Setting up for success

Membership Types

Commercial contracts are all unique based on the size of the customer, frequency of visits needed and the types and amounts of equipment to be serviced. For clarity, ServiceTitan uses one common phrase for service agreements, PM work or annual maintenance: Memberships.  

Commercial memberships involve preventative maintenance as part of a contract, Gonzales said. The only difference is the verbiage. 

“You'll hear technicians and dispatchers in a shop say, ‘Oh, don't forget, you've got Speedway's PMs for the next two weeks,’” she said. “And what the technician hears is, ‘I'm doing my membership work for our commercial customer.’

Those services will be built into the contract. They’re also a loss leader, Gonzales said. 

“We understand we're probably going to lose our shorts on some of the PMs, but they lead to companies doing big, big replacements with us,” she said. 

The details of those PM visits are built into the contracts, and attached to the account in ServiceTitan so the technician has visibility. 

Albuquerque Plumbing builds a Not To Exceed clause into contracts for any repair needs that are discovered during PM visits. 

“If we run into anything at this recurring service visit—in contractor terms, the PM—we need an NTE of $500, to cover any small repairs needed for the system to last longer. That’s one way we got around the PM loss-leader problem. 

“With some of them, a manager or a district manager who's on site to go ahead and approve work being done, but that's built into the contracts. 

“A lot of what happens—what can be charged and what can't be charged—really is in the negotiations of the contract.” 

ServiceTitan customers can customize contracts or PMs and track them under memberships. ServiceTitan customers are able to give discounts and add tags to the customer record, identifying them company-wide as a membership customer. 

ServiceTitan recommends creating one shell membership type with all of the billing options you wish to utilize (monthly, annually, quarterly etc.) as a sales task with a price of $0. Customize the membership once it’s sold on the customer’s record by adjusting the billing amount and the recurring services that have been agreed to as part of the contract. 

A site-map visit, sometimes called a scope of work visit, is also recommended. 

“We usually do that before we do the contract, just to get an idea,” Gonzales said. “OK, there's six rooftop units. You have two ice machines and your electrical needs to be constantly worked on, and your refrigeration units. Your beer cooler, your ice cream cooler, all those kinds of things. These are all the units that will need continuous service. 

“Sometimes during those negotiations, they'll say, ‘OK, don't take care of the ice maker or the refrigeration units. We have people on payroll that'll take care of those.’"

That sets the parameters, and decides what might be an extra charge. 

Then the recurring visits can all be scheduled within ServiceTitan, with all the details. 

“That way, it's less dependent on my dispatcher, the tech, the department head to remember when those services need to be done,” Gonzales said. “They'll pop up in the bottom of the dispatch board and then the dispatchers can start assigning them.”

Those assignments go to maintenance techs, not lead techs who need to be on higher-paying jobs. 

To sell/add the commercial contract 

1. Navigate to the location record and click Sell Membership in the top right corner. 

2. A popup will come up, select your commercial membership type from the dropdown and then select the billing cadence. Complete the other necessary selections, then click Create. 

3. This will generate an invoice for the sale of the membership/contract. If you are charging the customer immediately for the first payment, click the edit pencil to the right of your sales task on the invoice. When the edit window opens, update the price accordingly. If one-time billing, enter the full amount. If monthly, divide the full amount by 12 then enter that amount into the price field. 

4. Once the invoice is adjusted, click the “View Membership” button at the top middle of the invoice.

5. Click on the edit pencil in the top right corner. 

6. Scroll down to Billing template and click edit, then adjust the price accordingly if you have ongoing billing for the membership. 

7. Scroll down to Recurring Services, and from the dropdown menu add the recurring services you want to provide for this contract. Note: These are pre-built in settings, but once added to the membership contract you can edit the defaults.