It was the worst kind of slow season, the kind with no end in sight.
Denver hadn't seen a winter like this in over a century. Record-breaking warmth. No prolonged freezes. No sustained heat waves. For an HVAC company like AAA Home Services, that meant one thing: the phones weren't ringing.
"We've had these swings in weather," said Rick Lester of AAA. "Systems just aren't operating as they should. We haven't had the cold, we haven't had the extended heat."
The team at AAA knew the work was out there. Hundreds of systems quietly struggling in homes across Denver and Golden, running inefficiently, wasting energy, setting homeowners up for expensive repairs once summer finally hit. The problem wasn't the market. It was visibility.
That's where SmartAC changed everything.
AAA and SmartAC designed a campaign around a simple idea: the sensors already inside customers' homes were telling a story. Someone just had to listen.
When a unit reported a low Delta T reading (the temperature difference between supply and return air, which should typically fall between 16°F and 22°F for optimal performance), SmartAC flagged the issue for AAA.
AAA then sent homeowners a simple text message.
Not a sales pitch.
Not a promotion.
Just a straightforward notification that said their HVAC system was reporting a problem worth looking into.
"Your unit was reporting low Delta T... less than optimal for cooling indicates poor heat transfer, resulting in low system efficiency, insufficient cooling or heating, and your system is wasting energy."
Homeowners responded—not because they were pressured, but because someone they trusted was paying attention before a breakdown occurred.
From a single text campaign, AAA generated:
"If SmartAC sensors weren't inside the home," Rick said, "the $100,000 never would have happened."
These weren't opportunities AAA could have uncovered through advertising, direct mail, or outbound calling.
They only existed because SmartAC was already inside the home, already monitoring equipment, and already providing a meaningful reason to reach out.
The value of Fill Your Board isn't limited to the revenue it generates today.
It also helps contractors reduce the seasonal bottleneck that arrives every summer.
Every system AAA serviced in March or April became one fewer emergency breakdown during peak cooling season.
When the inevitable heat arrives and service demand spikes, AAA will have more technician capacity, shorter wait times, and homeowners whose systems were addressed before they failed.
"This will eliminate hopefully some less stress once that demand gets here," Rick said. "For the homeowners, it's a benefit for them too, because if we are busy and we're booked a day out, it helps them."
The HVAC campaign was only the beginning.
Once technicians were inside the home, they began identifying additional opportunities including plumbing issues, aging water heaters, and electrical work that otherwise would have gone unnoticed.
Even AAA's plumbing department, initially skeptical, is now installing three to four SmartAC systems per day.
Cross-trade opportunities continue to grow, increasing the return on every SmartAC installation.
"Somebody that we installed a year ago, the AC alerted us out there, but then triggered some type of plumbing lead," Rick explained. "And now they're buying in."
Whenever SmartAC gets inside the home, it creates more opportunities for homeowners to share concerns directly with technicians.
You're going to learn far more during an in-person visit than you ever will over the phone.
The Fill Your Board campaign delivered immediate revenue, but one of AAA's biggest wins has been its impact on membership retention.
Over the past 13 months:
"The future's bright just due to the fact of less cancellations," Rick said. "We've been a little bit over a year with SmartAC, and it's just been a steady decline in cancellation."
In an industry where membership programs often take years to become profitable, reducing churn isn't just a helpful metric. It fundamentally improves long-term business value.
The warmest winter in more than 125 years could have become a lost season for AAA Home Services.
Instead, it became proof that proactive monitoring creates demand even when the weather doesn't.
With SmartAC's Fill Your Board feature, AAA turned invisible equipment problems into booked appointments, booked appointments into more than six figures in revenue, and a slow winter into momentum heading into peak season.
Not by working harder.
By finally having the visibility to work smarter.
"Without SmartAC, with such a mild winter, that extra pickup we never would have had."
— Rick Lester, General Manager, AAA Home Services
Fill Your Board is a SmartAC feature built specifically to help home service contractors smooth out seasonal slowdowns.
The platform ranks an entire membership base by breakdown risk, identifying which customers should be contacted first and why. Whether the issue is overdue maintenance, aging equipment, elevated pressure, poor Delta T, or active system alerts, contractors receive a prioritized list of opportunities instead of waiting for the phone to ring.
From there, contacts can be pushed directly into ServiceTitan for scheduling or exported for targeted outreach campaigns.
No manual digging.
No guesswork.
Just a prioritized list of homeowners who are most likely to benefit from proactive service.
SmartAC empowers HVAC service providers with smart monitoring, real-time analytics, and a seamless homeowner engagement experience designed to fuel long-term business growth. Book a demo or explore the platform to see what it can do for your business.