Ken Tobey, IT Guru, Says You Don’t Have To Be One to Add ServiceTitan

Settling for Service Fusion

Unfortunately, the version of ServiceTitan available in 2016 wasn't a good fit for small businesses like SouthCoast.

“I actually contacted ServiceTitan and was told, ‘You’re too small,’” Tobey says. “So, I wound up going with Service Fusion.”

That relationship lasted for about a year.

“And then the franchise kind of foisted ThermoGrid off on us,” Tobey says. He checked in with another owner in the Houston area who was using it and was very happy with it.

“We tried it out,” Tobey says. “But through a series of unfortunate events, we are no longer part of the franchise.”

After the split, the first thing Tobey did was give ServiceTitan another call.

This time, the timing was right.

“We weren’t any bigger company-wise,” Tobey says. “But ServiceTitan was now in a position to take on smaller companies.”

The benefits of ServiceTitan

Tobey had known from the get-go that ServiceTitan brought value to the table.

“I was a big KPI guy during my IT career,” he says. “KPIs (key performance indicators) are how everything works. You know when something’s going to break, because you’re watching KPIs. I love how much data ServiceTitan presents and the access to it, and that’s why I wanted it. It may have taken me two to three years to get there, but I finally did.”

Tobey recognizes the benefits of a software package that features widespread integration and is continually being updated.

“There’s ServiceTitan Marketing Pro and the Pricebook Pro—this is stuff that wasn’t around when I signed up,” he says. “I knew ServiceTitan was always looking to make itself the best-of-breed software, and that’s important to me. I don’t want to keep switching software. It's a pain in the butt.”

Ultimately, Tobey loves that he can now get much better insight in how SouthCoast is doing and make smart decisions based on good data.

“That’s so much better than just making gut decisions based on what people tell me,” he says. “That’s what ServiceTitan has really helped us with over the last two years.”

Tobey’s top KPIs?

“Part of it is, you don’t know what you don't know,” he says. “The thing that’s really important is whether my technicians are performing the way they’re supposed to perform. So, understanding what their revenue per hour is, and what their average ticket is, average opportunity, the close rate of my sales guys and my techs has been really important.”

Good software enables a company to be proactive instead of reactive, Tobey says.

“If close rates drop or average ticket starts dropping, then we know we’ve got something we need to address,” he says. “It can be a canary in the coal mine, in a sense. You don’t have to wait three months after revenue has dropped off precipitously. You can take a look and say, ‘Hey, something’s going on here.’”

You don’t need to be an IT whiz

You don’t need to have a background in IT to reap the benefits of ServiceTitan, Tobey says. “I would tell anybody that’s thinking about it that I didn't have any problems—and it’s not because I was in IT,” He says. “My background had nothing to do with the success of our implementation.”

Leveraging the software is what’s bringing success to SouthCoast, he says. Phones Pro, for example, is giving the company a much better idea of how advertising dollars are performing—especially in a hyper-competitive market like Houston.

“If I make one mistake in advertising, that can really hurt us,” Tobey says. “I’m confident in the data ServiceTitan provides. I don’t have to rely on my CSR to remember to ask, ‘where did you hear about us?’”

Part of the Phones Pro success comes from using tracking numbers. Every advertising source has a separate number.

“Again, if I’m putting my name in a newcomer’s guide and I’m spending $4,000 a year, I want to know what it’s doing for me,” Tobey says.

Building toward future goals

If and when Tobey and his wife decide to completely step away from the business and let the kids take over, that’s now a viable option, thanks to having created a core business in HVAC.

“ServiceTitan is helping us create a nice, repeatable process,” Tobey says. “We can look at acquiring other locations, or start a different line. Garage doors, pest control, chimney sweeps—all that stuff is open to me.”

He was approached by an electrician about combining forces, but it wasn’t the right timing, he says.

“If I have to guess, I’ll probably add plumbing,” Tobey says. “I don’t see anything that indicates we can’t take the same processes we have and with a very few tweaks, add almost any home service into the company.”

Given his past experience, Tobey sees an ever-expanding future for SouthCoast as well as his software partner.

“Maybe in this case it is my IT background,” he says, “but I can’t imagine any home services industry that I couldn’t put into ServiceTitan.”