ServiceTitan Tags and Tasks: The Ultimate Operations Safety Net

How did Vector Services, a plumbing, HVAC, and electrical company in Minneapolis, grow from a spreadsheet-based business to nearly tripling its revenue in just two years? 

The multi-trade services business onboarded with ServiceTitan and began using tags and tasks to get all teams aligned, working toward the same goals, and tracking jobs from start to finish.

“Like a lot of companies, we did everything on spreadsheets, there was a spreadsheet for this, a spreadsheet for that,” says Vector Services Co-owner Karen Balko. “We really needed something that could do everything at once. ServiceTitan—it’s everything in combination.”

Josh Lu, host of the Mastering ServiceTitan podcast, caught up with Balko and her Operations Manager Nakita Kometani for a live interview at Pantheon 2025 to discuss how they use ServiceTitan’s tags and tasks to drive their rapid growth.

From using tags as an operations “safety net” to track job progress on every job to using tasks to create cross-departmental accountability and a transparent, get-it-done culture, the Twin Cities-based Vector Services grew from a $3.9M company in 2023 to one projected to earn $9.3M in 2025.

Here’s a quick recap.

How ServiceTitan tags act as a safety net for your dispatch board

Vector Services started using ServiceTitan tags to track jobs from start to finish on its dispatch board. Once a job comes in, they tag a specific technician to perform the work, and can add or change technicians depending on the job.

“As you look at the dispatch board, you know exactly what's happening with that job based on the tags that are on it,” Kometani says. “It's just such an easy, fast, visual way to see where a job is, where it's going, and where we're at with it. And I think that's huge in terms of a time saver. It just speeds up the process across the board.”

Vector also tags each job type (service, repair, or installation), location, open invoices, permits pulled, inspections, and more to make sure all steps are followed for every client who contacts Vector, a multi-trade business.

“ I look at [ServiceTitan tags and tasks] as a safety net for us because you can run a report and modify them the way you want to look at them… You can just dive in and then you filter how you want and pull the information you need,” Balko says.

Tags also allow Vector to stay one step ahead of their clients, addressing all of their needs and questions throughout the process.

Say, for instance, a customer hires Vector Services to install a furnace/air conditioner for a customer. In Minnesota, this job requires an electrical inspection as part of the process. Vector uses ServiceTitan to create the job, then adds a permit tag so the proper permits are pulled. Once the permits are pulled, office staff adds the inspection tag to trigger the next round of events, and so on, to keep the ball rolling.

“If we know what we have to do, we can always keep them as informed as possible, and those tags tend to help that,” Balko adds.

“And those reports from the tags are just the only way to keep track of it all,” Kometani says.

Using ServiceTitan tasks to track different job types and deadlines

With a lot of different jobs happening every day in their HVAC, plumbing, and electrical divisions, Vector uses ServiceTitan tasks to assign specific items to the office team, apply deadlines, and keep everyone organized and on point to deliver excellent customer service. You can even assign yourself a task to make sure you remember to get it done.

“You put that deadline on it. And guess what? You get a text or email, and it doesn't go away. You keep getting the reminders that you are now overdue for your task,” Balko says. “Any one of us can look at the board and say, ‘You know what? Nikita and Karen aren’t doing their jobs,’ and it's right there for everybody to see. So, it holds everybody responsible for it and makes sure we're completing things.”

It might be something simple like assigning a sales rep to call the customer back on a certain date and time, or something more complex that requires the owner’s approval before proceeding.

“It keeps everybody accountable for their part of the job that might not be able to happen right now,” Kometani says. 

Tags and tasks also keep the business running optimally even when someone is out sick or when someone with a wealth of daily operational knowledge decides to leave the company. ServiceTitan provides a full view of what tags are assigned to each job and which tasks must be completed—and by whom and by when—to completely close the loop.

Only relying on yourself as the owner or an office manager to remember the ins and outs of every job, especially in a multi-trade business, can be overwhelming. That’s why Kometani, a former teacher who’s only been with Vector for about a year, is currently learning everything she can about ServiceTitan and from Balko. It’s about making sure someone else knows what to do. 

“Holding all of that information up in your head is a dangerous situation to be in for any company at any size,” Balko says.

And it’s not about calling people out when tasks don’t get completed on time, she adds. It’s about covering them and your business, if necessary.

“We have to just protect ourselves as a company so no matter what happens, somebody else can jump in and say, ‘I can help that,’” Balko says. 

Kometani says she knew nothing about the trades or ServiceTitan when she first started.

“ServiceTitan is huge,” Kometani says. “I think it's an absolute asset in terms of the amount of things it can do for us—and does do for us on a daily basis. Yeah, I don't know what we would do without it.”

Streamlining internal communication and implementing automation

As a family-owned and operated business, Vector Services believes in fostering a transparent, get-it-done culture and ServiceTitan helps them streamline internal communication to keep everyone on the same page. 

Before ServiceTitan, looking at spreadsheet after spreadsheet became too cumbersome and steps got missed, and when the internal group chats numbered more than 50, the company knew it was time to implement the power of automation to streamline their processes.

Now, if the office staff needs an answer to a task within 30 minutes, they can send a chat. If it’s something that can wait longer than 30 minutes, they create a task, set a deadline, and assign it to the next person in the process.

If you’re considering ServiceTitan as a software automation solution, both Vector employees advise doing it slowly and taking it step-by-step.

“Start slow, because it’s overwhelming,” Balko says. “And I don't think everybody uses ServiceTitan the same way. Keep molding it to what works best for your company. Sometimes people panic and then they don't really incorporate everything to its fullest measures.”

“Implementing little things at a time, getting really good at one thing before you move to the next, because it all feeds in together,” Kometani advises. “That's true across the board for a lot of things in ServiceTitan. It's like you don't know what you don't know until you know it.”

>>Learn more about ServiceTitan Tag Management and ServiceTitan Task Management.

You can find this interview and many more by subscribing to Mastering ServiceTitan on Apple Podcasts, on Spotify, or here. 

Know a business that could use a bit of muscle from ServiceTitan? Refer them here!

Listening on a desktop & can’t see the links? Just search for Mastering ServiceTitan in your favorite podcast player.