The Replacement Recovery Diagnostic
$3,000, fixed. Find where estimate handoffs break down and give your team a written plan for the changes the evidence supports.
What the diagnostic is
An investigation of estimate records, recovery activity, and the people who touch them. The subject is what happens to a replacement estimate after it does not close.
The fixed scope covers one location, one existing system, and up to 100 replacement estimate records from the last 90 days. It includes up to three 30 minute staff interviews and one findings session.
Within those interviews, we check whether the next responsible person can find the customer’s recorded position, prior contact, owner, and next action using their normal account and device. We distinguish information that is missing from information that is stored elsewhere, restricted by access, or unclear. Questions that require professional judgment stay with the appropriate person.
Kopikat Research is based in Chicago and works with HVAC companies across the United States.
Scope, delivery, and a smaller starting point
Delivered within 20 business days after the agreed records, access, and interviews are complete. We agree the record set, interviews, and access before accepting payment. Any later interruption is documented with a revised delivery date. Larger record sets, extra locations, data cleanup, and customer outreach require a separate scope.
The written scope identifies the selected estimates, the date window, how options and revisions count toward the 100 record limit, and which notes, history, and attachments are included. Alternatives for one customer decision are linked to avoid counting their quoted values as separate jobs. Any recording review requires explicit authorization and an agreed review limit. We select the interview roles together within the three interview limit.
If a smaller review is enough to make your next decision, start with the $1,500 Estimate Review Pilot. If the need for a full investigation is already clear, you can begin here directly.
Why the investigation comes first
First establish whether the problem is missing context, an unclear handoff, limited capacity, or something else. Pricing the investigation on its own leaves the recommendation free to follow the evidence, including a recommendation to build nothing.
What is examined
- Estimate history across the recent replacement book, counted rather than recalled
- What sold, and what the record says about how it got there
- What stalled, and at which point in the process it stopped moving
- Unresolved work with no ending written against it
- Handoffs between the people who write, chase, and close
- Categories, so that unlike estimates stop being counted alike
- Ownership of an estimate once it does not sell on the first visit
- Follow up activity that actually happened, separate from follow up that was intended
- Information flow between the field, the office, and financing
What the customer receives
Findings
A written account of what the records show: where the unsold book sits, and what happens between a written estimate and a real ending.
A blueprint
A prioritized implementation specification another team could execute: where context is kept, who handles each step, timing, handoffs, permissions, exceptions, reporting, and how the changes will be checked. It includes a leave it alone list.
A recommendation
A written conclusion about what should happen next. It is kept whatever it says.
At the findings session, we walk through the proposed process with your contact, check the recommendations against the records, and identify unresolved decisions and dependencies. You receive the findings, specification, and recommendation. This stage does not configure the system or contact customers. A Build requires a separate feasibility check and approved scope before purchase.
Possible recommendation outcomes
Managed Recovery Build
The evidence supports implementing the documented fix. The Recovery Build is $7,500 one time, with handover and stabilization included. Ongoing operation is a separate decision.
Independent implementation
The blueprint is delivered and the shop implements it with its own people or another vendor. Nothing in it is withheld.
No fit
The problem is smaller than assumed, sits elsewhere, or is already handled. That answer arrives documented.
What the diagnostic does not promise
- No recovered revenue figure is promised or estimated as a result to expect.
- No number of recovered jobs is promised.
- A build is not guaranteed to be recommended. One possible answer is that nothing should be built.
- It is not a deposit and it is not credited against a later build.
- Quoted unsold volume is not lost revenue.
Why it is priced at $3,000
The fixed fee covers the agreed record review, staff interviews, written findings, and implementation specification. The recommendation identifies supported changes and the questions the available evidence cannot resolve.
A completed $1,500 Pilot is credited toward this $3,000 total when the same work carries forward for the same location and record window. That leaves $1,500 to pay. The Diagnostic fee is not credited against the Build. Reused Pilot records are included in the 100 record total, not added to it.
Before paid work begins, you receive a written scope, fee, and engagement terms to review. Record handling is covered by confidentiality and privacy. Use of this site is governed by the terms of use.