Episode Overview
Rolling out new software to a handful of technicians is one thing. Doing it across five brands, three trades, and more than 1,000 field staff — while the app is still receiving bug fixes mid-rollout — is something else entirely. That's the situation Tim Newhook, Training Specialist at HomeX Services Group, walked into when he led the company's Field Mobile App (FMA) migration. In this episode of the Mastering ServiceTitan podcast, host Josh Lu sits down with Newhook to go deep on the three-phase rollout strategy that got HomeX to an 86% adoption rate — and the feedback, permissions, and change management lessons that came with it.
The Three-Phase Rollout Strategy
HomeX Services Group operates five brands — Gem, Haller, Universe, Princeton, and Magnolia — spanning residential, commercial, and construction divisions. With that kind of organizational spread, a clean, sequential rollout wasn't optional. It was the only way.
Newhook structured the rollout in three phases:
Phase 1: Educate managers and platform leaders on FMA before any technician saw it
Phase 2: Run pilot groups with technicians who were comfortable with technology and could surface issues early
Phase 3: Full rollout to all technicians, supported by trained champions and internal resources
The logic behind leading with managers was deliberate. If a technician heard something negative about FMA from their dispatcher or coordinator, there was no recovering from that. Getting platform leaders familiar with the app first meant the message could cascade down without distortion — and that managers could reinforce adoption rather than inadvertently undermine it.
"Change management can be really difficult, but if you approach it in a strategic way and you highlight the benefits of why the change is happening, it kinda outweighs those moments where there might be a bug here and there," Newhook says.
Pilot group selection was equally intentional. Newhook specifically chose technicians who were comfortable with technology, knowing they could see past early bugs and report issues constructively. Those early testers became the champions for phase three — the people newer adopters could call with questions instead of routing everything to the training team.
"That way you have techs that have already been using the app, and you have champions, and they can say, 'Hey, you know, this guy's been using it for three months now. If you have any questions, call this guy,'" Newhook says.
Rollout Challenges: Logins, POs, Deposits, and Permissions
No rollout this size goes without friction, and Newhook is candid about the four issues that surfaced early.
The login issue was simple but easy to miss: FMA requires technicians to sign in with their ServiceTitan username, not their email. Technicians trying to log in with email couldn't get in, and the error message wasn't immediately obvious. Once identified, it was a quick fix to communicate — but worth flagging for anyone beginning their own rollout.
The purchase order issue was more complex. FMA wasn't correctly generating the extension on mobile-created POs, which created confusion for HomeX's centralized purchasing department when they couldn't distinguish office-created POs from field-created ones. Newhook escalated it to their CSM, and it was addressed in Update 18.
Comfort advisors ran into a separate problem: they couldn't collect deposits on sold estimates through FMA. The workaround — applying an overpayment to the invoice and crediting it against the install job — worked technically but added friction in the field. Update 18 restored the ability to take deposits on sold estimates directly.
The permissions mixup is one that will affect every organization and deserves careful attention before go-live. Newhook had multiple technicians report they couldn't add notes to jobs. He walked them through the steps, sent screenshots, shared videos — and the issue persisted. When a fifth technician from the same company reported the same problem, he checked permissions and found the note permission hadn't been enabled for that role. One settings change, and the complaints stopped.
"We gotta make sure all of our T's are crossed and our I's are dotted so that way everyone can use the app as they need to," Newhook says.
The Features That Drove Technician Buy-In
Three FMA features stood out for technicians at HomeX: tap-to-pay, equipment scanning, and the GreenSky financing integration. Newhook led with all three during training sessions because they directly addressed pain points technicians already felt.
Before tap-to-pay, HomeX technicians were manually typing credit card numbers into their phones. There were no card readers deployed across the organization. Tap-to-pay changed that immediately — and while management cared about the lower processing fees, technicians cared about speed and simplicity. "The techs are like, 'We don't care. It's easier,'" Newhook says.
Equipment scanning replaced a manual process of typing model and serial numbers into the add-equipment fields. Newhook made a point to demo it live during warehouse training sessions — pulling a dead furnace from the floor and scanning it in front of the group. The reaction was immediate. Some technicians ran to grab equipment plates just to see it work.
The GreenSky financing integration addressed a real friction point that was quietly killing financing adoption. Previously, technicians had to copy the application ID from GreenSky, paste it into a notes app, then re-enter it into the ServiceTitan invoice. Predictably, some forgot. FMA now pulls the application ID automatically, removing the manual step entirely and making it far more likely technicians actually complete financing jobs.
Cloning Yourself: Support Infrastructure That Scales
One of the more practical parts of the conversation is how Newhook built a support infrastructure that didn't require him to be everywhere at once. Several things he put in place that others can replicate:
Created 13 training videos inside HomeX's internal LMS (Interplay) covering each FMA workflow using the company's actual business units, job types, and terminology — not generic ServiceTitan Academy content
Included coordinators and dispatchers in technician training sessions so office staff could be a first line of support
Trained warehouse staff on how technicians add materials through FMA, so the replenishment workflow stayed consistent
Taught technicians to use the screen-share button in FMA — the same one used to send estimates — to FaceTime him on Teams when they needed real-time troubleshooting in the field
That last one is a small but clever detail. The share icon in FMA is the same iOS share button technicians use in other apps. Once they knew how to use it for estimates, Newhook redirected that same familiarity toward screen sharing for support calls — which also helped technicians get more comfortable with SSO, multi-factor authentication, and other technology concepts that carry over into other tools they use at work.
"If you can get into your PS5, you can get into ServiceTitan," Newhook told technicians who were hesitant about the authenticator flow. It worked.
Advice for Anyone Starting This Process
For teams preparing their own FMA rollout, Newhook's guidance is consistent throughout the episode: sequence it, stay patient, and lead with what's in it for the technician.
Bugs will happen. Updates will come. Permissions will have gaps you didn't anticipate until someone calls from the field. The rollout succeeds or fails based on whether your team is prepared to handle those moments without losing momentum.
"Stay focused on the end goal. This app isn't gonna go away. It's the future, and it's only gonna get better for you and your team as long as you just stay engaged," Newhook says.
HomeX is already moving into the next phase: a FieldPro rollout starting with comfort advisors, along with early work on DispatchPro fine-tuning and Atlas integration. Given how the FMA rollout went, it's a useful roadmap for what comes after you get your technicians on the new app.
Tim Newhook recently joined Josh Lu on the 'Mastering ServiceTitan' podcast to discuss:
[1:25] Handling a high-level FMA rollout strategy for a large organization
[13:23] Lessons from rollout challenges and bugs
[19:57] How FMA improved technician comfort with technology
[30:37] Advice for implementation and change management
Check out these resources mentioned during the podcast:
You can find this interview and many more by subscribing to Mastering ServiceTitan on Apple Podcasts, on Spotify, or here.
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