Aaron and Stephanie run Total Air Inc., an HVAC company based in Raleigh, NC. Before LaunchSMS, their after-hours process looked like this: a customer texts at 9pm, it sits unread until 7:30am, and by then the customer has already called two other companies.

They knew they were losing leads. They just didn’t know how many — or how much it was costing them.

“We figured we were losing a few jobs a month. After the first 30 days with Nexus AI, we realized it was way more than that. We had been leaving serious money on the table every single night.”

Aaron F., Co-Owner, Total Air Inc.

The Numbers After 90 Days

0 after-hours leads missed in 90 days

+190 new Google reviews (from 43 to 233)

$8,046 additional revenue in month one

The Problem: Silent After Hours

Like most home service businesses, Total Air’s phones went quiet after 5pm. Aaron and Stephanie both have families, and monitoring the business line at 9pm wasn’t something they were willing to do indefinitely.

The issue wasn’t just volume — it was timing. HVAC leads are urgent. When an AC goes out in a Raleigh summer, homeowners aren’t going to wait until morning. They text two or three companies and go with whoever responds first.

They tried hiring a part-time phone answering service. The quality was inconsistent, the cost was $235/month, and the agents didn’t know enough about HVAC to properly qualify leads or give accurate availability windows.

Setting Up Nexus AI: What It Actually Took

Total Air activated Nexus AI during their LaunchSMS onboarding call in early November. Here’s what the setup involved:

The entire setup took about 45 minutes on the onboarding call. Nexus AI went live the same day.

The First Night: What Nexus AI Handled

Their first night live, three leads came in between 7pm and 11pm. Aaron and Stephanie were offline. Nexus AI handled all three. Here’s the first conversation, at 8:42pm:

Customer: "Hey my AC stopped working and it's 82 degrees in here. Can you come tonight?"

Nexus AI: "Hi! So sorry to hear that — let's get you taken care of. We do have emergency slots available. Can I get your address and confirm it's in our service area? Also, is the unit not running at all, or is it running but not cooling?"

Customer: "5824 Millbrook Rd, Raleigh. The outdoor unit is running but the air coming out is warm."

Nexus AI: "Got it — that sounds like it could be a refrigerant or capacitor issue. Our emergency service call is $149 which covers the visit and diagnostic. I can confirm a tech between 9–11pm tonight. Does that work?"

Customer: "Yes please! That works perfectly."

Nexus AI: "Perfect! You're booked for tonight between 9–11pm. You'll get a text when your tech is on the way. Name for the appointment?"

That job — a refrigerant recharge — came to $487. It happened at 8:42pm. Aaron saw it in the morning.

The Review Explosion

When they activated LaunchSMS, they had 43 Google reviews and a 4.6-star average. By the end of January — 90 days later — they had 233 reviews and a 4.8 average.

The mechanics are simple: every job marked complete in their field software automatically triggers a LaunchSMS SMS review request. The message goes out within 2 hours of completion, while the experience is still fresh. Their response rate is 42%.

The $8k Month One

In their first full month with Nexus AI active, Total Air booked 18 jobs that originated from after-hours contacts — leads that previously would have gone unanswered. At their average job value of ~$447, that’s approximately $8,046 in direct Nexus AI-attributed revenue.

The subscription cost for their LaunchSMS Growth plan: $397/month. Month one ROI: approximately 20x.

“We joke now that Nexus AI is our hardest-working employee. It never calls in sick, never misses a lead, and never has a bad day. The first month it paid for itself 20 times over.”

Stephanie M., Co-Owner, Total Air Inc.

Ready to see what Nexus AI can do for your business? Schedule a free demo — we’ll have it live on your account the same day.