Happy New Year, HVAC and plumbing professionals, and welcome to the 2024 JB Warranties Round-Up Series! With the first month of operations quickly coming to an end, we imagine many of our readers were too busy brainstorming New Year’s business goals and implementing new service offerings to have caught up on the latest current events and rising trends over the past few weeks.

Black History Month, which was initially a week-only event until 1976 when it became an officially recognized month, focuses on and celebrates the contributions of African Americans to the United States from all periods of history. The theme for Black History Month 2024, as set by ASALH (Association for the Study of African American Life and History), is African Americans and the Arts.

Carbon monoxide poisoning. Three words that no homeowner — nor any HVAC service provider — wants to hear. There are several common sources of carbon monoxide poisoning that pose a risk to home and business owners alike, no matter the time of year. However, the increase in various fuel-burning heat devices that accompany the winter months only spikes this omnipresent threat.

Here at JB Warranties, it’s no secret that we’re major advocates for purchasing a reliable extended warranty to protect customers’ equipment, their homes, and, most importantly, their peace of mind. However, we’ve also served as in-field technicians and we understand that sometimes, upselling a customer on an extended warranty coverage after an already-expensive system installation can be tricky. 

With a snowballing number of urgent winter service calls soon to roll in, the last thing HVAC service providers want to battle at the start of the New Year is employee burnout. Across the HVAC industry, compounding factors like continuous labor shortages throughout periods of overwhelming demand have triggered concerns for HVAC tech burnout — and the harmful impacts it has on businesses. 

Welcome back, plumbing and HVAC experts! JB Warranties is back again with another Monthly Round-Up — our last of 2023! We’ve spent the past 11 months (22 months when you count our 2022 Round-Ups, too!) scouring the web to gather the latest news, events, and trends that have swept across the trade industry. As the holiday season ramps up, we’re back again to look towards 2024.

While the title “Master Plumber” indicates that you’ve obtained the highest level of expertise in your field, it doesn’t imply that you’ve also mastered other elements of the plumbing business, like how to promote your services—and that’s okay! Most people who can swap out a water heater in record time or shimmy into a trench box for a burst pipe don’t focus heavily on plumbing advertising ideas.

Did you know that roughly 40% of sales leaders miss their annual revenue targets? While there are an array of uncontrollable factors that could impact overall plumbing sales success—hello, a global pandemic and widespread supply chain delays—a leading, yet manageable factor is a lack of company sales skills. Without proper plumbing sales training, the average plumbing company will struggle to gain customer leads, boost profit margins, and ultimately, fail to hit revenue goals in 2024. 

While many of the supply chain delays and service challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic are behind us, they’ve taught HVAC business owners a very valuable lesson: It’s integral to future-proof your operations to sustain business growth, especially in the face of an unstable economy or uncertain horizon. Though you never know what tomorrow will hold, you can prepare with confidence.

Welcome back to another Monthly Round-Up, our periodic report of the industry's current state—but more importantly, we want to wish you a very Happy Holidays, from our team to yours! After we made it past Brown Friday, we scanned the web to gather the latest industry trends and events for you.