A few years ago, the most efficient way to dispatch at Rainforest Plumbing & Air required a critical skill: memorization.
That’s because every day, the four dispatchers at the commercial and residential shop in the Phoenix area constantly referred to a spreadsheet that listed the many skills of their 20-plus technicians.
For example, if a technician knew how to run the jetter machine, there was a checkmark under their name in the “jetter machine” box. Multiply this formula across numerous skills and almost two dozen techs, and it makes sense why memorization was key.
“(The spreadsheet) looked like one of those ‘Pick, choose and compare your car insurance’ pages,” said Tamye Pugh, the service coordinator for air at Rainforest and a former dispatcher herself. “We either had to memorize (the spreadsheet) or refer to it often during the day to familiarize ourselves/reaffirm that a tech could do those types of jobs.
“It added more stress.”
Incoming dispatchers were glued to the spreadsheet for every call, and even more cumbersome, when a technician learned a new skill (like how to use the jetter), the spreadsheet was rarely updated, which meant techs weren’t being considered for jobs they actually qualified for.
“The hardest part was making sure (the spreadsheet) was up-to-date,” said Beth Johnson, Rainforest’s service coordinator for plumbing. “Because it was nobody's job yet everybody's job to keep it updated.”
But six months ago, Rainforest started using Dispatch Assist, a new automation in Dispatch Pro that acts as a co-pilot for dispatchers.
Powered by ServiceTitan’s Titan Intelligence, Dispatch Assist analyzes technician skills, availability and location in seconds to recommend the best match for each job. Dispatchers can accept or reject the suggestions, keeping them in control and boosting their efficiency.
The result? Rainforest’s dispatchers haven’t touched the spreadsheet ever since.
Here’s why.
‘I trust you. I trust you, sir.’
For years, contractors have worked to improve one of the hardest — and most impactful — jobs in their business: dispatching. ServiceTitan launched Dispatch Pro as a fully automated dispatching tool for the trades, and contractors using it saw higher average tickets, shorter drive times, and better workload balance for dispatchers.
But not every business is ready to jump from fully manual to fully automated. Enter, Dispatch Assist.
Dispatch Assist features automation that enhances dispatcher expertise.
It handles the heavy analysis, leaving final decisions in human hands so companies can scale easily, avoid costly incorrect job assignments, and keep skilled staff focused on higher-value work.
Johnson and Pugh were skeptical when they initially tried it.
“First I wondered, ‘Is this going to take my job?’” Pugh said. “Second I wondered, ‘How would it know (which technician to send)?’”
After uploading all of the pertinent technician skill sets from the spreadsheet into ServiceTitan, and some early trial and error, the duo got the answer to Pugh’s second question — How would it know?
There was a plumbing call, and Johnson knew the perfect tech for the job. Dispatch Assist’s recommendation? The same technician.
“(In that moment) I was like, ‘OK, I trust you. I trust you, sir,’” Johnson said.
Even better, Dispatch Assist started recommending a technician over and over again, someone Pugh viewed as “a basic plumber” because she said he was new and still learning. She initially thought Dispatch Assist was broken. Then she looked at his numbers.
“I was like, ‘Holy crap, it’s picking him because he sells.’ Now, he’s one of our best techs. He's clean and does everything right: his paperwork, his service time, his communication with the customer. And he does repairs right, every time,” Pugh said.
“(Dispatch Assist) knew that long before we did.”
As for the first concern — Is this going to take my job? The opposite turned out to be true.
More coaching and training
The dispatcher headcount hasn’t changed at all since Rainforest implemented Dispatch Assist with Dispatch Pro. In fact, the feature has empowered dispatchers to be more productive in other areas.
“Now (our dispatchers) have more time to focus on the estimates that are being approved and getting those scheduled, getting parts ordered, and focusing on all those other things that were falling by the wayside,” Pugh said. “(Pre-Dispatch Assist), we were putting so much energy into figuring out the right tech for the right job.”
Dispatch Pro has even allowed Rainforest to come full circle when it comes to monitoring technician skill sets.
“It has made it so that we look at (skill sets) in a more organized way,” Pugh said. “We home-grow our techs. They go from apprentices, to a Level 1 tech, all the way up to Level 3.
“Now we know where we need to increase their skills, (which leads to) training and coaching experiences with our techs to help them grow and advance.”
Dispatch Pro has been such a difference-maker that Pugh doesn’t “even know a time before” she said.
Come to think of it, the spreadsheet they once religiously relied on?
“I don't even know where it is,” Johnson said.
“Me neither,” Pugh said.
