Millennials Want Sustainable Systems

Posted on:

April 29, 2019

Matthew Pine, President of Residential HVAC for Carrier

More and more customers, particularly millennials, are interested in purchasing from companies that demonstrate sound environmental and social practices, emphasizes Matthew Pine, president of residential HVAC for Carrier in Indianapolis.

“My point of view is this: I think about 20 to 25 percent of the population is all about price, but the vast majority—75 to 80 percent—indicates a desire to have a sustainable product or deal with a company that displays sustainable practices,” he says. “You’re always going to have the price shopper, but the vast majority really does care about the planet and want to drive a sustainable agenda. When we design our products and services, we keep that in mind.”

According to Pine, that is why many Carrier products have some sort of sustainability message or value proposition. “For instance, we have a geothermal unit that basically saves the consumer 70 percent more than a traditional HVAC system, and we just offered a new version of our variable-speed air conditioner with Greenspeed® intelligence that features quiet comfort and energy savings,” he points out. “This system is whisper quiet. When we talk about sustainability, I think noise pollution falls in that bucket as well.”

Although the upfront cost of these products may be higher, he believes the money is well spent by savvy consumers. “Over the long run, their efficiency translates into a lower cost of lifetime ownership.”

Since Carrier is an ACCA Corporate Partner, ACCA Now recently buttonholed Pine to talk about his views on sustainability, contractor success, and the company’s partnership with ACCA.

How are you helping contractors be successful in their businesses?

I could give you many examples, but I’ll stick with a couple. When I talk with contractors, they want to know “How can my business be different from competitors? How can you help me get leads in my business so I can grow?”

Differentiation and lead generation are the two big pillars of how we work with our contractors through our distributors. We have an online scheduling portal on our dot.com asset that allows the consumer to set up an appointment and connect with one of our dealers through text or email. We designed this lead-generation system to meet changing customer needs since many consumers today don’t want to pick up the phone and call a company.

In addition to driving differentiation and leads, we help in another way. It’s no secret we have a technician shortage in our industry so it’s important for us to help make our contractors more productive. We offer CôrConnect,™ a home diagnostics portal where the vast majority of the systems that use our thermostat can provide advance information to our contractors about a problem before they roll a truck. We’re also launching algorithms to alert the contractor before a failure happens to a consumer’s unit.

Advance knowledge allows technicians to be more productive, usually saving money for the consumer in the process.

Do you have any programs that help contractors participate in ACCA as members or at events?

Sure. We try to schedule our large national Carrier factory authorized dealer meeting, which draws more than 1,000 contractors, in the same city as the ACCA conference. Dealers can then go from our meeting to the ACCA meeting without making two trips.

We’ve also bought ACCA memberships for 200 to 300 of our award winners several times. We’ve done that to promote membership to those contractors not already engaged with ACCA. For those already a member, we just pay their dues that year.

Why is partnering with ACCA important to your company?

We think there’s a great synergy in what we’re both trying to accomplish.

Much of ACCA’s mission aligns closely with our factory authorized dealer programs for our brands, and our training requirements parallel ACCA’s goal of furthering professionalism in the HVAC industry