or minimized if the following items were addressed,” he said. He asserts that callbacks are most often the result of these factors: