Perth HVAC Contractor
Achieves 75% Faster Quotes and $180k Revenue Growth

This Perth-based HVAC contractor specialising in residential and commercial air conditioning installations was struggling with labour-intensive manual processes that were hampering growth during peak summer demand periods.

The existing quoting process required site visits for every enquiry, with technicians spending 2-3 hours per quote gathering property details, measuring spaces, and calculating system requirements. During Perth's scorching summer months, this bottleneck led to delayed responses, lost opportunities, and overwhelmed scheduling systems.

Commercial projects compounded the problem significantly. Quoting a multi-storey office or retail fit-out required detailed load calculations, compliance with NCC energy efficiency provisions, and documentation of building envelope specifications — none of which could be prepared without first obtaining building plans or paying a consultant to conduct a site survey. This added days to the quoting cycle for every commercial tender, putting the business at a structural disadvantage against larger competitors with dedicated estimating teams.

Manual data entry across multiple systems created further inconsistencies. Property details sourced via phone calls to real estate agents or strata managers were frequently incomplete, leading to underquoted jobs and eroded margins. The business needed a way to pull reliable property data automatically, eliminating the dependency on manual lookups whilst giving estimators the building specifications needed to produce accurate, compliant commercial quotes without leaving the office.

We developed a comprehensive automation system that transforms initial enquiries into accurate, professional quotes within minutes. The centrepiece of the solution was a direct integration between ServiceM8 and Australian property data APIs, enabling the system to retrieve floor plans, building age, construction type, and strata records automatically the moment a customer submits an enquiry with a property address.

For commercial projects, the property API integration proved particularly decisive. Pulling building specifications directly from government land registry and planning databases meant estimators could calculate cooling loads and produce code-compliant quotes without waiting for site survey appointments. The system flags commercial jobs above a configurable threshold for senior technician review before dispatch, maintaining quality control whilst eliminating the manual bottleneck for routine enquiries.

ServiceM8 was configured as the operational hub, receiving enriched lead data from the quoting layer and automatically generating job cards, scheduling technicians, and triggering customer notifications at each stage. HUM Finance integration was added to surface payment plan options directly within quotes for larger commercial installations, removing a common friction point in the sales conversation.

Technology Stack

• ServiceM8: Core field service management platform for job scheduling, customer communication, and mobile workforce coordination
• Real Estate APIs: Automated property data retrieval including floor plans, building specifications, construction type, and strata records — the critical enabler for accurate remote quoting
• HUM Finance: Integrated financing options and payment processing for larger commercial installations, surfaced directly within quote documents
• Xero: Automated invoicing, job costing, and financial reporting integration
• Google Workspace: Document templates, customer communication, and team collaboration tools

Quote turnaround dropped from over two hours to under 30 minutes for residential enquiries, and from days to same-day for most commercial jobs. Eliminating the preliminary site visit for 80% of residential work freed technician time that was immediately redirected to installations, directly translating to increased revenue capacity without additional headcount.

During the first full summer post-implementation, the business processed 40% more enquiries whilst reducing operational overhead. The streamlined processes enabled expansion into new commercial service areas previously avoided due to quoting complexity, and profit margins improved through more accurate load calculations and less underquoting on complex jobs.

The ongoing competitive advantage is compounding. Faster quotes mean more tenders submitted per week, particularly for commercial fit-outs where speed-to-quote is often the deciding factor before a decision-maker moves on. The business now consistently submits quotes ahead of most competitors, and conversion rates on commercial enquiries have improved noticeably as a result.