How ServiceTitan simplified dispatching at Techmasters

Nowadays, Sam Krause isn’t quite sure what his title is at Techmasters.

“That’s because it's a family business,” Krause said with a laugh. “So I just move around to whatever needs to be done.”

But when he first joined the Nebraska commercial HVAC, kitchen equipment and refrigeration company in the spring of 2021, he was in charge of the dispatch board. Krause did this job remotely from his home in Pennsylvania using Techmasters’ previous software—but it wasn’t easy.

“Visually, the dispatch board was way out-of-date and old. Getting information in and out was very difficult. If you didn't follow a specific process of inputting information, it would get messed up and you'd have to start all over again,” Krause said. “It didn't give us any visibility into effectively dispatching our team.”

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Visibility was crucial for growth, which was a big reason why Krause finally joined the family business. His father, Scott, had started Techmasters more than 25 years ago with his business partner, Nick Buresh. Together, they built a successful company with offices in Lincoln and Omaha.

Krause’s background in computer programming, project management, innovation and product discovery was a perfect fit to continue to grow Techmasters. But right away, he knew the company needed software that could provide clear and concise data.

“The old software just didn't give us any of that,” Krause said. “It failed us.”

So Krause led the initiative to switch to ServiceTitan, the all-in-one software for the trades that puts data from all parts of Techmasters in the same place, powering great decisions throughout the business.

Software for commercial and construction

This wasn’t the first time Techmasters had tried to implement ServiceTitan. 

Back in 2018, Krause’s brother, who also works in the family business, sought an upgrade to the company’s software. He did a demo with ServiceTitan and was impressed—but since Techmasters’ was a commercial company, and ServiceTitan’s software was originally built for residential use, it wasn’t a good fit.

Now, it’s a completely different story. 

ServiceTitan has heavily expanded into commercial and construction, and is continuing to build out exciting new features such as better project tracking, appointments capabilities and fleet management. But the key at Techmasters was simplifying dispatch.

Much of their work requires servicing and repairing commercial kitchen equipment—jobs that often take multiple visits and ordering new parts. Some of these clients are popular fast-food chains like Wendy’s or Panera. If a fryer stops frying or a freezer stops freezing, it’s treated as an emergency.

Krause said Techmasters’ goal is to arrive within 24 hours of the initial phone call. That means it's vital to communicate and know the whereabouts of his 26 techs—which proved to be a challenge with their old software.

“I’d call techs while they were on a job and ask, ‘Do you know how much longer this is going to take?’ Krause said.

“It required constant communication, juggling, pushing things around, and a lot of sweating it out and telling other customers, ‘Yeah, we're going to come.’ But not knowing for sure if we're going to get out there, and not enough predictability of how busy we were.”

‘A night-and-day difference’

Dispatch looks a lot different now with ServiceTitan. Here are Krause’s favorite features.

• Schedule optimization: ServiceTitan’s schedule view lets the dispatch team at Techmasters schedule their next job and assign the right tech. “It's a lot more effective and allows us to tell customers when they call in, "Hey, this is probably how long it's going to take,” Krause said.

• Oversight: ServiceTitan’s powerful dispatch board gives Techmasters unprecedented oversight and flexibility. Krause enjoys sitting back and watching the jobs change colors in real time—light blue for scheduled, purple for dispatched, green for working appointments, light gray for completed appointments. “As a dispatcher, I don't need to worry about what's going on. It's a night-and-day difference.”

• Multi-day jobs: Techmasters frequently does multi-day jobs. With ServiceTitan, the company can easily schedule technicians or installers on a job, manage their schedules and make changes to the job’s schedule. 

Along with dispatching, Krause loves how ServiceTitan has allowed Techmasters to effortlessly acquire data and reports on its different verticals. It has also encouraged good habits among the techs to complete paperwork immediately following a job.

“We even hired a dispatch team. But because ServiceTitan has been so effective, we're back down to one dispatcher—even though we have more techs,” Krause said.

Scratching the surface

Today, Krause’s ever-changing job title is a position that had never existed at Techmasters.

It’s a business-to-business, customer service representative-esque role.

Here’s how it works: Krause reaches out to some of Techmasters’ clients, such as the 10-plus Wendy’s restaurants they service, and speaks with their regional managers. He wants to make sure they’re satisfied with Techmasters, and if he notices there’s a service they’re not taking advantage of, he’ll offer it. 

“Like, if we only do kitchen equipment and refrigeration for a client, I’ll say, ‘Why aren’t we doing any of your HVAC?’” Krause said.

Krause is able to do this by easily accessing customer data via ServiceTitan. He knows it will lead to more business, and is excited about continuing to develop relationships and furthering Techmasters’ reach. He also wants to dig into ServiceTitan’s power-user community, Torch Network.

“We've only just scratched the surface with the software,” Krause said.