Who is Rescue Air?
Founded 11 years ago by Michael Hirsch and his nephew Josh Campbell, Rescue Air is a thriving HVAC company based in Dallas. With a focus on customer service and a sales approach rooted in problem-solving, Rescue Air has grown to over $20 million in revenue.
Why did you start using Hatch?
As Rescue Air expanded, managing high volumes of leads, following up on estimates, and re-engaging past customers became challenging.
Estimate follow-up, in particular, was their biggest pain point. "Follow-up in this industry is a nightmare, and always has been. We know customers need it. We know it's critical but we're not doing it."
"We know follow-up is critical and yet we don't do it. It's like going to the gym."
Michael shares that they tried assigning a dedicated follow-up rep, but to no avail. "We tried having inside sales reps, but we never gained any traction," Michael shares.
As a result, Rescue Air was leaving deals on the table. After a friend recommended Hatch, Michael decided to give it a try. "And we have seen great results with it," he says.
How Rescue Air uses Hatch
Rescue Air has Hatch integrated with ServiceTitan as well as their lead sources, which include ServiceTitan, Angi, Scorpion, Yelp, and more. This allows them to create outreach campaigns that automatically send out based on customer behavior. They have outreach campaigns tailored for:
- New leads
- Recent estimate appointments
- Leads who were quoted but never got the work done
- Leads who never booked an appointment
- Maintenance program members
- Current customers
Michael points out that reaching out to past customers through Hatch opens up cross-selling opportunities. "We have campaigns for telling our HVAC customers about our plumbing and vice versa, and we'll do the same when we start providing electrical services," he says. "It's a great tool for companies that have more than one line of service."
Rescue Air's biggest use-case with Hatch is sales follow-up. Once a tech goes out and leaves behind an estimate, they have a certain amount of time to follow-up manually with the customer. Once that time window has passed, their Hatch campaign automatically reaches out. "It's just like a happy call. We ask them how everything went, just to re-engage them," Michael explained. This starts the conversation where they can obtain feedback, surface objections, and eventually lead to a sale.
Results and benefits
Higher close rates. Rescue Air saw a 10% increase in close rate as a result of implementing Hatch.
Higher revenue. "In the first 2 weeks we picked up $260K with wins we would have missed, had we not been following up on those estimates" says Josh.
Time saved. "Hatch does all the outreach in getting the conversation going again, so our sales guys get to close more work without all that extra legwork," says Josh.
"We definitely weren't following up on every estimate before Hatch, so this has been great for us."
Higher in-home close rates. "Our technicians now put more thought into estimates because they know those customers will be reached out to for feedback," says Michael. This also helps to increase in-home close rates and customer satisfaction.
A feedback tool. The follow-up campaign template Rescue Air uses in Hatch is more of a feedback gathering approach (versus direct estimate follow-up). "If the homeowner reports that they were confused, for example, we can provide the technician with that feedback right away, versus six months later when they won't remember the visit. So it's a good way to coach them with real-life examples."
"We noticed our closing rates went up by over 5%, and at one point, it was even closer to 10%."
Favorite Hatch features
Yelp integration. "Yelp is challenging," explains Josh, "because you have to outreach lots of leads to get one to reply. So we used to have to use performance spiffs to motivate that work, but it always resulted in turmoil in the contact center. So with Hatch doing all that communicating on the front end, it's reduced the workload off our team and eliminated all of that turmoil."
Ease of use. One of the things Michael likes most about Hatch is the ease of use. "It's really easy to train people to use, and it makes it so easy to communicate with customers," he says. "I can have someone run Hatch who knows nothing about air conditioning or plumbing, and they're still able to communicate and get jobs sold. The person we have running Hatch now, sometimes she has to consult a tech to answer questions or work out pricing, but for the most part, she closes everything."
Multi-channel drip campaigns. Michael also notes that the multi-touch and text-first approach facilitated through Hatch has been crucial. "In today's world, people are so distracted, it's necessary to reach out to them a few times," he said. He adds that not only is text so much faster, but it's more effective in getting responses and feedback. "People are much more likely to provide feedback to you about a technician via text than over a phone call."
Final thoughts on AI and automation
From automating initial lead qualification to sending strategic follow-ups, Hatch has empowered Rescue Air to maximize their potential and grow sustainably.
"Either you're on the front end of technology or you're playing catch-up," says Michael, "and Hatch helps us makes everyone on our team more effective."
Josh agrees.
"It just creates more business. I mean, everybody wins. The customer gets better service. Our sales guys make more money with less work. And we earn more revenue. It's just a no-brainer."
"Everybody wins. The customer gets better service. Our sales guys make more money with less work. And we earn more revenue. It's just a no-brainer."
