How Sasquatch Heat Pumps Is Redefining HVAC Service on Vancouver Island

Awesome. Thank you, Dale from Sasquatch Heat Pumps. We have you on the line here from the Victoria Vancouver Island area. Tell us a little bit about yourself, how you got started in the industry, and where you’re at now. Okay. Thank you. Kay. So appreciate being here. I started in the HVAC industry about 15 years ago.

I left the corporate world shortly after university and a friend was selling furnaces and air conditioners. They were making great money, so I was 23, 24 at the time. Sounded like a great thing. So I got into that and that was really my first entry into home services and I learned so much from that company.

There’s always these. In Canada, there’s the TSN Turning point. In sports, TSN is just our Canadian sports network, ESPN for our American friends. But that’s one of the big turning points in my life of being exposed to home services. ’cause I never knew about the industry.

I never understood the industry, I never understood the value you could bring to someone’s home. I was in the, infancy of my career and I haven’t had the experience of dealing with people in my home yet. Learning how to provide that value and that service to people was just such a valuable experience.

And seeing how a company can run in this company, there were probably about seven or 8 million a year at the time, and now there were $50 million companies. I’ve got to watch them grow and stay in touch as well, and they’ve been wildly helpful to me along the way. Okay, so I did that when I lived in Calgary and then I started my apprenticeship as an electrician.

The reason I started with that is it was just a different trade. I thought it was a great trade, so I got into the electrical and then I moved to Vancouver Island. I started my first business, which was an electrical home services business. And then I started Sasquatch about five years ago.

And that was born from, I saw the need for. That top tier home service company that is providing that white glove service those guarantees, those warranties, the things, the value that people are really looking for. I found there was a hole when I looked, went to put a heat pump in my own home. So I had the three big companies come out and I was disappointed in their service and their process and I said, I can do this better.

So having the background in hvac I was able to start Sasquatch and because I had my other business as well, I was really able to invest in the infrastructure of Sasquatch and growing it into what it is today. It was always something that I could invest into. I wanted to create something that was a win, so our customers would win.

Our team members would win. And ultimately, when everyone else is around me is winning, then hopefully I’m winning as well. I’m a very big believer that, the more value add to other people’s lives, the more comes back to you. I love that, that is such a great principle to, to operate by. And it never fails truth.

Usually it doesn’t, sometimes, you get tripped up, but if you’re always putting that good juju out there, more often than not, I. People see and feel that it does come back. For sure. For sure. Tell us a little bit about your name. It’s one of my favorite and I just wanna know what brought you to that and why you thought that’d be a great mascot for your company.

I. Oh, a few different reasons. So it, it was my wife, Caitlyn, who actually brought the name up. I was more of a, in the box, very kind of professional, like looking something that was, customer service focused, would a appeal to. Top tier hvac.com or whatever we want to call it. And, in, in creating the business, we wanted to create something fun that was always a tenant of, it is my first business, I always had a bit of an identity crisis with where, I would never wear the branded gear outside of work. I owned that business. But Dale at work and Dale at home were two very different people.

So I, I always just found that there was an identity, there was a lack of congruence there. So I want to create something that was. Fun. So Caitlyn brought this up, and the Sasquatch is great because it’s real. Yeah. Depending who you talk to, right? Sure. It’s real relevant. And it’s relatable to our demographic and to our market.

In the Pacific Northwest, everyone knows the Sasquatch. It’s something that stands out to people and in creating something that, can give back to people in the community. We decided to plant 50 trees for every install. So we’ve evolved that. Now we plant trees and kelp all in British Columbia and with Sasquatch it is.

We plant 50 trees so you can help Sasquatch stay comfortable while you get comfortable. I love that we could tie all of our marketing in with it and everything came full circle. And then a subtle thing for us is we got married in Sasquatch Provincial Park in Harrison Hot Springs. So there’s a bit of a subtle personal knot in there.

For us as well. Yeah. Yeah. So we got to do a few different things that are close to us far. We wanted to create something where you give back to the community as well, because I believe business can be used for all kinds of different reasons. Yeah. And more than, hey, buyer equipment.

We sell heat pumps. We get to do something that gives back to the community and again, creates more wins and adds more value into the community. Yeah. Being from the west coast. No matter who you are, you have an attachment to the trees, the geography the environment. So it’s something that is very near and dear to everyone’s hearts.

Even people who come here from other parts of the country. You come from a desert, if you spend five years here, you just you grow attached to the trees, right? So creating more wins, creating more value, and then just doing something fun, right? Yeah. Everything is fun, and that’s something I wanted is that every time we come in, we enjoy it.

We can do marketing that makes people laugh. We can have a personality, we can be a little bit cheeky, right? Yeah. Whereas if you’re just like, generic Dale’s, heat pumps or super duper heat pumps.com it’s just a generic thing. And it goes back to that tenant of, we sell heat pumps, you want a heat pump, we’re a match made in heaven.

But, you can do much more with business and you can do a lot of good with it. Yeah. Where, your customers can win, the team can win your community can win. And then everyone just loves it. The best thing about it is like our brand has evolved into our superpower as well.

The growth that we’ve seen. My goal was five mil a year. In five years. We did that in two and a half easing. Yeah granted it was during COVID when everything was pumping. So we had some good tailwinds with us. But the brand is what’s allowed us to connect with the community and it really is our superpower.

I love that. That is so cool. It’s really the difference between building a business and building a legacy. And you’re building a legacy. You are building roots in your community. You’re making a difference. You’re affecting people’s lives, not just the ones you service or the people you employ.

You’re affecting the entire community around you. Totally. Even people who don’t use us. Exactly. Yeah. We planted almost 20,000 trees in British Columbia last year, I believe it was almost like 7,000 kelp plants. All this stuff goes back and I’m a big lover of the ocean as well.

I’m a big surfer, tending to the ocean, tending to the environment it is just it makes it a little bit more rewarding. I love that. I love that. You came to us and what was your, where, how was the decision making to come to plumbing and Hvac, SEO? At what point did you say this is it, this is the time when I should partner with someone else?

So you guys were our second SEO company. Our third web development company. So the first company that built it was they were a paper per pay per click company. So they built just a high converting website, but it lacked that really the SEO drive of it in the backend. So the second company we went with, everyone has had this experience with SEO companies I’m sorry to drive the bus over the industry, like web dev, web development and SEO companies are known for the over promise, under deliver. And that’s what happened with the last company is they made a lot of promises and then when it came back to holding them accountable to those promises, it was just a bunch of crickets.

Yeah. Sure. That’s right. So I found you guys through a referral of a trusted friend. And, in, in interviewing a bunch of different companies, you guys just stuck out as a company who was willing to make those commitments and live by those commitments. And, give me the ability to hold your feet to the fire.

Yeah, in those commitments, right? Yeah. And you guys have held up to that along the way as well, which is amazing for an SEO company because I love that relationship we have because you really, you bring it and you dig in and you don’t accept anything, but truth and fact, and that’s something we love and we find so refreshing about you.

I appreciate that because it also makes me a bit of a pain in the ass. Not at all. Because you do ask. I do ask a lot. Yeah. And I think it is, you have to ask a lot though. When you wanna be the best, you have to align with. Companies who are also going in that direction.

Yeah. And you have to purchase the way that you sell. You guys aligned with my values on that and allowed me to have that kind of. Here are the commitments we’re willing to make. Here are our responsibilities. Yeah. We meet biweekly on those and we go through and, you have a goal setting and review meeting every couple weeks to make sure that we are constantly moving the needle. Yeah. And that’s always the goal, right? Yeah. And it’s unique to find someone who actually comes back and, is helping you move the needle and doing the things that you’re asking. Yeah. It’s really iron sharpening iron because.

It’s the same for us. If we have that drive and that, that we bring that to the table. But the client doesn’t it’s the same position, it’s really, it requires two of us to work at it. So we are so grateful for your energy and your expectations never get lowered. They’re always top notch.

Appreciate that. Yeah, for sure. And we know digital or digital marketing is one aspect of running a business, obviously, but what other things do you do on a holistic approach for your marketing? For our marketing. It’s being everywhere. And this is an interesting thing ’cause over the 15 years I’ve been in home service, I’ve seen the rise of PPC the rise of SEO and I know it started in the early two thousands and I only started in that 2010, 2011 range.

But, you used to be able to build a business off of PPC and SEO and keyword stuffing and all those really super simple. Tactics where you can take advantage of algorithms that weren’t as smart as they are today. So now I feel like we’re coming full circle back into that investing in the community branding aspect of it where, it’s grill and marketing.

It’s being everywhere, right? It’s being seed, it’s seen, it’s being heard. It’s being I want to, I’m gonna say felt. Yeah, true. It is right. Because everything is storytelling and you’re looking to connect and create emotions and do more than, stick the knife in, create pain and solve that problem.

So we’re really moving into how do we create value out of our website. And how do we. Create connection in the world around us, because I’m not sure what the stat is, but we get fed some thousands of marketing messages a day. Yeah. And our brains are cognitive misers and they’re constantly filtering these things and people’s brains that they hear, they see it, they file it.

And for instance, I just got a I signed on for a billboard and it’s on, it’s one of the busiest highways in our area. In talking to my wife and a few different friends, I’m like, what’s the best billboard on the south island? And no one knew. And I was like, come on, this is so obvious. The reason is because we all drive by it and we don’t notice it.

But when I drill in a little bit deeper, they’re like, oh, that billboard, it’s always filled with realtors. They’re like, oh, I don’t pay attention to it. It’s always filled with realtors, right? It is like you do pay attention ’cause you know it’s there and it’s realtors. So it’s creating that subliminal messaging and how do you catch an eye, and how do you raise awareness in the community so that when they go back to the digital marketing, how do they find you?

Because when you look at, what is my return on ad spend, right? Everyone is really hyped up about ROAS these days. Yeah. You know what? We all look at the technical side of it, of how do we get a better roas? How do we show up more? How do we convert on the page? But we’re not talking about the persuasion of it.

For people who have read Robert Cialdini’s book Persuasion, if not, go read it. I like that plug. Yeah. Yeah. I love that. But it’s a good one. Yeah. It’s everywhere. And if you watch, there’s a little video on YouTube that he does, and it is just about having a glass of milk, right?

There’s people walking down the road and they put four different milk signs on it. Then at the end of the road what do you want to drink? Oh, and nine outta 10 people have a glass of milk. Of course. So you can presu pre-program, whatever you want to call it, you can make that connection without people noticing it.

Yeah. So how do you appear in the community? So that when they go to the digital marketing avenue, because we know everyone says, where did you find us? Google? Yeah, of course. Yeah. Thank you. I, but what made you think yeah. Was it LSA? Was it the map Pack? Was it PPC? Was it organic?

Yeah. There’s so many different ways, what helps you convert on those is your presence outside of the digital world. Yeah. So really driving into the community stuff, whether it be billboards, tv, radio. Home shows, events, wherever you can be present. And add a little bit of value, even if it’s just a laugh.

Yeah. A laugh and a giggle, a smile. Yeah. That’s enough value people need. It’s true. Very. Or even just catching the eye. One thing one message I’m introducing and I actually really is coming into the summer, you ask someone a no oriented question, excited for another hot summer, yeah.

And everyone’s no, I’m not excited to sit in the house and sweat. Thank you very much. But it’s a pattern interrupt and then they look at it and they remember it. Subconsciously most times. But again, it’s enough to stop and make them think. Sure. So it’s getting in.

It’s getting into that stuff. And that’s even a little bit of a laugh ’cause it’s an obvious no question. Everyone knows nobody’s happy to be sitting in their house and their house is 95 or a hundred degrees. Yeah. So it’s an obvious no question flips that switch and then you’re like, who would say something so ridiculous?

And it’s I, yeah. Yeah. That’s me. Yeah, that’s me. But again, when they go to search, they remember that little bit of pain that was created in there and that we are now familiar because we cracked that little dumb joke. Yeah. Top of mind. Top of mind, always. Yeah. Is there anything that you’ve tried for marketing that didn’t work and you stopped doing?

Oh, I’m a big believer that everything works. Every medium works. Not every message works, right? So there’s been tons of messaging that we’ve put out that has fallen flat or fallen short. But. The hardest thing with that is, and again, it’s going back to the branding because we all have our mar, we have our marketing mix of our indirect and our direct and the branding side of it is essentially putting your money in a bag, throwing it out on the highway, and hoping that, people pick it up.

It’s got your business card on it. You can never track your ROAS or your return on investment on your billboard campaigns. Yeah. Or your radio campaigns. To find out what works or what didn’t. You can only, in my opinion, the only thing you can really go in and say doesn’t work is something that is digital when you’re ab testing it.

And constantly, yes, I have put out, yeah, hundreds of thousands of messages that, we’re not as good as they could have been. But if you have a sign on the side of the road, just because no one has called and said, Hey, I saw your sign on the side of the road. Yeah. It doesn’t mean it doesn’t work.

Yeah. Brand awareness at that point. Totally. So yes, I’ve done thousands and thousands of things that have not worked and but overall everything works a little bit. Everyone that said there’s no such thing as bad publicity. So true. Oh, true. Even if your message stinks, if it is not offensive Yeah.

Or you’re not taking away brand value, then it works a little bit. It could just work a lot better with the right messaging and the right consistency. I love that. That’s so true. It’s just about trusting what it’s also thinking about what do you remember if I talk about my drive to Vancouver, I can tell you exactly what billboards are there.

There are some that I know it’s coming too. I know. Oh, in a couple kilometers I’m gonna see Sarah Tupe on the realtor. Oh yeah. I know. Like we’re in that, we’re in the marketing realm, so we look at that. It’s true. But to everyone else, it’s just a, another realtor, but yeah. She’s been on that billboard for a decade forever.

Yeah. You know so much that two people that don’t live there know exactly who she exactly is. Yeah. And has seen her growth over time. ’cause it started as Sarah too, the individual, and now it’s the team. Yes. So you’ve seen and if you ask, I bet you if you ask 10 other people that aren’t in marketing.

They would have no idea. That’s so true. But I bet you her PPC is dialed, right? So when someone searched realtor near me. Hundred hundred percent, right? Yeah. She’ll pop up and then she’s relevant again. She’s just because people know her name. Yeah, she’s inherently safe.

And that’s the way our mind works because familiar is safe in our minds. Yeah, it’s true. Those constant, that brand reputation, right? Or that brand visibility. Yeah. Yeah, a hundred percent. Is there any, do you do any initiatives to drive people to your online presence? Everything is, I think, can you elaborate on that question? Yeah. Do you, do, have you ever run any any contests or. Anything that would engage people online through social media, or is there anything that you do outside of just traditional that you do to drive people to your website? Yeah. So the last few years we’ll run a free heat pump contest.

So generally when we’re coming into summer and we’re coming into winter, yeah. We’ll put a contest out and we ask people to submit a quick blurb, a paragraph nominating themselves or a friend or a family member as to why this person is deserving of a heat pump. I love that. Yeah. So again, putting that good juju out there, helping someone out in the community, because there’s always the single parent or someone who’s fallen on some hard times and you get to put a, you get to put good out there and it all comes back.

That’s true. So that’s been a really successful thing for us, and it pays for itself every time because. We’re not just giving away a heat pump ’cause we’re really good people, which we are. Yeah. But we also get a customer list of. A hundred, 500, a thousand people who we know are interested in heat pumps, who have old systems, who we can then remarket to.

Yeah. So it is a generation thing as well. So it creates the leads, it does some good, it adds that good juju to your brand. Yeah. So people think more highly of your brand and it all comes around. So that’s actually one of my favorite things is Love that. Again, anything you can give back to the community.

It just adds. Brand value, it’s true. And authority, right? Yeah. Because when people see that, it says, Hey, we’re not hurting because we can afford to go do a free job for someone. Yeah. Which on the other side of that, for all the people listening, talk to your suppliers. Talk to your advertisers, and you’ll get a lot of good stuff.

Like usually I can get the equipment heavily discounted. I can get the radio spots. Near free because you team up with your local radio. Yeah. And you say, Hey, let’s do this together. Call up. Yeah, let’s do a collab on it. That way they get some good juju from their brand as well. We get some good brand authority on ours.

Everyone looks sweet. You’ve just gotten 40 or 50,000 in advertising value because generally, like the radio stations will hammer this. Yeah they will hammer, they’ll put you on the morning show, we’ll put you on the afternoon show, the evening show. So you’re getting this month of absolute gorilla marketing into this.

One sector of your marketing and then you can spill it out on your social, so it adds a, it drives a ton of traffic, it adds a lot of back links, it’s adds a lot of leads. Any sort of that contest where you can help someone out. Yeah, always do it. And look for those clouds. That’s the biggest thing is look for people who want to collaborate with you and do it together.

Yeah. I love that you’re so dialed in. It’s incredible. Just it’s so holistic and it’s like you said. It’s really not, it’s community minded. Even though it’s a way for you to grow, it’s also a way to give back to the community and connect with your community. Yeah. Everything, like I said, win win.

Yeah. Add value to other people’s lives and it will come back. When you are focused only on profit, top line, bottom line, you’re going to die either a quick and painful death or a slow and painful death. Because the world is changing and people love businesses with a social mission now.

Yeah. Too, right? So it’s just putting that good stuff out and it comes back every time. Yeah, I agree. Yeah. And are there any services that you don’t offer that you’re thinking about offering? Ooh, plumbing and sheet metal. So we offer quite a, an array of sheet metal right now, but we don’t have a full sheet metal division on that side.

So I would say that’s probably. Our first priority hole to fill. And then the plumbing would be the second. We have electricians, we have gas fitters, we have refrigeration mechanics we have people who can do sheet metal, so the plumbing would cover the entire mechanical spectrum in the house.

Yeah. Maybe just house cleaners after that, I don’t know, but Right. Yeah. Plumbing is the kind of the natural, yeah. Progression because then again, we have our memberships and we’re remarketing to people. We’re drawing our building a little white picket fence around our customers if we’re able to provide.

All the value that they’re looking for in their home. It’s a one stop shop. They know what they’re gonna get. They know us, they like us. They’re happy to have us in their home. They’re getting consistent experiences. Yeah. It just allows you to take care of everything. And again, that white little picket fence.

Keeps everyone inside. That’s incredible. I love that you’re always thinking about the next thing. You’re always looking where you can fill a gap for your clients because having them be able to shop one place with trusted people, it is a huge deal for any homeowner. Totally. Is, and this is a funny thing, as I’ve progressed through my career, I’m still under 40. As I’ve gone through and I’ve. I’m so busy now. I don’t have time to do stuff in my house anymore. I used to do all the fix it in my house, the DIY stuff, and in the last few years I started to have people in my house doing these projects for me, and you start to realize what’s on the other side of the table, right?

I’ve always had the hypothesis of what’s on the other side of the table and what I believe people are going through on the other side of the table. But once you’re actually on the other side of the table and you realize. We train all our people to come in and say, Hey, we’re licensed, bonded, insured.

A plus rating of the Better Business Bureau, depending on the Google profile. 4.9 or five stars. Yeah. So we’re setting the stage for how, like who we are, why we’re suite, why you want to work with us, and also we want people to know that their money is safe with us. So we also have that a hundred percent satisfaction guarantee.

But when you have people in your home. Even I’m super straightforward. I’m super upfront. I even struggle to ask these questions to contractors coming into my home, partially because I want to be sold and I wanna see what their process is. Sure, yeah. But also when they don’t go through it, you don’t really know.

And like it’s hard to poke and prod people and be like, are you insured? Because some people almost take it as a slight, they’re like, yeah, obviously. Or they have to, curl up in a ball, say no, and run away with the tail between their legs. So it’s such an interesting thing, seeing the other side of the table and understanding that, and then being able to bring it into the business to provide better value and to our customers and better training to our techs because the young.

The younger people in our organization, they. Either don’t have homes or they’re still in that DIY phase of their lives. Especially tradies. Tradies are do it yourself people, because we already have a huge swath of tools. We know our way around most of them and can get through most projects, right?

So we all know that mindset that the trad has. And a lot of times we have to break that in our texts from that, find it, fix it to that. That value added experience. So trying to teach them and explain that to them and explain the other side of the coin of what people are going through.

I had a, I hired a new tech. He was in our install division for a few months and then we need him just to do, run a quick maintenance. Yeah. Or he had to disconnect the system for it was actually a friend of mine and he went out and he did it. They were super happy with him, but he was like, the office will send you a bill.

I was like, no, because like you never want to do work without telling a customer the price first. Yeah. It is could you imagine you coming and you’re like, Dale? Yeah. We’re going to do your SEO, we’re gonna do your web development, we’re gonna do your social, it’s gonna be amazing, and then we’ll send you a bill.

Yeah. Yeah. And what is that bill? It’s like when you go, yeah. You get it if you take your car in to get maintenance. You never know until you walk in that door. Your stomach’s turning all day. How much is that? Totally right. And you have this number in your mind, which is generally built from an unreputable source being your mind or the internet.

Yeah. So you come in and you’re like, oh, hey, my uncle Bob told me that the oil change would be 50 bucks. Yeah, and you get a bill for 200. Whereas at the start, if they’re like, Hey, and your oil change is gonna be 200 today. Yeah. You’re like wow. I thought it’d be 50. And they’re like, yeah, no problem.

You don’t have to get it done with us if you don’t like. And then, yeah, it’s up to me to decide whether, yes, is this worth 50 or $200? But if I get the oil change done, then I get hit with the bill. Yeah. There’s no, that’s painful. Yeah. It’s right. There’s no right price except for the one that was in my head.

Yeah, for sure. So it’s very difficult that way. Yeah. IL that’s a great perspective. And then if you’re looking ahead, let’s just say if you close your eyes and you think of a perfect world, where are you gonna be in two years? What’s your two year vision for what you’re doing?

In two years, we’re gonna be over 10 million in revenue per year. We expanded up island last year, so we’ll have a better presence there. We’ve been working on our local marketing there, so we have a better presence there. So it’ll be 10 million. At that point we will have. 20 to 23 texts is my estimate on that.

And then we will have between five and seven people in the office. The office is an ever evolving thing. It’s actually my weakest point is the understanding of the office. I know what I want it to look like. I know the promises we want to make to our customers. But making that happen is that’s the one part of the business where there’s always been the biggest disconnect for me.

Okay, that’s awesome. And I we’re so grateful for this partnership and watching you grow and seeing your energy. It’s really inspirational. So we are excited about the next two years plus and on onward, and just to see what you can do and how we can help. Walk that walk, see what we can do.

Yeah. See what we can do together. Yeah. There you go. And and continue to, to just, take over your area. It’s incredible what you’re doing and your connection to the community, your family. I imagine your, I just picture your kids running around in little Sasquatch shirts. I hope that’s the case.

Totally. Yeah, they have Sasquatch stickers on everything and one of the cool things actually is like, how many people actually give me feedback on you. Remember the punch buggy when we were younger? I’ve heard of multiple families having like a punch Sasquatch or a spot, a Sasquatch.

I know, right? I love that. And yeah, it’s so fun, right? Because the vans are so recognizable and again having that visibility in the community, and I, you know what, I learned that from a friend. A friend created a company in his mascot and he’s honestly, he is he tried to use, cartoonish colors or cartoonish things. And he is oh, interesting why? And he said he said, so when I drive down the street and I drive past a family, the kids go, mommy, daddy, look right? And I was like, man, I was like, that is so smart. So smart. So same thing, right? We’re all children at heart.

So how do you appeal to the inner child in people? Yeah. Is create things that are visually appealing and if it appeals to the kid. It probably appeals to the parent because we all like those shiny, cartoonish. Yeah. The fun stuff in life. Life is too fun stuff. Life is hard enough. Yeah. How do I add a laugh?

Yeah. Somewhere. And that’s why, a lot of our stuff is a Sasquatch just waving, right? Yeah. A above all of our windshields, we have a SAS watch that’s just like peeking over the top. I. So clever. It is just fun stuff, right? How do you get us the smallest little laugh, right?

Yeah. How do you add a little bit of value to someone’s date? And if it’s something as stupid as that, yeah, it’s great. Totally worth it. Totally. Yeah. We are so grateful for your time today. Thank you for joining us on the first podcast of 2025 for plumbing and hvac, SE and yeah, we’re excited to keep working with you and this is amazing.

Thank you so much. Hey, thank you as well. You guys are great. Awesome. I can stop recording. The guy’s gonna edit it and everything, so it’d be good. There we go. Stop recording.