HVAC Operations Playbook: How Call Dad Built a Multi-Million Dollar Business w/ Derik Wofle

Derik Wolfe is the Head of Operations at Call Dad HVAC, a fast-growing company with eight locations across the Southeast. In this episode of HVAC Hotshots, he covers the Playbook training that delivers a consistent customer experience across all locations, how 70% of their technicians come from the company’s own apprenticeship program, and the gross margin discipline that drives every operational decision.

Derik Wolfe bought his first house at 19. He called a company to quote replacing an oil furnace and adding air conditioning. The comfort advisor liked him enough to introduce him to the owner. He had dinner at the owner’s house, started sweeping floors, and found his way into the trades. He has been in the industry for almost 21 years.

Today he runs operations for Call Dad HVAC, an eight-location company based in the Southeast that has built its growth on a culture-first brand, a proprietary apprenticeship program, and a daily discipline around margins that keeps the whole operation predictable. This is a shorter episode, so this post is built accordingly.

Call Dad started as Sky HVAC when the owner acquired a company in Charlotte in 2017. The brand never quite fit the culture he was trying to build. He brought in Wizard of Ads, who spent an entire day pulling apart his motivations and reasons for doing what he does. The name that came out of that process was Call Dad.

The brand follows through in everything visible. Salmon shirts. Flat khaki trucks. Khaki pants. No loud graphics, no mascots, no neon. “We definitely stand out compared to most of the other companies. Whenever we walk around” at industry events like Tommy Mello’s Pantheon or the Service Titan conference, the Call Dad team is immediately recognizable.

The operational counterpart to the brand is the Playbook. Every technician, regardless of experience level or location, follows it. Derik travels to locations on Thursdays and spends four hours per visit, usually covering two locations per region, running Playbook training. “We do four hours of Playbook training to make sure that these guys are giving the same consistent experience to every customer that they see.” When the Playbook changes, it goes through regional managers, who work it into their teams and hold their staff accountable to the updated process.

Service Titan handles the reporting across all eight locations. For multi-location margin visibility and scheduling, it has been the best fit available. Derik also uses Chirp for customer communication alongside Service Titan’s own Pro tools.

The technician shortage is the most cited challenge in the industry. Call Dad’s answer is to stop competing for experience in the labor market and build it internally instead.

Seventy percent of their technicians are homegrown. The program is called Dad University, which stands for Dependable Accurate Diagnostics. It is a three-year, state-accredited apprenticeship, not a “ride with Tom and figure it out” situation. The company hired a head trainer who came with a teaching degree, went into the trades herself, and then wanted to teach the trades. A second trainer has since been added alongside her.

The intake is structured and consistent. A class of 22 apprentices started on January 6th. The plan for the current year is 78 more, one class per quarter. Within three months of starting, apprentices are in the field. The program has continuity: one person from the first class ever run through the program is now a service manager in Nashville.

The philosophy behind it is straightforward. “You create loyalty that way alone. You give someone an opportunity that’s working in a factory or looking to build a career, you gain loyalty that way.” Homegrown technicians are not just cheaper to develop than experienced hires are to recruit. They are more aligned with the company’s culture because the culture is the thing that trained them.

Derik’s mornings follow a fixed structure. He checks revenue on the board for the day, then runs a Morning Mojo meeting with all four regional managers. The meeting covers a custom margin report he builds daily, showing gross margin, direct labor on install, direct labor on service, and equipment expenses. Then pulse checks with managers and field staff, L10 meetings for the week, rocks from the quarter, and a large volume of phone calls given the multi-state footprint.

The number he watches most closely is gross margin, split by department. “The overarching margin is probably the number one driver in everything that we do.” Not bottom-line net, but gross margin by install and by service, tracked every day. On the service side, conversion rates and average ticket are the levers. Install is more predictable and already well-dialed. Membership conversions and lead conversions round out the daily dashboard.

Improving service margin comes down to two things: conversion rates going up and technicians building packages that match what customers actually need. It is harder than install margin to manage, but that is where the daily attention goes.

The membership program is what makes the whole schedule weather-resistant. Call Dad runs a “Family First Member / Dad’s on the Way” membership. Members get coverage any hour of the day, even after 10 PM if a technician cannot resolve the issue over the phone. Non-members wait until the next business day after 10 PM. By summer the company will be 365 days a year across all departments.

The result: Derik cannot give a clear answer on what slow season looks like at Call Dad right now. Q4 2024 was one of their strongest quarters ever. “You can’t beat Santa Claus, but that was not the case for us this year.” The last meaningful slow stretch was March 2024. Memberships drive maintenance visits and duct cleanings through the shoulder months, and the pipeline has been full enough that traditional seasonality barely registers. Recurring revenue built into the business through memberships is what makes that possible.

His least favorite part of the job: 108 vehicles on the road. Every transmission issue and accident call goes to him. His most favorite: training technicians on the Playbook and watching managers he has worked with for years continue to grow.

Final tip to anyone watching: “You get what you put in. No matter what that means. If you want to make a million this year you’re going to do the work to get a million. Listen to podcasts, read books, call people, reach out, put yourself out there to figure out the information you don’t have.”

[Watch the full episode on HVAC Hotshots.] To think through operations, scaling, or where your business needs to grow next, book a free TradeOps strategy call. Subscribe to HVAC Hotshots wherever you listen.

Related: Lead generation for HVAC companies.