Plumbing, HVAC, Webinar Recap

Vanessa Gonzales: 6 Revenue-Boosting Tips For Leveraging ServiceTitan

Pat McManamon
January 22nd, 2021
7 Min Read

Albuquerque Plumbing, Heating & Cooling had one month with $1 million in revenue before it signed up with ServiceTitan.

In 2020, after the move to ServiceTitan, the company had 10 such months as it hit $13.5 million in revenue—during a pandemic.

“The investment that we made in getting a better software that can elevate our customer experience paid off tenfold,” said Vanessa Gonzales, one of the company’s co-founders and co-owners.

After Gonzales initially resisted the move to ServiceTitan—“I told them to kick rocks”—she is now a believer, to the point that she joined the company as Senior Manager of Product Utilization and Customer Experience. 

Gonzales said she made that leap “because my passion is to help contractors.” And she’s still one of them, as she continues to run her business while helping make ServiceTitan the best it can be.

Gonzales described the specific ways ServiceTitan’s cloud-based software solution helped her company in a webinar titled “Assuring a Profit in Your Business.” 

She says ServiceTitan’s intuitive, user-friendly platform led to increased profit in at least six ways:

  • It provides real-time data

  • It powers better marketing

  • It increases call booking rate

  • It improves customer experience

  • It drives sales

  • It uncovers missed opportunities

Here’s how:

1. Get real-time business trends.

ServiceTitan’s modular dashboard is Gonzales’ home screen when she opens the software. The dashboard gives her a fast and efficient look at how her business is trending. It’s so easy to use, she said she checks while she’s in line at Starbucks.

Specific information includes opportunities, total sales, closed sale average, completed revenue and opportunities missed, all broken down by specific business units, all available to break into specific time periods (weeks, months, month to date, years, etc.) It’s a snapshot that provides pixels upon pixels of information.

“It allows you to pinpoint and kind of get lasered in and drilled down,” she said.

Using the ServiceTitan sandbox to show examples, Gonzales pointed out how the percentage for call booking rate can show the company’s success rate on calls, and where challenges can be addressed. Cancellations can help the company decide if it needs another technician. The heat map can show where business is coming from, and how far the company travels to do its work.

Going by the motto that customers want to buy but not be sold, Gonzales said the dashboard facts and numbers can be leveraged to make real-time decisions that help the company grow.

» READ MORE: Three Easy Ways to Maximize Your Data

2. Make better marketing decisions.

Two ServiceTitan features boost marketing: Marketing Pro (an add-on item) and Marketing Scorecards (in the core product).

MarketingPro presents detailed marketing figures in one handy interface. It is so precise it can tell the company with just a few common-sense clicks how many calls it received as a result of a specific promotion.

“To say that this has saved me hours upon hours of work, and weeks of extra work, is an understatement,” Gonzales said

The scorecards show leads, bookings, sales and revenue in just a few clicks. It can break down business whether it comes from Angie’s list, local media, Google, the ServiceTitan web scheduler or the radio.

“This is three clicks,” she said, “and you can have your year-to-date information, adjust your campaign and be prepared to talk numbers.”

» READ MORE: 16 Marketing Tips To Make Your HVAC Company Stand Out

3. Improve your call-booking rate.

The call-booking screen provides a wealth of information, including whether a customer is past due on a bill, a fact that might raise a red flag about doing future business with them, Gonzales said.

The information lets CSRs know if the customer is a landlord or family, whether there are payment terms (net or overtime?), and the booking screen can have pinned notes about the customer. If a home has a dog, a note can relay to the technician to bring treats. If there are young children, techs can read the reminder and bring coloring books.

“The CSR collects the info and then it can be shared with the entire company,” Gonzales said.

» READ MORE: Help Your CSRs Achieve a 95% Booking Rate

4. Create an exceptional customer experience.

Knowing the customer is just the beginning because ServiceTitan allows information to flow in both directions. By making the technician more human and more real, companies can help customers identify with the tech before they ever knock on the door.

ServiceTitan provides a photo and a bio via text message that tells the customer something about the person knocking on the door. Are they married? Do they have children? Do they like sports? The symphony? The photo provides an extra level of customer security.

ServiceTitan also sends notices to the office the second a technician arrives at a job. That allows the company to follow up on time spent, and provides the opportunity to check to make sure the consumer is satisfied.

Personalization takes a company from an abstract phone number on a web page to a group of human beings eager to help.

» READ MORE: These Tech Bio Tips Help You Introduce Them Before They Even Arrive

5. Increase sales.

The topic that drew the most interest from those taking part in the webinar came down to Gonzales’ belief that a customer wants to buy, not be sold. ServiceTitan’s good-better-best options for jobs give customers that opportunity. If price is a concern, the differences are presented to make the customer’s choices active, which gives them a deeper investment in the job.

Gonzales also recommends the use of customizable forms that allow everyone in the company to understand as much as they can about the customer and the interaction between business and consumer. She stressed that a form can gather any information the company prioritizes.

» READ MORE: How to Inspire $100 Million In Sales

6. Uncover lost revenue opportunities.

ServiceTitan’s unsold-estimates feature provides the opportunity for a company “to go back and see how much money is on the table,” Gonzales said.

The information specifies job type and can help with follow-up by showing how many times the company placed a call about a proposal. It might allow the company to easily dismiss the potential if the customer made clear he or she didn’t want it, or it can emphasize the need for more follow-up if a job proposal is still an unsold estimate. Rather than leaving possible revenue languishing, the company can actively pursue the work.

“I don’t know any other platform that can do this and have it all in one place,” Gonzales said. “It’s all right there.”

Gonzales joined ServiceTitan because she saw the difference it made for her company and she knows what it can do for others. Of Albuquerque Plumbing, Heating & Cooling’s 10 months with $1 million in revenue in a pandemic year, she merely said: “Let that sink in.”

“If you’re waiting for a sign (about using ServiceTitan), this is it,” she said. “You will not regret it.”

» READ MORE: How One Hire Can Drive $1 Million in Revenue


ServiceTitan is a comprehensive home and commercial services business software solution built specifically to help companies streamline their operations, boost revenue, and achieve growth. Our award-winning, cloud-based platform is trusted by more than 100,000+ contractors across the country. 

Ready to learn more about what ServiceTitan can do for your business?  Contact our team to schedule a demo today.

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