In 2020, Above + Beyond Service Co., an HVAC, plumbing, and electrical business, was facing a loss of more than $130,000 in revenue.
“I was like, ‘Man, we're going to have to change. Something has to happen or we're going to be in trouble,’” says Jason Brady, President and CEO of Above + Beyond. “So, we talked to some of the people that we knew and got a lot of guidance, and I'll be honest, we took a lot of action and swallowed a lot of pride. We made a $30,000 investment [in ServiceTitan].”
The Oklahoma-based company onboarded the software in November 2020 and began training right away. Within months, Brady says the business started to “take off.”
“We just started doubling and doubling and doubling and doubling,” he says. “We didn't chase the shiny object. We chased operational inefficiencies and operational struggles and operational mismanagement.”
In a recent webinar, Brady and Above + Beyond HVAC Service Manager Chelsea Myers join Chris Hunter, Principal Industry Advisor at ServiceTitan, to break down how they leveraged ServiceTitan to achieve over 1,000% business growth in just five years. Read on for the webinar highlights and key takeaways.
Jumpstarting Growth
Brady says one of the first steps he took after implementation was to sign up for Dispatch Pro, which at the time was still in closed beta phase.
Dispatch Pro is ServiceTitan’s AI-powered dispatching tool that uses data, including technician skills, location, past performance, and predicted job value, to automatically and intelligently assign jobs to the best-suited technicians, optimizing efficiency and profitability.
“We had to look at our job types, we had to look at skills, and we had to look at business units,” Myers says. “We had to make sure that we were granular enough, so we knew we were sending the greener guys to the lower-dollar calls, the more experienced guys to the mid-range calls, and the lead setters to the older units. There were a lot of changes that happened with Dispatch Pro that changed our operations and how we looked at each call that came in.”
With this new technology in place, Myers says, she also shifted her entire approach to hiring dispatchers.
“We hired dispatchers with zero dispatching experience,” she says. “I want them to be able to talk to technicians. I want them to be able to manage office tasks and stay on top of it and be detail-oriented.
“I didn't want them to have any dispatch experience. Because dispatching with Dispatch Pro is very different from manual dispatching, and if you can't let go of those old behaviors, then you're not going to succeed with Dispatch Pro,” she adds.
Next, Brady says they turned their attention to existing customers and average ticket size. They implemented ServiceTitan Sales Pro, a Pro product that records and analyzes in-person technician–customer interactions to provide real-time feedback. At the same time, they hired a director of sales to coach CSRs and technicians and review customer calls, an approach that quickly revealed an interesting dynamic.
“Guys would come into meetings and say, ‘Oh, I do this, and I did that,’ but their numbers didn't match,” Brady says. “With Sales Pro and having all those little nuggets of wisdom, you got to hear what was actually happening. And so the funny part was when you heard what was happening, they weren't doing it.”
Sales Pro identified the techs best suited for the role and directed coaching that helped them handle customer objections more effectively. With the new sales process in place, Brady says their average install ticket rose from $8,500 to $18,500.
“Don’t Be Afraid to Raise Prices”
Brady credits Above + Beyond’s success to staying on top of pricing. Many service businesses fear raising prices, he explains, but growth—and giving employees the comfortable life they want—requires setting accurate prices and keeping up with material changes.
Myers says getting technician buy-in is essential when raising prices. As the boots on the ground, she says, technicians can’t sell effectively unless they believe in the pricing themselves.
“When we approach them with it, we’ll say, ‘Hey, if you're a percentage technician, you just got to raise,’” Myers says. “There’s a lot to your pricing, and there's a lot of looking at the margins on a regular basis. You can't just raise pricing and say, ‘Oh, we're good,’ and not raise it for another year.”
Invest in Your Team
Brady says another key to success involves investing in employee training and team-building, while creating a positive company culture to attract and retain top talent.
At Above + Beyond, building an employee-first culture starts with respecting work-life balance. Technicians don’t run calls late into the night, and service typically stops by 6 p.m., giving team members time to go home, enjoy dinner with their families, or head to a sporting event. On-call duty rotates only on weekends from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., once every four to five weeks.
“People want to be home with their families,” Brady says. “We have a technician that was offered five bucks more an hour, and he just laughed at them and was like, ‘No, I'm not interested.’ I mean, $5 more an hour, that's a $10,000 raise.”
The company also holds cookouts once per quarter where senior leaders, including Brady, work the grill.
“Everybody was shocked to see that the owner was out there cooking them food, not a manager, not their supervisor, but the owner. There's a saying, ‘They don't know you care until they know how much you care,’” Brady says.
Key to Growing Average Ticket
Above + Beyond’s strategy for growing its average ticket involved separating partial installs from complete installs and treating each as its own business unit. They tracked key metrics, such as how often technicians sold condensers versus complete systems, and the average ticket size for each type of job to gain clear visibility into performance.
At the same time, Myers made sure technicians had the tools to succeed. Instead of pushing “economy” builder-grade systems, she introduced financing options, rebates, and other programs that empowered technicians to confidently sell higher-SEER systems. By making the process simple and easy to explain, they created an environment where selling premium systems became the natural choice.
Myers says they also offer premium systems to employees at a discount, so they can become familiar with them and enhance their selling skills.
“If any employee that works here needs something done at their home, it's cost plus 10%,” she says. “We make it easy for them to put these systems in their home, so they can talk about it in front of the customer.”
“There's such a huge difference when your technicians believe in it. Man, it's game over,” Brady adds.
Focus on the Customer Experience
Running a successful service business means delighting customers and delivering a seamless experience every time. Instead of cramming in as many calls as possible, Brady limits the daily schedule so techs can spend more time with each customer.
“Quit trying to do five or six or seven maintenance calls per technician in a day. Take your time, go through everything. Look at everything and write up a whole justification of why they need a new system,” he says.
Managing the customer experience also means asking for and responding to reviews. After every job, Above + Beyond texts or emails customers a link to leave a Google review. Myers personally replies to standard reviews, while her CSR manager addresses negative ones.
“You need to treat that customer as if something happened and do everything in your power to make that right,” she says. “They're frustrated. They either didn't get the answer they wanted from the technician, from the office, or something happened. And if you reach out to that customer, refund them their money, well, at least to a point.”
To make the process easy, Above + Beyond uses a tiered system that allows employees to offer a refund without seeking authorization from a manager. If the price rises above a specific threshold, the employee needs to get approval from a manager.
“Refund it. Make them happy,” Myers says. “Then, ask them to change the review. That Google Review score is the most important KPI in your entire business, because that's where a lot of the leads come from.”
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Automation From Call to Close
At Above + Beyond Service Company, ServiceTitan-powered automation drives the entire service process, from start to finish. For instance, Myers explains how Marketing Pro automatically sends customers an email reminder when their recurring service event is ready to schedule. From there, AI responds to customers directly, offering appointment times and pushing the confirmed booking into the system.
On the day of service, Dispatch Pro takes over, assigning the job to the best-suited technician based on factors such as job type, skills, and value. The technician completes the call, closes it out, and collects payment on the spot. Afterward, the CSR team follows up with a happy call to ensure the customer’s satisfaction.
Finally, Sales Pro enters the picture. The sales director reviews the call with the technician, providing coaching and feedback, while the CSR follows up on any open estimates. By combining these tools, Above + Beyond creates a seamless, automated workflow that keeps customers engaged, technicians supported, and jobs moving smoothly from the first call to the final close.
For more on how Above + Beyond Service Co. scaled to over $18 million in five years, check out the full webinar on demand.
