North Carolina repairman works on woman’s heater. Then he discovers something absolutely shocking after he does his inspection

While the dream of many, building a business from the ground up is much easier said than done. And one of the most important day-to-day aspects of being a business owner is mastering the art of building a loyal base of customers.

Enter Michael Johnson, an Air Force veteran and the owner of AC Man Heating & Air Conditioning. Johnson is going viral for sharing a particularly unique customer service story.

Answering a call

Johnson (@acmanheatingandair on TikTok) shared a video that has more than 341,000 views. In it, Johnson shared a “crazy story” about an encounter he had with someone he assumed was a customer.

“This happened in Fayetteville, North Carolina,” Johnson said. “So, I get called out to a customer's house because her heat was out. So, the lady calls me and she says, ‘The house is really cold.' She gives me the address, take everything down. I tell her it's going to be a dispatch fee, everything. She says she's totally fine with that.”

Johnson said he then drove out to her property as planned, and the customer opened the door when he rang the doorbell. But when he told her he was there “to fix the heat,” she didn't seem like she was expecting him.

“She just kind of says, ‘Okay,'” Johnson said. “I think it was about 40 degrees in the house. So I'm troubleshooting the furnace. I'm in there freezing and I find out what it is—there was a relay that was bad.”

Confirming the diagnosis

To make sure this diagnosis was correct, Johnson said he swapped the relay from his truck with the relay in the furnace.

The furnace started successfully heating the house again. Johnson reported back to the homeowner, telling her that if she wanted to go through with the repair, it would cost about $200.

“She said, ‘Okay, well, are you going to call my daughter and get the approval?'” Johnson said. “And I said, ‘Oh, is your daughter the one that called?' And she said ‘yes' … I initially  thought it was the [homeowner] that called me.”

So Johnson called the number of the customer who'd initially called him. He gave her the “good news.” Then he realized she had no idea what he was talking about.

“She says, ‘No one is here at my house,'” Johnson said. “‘I've been waiting here for an hour and no one showed up.' So then I verify the address with her. She says, ‘No, you're four houses down.”

Perplexed, Johnson returned to the homeowner and communicated that it was a “misunderstanding.” He let her know he'd apparently shown up to the wrong address.

“The lady says, ‘So my daughter didn't call you or anything?'” Johnson said. “I said, ‘No, I just went to the wrong house.' And so the lady starts to cry. And she says, ‘I just prayed this morning. I told the Lord that I don't have the money to fix my heat and my house is freezing. And I asked the Lord if he would send someone to fix my heat.'”

Moved by the homeowner's plight, Johnson said he “realized that [he] was an answer to prayer.” He offered her the service “on the house.”

“Left her with a nice warm house, went four houses down, fixed that furnace,” Johnson said. “And that is one of the most amazing, craziest stories in Fayetteville since we've been running our air conditioning business the last 22 years.”

What is a relay? Electrical HVAC relays, explained

While Johnson's comment section was littered with viewers who were touched by his story, it left some viewers wondering, what exactly is a relay?

It's important to define what HVAC means, as a relay is a part of an HVAC system. HVAC stands for “Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning” and, according to HVAC retailer Trane, “is an all-encompassing term when it comes to talking about your [home's] heating and cooling system in its entirety.” A relay (also called an HVAC relay or control relay) makes up part of this system.

According to controls retailer Value Controls, a relay “is a small yet essential part of your HVAC system” that “is crucial in regulating electricity between control panels and various system components.”

“HVAC relays are electromechanical switches that control the flow of electricity to different components of your HVAC system,” Value Controls' website says. “They utilize an electromagnet to … [function] as an intermediary between low-voltage control circuits and high-voltage load circuits … By regulating these circuits, relays control compressors, fans, and heating elements, ensuring proper temperature management and overall system functionality.”

Johnson, then, helped control the flow of electricity to the woman's HVAC system by fixing the relay.

Buzz News reached out to Johnson via email.