Adam Cronenberg isn’t good at staying retired.
Late last year, he left his role as chief information officer for A1 Garage Door Service, a residential service and repair shop in Phoenix. His plan was to ease into retirement while tending to his own company, a small misting business.
It only took six months of “retirement” for Cronenberg to add another role to his plate as owner of a mid-sized garage door company.
Cronenberg clearly can’t get over the thrill of building a successful business. After all, he helped grow A1 from 25 employees to over 600 and expanded services in 30 markets across 16 states.
But he couldn’t have done it without ServiceTitan, the software built for the trades.
“ServiceTitan was a big part of allowing us to grow and scale,” Cronenberg said. “There's no way we would've been able to operate in all those different states and markets without having a tool like ServiceTitan.”
But ServiceTitan isn’t just a tool for industry giants. In fact, Cronenberg relies on the software to support his small and mid-sized operations, too.
“If you're not running your business on ServiceTitan, you're really missing out,” Cronenberg said. “I can say that, (having worked) with one of the largest garage door companies in the world (and) one of the smallest companies in a two-person misting shop.”
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Small, but packs a punch
Cronenberg’s misting company, Element Mist, is a two-man shop. It may be a small company, but it still needs to run efficiently, which is why Cronenberg built the business on ServiceTitan.
“For us, (ServiceTitan) is a time saver,” he said. “We don't need an office person. We have tools that automate a lot of the (work) that we do, and we really couldn't run our misting business without it.”
But Element Mist’s customers would never know it doesn’t have a front office staff. ServiceTitan’s Scheduling Pro tool allows customers to book appointments online, or speak to trained representatives who can answer questions and schedule service.
The software makes the team look good in the field, too. On their tablets, techs can quickly generate estimates, collect payment and keep detailed job histories.
“We had one customer tell us, ‘I can see why you guys are the industry leaders, everything's great. You obviously have been doing this for a really long time,’” Cronenberg recalled. “(We were) like, ‘Wow, we just started.’”
ServiceTitan had an impact in Element Mist’s early days. In its first year, the company pulled in $600,000 in revenue, with a 10% net income.
New tools of the trades
Cronenberg has watched ServiceTitan evolve in the years he’s used the software. Here are some of the tools that continue to delight him:
Purchase orders: ServiceTitan’s inventory management tools make it easy for Cronenberg’s teams to track inventory and submit purchase orders to approved vendors. The process is so seamless, suppliers have asked Cronenberg, “Why aren’t more companies using (ServiceTitan)?”
Memberships: Membership and maintenance programs are a significant revenue stream for Element Mist. With over 100 memberships to manage, Cronenberg uses ServiceTitan to streamline billing, renewals, follow-ups and more.
Room to grow: ServiceTitan provides companies looking to scale with a runway to do so. With products that support residential, commercial and new construction businesses, ServiceTitan users have the infrastructure in place to open new verticals and hit the ground running.
Paving the way for growth
Until this summer, Cronenberg was content to run Element Mist from semi-retirement.
Then, the founder of Besser Bros, a mid-sized new construction garage door company, reached out with an opportunity Cronenberg couldn’t resist: becoming an owner.
Cronenberg’s knowledge of ServiceTitan was important to Besser’s founder, who’d never fully learned the software.
For example, the Besser team didn’t bill out job records until after work was completed, when all labor hours and equipment costs could be tallied. It was confusing, inefficient and delayed invoicing. Cronenberg taught the team to create job records early, and use those records to track job costs and billing information in real time.
After one month of using ServiceTitan correctly, Besser Bros “tied out to the penny” on its financial reporting—and gave “my partner his life back,” Cronenberg said.
“I know people get (ServiceTitan) and it may seem overwhelming,” he said. “But if you take it bit by bit and focus on trying to make incremental improvements, you'll wonder how you ever ran your business without it. It’s that powerful of a tool.”
