A 115-degree summer taught her that her office could not be the bottleneck.

Denise built Summit Air Comfort from one van. When the phones melted down during a record heat wave, she rebuilt how the whole company runs.

Who: Denise Okonkwo, Owner and CEO
Company: Summit Air Comfort
Trade: HVAC
Where: Phoenix, AZ
Size: $22M a year
Team: 38 technicians, 14 in the office

Denise outside the Summit shop at the start of July

Maintenance plans: tracked and renewed from one list
1 thread: per customer for texts, calls, and emails
At the door: payment collected when the tech finishes

From one van to a real company

Denise learned HVAC in the Army and started Summit Air Comfort in 2011 after two years as a service tech. Phoenix summers are a business model on their own, and by 2022 the company was running 38 techs and a maintenance program with a few thousand members.

The trouble was that the maintenance program lived in a spreadsheet, the phones lived in one app, texting lived in another, and installs were quoted on paper. When a heat wave hit in July, the office could not keep up with callbacks and a few loyal members left.

Checking a new install on a 112-degree afternoon

Why she switched

She wanted service calls, installs, and maintenance members in one system, with every conversation attached to the customer. Replacement quotes needed to look as good as the equipment they were selling.

Now her comfort advisors present Good, Better, Best system options at the kitchen table, and homeowners sign and pay the deposit on the spot. Maintenance agreements are tracked on one list, so renewals stop slipping.

“In a heat wave, the phone is the product. We were losing people on hold.”

Denise Okonkwo, Summit Air Comfort

What changed at work

Her dispatchers see every tech on one board and techs clock in on site. Texts, calls, and emails sit in one thread per customer, so whoever picks up the phone knows the whole story.

Invoices go out from the truck, reminders follow up on the late ones, and payouts land in 1 to 2 business days. Denise reviews revenue and close rate on Monday mornings instead of building the report herself on Sunday night.

Watching Amara's club tournament in San Diego

What changed at home

Her daughter, Amara, plays club volleyball, which means tournaments in Tucson, Vegas, and San Diego most weekends. Denise used to spend them on the phone in the hallway.

This year she watched full matches from the stands. She still gets the Monday numbers. She just does not have to make them herself.