Management and Office Best Practices

Why do we need forms?  

Nobody wants to fill out forms, but remember their role: To provide a systemized way to create a repeatable outcome.   

ServiceTitan makes it easy to implement systems and processes for your business through the use of forms. But it takes effort to make this important tool effective. 

How to get buy-in from your team

To get buy-in from your team, you need to involve them in the process.

• First, assemble a small team to examine a particular area in your business where you want consistent results. It’s important to get several departments represented in this small group—especially those with a stake in the outcome, or that touch the process.  

• Outline the current pain points.  Use a whiteboard and list as many as you can think of. 

• Examine the pain points and see how many could be solved with a systemized process. 

• • Example: Pain points of Service Calls

  • • Technicians could miss tasks the company wants included in each call.

    • Callbacks happen.

    • Important information isn’t captured, such as equipment age, model and serial number, etc.

    • Customer satisfaction falls when service is not done correctly the first time.

    • The company leaves money on the table

• Next, outline how a consistent process could ease the pain points. Help the team see how the process will add value. The more buy-in, the better the result will be.  

• • Example: Benefits of a complete inspection process, with form, for Service Calls. 

  • • Consistent experience every time for every customer.

    • Techs make more money by uncovering more opportunities.

    • Reduced callbacks

    • More turnovers for bigger ticket jobs created

    • More 5-star reviews

    • Capture more of the important information needed to increase our marketing effectiveness. 

How to build forms in ServiceTitan

The easiest way to build a form in ServiceTitan is to start with a form that outlines a process other successful companies have utilized.   

They will share valuable lessons that save significant time and hardship.  Contractors can take existing forms within ServiceTitan and make modifications to match their needs, rather than building one from scratch.  

Steps to create the new form:

• If possible, start with one of the best practice model forms supplied by ServiceTitan or another contractor as a baseline. 

• Ask the assembled team to go through things that are critical to the process.

• Rank the items listed in order of sequence of operation.

• Determine how to simplify the form by combining or eliminating items that may not be critical to the outcome. Less can be more. 

• Determine which tasks need to be required.

• Determine which triggers and alerts need to be set up.  

• Determine if the form should be sent automatically to customers.  If so, enable that option.  This can be a great accountability tool but also requires great communication of what's going to happen and execution by technicians.  

How to implement a form 

Implementation of any new form goes back to getting buy-in, and explaining what’s in it for employees. Some best practices include:

• Start with a small test group, preferably the ones most likely to succeed and the influencers in the company. 

• Measure performance and get feedback to see if  modifications should be made.

• Have the small group help get buy-in from the rest of the team for rollout.  

• Monitor and measure the results.   

• Use the debrief process if needed to drive adoption and turn the new process  into a habit.

• Celebrate victories, ideally in a public way. What is measured and recognized gets repeated.