By Going Paperless Absolute Plumbing Streamlined Its Billing Practices
To keep up with the changing industry, the Concord, CA plumbing company knew it had to embrace new technology, and the switch to ServiceTitan gave Absolute Plumbing and Drain more benefits than they imagined.
Initially, switching to a paperless system didn’t seem like urgent need for the company. It was Rod, owner of Absolute Plumbing, who noticed that other companies were beginning to incorporate new technologies into how they ran their business and that one name, in particular, kept coming up again and again: ServiceTitan.
Destinee, an admininstrative and customer service rep, told us “I know that Rod spoke to a lot of different owners that use Service Titan and they had nothing but good things to say and they said a lot has improved since they got the software. So I know he wanted it as well.”
What Destiny and the rest of the Absolute Plumbing team didn’t expect was just how big of an impact ServiceTitan and would make on their day-to-day operations. Now their technicians, their CSRs, and their administrators have all upped their efficiency and are capitalizing on new ways to engage with their customers and their local community. The result was a 21% increase in revenue in six months.
“It's definitely changed our workday and made it easier for us,” says Destiny.
Throwing Out the Old Playbook One of the most immediate ways that Destiny and her team noticed that ServiceTitan was changing the way that they worked was with how Absolute Plumbing recorded booked jobs and how they processed the resulting invoices. According to her, equipping Absolute Plumbing technicians with a ServiceTitan Mobile (via iPads) instead of the usual pen and paper made a huge difference.
“That definitely improves our day-to-day by cutting time out from us having to type up each individual invoice and trying to figure out the technician's handwriting, ask him what that word means, you know what I mean?” she explains. With technicians able to browse vivid, comprehensive service choices in the Visual Pricebook, administrators have access to clear, accurate invoices almost as soon as customers approve them.
To better illustrate, have a look at the old way that Absolute Plumbing would book jobs and bill their customers:
- First, new jobs would be entered into Absolute Plumbing’s Google Calendar.
- Dispatchers would use the Google Calendar to schedule technicians.
- Technicians would then service the job and handwrite all invoices.
- Destiny would later manually enter all handwritten invoices into Quickbooks.
- Destiny would also scan the handwritten invoices into a digital customer file.
- Quickbook invoices would then be sent to customers.
“With the ServiceTitan Mobile Pricebook, the technician just adds in their task and they put any notes needed,” says Destiny. “Now I just go over the invoice instead of having to enter them, and most of them are already correct, so then I can just bill to my customers straight through ServiceTitan.”
Connecting with Customers This dynamic, real-time link that ServiceTitan provides between its technicians and its office does more than improve Absolute Plumbing’s bookkeeping— it’s also allowing the company to improve its customer service, particularly with repeat customers. As Destiny explains, the easy access to full job histories allows CSRs to better interact with customers who have called their offices before.
“It makes the customer feel like we know them or remember them because it's right there, you know what I mean?” Destiny says. “It's like, ‘Hi, you guys did my toilet two months ago,’ and we're like, ‘Yeah, hi Susan, how are you?’ And then they're not even questioning how we knew it was them, you know what I mean? ...We love that.”
“Now when a customer calls in, we click the green bubble [on the CSR Dashboard] and everything automatically pops up,” Destiny explains. And by “everything,” she means:
- A recording of the original customer call into Absolute Plumbing
- The original date and location of the job
- The original invoice of the job made on-site by the technician (using the Pricebook)
- Any unique notes the technician made while on the job
- Any notes made by CSRs during the follow-up call after the job was complete
And because ServiceTitan allows administrators to access critical company tools and data remotely from any computer or mobile device, Absolute Plumbing has been able to seize more opportunities to engage with the Concord community without fear of missing important customer calls.
“We recently just did an environmental exhibit at the Art and Wine Festival and then the time before that, we did a trade fair. Then I think the last event before that we did the Fourth of July parade for the city of Concord,” Destiny explains.
“So when we are doing those events and we have all of our staff and our plumbers with us, we are also logged in on our phones, iPads, or laptops while we're doing this event so we can be able to dispatch our guys from where we are,” she says.
As a result, the Absolute Plumbing team can continue to gain valuable community exposure at these events, seamlessly run its business, and capitalize on as many jobs as possible— even when they’re out of the office.
“More Than Just Their Local Plumber” It’s only been a short time since Absolute Plumbing transitioned to ServiceTitan, but it’s already clear to Destiny and the rest of the company that harnessing the new capabilities ServiceTitan offers has allowed both their technicians and CSRs to provide an uncommon level of service to their customers.
“ServiceTitan helps us build more of a personal relationship with the customer, so we're more of their local plumber instead of like a big corporation,” Destiny says.
