Richard and Felicia Flournoy knew life was about to change.
In late 2002, Felicia was expecting their first child. Three months into the pregnancy, a revelation: Their son would have serious health problems. Doctors said the baby might not live much past a year old.
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Richard had started A-Total Plumbing, a plumbing business in the Atlanta metro area, in 2001, in a truck without air conditioning, painted with house paint, that he rented for $50 a week from his grandfather.
He was doing OK, performing mostly warranty work, with much of his business coming from a half-page ad in the Yellow Pages.
When he learned of his child’s health issues, Flournoy says he knew two things at that moment—that his wife and son would always come first, and that to deal with the financial strain of a special-needs child he needed to grow his plumbing business, fast.
A-Total Plumbing went from being just Flournoy and that rented hand-me-down to four trucks, “literally overnight,” he says.
In July 2021, A-Total Plumbing has transitioned to a service and replacement business, growing to 17 technicians and, in the first six months of the year, more than $2.5 million in revenue.
And Jackson Flournoy—”God willing,” his father says—is about to turn 18.
Jackson has Moebius Syndrome, a rare congenital condition, and requires 24-hour care and constant ventilator assistance.
But he’s alive and, along with his younger sister, Madigan, is the center of Richard and Felicia Flournoy’s lives.
Their lives are about to change again. This time, ServiceTitan’s software solution for the trades will play a huge role, Richard Flournoy says.
“I truly, 100% believe that without the help that ServiceTitan has given us,” he says, “we wouldn't be where we are today.”
‘It’s a blur’
About 10 medical personnel scurried about as Jackson entered the world. They intubated him immediately, putting a tube down the newborn’s throat so he could breathe, and placed him on a ventilator.
“It's a blur the way he was born,” Flournoy says, “because it was so stressful.”
Jackson would spend the first year of his life at Scottish Rite Children's Hospital in Atlanta, much of it with his parents by his side. “I'm very blessed that the trades afforded me the opportunity to take off as much as I needed,” Flournoy says.
Developmentally, at almost 18, Jackson is probably 3 to 9 nine months old, Flournoy says, but he's happy. He doesn't crawl or walk, but he can scoot around in the bed. He loves Disney World.
Jackson has needed constant care since birth. In Georgia, that amounts to 12 hours of nursing care each night, leaving 12 hours for the Flournoys to cover.
In Florida, however, the rules are different, and 24-hour nursing care could be provided. That would be better for Jackson’s quality of life, and for Richard and Felicia, too.
That puts a move to Florida’s panhandle in the plan, soon. Flournoy says that was not possible before A-Total Plumbing’s switch to ServiceTitan, the cloud-based software solution for the trades.
An old-school start
Flournoy’s pen-and-paper start to managing A-Total Plumbing matched the spartan truck he drove in 2001.
He installed a landline at a woman’s house, and she would answer the phone, put his schedule on a piece of paper and leave it in her mailbox. He would pick up the list every morning.
“That’s old school,” he says.
A switch to a server-based software came quickly, in 2002. “We continued to grow our business, and we did really well,” he says.
The company switched to a dispatch-specific software in 2015, then to a software based in Atlanta for the first half of 2020.
“We like to put money back in our own economy,” Flournoy says. “And, of course, it was a little bit cheaper. We put 110% into it, and it just did not work for our business.”
Meanwhile, ServiceTitan was persistent. Chief Revenue Officer Ross Biestman led the charge.
“We’re very thankful that he was persistent,” Flournoy says. “Running a business is hard if you have normal kids, but running a business with a special-needs child ... it’s so hard.”
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‘I was so excited about it’
A-Total’s switch to ServiceTitan, in July 2020, made spending time with Jackson easier, Flournoy says.
“It has improved the quality of our life 1,000%, because we're able to manage our business from afar,” Flournoy says. “It's made it where we can spend more time with our son, and run our business at the same time.
“We have been in the hospital and been able to do stuff in our business in a hospital room—because of ServiceTitan.”
The benefit of ServiceTitan extends beyond what he could have imagined, Flournoy says. His company went live on the software on July 9, 2020.
“It's almost like an anniversary date, or like a birthdate,” he says. “I can remember it because I was so excited about it.”
That excitement has only grown.
“I could have never seen the value of ServiceTitan until we actually implemented it,” he says. “It’s expensive, but it’s free. I'm going to say we spend six grand a month on ServiceTitan, but it's free because it pays for itself.
“The numbers don't lie, but forget about the numbers. Even if we did the same revenue that we did last year, we would keep it because it's improved our quality of life so much.”
That’s for Richard and Felicia, but also for Jackson. The move to Florida will improve their quality of life even more.
But that’s not the only thing improving.
A-Total Plumbing
Aggressive growth planned
A-Total has grown from 13 technicians to between 17 and 19 after a year on ServiceTitan. The plan is to grow to 22 by the end of 2021, and 36 by the end of next year. The company’s previous softwares, on payroll alone, prevented such an aggressive plan, he says.
“If you're at 22 techs, you're probably talking 35 hours of payroll,” he says. “If you're at 36 technicians, you're probably talking about 50 hours of payroll. Just payroll would have been a bottleneck of growth.”
Before ServiceTitan, the Flournoys were spending about 25 hours per week on payroll tasks.
“Somebody, either myself or my wife, would have to go into the office and do the payroll,” he says. “Now, we can do it six times faster. My wife did the payroll at the beach this week in four hours.
“You take away everything else that's good about ServiceTitan, being able to do payroll in four hours versus 25 hours, and being able to do it remotely, pays back every penny that we pay for ServiceTitan.”
And he says that four-hour task could shrink further.
“We're in the early stages of implementing it,” he says. “Right now, we're double-checking stuff, but once we get a comfort level with it, I think we can get it down to 30 minutes.”
Some of the numbers, according to Flournoy:
Revenue is up 57.4% from the first six months of 2020 to the first six months of 2021.
The field close rate is 50% better, driven by Pricebook Pro. “You can beautifully present,” he says, “and you can build options so quickly. The techs probably work 20% less and make 20% more, just because of the efficiencies.”
The average ticket has increased from $491 to $903, an 83.9% increase.
Adjustable Capacity Planning is a life-changing feature for maximizing dispatch efficiency. “Without the capacity planning, the dispatchers are just winging it,” he says.
A-Total Plumbing has been so successful on ServiceTitan, and so happy, that Flournoy recently emailed Biestman to thank him.
‘You couldn’t pry it out of my hands’
Those benefits add up to a value well beyond the cost, Flournoy says.
“I probably shouldn't say this, but I'm going to say it anyway,” he says. “If it doubled in price, you couldn't pry it out of our hands.”
That was something Flournoy had to see to believe.
“Before we started it, I'm like, ‘I can't afford it,’" he says. “But Ross was very persistent. In the first month, I'm like, ‘I should've done this two years ago.’"
Flournoy also plans to open a plumbing company that serves the Destin and Panama City area.
On ServiceTitan?
“Absolutely,” Flournoy says. “It's plug and play.
“From a software standpoint, it probably would be really easy to open a second branch. I think we could manage 100 technicians and there would be no problem.”
Benefits for Jackson
Everything Flournoy has done with A-Total Plumbing, including the switch to ServiceTitan, has been with Jackson in mind. And that’s by design.
“I feel like my main purpose on this Earth is to keep my son alive, and to provide for him,” Flournoy said. “I feel like ServiceTitan has made it that much easier. I almost feel like God has connected us to ServiceTitan, like it was preordained.”
The relationship leaves Flournoy thankful. The remote, real-time visibility that’s possible with the software is allowing the move to Florida—and 24-hour care for Jackson—while owning an Atlanta-based plumbing company, without hiccups. Flournoy is grooming longtime employee Chad Chapman to lead the Atlanta operation.
“You don't know how much gratitude I have for ServiceTitan,” Flournoy says. “There's no way we could make the move without ServiceTitan. We couldn't just pack up and move to Florida and get normal jobs, because he requires 24/7, constant care.
“Five years ago, I couldn't imagine us being where we're at now. ServiceTitan has probably cut our workload down, mine and my wife's, by a third.”
That’s more time to spend with Jackson.
“Tell the founders thank you for making this product,” Flournoy says. “If you could do that for me, that completes my day.”
In the spirit of full disclosure, Richard Flournoy is now an employee of ServiceTitan. However, at the time these blog posts were published, Richard was not employed by ServiceTitan. All opinions expressed herein are his own.
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