INTRODUCTION
During times of flux, finding ways to increase efficiency can be key to aiding your business in weathering the storm. Additionally, having time at home may allow for the implementation of some features you’ve hoped to explore, but haven’t had the time for.
This article calls out several features that can be leveraged to streamline operations and create efficiencies. We’ve highlighted the top action items you can take TODAY to improve efficiency below.
PHASE II - Automation and operational efficiency is the focus of this phase. While some of these may take longer to implement, many of them are quick to set up and require little training for use. Prioritize implementing 2-3 of these per week, and focus on those that you feel can add the most value for your home services business - your success managers, implementation managers, and customer support advocates are all here to help!
Automate customer communications (<1 hour to set up) - Set up customer communications to ensure your call center is set up to do more with less. ServiceTitan allows for automated email or text communications for job confirmations, appointment reminders, dispatch notifications, and satisfaction surveys. Opting for these electronic communications rather than calling customers will free up your call center to only get on the phone when necessary. For pre-call communications, you can include expectations around the altered homeowner experience, such as “In light of COVID-19, each of our technicians are equipped with facemasks, gloves and hand sanitizer. They have been instructed to keep their distance and not shake hands. Your personal safety is our priority, so please let us know if there is anything else we can do to accommodate your needs.” Setup documentation for customer notifications is available here and information on training your call center staff on the feature can be found here.
Generate Call Scripts (<5 minutes per job type) - Ensure that your CSRs are gathering all information needed in a consolidated view by using call scripts. Within your job types in settings, you can edit any one of your job types to modify the summary field. You can include questions your CSRs should ask, important reminders for them to tell the customers, or any specials relevant to that job type. When your CSR selects that job type on the call booking screen, the information you added to the summary will automatically populate. Ask your CSM for additional information.
Set up alerts (<5 minutes per alert) - Take a moment to consider what you or your team need to know about as soon as it happens. Is it urgent to know which jobs are $0, when estimates get sold, and when forms get completed? Setting up alerts is a quick and easy way to inform members of your team when a specific task has occurred. Alerts can also help you catch some of the tasks that may get lost in the COVID-19 shuffle. Pro tip: make sure all your settings allow for automation. Documentation here.
Create Estimate Templates (<5 minutes per template) - Estimate templates are a great tool for pre-building out features or options that your business commonly offers customers. This saves your technician and the homeowner time because the tech doesn’t have to build out entire estimates/estimate packages, and can simply add/remove whatever variances there are. Documentation is available here.
Invest in an Instant Messenger for Your Office (Varies based on software and number of employees) - It’s important for your business to have a tool to reduce interoffice calls, miscommunications, and friction, such as an instant messaging system. This can help your business to stay consistent in messaging, keep your employees engaged, and reduce other obstacles that can come with remote working.
Congratulations! Now that you’ve wrapped up phase II, you’ve hopefully begun to reap the benefits of streamlined operations, and in turn, reduced some costs. Looking forward, Phase III recommends even more features to aid in this effort. Check it out here!
CONCLUSION
While this list of features is not exhaustive, the features shared in each phase of these articles are meant to serve as a starting point for lowering costs and increasing efficiencies as a response to the COVID-19 Pandemic. These are also features that a team of ServiceTitan and Industry experts compiled as value drivers for ServiceTitan customers, prioritized by impact and ease of implementation. A comprehensive list of features to leverage for your COVID-19 response is available on our COVID-19 Contractor Playbook.
