The Ultimate Home Service Trivia Show (What Homeowners Really Think)

In this episode, John Wilson and Brandon Niro are joined by Zac Dearing from Mantel for a fast-paced, trivia-style breakdown of what homeowners actually want when buying HVAC and home services in 2025. Mantel just surveyed 500+ homeowners nationwide, and instead of guessing in the dark like most of the industry, we put real customer data on the board. John and Brandon compete to predict homeowner behavior — how many contractors people call, where they find you, what earns trust, how pricing impacts decisions, and what parts of the sales process truly move the needle. The results are a gut-check for any contractor, operator, or sales leader. Homeowners are still overwhelmingly finding contractors through Google and repeat relationships, AI search is basically nonexistent (despite all the noise), and reviews dominate how people assess quality. Even more interesting: millennials and baby boomers shop very differently, and the “price objection” narrative isn’t as universal as we treat it in training. If you’re trying to improve close rate, tighten your sales process, build real trust in the home, or decide how transparent to be with pricing and warranties, this episode is stacked with insights you can act on immediately. What You’ll Learn - How many contractors homeowners contact before choosing one - The real top channels homeowners use to find contractors in 2025 - Why AI search (ChatGPT/Perplexity/Claude) isn’t driving discovery yet 🎙️ Hosts & Guest Host John Wilson — x.com/@WilsonCompanies Co-Host Brandon Niro Guest Zac Dearing — https://www.usemantel.com/ 💼 Shoutout to Quick Staffers LLC Need trained HVAC & plumbing CSRs at a fraction of the cost? Quick Staffers LLC specializes in placing top-tier global talent with the best SOPs and scripts. 🔥 Get $1,000 off your first placement here: [https://www.quickstaffers.com/] 💼Shoutout to Avoca AI! Looking to train your call center and improve technician performance? Avoca AI helps teams identify issues, improve call quality, and drive results from start to finish. 🔗 Schedule a demo: [https://www.getavoca.ai/partners/oao] 💼 Shoutout to PayPerCall.io Stop paying for leads that don’t convert. With PayPerCall.io, you only pay when your phone rings with a qualified customer. Real calls. Real results. 👉 Book your free call: https://www.paypercall.io Download The Survey! https://www.usemantel.com/survey ⏱️ Episode Timestamps 00:00 Introduction and Game Setup 01:57 Trivia Game Begins 02:38 Homeowner Insights and Trends 24:21 Understanding Homeowner Priorities in HVAC 27:23 The Importance of Contractor Qualities 31:41 Final Thoughts and Surprising Insights 🔍 Keywords homeowner survey 2025, HVAC customer insights, contractor sales process, home service marketing, HVAC close rate, pricing transparency HVAC, contractor trust, online reviews HVAC, Google contractor discovery, AI search contractors, Mantel AI sales platform, HVAC warranties, labor warranty pricing, millennial homeowners, baby boomer homeowners, home service buying behavior, Nextstar sales training, ServiceTitan contractors, HVAC estimates, contractor follow-up 🏷️ Tags #HomeServiceGrowth #HVAC #Contractors #SalesTraining #CustomerExperience #Pricing #OwnedAndOperatedPodcast #mantel 📌 Disclaimer Some links include UTM tracking. This episode includes paid sponsors, but all opinions are our own. Always do your own due diligence before making business decisions.