A big share of what an HVAC/R distributor sells is the same items, over and over. Filters. Capacitors and contactors. Universal motors. Condensate pumps and tubing. Brazing rod, flux and nitrogen. Thermostat wire, tape and mastic. Techs and facility crews burn through them constantly, and the orders are predictable. Yet most of them still come in by phone or a text with a photo.
The app gives your customers three ways to take the work out of repeat orders, and lets each customer decide how much the app should do.
Reorder: buy it again in one tap
Reorder lets a customer buy a past order again, or reorder from a saved list. A service company restocks every truck from the same list each week. An installer repeats the install materials from the last changeout: line set, pad, disconnect, whip, thermostat and wire. A facility reorders last quarter's filters.
AutoPilot reorder: their usual items on schedule
AutoPilot reorder keeps a customer's usual items coming on schedule so they don't run out. It's based on the account's own usage over the last year. With AutoPilot on for a scan program, one scan of a bin orders a set number of days of stock based on that customer's actual use, so a busy service shop gets a couple of months' worth of the capacitors it burns through instead of one box at a time.
Filters are where this shines. Facilities change filters on a schedule, by size and by building. AutoPilot can keep those sizes arriving before change-out day, instead of the maintenance lead realizing the week of that half the sizes are missing.
Each customer sets the dial for how much AutoPilot does:
- Suggest: the app builds a suggested reorder, and the buyer decides what to send.
- Ask first: the app prepares the order on schedule and asks the buyer to confirm before it comes to you.
- Run on its own: the schedule the customer set up runs as they set it, on the items and quantities they chose, and they can change or stop it at any time.
Most customers start at Suggest and move along as they get comfortable. The buyer always decides how it works, and you can see which accounts have AutoPilot on.
Blanket orders for contracts and big jobs
Commercial HVAC jobs and facility contracts often run on blanket orders: agreed items and prices for a job, a building or a contract year, released as needed.
In the app, customers make releases against the blanket themselves. A mechanical contractor on a school project can release the next phase's duct fittings, registers and controls from the job trailer. A school district can release filters and belts for each building as needed. Everyone sees what's been released and what's left, at the contract price.
Why steady reorders are worth chasing
Repeat items are dependable business, and they're exactly what a competitor picks off when a tech gets tired of waiting on hold in July. Getting them onto a reorder list, AutoPilot or a blanket means the customer doesn't have to think about who to call.
It helps your own buyers, too. More volume on steady schedules makes it easier to plan stock ahead of the season and avoid running dry on common parts the week of the first heat wave.
See how it works with your own HVAC/R catalog.