The old saying “You are what you wear” certainly applies to Simply Comfort, a Toronto-based custom integrator. The company, which has its roots in the heating and air conditioning business, found its apparel made a big impact on its ability to set customers at ease, get their foot in the door, and easily start a sales discussion.
What exactly do they wear? T-shirts and hats emblazoned with the Nest logo.
“The power of the Nest brand name absolutely helps us,” says Kirill Tatarinov, founder of Simply Comfort. “We knew of the brand name before we adopted the product line and saw how actively promoted it was to consumers. Nest even provided us with Nest logo’ed hats and shirts. Customers see our team wearing the brand and they start to get excited before the salesperson has even said a word because they know we offer Nest thermostats. There is definitely a big advantage to the customer knowing the brand.”
The five-year-old company specializes in offering simple, flexible and innovative products to homeowners that fit into its niche of combining both smart home and heating and cooling equipment.
Referrals Drive Installations
Even though HVAC systems are Simply Comfort’s bailiwick, the company’s sales processes are similar to those of a traditional custom integration company that comes from the automation, security or audio/video side of the business. Simply Comfort uses referrals for in-home sales presentations to set their appointments. During those appointments, they assess the client’s furnaces, air conditioners, water heaters, and water filtration equipment. Following the visit, they develop a customized installation proposal.
“We are doing pretty well, more than 100 installations per week,” says Kirill. Those projects include Nest Learning thermostats, Nest Cameras and lots of Nest Protects, he notes. The company installs a lot of heating and cooling systems, water heaters and water filtration products.
“We install all the products across the Nest line but our main focuses are the thermostats and the smoke and CO alarms. We have been using them since the beginning of 2012.”
“Customers see our team wearing the [Nest] brand and they start to get excited before the salesperson has even said a word.”
— Kirill Tatarinov, Simply Comfort
He continues, “Our niche is to combine smart home products with home comfort services. Our favorite feature of Nest is that it is so easy to install. It does not take much time at all. It is simple to train our installers on how to set it up.”
Kirill says that customers report the most attractive features are the learning algorithm, and the ability to control the temperature with ease from miles away.
“After every installation, we set up the app for the customer. The feedback on the app is always great. They consistently tell us how easy it is to use. Combining the control of the Nest Cam in the app is quite new to us, as well as to our customers, but they are telling us they enjoy the simplicity of having a single app to control all the Nest devices,” he adds.T
