Are your technicians capitalizing on all revenue opportunities? If your company’s follow-up processes are inconsistent, the answer is likely no.
“Consistency is defined as the ability to perform actions, habits, and behaviors that uphold standards in a steady, reliable, uniform manner,” says Joel Bruch in a recent webinar hosted by ServiceTitan and BDR. “It’s a commitment to steadiness and dependability in actions and results.”
In the webinar, Bruch of BDR, the home service industry's premier business training and coaching provider, shares how a seamless follow-up process can transform your business.
Bruch shares actionable steps to create consistent communication across every department — bridging the gap between field and office.
Negative Impacts of Inconsistency
“As we look at defining consistency and finding follow-up opportunities inside of our platform and inside of our company, we want to look at why or how being inconsistent or having a lack of communication process will reduce the ability to compound your revenue and net profit growth,” Bruch says.
Negative impacts to clients include:
Missed or late appointments
Lack of customer confidence
No clarity in work performed
Incorrect diagnostics
Unnecessary repairs/appointments
Incorrect/inconsistent pricing from client to client
Negative impacts for the company and team include:
Last-minute scheduling or parts procurement
Incomplete work
Inconsistent estimating
Missed opportunities for additional revenue
Lack of follow-up
Negative customer reviews and no referrals
Unapplied time and callbacks
“When we do have those consistency-driven processes and procedures, we find that our clients are happy. They're going to refer our company,” Bruch says. “We're going to have accurate diagnostics, and we're also going to be building trust and lasting relationships.
“And how does that impact our company and team? Again, it's going to be delivering and capturing more customer referrals. We're going to be building a strong brand inside of our community, and it improves efficiency and profits.”
How ServiceTitan Enables Consistency
An operating system like ServiceTitan simplifies communication and process consistency through a number of its robust features.
Dispatch the Right Tech to the Right Job
“One of the most-used screens on ServiceTitan is that dispatch board,” Bruch says. “That dispatch board sets the tone for our day, and it sets the tone for opportunity inside of our company.”
Bruch recommends reviewing the previous day’s work orders every day.
“We have a process that we use here at BDR called a Billing Detective,” Bruch says. “When we are able to look at our invoices and review them and see how the game was played, typically we can see some inconsistencies there. And if we have a consistent approach by looking at our work orders, having a Billing Detective, we are able to close on 15% to 20% more work.”
He also says to ensure you’re setting your technicians up for success by categorizing each technician’s skills within ServiceTitan. To capitalize on opportunities, create specific tags you can apply to jobs, such as:
Aging equipment
Maintenance or membership opportunity
Out of warranty
Poor indoor air quality
Follow-Up and Sales Cadence
80% of sales require five or more follow-up attempts, yet 44% of salespeople only make one follow-up attempt.
“We need to make sure we're following up,” Bruch says. “We need to be top of mind and to enable our customers to be able to hear from us if they have or want more information.”
ServiceTitan makes this easy with a follow-up tab that allows you to see unsold estimates at a glance. Effectively utilizing this feature requires a sales cadence process.
“The first two weeks in every single sale or option that we present to our customers is crucial,” Bruch says. “They can and they will buy from somebody else, so that's why for the first two weeks it’s important for us to be able to follow up, keep the connection, keep your outbound calling, and make sure they’re safe and comfortable in their home.”
Bruch gave an example of using follow-ups to increase a closing rate by 10% and earn an additional $19,200:
16 opportunities per week with average sale of $12,000 and 35% closing rate = 5.6 jobs sold and $67,200 in revenue
45% closing rate = 7.2 jobs sold and $86,400 in revenue
“Keep on keeping on,” Bruch says. “Make sure we stay consistent with follow-up. Leverage your current assets inside of your company.”
Forms
Using a form enables a consistent process inside each customer’s home. Forms also serve as a way to keep all members of the team informed.
“It's so important to make sure we keep communication going inside of our workflow,” Bruch says. “Let's maximize using ServiceTitan, and with ServiceTitan we can make sure we’re consistent in our communication.”
You can trigger forms to remind technicians about the right cross-sells and upsells for each service they complete, thereby increasing revenue opportunities.
Pricebook
With material prices fluctuating, it’s critical to keep your pricebook updated.
“An outdated pricebook can result in undercharging our customers,” Bruch says.
ServiceTitan provides a Dynamic Pricing feature that enables providers to account for material cost changes. But it’s also important to review labor costs regularly to ensure accuracy and alignment.
Ensure the pricebook is organized, easy to navigate, and includes an up-to-date parts markup table.
“Consistent pricing in your pricebook gives technicians confidence, and it'll improve their upsell abilities,” Bruch says. “Businesses that are able to make the buying process simple and easy will always win.”
Accounting
Timely payments ensure a steady flow of money to cover operational expenses like payroll, inventory, and utilities.
“How often are we looking at our accounting tab inside ServiceTitan?” Bruch asks. “If we don't have the cash, we're going to be at risk for cash shortages that'll interrupt business operations. If we interrupt business operations, how are we going to be able to best serve our customers?”
A proactive collections process holds clients accountable to your payment terms. Companies should leverage the accounting tab in ServiceTitan to ensure they’re staying diligent with accounts receivable and collecting the money owed to them.
Implementation Plan
“The key component in making sure we follow through with the things we discuss and the things we need to accomplish is that we have an implementation plan,” Bruch says.
An implementation plan develops accountability for all team members and keeps them on task to complete objectives.
“There's always going to be a customer who calls us and needs help,” Bruch says. “Those instances can provide us with an inconsistent way to be able to not do what we say. That's why having an implementation plan, reviewing it, going over the dates, checking boxes, and hitting our marks is so important. And we can measure ourselves to achieving our overall goals of what we want to be able to accomplish.”
Best Practices
To recap, best practices for implementing processes and maximizing growth include:
Find, seek, and capitalize on the opportunities with your current schedule to keep your customers safe and healthy in their homes and businesses.
Set your team up for successful dispatching.
Utilize a consistent sales cadence for accountability and driving incremental revenue. Automate to accelerate!
Standardize ServiceTitan Forms as part of your processes and procedures to improve communication and deliver a consistent client experience.
Ensure your pricing is accurate and up to date to leverage opportunities within your current dispatch board.
Protect your cash – collect on time and collect often.
To meet these best practices, Bruch shares a daily task list for service managers, which includes:
Morning Preparation
Review daily schedule: Confirm all scheduled jobs (service calls, repairs, installations). Identify high-priority opportunities, such as new customer leads or upsell potential.
Team schedule: Ensure technicians are assigned to jobs based on skill level, location, and availability. Review any additional resources or tools required
for the day’s tasks.
Revenue and opportunity focus: Highlight opportunities for upselling (maintenance plans, smart thermostats, IAQ). Review any pending estimates, quotes or opportunities from forms that need follow-up.
Collections review: Identify accounts with overdue payments and plan follow-ups. Coordinate with the office team to send reminders or invoices, as necessary.
Midday Schedule Audit
Job progress tracking: Check in with technicians to ensure jobs are on schedule and customers are satisfied. Address delays or issues that may require rescheduling or additional resources.
Customer communication: Ensure customers receive dispatching updates on arrival times, delays, or next steps. Respond to customer inquiries or concerns promptly.
Team support: Offer guidance to technicians facing challenges (technical or customer-related). Address any team concerns or resource requests.
Revenue actions: Review opportunities to increase revenue from the day’s jobs (aging equipment, cross-selling other services). Evaluate the ServiceTitan technician dashboard to meet daily revenue goals and KPIs.
End-of-Day Closeout
Job and project closeouts: Verify all completed jobs are marked as such in the ServiceTitan. Confirm all invoices have been sent for the day’s completed jobs. Collect feedback from technicians on job performance and customer interactions.
Daily performance review: Compare revenue earned to daily goals. Review the success of upselling and new customer opportunities.
Customer satisfaction review: Check customer feedback or reviews. Address any unresolved customer issues or complaints.
Team recap: Hold a quick end-of-day meeting or send a summary email to recognize team successes and discuss improvements. If recurring challenges arise, plan for technician training or resource allocation.
Follow-up Opportunities
To find follow-up opportunities in a customer’s home, technicians should consider how they would protect their own home.
“How would our technicians protect their own home?” Bruch asks. “Those follow-up opportunities consist of: Do they have any IAQ? Is their home being protected with any kind of surge protection? Are we providing them options for us to be able to set them up with preventative maintenance and keep them on our membership?
“Again, protecting our customers inside of their homes is very, very important.”
86% of employees cite a lack of communication or ineffective communication as the primary reason for failure. For the best results, ensure positive communication both throughout the organization and in customers’ homes.
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“Effective communication fosters trust and professionalism. Consistent, value-driven follow-ups show you care and keep you top of mind with clients,” Bruch says. “ServiceTitan is the tool that will provide us with everything we need to make sure we stay consistent in every action that we take for our customers.”
