Air conditioning leads: an HVAC marketing plan for the whole year

Enquiries spike in summer because hot days push people to fix, replace or add cooling all at once. AEMO's summer readiness material says high air conditioner use on hot days makes summer the highest demand period of the year, and the Bureau of Meteorology warns of an increased risk of severe and extreme heatwaves over the warmer months.

For an aircon business, that means one week brings a split system that will not start, a ducted unit blowing warm air through a two storey house, and a cafe whose cool room is struggling. Jobs and Skills Australia counts 29,700 airconditioning and refrigeration mechanics employed in 2025, and in a heatwave the customer rarely cares which of them turns up, only how soon. Miss those calls and you lose more than one job: you lose a customer who could have booked a service every spring.

A good plan spends the cool months building your list and the hot months answering it. Treat the table below as a starting point for the southern and eastern states, and shift it for the tropics, where the cooling season runs much longer.

You catch them by making sure no call sits unanswered for long, even when you are in a ceiling space and the phone is in the van. Invoca's 2024 analysis of US home services calls found 27% went unanswered, and a 2025 CallRail survey of US consumers found 21% immediately ring another business when nobody picks up. Both are US vendor figures, but anyone who has worked a heatwave week knows the pattern.

1. 1Set accurate hours on your Google Business Profile and say whether you take urgent after hours calls.
2. 2Send an automatic text to every missed call with a link to describe the fault and book.
3. 3Ask the triage questions up front: unit type and age, any error code, and whether anyone vulnerable is in the house.
4. 4Group breakdowns by suburb so one tech is not crossing town all day.
5. 5Keep a callback list and ring every name on it.

Yes, an AI receptionist can answer every call, take the fault details, answer common questions and book the job while your techs keep working. It will not fix a compressor, but it stops a ringing phone from turning into a lost customer.

Think about what that changes. Fewer lost breakdown calls means the summer revenue you were already earning stays with you, so you can afford to turn down the eighth job of the day, so your techs are not burnt out by February, and you get to switch off at night knowing the phone is covered.

Display your Australian Refrigeration Council refrigerant handling licence, because anyone who handles refrigerant or works on refrigeration and air conditioning equipment must hold one. The ARC scheme covers more than 115,000 individuals and businesses. A restricted licence exists for split system installation and decommissioning, and businesses that buy or sell refrigerant need a separate Refrigerant Trading Authorisation.

State rules sit on top of that. In NSW, air conditioning and refrigeration is specialist work that needs a licence at any value, and in Queensland the QBCC lists mechanical services among work needing a licence at any value. Rules vary and change, so check with your regulator, then put your licence numbers on your website, quotes and invoices.

Fill them with work that does not depend on hot weather: servicing, heating, commercial refrigeration and planned replacements. There is a longer list of ideas in the guide to quiet months.

• Reverse cycle heating. Many split systems are also the home heater, so a winter check is an easy offer when the first cold snap hits.
• Commercial refrigeration. Cool rooms, display fridges and ice machines in cafes, butchers and clubs need maintenance whatever the season.
• Maintenance agreements. Offices, medical centres and childcare centres often prefer a scheduled service to a surprise breakdown.
• Ducted design and quoting. Renovators and new home builders plan ducted systems months ahead, so winter is when those quotes get done.

Yes, as long as each message follows the Spam Act: you need consent, a clear sender identity and a working unsubscribe. ACMA says consent can be express or inferred, and inferred consent relies on an existing relationship where the marketing is directly relevant. The safest path is to ask on the invoice whether the customer wants a yearly service reminder.

Every message must identify your business and include a free unsubscribe honoured within 5 working days. Keep it short, mention their unit and last service date, link to a booking page, and send it in September. If your website needs a proper booking page, see websites for tradies, or take the free 15 second lead score quiz for a quick read on where you stand.