Stop Tech-Stack Bloat: Build a Real Technology Roadmap w/ Jenny Benbrook (Powerhouse Consulting Group)

WEBVTT
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Why would we not take that same mentality to software that we're inviting you
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in to help run the business to a certain extent,
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which means we have to feed that technology our business, our businesses,
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processes, our goals, our team members.
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We might utilize tools differently depending on our internal capacity.
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That's just implementing is ensuring that the tools are set up for your company,
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not just out-of-the-box plug-and-play.
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Welcome to the Home Service Hacks podcast, the show for contractors who refuse to settle for average.
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Hosted by Bill Brown, licensed HVAC contractor, AI and automation expert,
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and founder of Service Titan Hacks Community.
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Each episode features real conversations with contractors, tech founders,
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and innovators who are reshaping the trades from AI and automation to pricing,
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marketing, and management.
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If it's working in the field, you'll hear about it here. Let's get into it.
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Welcome back to Home Service Business Hacks podcast. I'm your host, Bill Brown.
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And today we're diving into one of the most important and confusing areas for
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contractors, technology.
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You know, every shop today is being bombarded with new software and tools.
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Some of it can truly move the needle, but a lot of it just ends up wasting time
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and creating headaches.
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And to help us sort this out, I have Jenny Benbrook from Powerhouse Consulting Group.
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Powerhouse is a service-tightened titanium partner and one of the top consulting firms in the industry.
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Jenny and her team have worked with hundreds of contractors to optimize Service
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Titan, build technology roadmaps, and help eliminate wasted spend.
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Today's episode, we're going to cover why technology roadmap is just as important
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as having a marketing budget,
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how to strategically build your tech sack so it supports your business goals,
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and some common pitfalls that contractors fall into like duplicate tools, unuse licenses,
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things like that. So Jenny, thanks for joining me.
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Thank you so much for having me, Bill. It's always fun to chat with you. It is awesome.
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Ben, you guys had a booth at the front and center of the show right when you walk in.
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So there was no excuse for contractors not at least seeing your brand.
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And then you had two sessions that you did, right?
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And I was in both of them. How did the show go? I would imagine you got tons of interest there.
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We did. We did. So, well, first of all, like I said, after our first session,
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it was awesome to see you in the audience.
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I think I told you I locked eyes and I said, ah, a friendly face. Okay.
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So, when you're on stage, it's always good to find one or two people that you can speak directly to.
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And we've had so many thoughtful conversations about tech in the trades and
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what contractors are going through.
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So it was great to see you supporting that message at Pantheon.
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We really appreciate you being there. But to your point,
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we kept saying, I'm not sure what we did to get so lucky to have that booth front and center,
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but it was a wonderful entry point for contractors before they entered the mass
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trade show where tech was everywhere, new products.
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AI, everything was out around.
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Just to sort of walk by our booth where we had the chance to remind that you
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contractors, you have an advocate.
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You know, you're going to see a lot of stuff, a lot of it's good,
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proven products that will truly operationalize parts of your business.
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But understand, be diligent, know what works for you, know what you need,
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and sort of go in with blinders instead of going in and getting completely overwhelmed
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by what was in the trade show.
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So the positioning could not have been any better, we were really thinking. Yeah, if.
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I would think that even if someone didn't stop by your booth and talk to you,
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they would have been incredibly overwhelmed by AI and all these options.
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And if they did talk to you, then they would have been able to relax,
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not get attracted to the shiny new object and just say, okay,
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I know I need some of these tools, but we should probably be real strategic
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about implementing them.
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That's right. That's right. And that's really the theme that we went with this
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year at Pantheon was the whole concept of shutting out the noise.
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And so at a high level, the stage that we set on stage was that...
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Technology has evolved so quickly over the past few years where businesses have
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gone from implementing and managing one to two pieces of software to run their
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business to now we have 10, 15, 20 plus.
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Actually, we were just looking at the survey results, you know,
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the survey we took during the presentation. Yeah, which was great,
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by the way. Not everybody had that survey.
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And I documented or took a note that's AHA Slides or something. Yes, it's AHA Slides.
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Yeah. So I'm going to use that for a talk that I have to give in Miami next
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month. So thank you for that referral.
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Let us know if you have any questions. We've been using AHA Slides for quite some time.
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But it's great to engage with the audience to know or to validate that the message
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that we're giving is going to be helpful.
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And so one of the questions that we asked on that survey was,
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how many different software tools are you currently using in your business?
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And 80% of the respondents were using six or greater tools.
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That's quite a bit. And then we had it was like 10% using 11 plus I can't remember
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what the exact numbers were.
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But it definitely validated that there are many tools that a contractor is faced
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with in order to run their business today, not just their primary FSM,
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like Service Titan, FieldEdge, whatever your your call taking and dispatch software is,
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but but also all of your marketing tools,
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your financial tools your sales
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and proposal tools your inventory tools and now
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we have we have the concept of AI which sort of blankets over everything and
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so we have all of these AI based reporting tools that are claiming to pull data
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and what's happening is it's a snowball effect.
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Of misused or underutilized software starting at the foundation.
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So not getting the most out of Service Titan, paying 100% for it,
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but only- 100%, all in, right?
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Or not knowing what these tools can use.
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And so when you do hear about a shiny new tool, maybe somebody on Facebook spoke
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about it or this influencer talked about it, you say, oh my gosh,
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I need that for my business.
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You sign up for it you implement it and six months down the road you find out
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you already have it you know or you implement it without a plan and you're not using it so we've seen,
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This snowball effect getting bigger and bigger where contractors are really
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experiencing a lot of software or technology bloat in their business.
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They have too many tools that overlap that aren't implemented correctly.
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This is causing a lot of waste in their profit.
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So if you think it's wasted time from team members trying to figure out wasted
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sales in the field because you don't have consistent workflows or processes that you're following.
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And of course, the wasted spend, the investment and all of these tools that
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you may or may not need for your business. And so what we wanted to do was stop the noise.
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Just stop the noise and remind contractors that technology is something that
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can be built out on a plan and used as a lever of growth for your business if
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that's done intentionally.
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So instead of buying every product that you see or every new tool,
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develop a plan for your business.
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And then you know what you need and it helps you sort of block out any of the
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other influencers or tools that you hear.
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Sure. Yeah. I mean, not all tools are applicable to the size business that you are, right?
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You know, like Wink Toolbox, who's someone, a company that you guys work with,
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has this OCR scanning tool that works for inventory.
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Well, not all contractors are going to be big enough to have a very...
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Well-set-up inventory. When I was a contractor, we were about $4 million in
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revenue, and we couldn't have Service Titan's inventory module turned on and
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perfect. We had some inventory, but not enough to need an OCR scanner tool.
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So I think that
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I know that working with a company like you for an implementation plan and an
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onboarding plan would be really beneficial for contractors because I've done
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it myself where I've got a new tool and I've given it to someone on stack and said,
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here's this new software, here's the login, kind of figure it out.
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And that was okay at first to do that, but then they don't adopt it.
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And then every time you do that,
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over and over again, they go, oh, here's another tool that he's given me that
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he's not really serious about using. He doesn't really know anything about it.
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And they don't put a lot of effort into understanding how it fits.
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So after a while, what I did is I spent more time figuring out if it was good for the business.
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And I did a lot of the onboarding. And then I was more prepared to be like the
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internal support for the tool for the people.
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But that was back before AI and all this other stuff.
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And I mean, as a contractor today, it could really be a mess for your business
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to just start adding all these things and hope that they plug right in.
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And you make a really good point. I'll sort of continue to use the same inventory
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example that you use because, of course, we have what's natively available in
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Service Titan, for example,
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but then we have other vendors,
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you know, like Ply that offers enhanced reporting and inventory capabilities
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or, you know, Wink reports, as you mentioned.
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And what we find is there's a huge interest once a contractor reaches a certain
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size, there's a huge interest in implementing a proper inventory system.
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So that's another huge waste on your P&L.
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And so having that process in place. And early on, we became preferred implementers
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for Service Titan's inventory module because it is complex.
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A majority of contractors that would come to us and say, we want to turn on
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the inventory module. Yeah.
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The desire was there, the understanding that this would help mitigate inventory loss on their books.
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All of that was there and in place. But what was not was the understanding of
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what foundation the inventory module needed.
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So is your price book set up well? You know, do you have a seen price book is
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what we call it internally?
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Have you, you know, do you have a purchasing process in place?
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Do you have point stakeholders at your company who are going to own these different
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processes, the warehouse point people or your purchasing and what does that look like?
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And so before saying, yes, we're going to turn this on, it was first,
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let's build your foundation so that when it is turned on, it's successful.
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And when we think about the opportunity that's in front of us with AI or really
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anything that these new technologies promise us,
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it's all built and reliant on your foundation.
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And where Powerhouse comes in or teams like Powerhouse, there are so many great
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consultants out there, where we come in is to first ensure that a contractor's foundation is in place.
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So how are you using Service Titan?
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How are you not using it well? Which parts do you not use? Where do we see issues
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in your workflow or your data?
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And so really evaluating the core piece of software before we start layering on.
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Because if you layer on that shaky foundation, all of that doesn't mean anything. And to your point.
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It's not just how is it implemented, but who is implementing it?
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Are we documenting the processes so that as the company grows and changes,
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everybody's still doing the
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processes the same way, ensuring the long-term validity of these tools?
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So it can sound quite overwhelming. As you experience in your own business,
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there's a lot of ownership that is involved with getting the most out of software.
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None of it is plug and play. None of it.
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I think that there is the wish from contractors that it was, right?
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Like the same wish that you have that you wish you could bring an employee into
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your organization and you don't have to train them.
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And they just hit the ground running and they understand your software and they
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can adapt to your processes or maybe even make your processes better without
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any training or anything.
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I think there's that myth around AI that it's going to, if you have no process
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for it, it's just going to create that for you and guide you along and just basically take over and.
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Connect everything together and that is not true at all today maybe it will
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be someday where we have agi that will be able to come in and almost be like
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a consultant but if you don't have,
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like you said a good foundation even processes that you can write on on paper
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you can't automate them, and then you can't add AI to that.
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You just can't. And so that's why the implementation of these tools has to be
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really slow and well thought out.
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And that's why I did a post on
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Facebook the other day that said that not every company is ready for AI.
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Some of them aren't ready for it at all. They shouldn't. They should just stay
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away from it. You shouldn't even say it.
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Yeah. Yeah, but it's so, AI is very, very noisy, right?
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And talking about that, Service Titan, they had their Atlas,
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which I believe would be an AI agent.
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That's how you would kind of categorize it. And they're trying to bring all
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of these third-party tools and all of the AI into Service Titan's system,
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which I like because I would rather have the least amount of tabs open in your browser,
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the easier it is to manage it.
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But do you think that what they're trying to do with this atlas is maybe too big?
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Can they pull this off, this full automated everything to the point where you
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don't need as many third-party tools?
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What do you think about that? I mean, that's a mountain. It's all,
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You know, knowing what I know about AI. Sure. Wow, one company to do that,
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that would be pretty serious.
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Let me think how I want to answer that. Do I think they can pull it off?
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Yes, I do think they can pull it off. But I think what we will see is exactly
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what we see with Service Titan's tools today.
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It's not one size fits all.
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And while it will prove beneficial in some areas of the business,
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it's going to be lacking in other areas and we will find products that will
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need to either enhance or fill gaps in what that's currently offering.
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So I think it will certainly revolutionize what's being offered today and of
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course, the idea is to aggregate as much of these tools as possible.
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But the reality is the tools only cover so much of what a contractor needs.
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And we still find ourselves in a position where there's third parties that all
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they do is focus on this one area of business.
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And for some contractors, that may be a better option.
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So I think it will streamline it for a percentage of the market.
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I do not think it will be the overriding solution for all.
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Yeah, that would be, that's the dream, right? Where you've had an AGI that would do all that.
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And I think that what you talked about before really comes down to someone has to own,
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in the company has to own that process, whatever that tool is doing,
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whatever that AI is doing, they have to know what the inputs and outputs are,
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and they have to check it and make sure it's working correctly.
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Or they're just relying on the software to do it, you know?
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And that comes down to your documentation, documenting and adding SOPs to the
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company that this is how this actually works.
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Yes. And you can look at this and see how it works.
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You mentioned something earlier, and I was happy to hear you say it because
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I've often, as of recent, I've drawn this comparison.
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And I've actually, whoever I'm talking to, I'm like, try it on with me. See if it feels right.
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But if you think about your software as one of your employees.
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So when you bring on your employee, as you said a little bit ago,
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you don't just set them loose and say, hope you make it.
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You know, you can read my mind and do everything that we want and know the business.
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Why would we not take that same mentality to software that we're inviting you
00:19:17.811 --> 00:19:21.671
in to help run the business to a certain extent,
00:19:22.071 --> 00:19:28.371
which means we have to feed that technology our business, our businesses,
00:19:28.671 --> 00:19:31.951
processes, our goals, our team members.
00:19:31.951 --> 00:19:36.311
We might utilize tools differently depending on our internal capacity.
00:19:36.311 --> 00:19:42.571
So that's just implementing is ensuring that the tools are set up for your company,
00:19:42.811 --> 00:19:45.391
not just out of the box plug and play.
00:19:45.751 --> 00:19:50.571
I really won't think of any that are out of the box and plug and play to be quite frank.
00:19:50.831 --> 00:19:54.331
I have one that I created. It's out of the box plug and play.
00:19:54.871 --> 00:20:00.251
Do you? OK. Yes, I do. But all it does is take a Service Titan call recording.
00:20:00.631 --> 00:20:06.071
And as a recording is available in Service Titan, our AI grabs it,
00:20:06.311 --> 00:20:11.451
transcribes it, goes to the AI assistant that I built after,
00:20:11.451 --> 00:20:14.411
oh man, a long time to make sure it was perfect.
00:20:14.976 --> 00:20:22.756
Gets summary and sentiment, sends it back into the job. So it goes in a job note or a customer note.
00:20:22.976 --> 00:20:27.396
And if the sentiment is negative, if there's a potential for an upset customer,
00:20:27.656 --> 00:20:35.356
it just sends either a Slack message, Google chat, or an email to the CSR manager
00:20:35.356 --> 00:20:37.756
and says, hey, you might want to review this recording.
00:20:37.976 --> 00:20:41.176
What I like about it is there's no onboarding to it.
00:20:41.296 --> 00:20:45.976
Just those things just start showing up. But that is not how most tools are.
00:20:46.236 --> 00:20:52.936
They require... That's very new and far between, indicative of a tool built by a contractor.
00:20:53.496 --> 00:20:58.616
Yeah, right. Yeah, like how much management do I have to... Do I have to have
00:20:58.616 --> 00:21:03.976
a separate person to manage just this tool? And sometimes you need that.
00:21:04.506 --> 00:21:10.946
And, Doyle, what we see a lot of is, if you'll recall, we laid this out in that
00:21:10.946 --> 00:21:17.326
presentation, and it's what we aspire with our software, what we aspire to.
00:21:17.526 --> 00:21:21.986
So when we think of software, we think of efficiency, you know,
00:21:22.086 --> 00:21:26.806
lower overhead, higher profit margins, lower job costs, right?
00:21:26.806 --> 00:21:30.526
So we think about all these different things that technology is supposed to
00:21:30.526 --> 00:21:37.746
give us, but then the reality that we experience are frustrated team members,
00:21:38.246 --> 00:21:41.806
lost jobs, higher overhead.
00:21:41.806 --> 00:21:43.486
And so we can kind of get into that.
00:21:43.606 --> 00:21:49.526
But when you're implementing these tools out of the box without building processes
00:21:49.526 --> 00:21:57.066
or workflows that are specific to your company, but also identifying who owns this process,
00:21:57.466 --> 00:22:01.686
not just the implementation, but the ongoing management of it.
00:22:01.686 --> 00:22:06.666
So one tool that comes to mind, and it's available both within Service Titan,
00:22:06.906 --> 00:22:12.426
and then, of course, there's third-party tools, is the AI sales coaching.
00:22:12.866 --> 00:22:16.066
So like SalesPro or Rilla.
00:22:16.526 --> 00:22:19.866
I mean, really, really slick technology.
00:22:20.186 --> 00:22:24.726
We understand how important ride-alongs are.
00:22:25.526 --> 00:22:30.486
And coaching best practices groups have taught this and required it for decades.
00:22:30.486 --> 00:22:35.386
So we know it's important, and now we have technology that can help us to scale.
00:22:35.826 --> 00:22:40.066
So in rather than taking two or three days out of the office to go on,
00:22:40.086 --> 00:22:45.526
you know, 20 different ride-alongs, now you listen to 20 different ride-alongs in 20 minutes.
00:22:45.846 --> 00:22:49.666
It's fantastic. Yeah, it's incredible. This wasn't available before AI.
00:22:49.966 --> 00:22:51.326
You could not do this to scale.
00:22:51.766 --> 00:22:57.326
Here's the interesting thing, Bill, and I know that you'll know what I'm talking about here is.
00:22:58.205 --> 00:23:00.825
It's the thought of these products
00:23:00.825 --> 00:23:05.345
is incredible. We all love them and get excited about what they can do.
00:23:05.945 --> 00:23:12.565
But the reality that we're seeing is a lack of accountability on the contractor side.
00:23:12.745 --> 00:23:17.865
So now that we have access to all of this data, who is monitoring it?
00:23:18.985 --> 00:23:23.505
Who's taking the data and coaching to it? That's what data is for, right?
00:23:23.725 --> 00:23:28.045
It's to help you make decisions. And you're right. Like you could still have
00:23:28.045 --> 00:23:33.445
a service manager that just doesn't even log into Rilla, a sales pro and just.
00:23:34.052 --> 00:23:37.992
The guys are going to, the service techs are going to just get better themselves.
00:23:38.252 --> 00:23:42.152
Maybe some of them will look at it, but it's almost like the service manager
00:23:42.152 --> 00:23:46.132
wants to have the technology do their job for them.
00:23:47.332 --> 00:23:53.512
When you think about change management and the idea of adopting a new process,
00:23:53.512 --> 00:23:58.392
if you haven't had specific and clear training and instruction,
00:23:58.392 --> 00:24:02.232
it's almost a hard concept for the service manager to know.
00:24:02.272 --> 00:24:06.552
Like, how do I use this tool? And so we're partnered with both.
00:24:06.572 --> 00:24:12.692
And that's an example of having software advocates like Powerhouse is when we
00:24:12.692 --> 00:24:17.192
implement these new tools, it's not just implementing, but it's also setting
00:24:17.192 --> 00:24:20.572
the teams up for success in using them.
00:24:20.752 --> 00:24:24.172
So how are you going to use it? How are you going to read the data?
00:24:24.332 --> 00:24:28.572
How are you coaching to the data? So ensuring that we're actually getting the most.
00:24:28.572 --> 00:24:35.472
So back to the analogy of think of software, like one of your human living,
00:24:35.772 --> 00:24:39.872
breathing team members, it requires constant attention.
00:24:40.232 --> 00:24:44.472
So you're going to monitor it to make sure, is it working the way that it should?
00:24:44.652 --> 00:24:46.792
So is it doing the job I hired it for?
00:24:47.072 --> 00:24:52.132
If it's not, what needs to change? Do I have to create a new workflow?
00:24:52.292 --> 00:24:55.072
Do I have to retrain the team on how to use it?
00:24:55.412 --> 00:25:01.572
Was there a release update? We see that all the time with software moving so quickly.
00:25:01.872 --> 00:25:05.052
You could have everything built out and perfected.
00:25:05.712 --> 00:25:08.872
And then Service Titan sends out a batch of release notes.
00:25:09.232 --> 00:25:15.612
Right. Who reads that? Who changes things, right? Who's the point of contact? Yeah.
00:25:15.812 --> 00:25:20.192
Well, that's great having somebody that, I mean, you're an extension of the company.
00:25:20.192 --> 00:25:28.532
If a contractor doesn't have someone in-house with the service titan and third-party
00:25:28.532 --> 00:25:31.752
tool knowledge like you guys have,
00:25:31.932 --> 00:25:37.052
then they're always going to be having a difficult time implementing these things.
00:25:37.312 --> 00:25:38.792
You know, one of the things that.
00:25:40.357 --> 00:25:46.137
Comes up is, like you said, the expectation versus the reality.
00:25:46.417 --> 00:25:48.817
So we take a product like Rilla.
00:25:49.257 --> 00:25:53.057
I would imagine that during the sales process, like anything,
00:25:53.257 --> 00:25:56.797
Rilla is going to be like, look at this tool and they've navigated through it
00:25:56.797 --> 00:25:58.937
so many times, they can show the dashboard.
00:25:59.357 --> 00:26:06.037
And so the expectations of the manager, the owner, is that we'll have this up
00:26:06.037 --> 00:26:12.797
and running quickly, easily, and it'll just start working and making or saving money for the business.
00:26:13.117 --> 00:26:16.597
And I think it's nice where you guys would come in and say, no,
00:26:16.797 --> 00:26:20.457
this is what Rillo really takes to get successful.
00:26:20.717 --> 00:26:26.857
You can have it on and working and collecting data, but it's really a two-month
00:26:26.857 --> 00:26:28.377
onboarding process, right?
00:26:28.557 --> 00:26:33.777
So just helping the contractors set the right expectations for the tools.
00:26:33.937 --> 00:26:37.777
Because we always, like just with digital, same thing, with digital marketing,
00:26:37.937 --> 00:26:39.837
I think our expectations when we.
00:26:40.534 --> 00:26:44.554
Add a marketing company or add a new tool is way out of line.
00:26:44.954 --> 00:26:50.214
And people have to, someone who's an expert has to bring us down to reality.
00:26:50.734 --> 00:26:56.014
Right. And I think, so setting expectations is something that I say quite a
00:26:56.014 --> 00:26:58.194
bit. Listen, we're all humans.
00:26:58.574 --> 00:27:04.214
And if we're told up front what something's going to take, how much of an effort
00:27:04.214 --> 00:27:09.594
on our end it's going to be, we can make reasonable decisions for our business.
00:27:09.594 --> 00:27:16.374
So you know, if we're told RILA is a two-month onboarding plan,
00:27:16.514 --> 00:27:18.974
it's not, but we're just going for that example.
00:27:19.454 --> 00:27:26.134
But so, if we're saying that it's a two-month onboarding and I'm an HAC contractor
00:27:26.134 --> 00:27:33.214
here in Austin, Texas, and it's, you know, July, I don't have two months to onboard that.
00:27:33.234 --> 00:27:38.974
And so, if I'm told that, that it's going to require that much of my time,
00:27:39.274 --> 00:27:43.574
then I can make an executive decision for my business and say, got it.
00:27:43.674 --> 00:27:46.674
I love the product, but we're not going to start it until October,
00:27:46.974 --> 00:27:51.934
until it's a cooler month for us when I can actually dedicate the time on my end.
00:27:52.394 --> 00:27:55.794
But I really want it right now. I need it right now.
00:27:56.054 --> 00:28:01.654
That's where you say, okay, if I don't have the time and I know it's going to take me this much,
00:28:02.076 --> 00:28:04.916
that's when you bring in a third-party professional services.
00:28:05.036 --> 00:28:10.136
So you bring in somebody who's an extension of your business, who knows the industry.
00:28:10.396 --> 00:28:15.596
Knows your company, and knows the technology, and will help be that intermediary
00:28:15.596 --> 00:28:20.036
for you, making sure that it's being implemented and that your teams are being trained.
00:28:20.196 --> 00:28:26.656
And I think that's probably a lot of what we run into with software and even
00:28:26.656 --> 00:28:30.416
digital marketing. I have a background in marketing for the trades,
00:28:30.416 --> 00:28:31.956
and so, of course, I've seen that.
00:28:32.076 --> 00:28:35.596
Quite a bit but it's all just setting expectations
00:28:35.596 --> 00:28:38.336
i mean how wonderful is these
00:28:38.336 --> 00:28:44.396
marketing companies said wow you want to show up number one and you know paid
00:28:44.396 --> 00:28:50.156
every time every day all hours of the day fantastic it's going to cost you 250
00:28:50.156 --> 00:28:57.696
grand a month like yeah right and you won't get any leads for six months or something, right?
00:28:57.936 --> 00:29:03.956
Like, things you can believe as a contractor, right? You usually don't get that
00:29:03.956 --> 00:29:05.456
from digital marketing companies.
00:29:05.616 --> 00:29:09.756
Well, it's a lot of sale, sale, sale, sale.
00:29:09.996 --> 00:29:14.016
And that's where I love what you do. I love what we do in the market.
00:29:14.016 --> 00:29:20.436
And I think a lot of that, it comes from both having a background in the contractor
00:29:20.436 --> 00:29:27.116
world is understanding that nobody wants to be sold and nobody wants to be sold.
00:29:27.296 --> 00:29:29.436
They just want to know what does it mean?
00:29:29.636 --> 00:29:32.936
How will it work for my business? What's it going to cost? And what can I expect?
00:29:33.356 --> 00:29:37.436
If you can just be open and reasonable about that, that's where we find you
00:29:37.436 --> 00:29:43.596
build the best relationships is setting expectations and standing by what you say you're going to do.
00:29:44.297 --> 00:29:49.937
Yeah, that's it. It's very simple. And like you said, I think that only if you've
00:29:49.937 --> 00:29:52.937
been in the trenches as a contractor, you really know that.
00:29:53.117 --> 00:29:58.757
And I know from myself that when I engaged with digital marketing companies,
00:29:58.757 --> 00:30:01.357
my expectations were out of bounds,
00:30:01.437 --> 00:30:06.657
but they didn't want to tell me that because it's a fine line to say,
00:30:06.797 --> 00:30:09.937
no, that's not as good as you wish it would be.
00:30:09.937 --> 00:30:15.137
They want to sell you on their service and hope that that you either lower your
00:30:15.137 --> 00:30:17.017
expectations or they hit it out of the park.
00:30:17.337 --> 00:30:24.477
And it took me a while to work with software companies and understand these
00:30:24.477 --> 00:30:29.697
tools and work with marketing agencies to to lower my expectations because I
00:30:29.697 --> 00:30:31.837
felt like they didn't do that for me.
00:30:32.197 --> 00:30:37.897
But I get why they didn't, you know. Yeah, and that's, I've said that this word
00:30:37.897 --> 00:30:41.577
so many times, and I'll say it again, find your advocate.
00:30:41.877 --> 00:30:45.277
Find your advocate, either you're your advocate for your business.
00:30:45.277 --> 00:30:51.677
And so that's a lot of what we try to do is, is provide the education necessary.
00:30:51.677 --> 00:30:58.017
So, for example, that Pantheon presentation, we provided the blueprint for tech
00:30:58.017 --> 00:31:03.957
stack evaluation, even down with how to build a budget and helping out or plan what that looked like.
00:31:04.317 --> 00:31:08.677
So, either advocate for yourself knowing it's a lot of work.
00:31:08.677 --> 00:31:11.097
It's going to take diligence, planning.
00:31:11.437 --> 00:31:15.737
It's going to take vetting of vendors. So, a lot of work where you're your own
00:31:15.737 --> 00:31:20.637
advocate or you bring in a party that you can trust who can advocate for you.
00:31:20.637 --> 00:31:27.297
Do you think that where service patent is today and the capability of most companies.
00:31:27.677 --> 00:31:33.637
That they really should start for third party support right from day one,
00:31:33.697 --> 00:31:34.817
even before they go live?
00:31:35.493 --> 00:31:40.293
Do you think most companies could actually set it up and really be prepared
00:31:40.293 --> 00:31:42.753
to go live doing it on their own?
00:31:43.953 --> 00:31:50.273
No, and I'll tell you why. And I can confidently say this, and we have proudly
00:31:50.273 --> 00:31:53.173
partnered with Service Titan for five years.
00:31:54.073 --> 00:31:59.153
Personally, I think they provide a tremendous amount of support for a SaaS company.
00:31:59.433 --> 00:32:03.993
And that's something most contractors don't realize is I know their support
00:32:03.993 --> 00:32:09.873
is lacking. It's maybe not proactive or strategic, but if you go to like QuickBooks
00:32:09.873 --> 00:32:14.033
or sales, they have a phone number.
00:32:14.413 --> 00:32:18.653
Yeah, they certainly don't have the CEO passing out his cell phone number.
00:32:18.793 --> 00:32:22.973
So Service Titan really does strive to provide a lot of support.
00:32:23.113 --> 00:32:26.373
So I want to start by saying that just to align expectations.
00:32:26.533 --> 00:32:31.473
So if your expectation is I'm going to take on a lot of this work,
00:32:31.473 --> 00:32:36.633
I'm going to line up resources internally. I'm going to have project leads and
00:32:36.633 --> 00:32:39.913
the service time and resources are going to be sufficient. Fantastic.
00:32:40.673 --> 00:32:48.433
If you want a project manager, if you want somebody to provide a strategic roadmap
00:32:48.433 --> 00:32:54.133
of what you need to implement, if you want a developer to help migrate your data,
00:32:54.373 --> 00:33:00.013
then you have to reset expectations and say, I'm going to pay for that kind of support.
00:33:00.013 --> 00:33:10.493
But the analogy that I'll give you is we outgrew our payroll software here at Powerhouse last year.
00:33:11.293 --> 00:33:18.013
And as our company grew, you know, we hire from across the entire country.
00:33:18.013 --> 00:33:19.953
And so we have different payroll complexities.
00:33:20.573 --> 00:33:26.793
And so it was time for us to graduate into a more robust HRIS platform. Yeah.
00:33:27.103 --> 00:33:33.703
And bill we are literal software experts like this is what we do on a day and a half because,
00:33:34.403 --> 00:33:37.943
we were not software experts in
00:33:37.943 --> 00:33:43.603
rippling which is the hris we on is that what you're using now it is it's nice
00:33:43.603 --> 00:33:48.823
isn't it it actually it is and it's robust so think of it akin to service site
00:33:48.823 --> 00:33:55.423
and it's incredibly powerful what it can do for our business and so my partner pam and i.
00:33:56.323 --> 00:34:01.283
Onboarded and implemented rippling into our organization, a year later,
00:34:01.283 --> 00:34:03.503
and we are still finding Easter eggs,
00:34:04.063 --> 00:34:09.343
you know, things that either surprise extra fees, you know, we were told about
00:34:09.343 --> 00:34:15.063
them in the sales process, but maybe never told it would cost more or aha moments,
00:34:15.063 --> 00:34:17.463
I didn't know it could do this, or we're still learning.
00:34:17.723 --> 00:34:22.223
And the reality boils down to, you only know what you know.
00:34:22.223 --> 00:34:28.103
And so when you're in implementation, we may not think to ask all of the questions
00:34:28.103 --> 00:34:32.543
that will be relevant to our business because we just don't know what to ask
00:34:32.543 --> 00:34:34.243
until we cross that bridge.
00:34:34.663 --> 00:34:40.643
And our implementers or our onboarders just have a very standard guideline of
00:34:40.643 --> 00:34:42.583
how they're implementing all companies.
00:34:42.583 --> 00:34:48.663
And so to answer your question, I think bringing in a third-party expert in
00:34:48.663 --> 00:34:54.263
that particular software can help mitigate frustration and loss in the long
00:34:54.263 --> 00:34:58.843
run because you can ensure that you're getting everything set up correctly up
00:34:58.843 --> 00:35:00.463
front for your business.
00:35:01.043 --> 00:35:07.283
I wonder if, and I love calculators, I'm all about what if scenarios, right?
00:35:07.443 --> 00:35:13.903
So let's say you purchase Service Titan and it's $5,000 a month.
00:35:14.043 --> 00:35:19.063
Let's do something even, which is a very reasonable Service Titan payment, right?
00:35:19.143 --> 00:35:22.783
And you go three months into it or six months into it, right?
00:35:23.520 --> 00:35:29.000
And if you would have hired a third party support company, you would have been
00:35:29.000 --> 00:35:32.720
as far into the software and as knowledgeable in half the time.
00:35:33.180 --> 00:35:37.100
Exactly. Doesn't it kind of make the third party companies free?
00:35:38.100 --> 00:35:43.560
If you think about it in that context and you and that's where we're bringing
00:35:43.560 --> 00:35:52.740
in the realization of tech waste, because drawing on to it's all of those hidden.
00:35:53.520 --> 00:35:57.780
We call them hidden profit killers, but the hidden costs that you don't think
00:35:57.780 --> 00:36:03.840
about and what you'll experience over time from either a poor implementation
00:36:03.840 --> 00:36:06.980
or under utilizing the tools.
00:36:07.220 --> 00:36:13.820
So in large part, these implementations cover the core basics of the platform.
00:36:14.540 --> 00:36:19.460
And then over time, you develop more advanced workflow and configurations or
00:36:19.460 --> 00:36:23.540
bring in automation. Of course, that's a lot of what you do to really enhance
00:36:23.540 --> 00:36:25.860
what the tools can do for you.
00:36:26.060 --> 00:36:28.760
That doesn't all happen out of the box.
00:36:28.980 --> 00:36:34.920
So you want to make sure that you have the best onboarding experience, which is an investment.
00:36:35.280 --> 00:36:40.420
And then you also have a strategic roadmap of how you're going to continue to
00:36:40.420 --> 00:36:42.880
build that software to get the most out of it.
00:36:42.880 --> 00:36:49.220
And so when you think about that, if you're talking about maybe $5,000 to $10,000
00:36:49.220 --> 00:36:54.360
investment up front, maybe more, you know, depending on company size,
00:36:54.680 --> 00:37:03.500
what is your time and your team's time worth in lost productivity and frustration and lost revenue?
00:37:03.780 --> 00:37:09.280
Think of how that compounds over the first year that you're using that software
00:37:09.280 --> 00:37:12.480
if you go into it without a plan.
00:37:13.339 --> 00:37:17.019
And I was talking to, I talked to a lot of contractors and I talked to some
00:37:17.019 --> 00:37:21.319
before they get on Service Titan and they'll ask me, you know,
00:37:21.679 --> 00:37:23.979
should I, should we switch over to Service Titan?
00:37:24.119 --> 00:37:27.759
Which software would you use? I said, it depends on the size of your company
00:37:27.759 --> 00:37:34.959
and it depends on your, your staff skill set on, you know, adopting software,
00:37:35.139 --> 00:37:36.119
their ability to understand.
00:37:36.519 --> 00:37:41.979
And then really, can you afford a third party company to help you?
00:37:42.539 --> 00:37:48.099
So one of these guys I was talking to who was a service manager at an HVAC and
00:37:48.099 --> 00:37:50.619
plumbing company decided to move the service site.
00:37:50.719 --> 00:37:53.219
And I said, are you going to use third-party support?
00:37:53.439 --> 00:37:56.239
And he said, yeah, we'll get somebody. And I said, well, these are the companies
00:37:56.239 --> 00:37:59.399
you should use. Budget like $20,000 for it.
00:37:59.559 --> 00:38:04.299
And the owner found somebody to help that was like $1,500.
00:38:04.999 --> 00:38:08.819
And I'm thinking, well, you're spending $8,000 a month on the software.
00:38:09.779 --> 00:38:14.499
And turns out the $2,000 person wasn't able to help very much.
00:38:14.599 --> 00:38:19.719
So they took the service manager and made him the onboarding person for it.
00:38:19.779 --> 00:38:21.219
So he's learning the software.
00:38:22.135 --> 00:38:26.935
And he's doing the onboarding, but he's not doing his service manager job.
00:38:27.075 --> 00:38:29.975
So I just look at that, like that hidden cost you're talking about.
00:38:30.515 --> 00:38:37.835
What did it really cost to have this $125,000, $150,000 a year person spend
00:38:37.835 --> 00:38:41.615
75% of their time learning a piece of software?
00:38:41.975 --> 00:38:47.855
And then what did it cost for the company to right now they're about six months into it?
00:38:47.855 --> 00:38:50.975
Like how far behind are they
00:38:50.975 --> 00:38:53.915
because he's doing that job oh my gosh
00:38:53.915 --> 00:38:57.095
it's way more than the payment to service site so
00:38:57.095 --> 00:39:02.915
it sure is yeah way more yeah fractured attention and they're not focused on
00:39:02.915 --> 00:39:08.255
revenue producing activity and that's that's what we want from software we're
00:39:08.255 --> 00:39:12.875
there we're such a we're a people-centric industry you know there's a lot of
00:39:12.875 --> 00:39:15.555
fears technology going to take our jobs,
00:39:15.735 --> 00:39:18.215
it will change them in the trades,
00:39:18.435 --> 00:39:22.415
but it's never going to replace people entirely in the trades.
00:39:22.795 --> 00:39:28.635
And so taking that out of your mind and thinking, what do we want our people doing?
00:39:29.315 --> 00:39:34.575
Producing revenue. We want the technology to do the operations and to streamline
00:39:34.575 --> 00:39:36.635
operations, and we want our teams.
00:39:36.675 --> 00:39:41.715
So when you take your teams from producing revenue to try to figure out your
00:39:41.715 --> 00:39:47.455
software that's where you start to see the loss in cost and one of the you know
00:39:47.455 --> 00:39:53.595
you bring you talking about that the service manager and the decision to bring on um.
00:39:54.354 --> 00:39:56.894
The more affordable option. It
00:39:56.894 --> 00:40:02.894
reminds me of the pictures that used to go around the trades and it was.
00:40:03.934 --> 00:40:07.794
I'm going to butcher this, but it was something about higher,
00:40:08.034 --> 00:40:10.674
cheaper at first and you pay more in the end.
00:40:10.674 --> 00:40:15.094
But then it would break down like if you're hiring just on cost,
00:40:15.254 --> 00:40:20.894
you're either getting faulty equipment or core installations or uncertified technicians.
00:40:21.254 --> 00:40:23.394
It's the same concept.
00:40:23.994 --> 00:40:31.554
Knowing the software as closely and robustly as we do, it requires certification.
00:40:31.554 --> 00:40:35.154
So we go through hundreds of
00:40:35.154 --> 00:40:38.934
hours of testing in order to know everything
00:40:38.934 --> 00:40:42.214
contractors may not know about the software
00:40:42.214 --> 00:40:47.954
and then we retest and then feature updates come in we retest on that and so
00:40:47.954 --> 00:40:54.074
it's this continuous process of certification that we go through so that when
00:40:54.074 --> 00:40:59.214
you hire us It might be more expensive than a $1,500 person,
00:40:59.514 --> 00:41:05.094
but you have access to certified individuals who are going to not,
00:41:05.354 --> 00:41:09.734
who will not lead you down the wrong path, who will set you up for success immediately
00:41:09.734 --> 00:41:13.174
so that your service manager is actually producing revenue.
00:41:13.174 --> 00:41:17.154
It should just be more expensive at first, right?
00:41:17.454 --> 00:41:23.614
And then if you were to look at the revenue loss versus revenue gain, I mean, you're right.
00:41:23.754 --> 00:41:29.594
That's tough to calculate those numbers to really say, what if I would use Powerhouse
00:41:29.594 --> 00:41:31.994
versus having my service manager in this?
00:41:32.574 --> 00:41:37.994
But because they're not calculable very easily, it doesn't mean that they still don't exist.
00:41:38.274 --> 00:41:41.374
Right. So you have to kind of put some numbers towards it. Like,
00:41:41.614 --> 00:41:44.454
so what is that service manager's time worth?
00:41:44.854 --> 00:41:51.394
Just in general, right? So very, very interesting stuff. And I really like Service
00:41:51.394 --> 00:41:55.314
Titan, but I know that they sell to a lot of contractors that are.
00:41:56.046 --> 00:42:02.446
Too small and these contractors can just afford the payment to Service Titan
00:42:02.446 --> 00:42:05.226
each month. So they're not getting anything out of software.
00:42:05.406 --> 00:42:12.206
My feeling when we started with Service Titan, we were about maybe less than 3 million in revenue.
00:42:12.206 --> 00:42:16.586
I felt like we were too small at that point to really take advantage of the
00:42:16.586 --> 00:42:22.106
full platform and that we should have waited probably till that 5-6 million
00:42:22.106 --> 00:42:24.306
in revenue as an HVAC contractor.
00:42:24.766 --> 00:42:29.546
And when I first went to Service Titan years ago and wanted to switch over,
00:42:29.666 --> 00:42:32.866
because I've tried every FSM, they told me, you're too small.
00:42:33.046 --> 00:42:36.226
And I was a little like, but they were right.
00:42:36.406 --> 00:42:41.186
They were right. They didn't want unhappy customers. But as they got bigger,
00:42:41.546 --> 00:42:48.746
they sold to all of the $10 million contractors either invested in their software
00:42:48.746 --> 00:42:51.166
or they're just not going to.
00:42:51.626 --> 00:42:58.566
So what size contractor just for HVAC do you think would be about the size you
00:42:58.566 --> 00:43:01.766
want to make that service titan switch? What do you think?
00:43:02.226 --> 00:43:06.926
It would be minimum 3 million. Anything middle or 3 million,
00:43:07.146 --> 00:43:08.986
I would say is pretty tough.
00:43:09.186 --> 00:43:13.746
And then when you're looking at about that 3 to 6 million range and you're in
00:43:13.746 --> 00:43:18.326
growth mode, this is where we get into a bit of business discovery.
00:43:19.066 --> 00:43:23.206
So what are the company's goals? You know, what's your growth trajectory?
00:43:23.646 --> 00:43:25.966
Are you planning to add new services?
00:43:26.646 --> 00:43:30.206
One big one is, do you hope to sell?
00:43:30.766 --> 00:43:36.166
If you hope to sell, it may make sense to prematurely get on the software because
00:43:36.166 --> 00:43:40.826
that's when you start building the processes and you have your tech stack set
00:43:40.826 --> 00:43:45.006
up, which is incredibly attractive, as you're aware, new private equity.
00:43:45.006 --> 00:43:51.066
And so you really have to go through a bit of diligence on your own and say, you know.
00:43:51.699 --> 00:43:54.919
Do I really need it at that point? Probably not.
00:43:55.359 --> 00:44:00.339
But depending on what the business's growth goals are, it may make sense to
00:44:00.339 --> 00:44:01.579
make that investment up front.
00:44:01.859 --> 00:44:08.959
And so we we try to stay away from we try to we stay more brand agnostic,
00:44:09.279 --> 00:44:13.079
software agnostic when it comes to a contractor's FSMs.
00:44:13.079 --> 00:44:20.439
One of the things that we're also huge proponents of is making what they have work.
00:44:20.579 --> 00:44:26.459
Unless it's completely out of line with their business, it is so much more affordable
00:44:26.459 --> 00:44:30.439
to make what they have work than it is to switch an FSM.
00:44:30.979 --> 00:44:36.999
The response in switching software over and over again, it causes delays in the business.
00:44:37.059 --> 00:44:39.979
It causes frustration with the team.
00:44:40.159 --> 00:44:43.999
It causes issues in the field. And so when you think about that,
00:44:44.199 --> 00:44:48.399
our goal is, okay, if you're on Service Titan and you're really unhappy,
00:44:48.719 --> 00:44:50.739
let us show you what it can do first.
00:44:51.219 --> 00:44:54.859
Let us show you, even if maybe you don't feel like you're large enough,
00:44:55.099 --> 00:44:56.559
let us give you quick wins.
00:44:56.759 --> 00:45:01.079
Let us show you how we can use Service Titan to automate processes in your business
00:45:01.079 --> 00:45:03.459
that will make it make more financial sense.
00:45:03.859 --> 00:45:07.739
So being more brand agnostic gives us the freedom to do that,
00:45:07.919 --> 00:45:12.539
where we're champions for what the contractor's on because we know the true
00:45:12.539 --> 00:45:14.899
cost of trying to switch over and over again.
00:45:15.679 --> 00:45:20.439
Yeah. So if you're on Housecall Pro or FieldEdge, would this be,
00:45:21.219 --> 00:45:24.459
do you guys have a service where a contractor could have a call with you?
00:45:24.699 --> 00:45:28.399
If the contractor's thinking about switching the service site and you can go,
00:45:29.121 --> 00:45:32.721
give them advice and say, oh, I probably wouldn't do that. So you have these
00:45:32.721 --> 00:45:34.241
things in place first, right?
00:45:34.861 --> 00:45:39.761
We do. So that would be our contractor resource planning, which is really the
00:45:39.761 --> 00:45:43.181
whole premise of a lot of what we've spoken about today.
00:45:43.661 --> 00:45:50.821
So just to quickly, to succinctly, hopefully identify our two different services,
00:45:51.101 --> 00:45:57.341
our primary service and what we started in business with was optimizing service time,
00:45:57.721 --> 00:46:00.901
helping contractors get the most out of that tool.
00:46:01.101 --> 00:46:03.581
That was five years ago when we started.
00:46:03.921 --> 00:46:10.221
And as I mentioned, the ecosystem has changed so drastically just in the past
00:46:10.221 --> 00:46:13.521
few years where we went from one or two,
00:46:13.741 --> 00:46:18.941
maybe a couple of marketing tools to now hundreds and hundreds of options all
00:46:18.941 --> 00:46:22.321
on top of this FSM you're not using correctly.
00:46:23.041 --> 00:46:30.501
There's just going to be more coming out. Just more. Brain training is not stopping. So we developed...
00:46:31.606 --> 00:46:38.646
A service, contractor resource planning, which allows us to meet with a contractor,
00:46:39.086 --> 00:46:40.646
evaluate their business.
00:46:41.306 --> 00:46:47.166
Identify what their technology budget needs to be to get them to the growth
00:46:47.166 --> 00:46:54.846
path that they're looking for, but also consult and advise on which tools they should be using,
00:46:55.106 --> 00:46:57.126
whether it is their FSN.
00:46:57.126 --> 00:47:02.586
If they're in the right FSN platform, we'll evaluate how they're using that
00:47:02.586 --> 00:47:06.666
first and foremost before we start adding on additional tools.
00:47:06.666 --> 00:47:12.366
So the result, and this kind of goes back to what does the investment look like?
00:47:12.606 --> 00:47:20.126
One of the pieces of research that we shared at Pantheon was the average contractor
00:47:20.126 --> 00:47:26.346
experiences about a 25% waste in their tech spend each year.
00:47:26.446 --> 00:47:31.946
And that's from duplicative spend, underutilization of tools.
00:47:31.946 --> 00:47:35.406
We find all the time contractors
00:47:35.406 --> 00:47:38.226
like i forgot i signed up for that and they've been pulling
00:47:38.226 --> 00:47:42.606
for this tool right so if you think about 25 loss
00:47:42.606 --> 00:47:45.746
annually just because you're not using software
00:47:45.746 --> 00:47:53.566
correctly that's massive so if you can meet with us once a year evaluate your
00:47:53.566 --> 00:47:59.166
business evaluate the budget and then build an evaluated tech stack that is
00:47:59.166 --> 00:48:04.526
what's going to be your vehicle for growth So under that contractor resource planning,
00:48:04.766 --> 00:48:09.246
we would provide that type of assessment and analysis because then we have that
00:48:09.246 --> 00:48:10.526
deep business discovery.
00:48:11.171 --> 00:48:17.631
What do you think is next on the roadmap? What do you guys have something coming
00:48:17.631 --> 00:48:18.691
up that's real different?
00:48:19.751 --> 00:48:24.631
What's next? What's the future look like? If there's even any clarity on the
00:48:24.631 --> 00:48:28.751
future, given all this AI, what do you guys have coming down the pipe?
00:48:29.331 --> 00:48:33.331
Yeah, yeah. So, I mean, AI, right? AI is going down the pipeline.
00:48:33.591 --> 00:48:38.091
And the way that we see it is really in the data realm.
00:48:38.091 --> 00:48:44.631
And everything that we do truly relies on data, the validity of the data,
00:48:44.931 --> 00:48:49.111
the access to the data, and understanding what the data means,
00:48:49.171 --> 00:48:51.331
and then creating plans from there.
00:48:51.331 --> 00:49:00.531
So we'll be using AI and data visualization tools pretty heavily in the future
00:49:00.531 --> 00:49:05.111
to not only report on operations.
00:49:05.351 --> 00:49:11.491
So think of operational KPIs, but also your financial KPIs, having those married
00:49:11.491 --> 00:49:14.631
together for a true picture of health for the business.
00:49:15.151 --> 00:49:19.491
And then we think about now how are we managing all of these tools?
00:49:19.491 --> 00:49:25.131
How does all of the data come together and create a story of what needs to be
00:49:25.131 --> 00:49:27.311
worked on today? Where are my opportunities?
00:49:27.831 --> 00:49:31.471
So that's really what's coming down the pipeline and that we're building out
00:49:31.471 --> 00:49:36.651
in beta right now is reporting utilizing AI.
00:49:37.458 --> 00:49:45.098
Yeah, which is great. I think that AI is great at scrubbing data and grabbing
00:49:45.098 --> 00:49:49.758
insights from it that if you were working in Excel would take a long time to get.
00:49:51.438 --> 00:49:55.278
Hopefully, AI doesn't make stuff up with that. So there have to be some guardrails
00:49:55.278 --> 00:49:57.938
set up because I know it never likes to say I'm not sure.
00:49:58.158 --> 00:50:01.558
It just makes up. It just makes stuff up. That's right. It just makes that up.
00:50:01.858 --> 00:50:08.638
Really, you know, we see that and why I mentioned what's on our roadmap with
00:50:08.638 --> 00:50:14.478
an understanding that there are tools in the market that do similar reporting
00:50:14.478 --> 00:50:18.018
functions or data aggregation functions.
00:50:18.778 --> 00:50:23.218
The missing component, though, is trusting the data.
00:50:24.158 --> 00:50:29.838
And so if you're using a fancy tool layered on top of, you know,
00:50:29.998 --> 00:50:34.678
Service Titan and Sage Intact or whatever, and it's pulling together all your
00:50:34.678 --> 00:50:37.158
data, but none of it's actually right.
00:50:37.158 --> 00:50:42.938
If you have broken workflows and don't make sense, well, then everything that
00:50:42.938 --> 00:50:47.438
is being reported on is quite useless in helping your business.
00:50:47.438 --> 00:50:52.538
And so taking the product expertise, the contractor expertise,
00:50:52.958 --> 00:50:58.198
ensuring that systems and data are correct, and then layering on the reporting,
00:50:58.198 --> 00:51:02.638
that's really what we need to take into account when we think about the future of data.
00:51:04.838 --> 00:51:11.598
There's nothing worse than putting a dashboard up on a screen and going over it with your team and...
00:51:12.152 --> 00:51:18.772
Everybody says this is wrong. You know, you'd be better off not having a dashboard at all.
00:51:18.972 --> 00:51:23.212
And just going on your feelings of how the business is operating,
00:51:23.412 --> 00:51:25.832
then putting up the wrong data. I've done it before.
00:51:26.032 --> 00:51:29.772
And if they see something wrong on it, they just dismiss that dashboard completely.
00:51:29.832 --> 00:51:35.012
And now the meeting becomes where everybody's just trying to verify data by
00:51:35.012 --> 00:51:36.292
clicking around Service Titan.
00:51:36.552 --> 00:51:43.052
But Service Titan, you can put bad data into it. It's possible. It's a big system.
00:51:43.392 --> 00:51:48.812
And I would imagine a lot of contractors, I think that that would be pretty
00:51:48.812 --> 00:51:51.312
common where they can't trust all of the data.
00:51:51.692 --> 00:51:55.892
And then the reports are bad and then the dashboards are unusable.
00:51:56.292 --> 00:52:00.872
And that's probably one of the number one things contractors come to us with
00:52:00.872 --> 00:52:08.072
is a distrust of the data that they're seeing, you know, and they're very quick
00:52:08.072 --> 00:52:09.872
things that we can look at.
00:52:10.152 --> 00:52:15.992
One of my favorites is when we see CSRs that have a hundred percent call booking rate.
00:52:17.212 --> 00:52:21.232
That's good. That's good stuff. Yeah. When you're incentivized from that. Yeah.
00:52:22.232 --> 00:52:25.952
But if you, I mean, even little things like that, but you know,
00:52:26.132 --> 00:52:29.992
some of the, some of the bigger, more egregious ones like think about memberships
00:52:29.992 --> 00:52:35.612
how much is unknown and that's when there are not definitive processes in place
00:52:35.612 --> 00:52:40.572
for how to sell a membership or membership types I mean basically you
00:52:40.924 --> 00:52:45.444
The membership cleanup projects that we've done are incredibly expensive,
00:52:45.444 --> 00:52:52.784
but that's just an example of it's a systemic misuse of the product and it leads
00:52:52.784 --> 00:52:55.404
to clunky data over and over.
00:52:55.524 --> 00:52:59.544
And now you're going to try to put a reporting tool on top of that,
00:52:59.624 --> 00:53:05.184
and it's trying to pull out information from this pile of bad data that you have.
00:53:05.184 --> 00:53:11.024
That's where we see the tools not matching what they're intended to do.
00:53:11.584 --> 00:53:16.444
So, you know, if I'm an owner operator, everything's going to be fine when I
00:53:16.444 --> 00:53:17.944
have access to all of my data.
00:53:18.124 --> 00:53:22.064
I'm going to be able to hold people accountable. I'm going to be able to report to stakeholders.
00:53:22.664 --> 00:53:27.724
And but, you know, to your point, when you're reporting bad numbers, that's your one shot.
00:53:27.904 --> 00:53:31.104
And your team's now lost trust in you and the software.
00:53:31.664 --> 00:53:36.764
And so it just can get very bad. And regardless of the tech that's in front
00:53:36.764 --> 00:53:44.544
of us, that element of nurturing and managing your software will never go away.
00:53:44.724 --> 00:53:46.804
Just like it will never go away
00:53:46.804 --> 00:53:51.144
that you nurture and manage your real employees, your human employees.
00:53:51.144 --> 00:53:56.144
So, but as an irony, wouldn't it be nice if you could just, if I could just
00:53:56.144 --> 00:54:00.724
send my credit card information to a software company and then my business just
00:54:00.724 --> 00:54:04.324
starts running sort of like a drop shipping, right?
00:54:04.764 --> 00:54:10.264
Or buying Airbnbs. It's the, it's the desire for humans to make.
00:54:11.063 --> 00:54:15.963
A lot of money without having to do any real work. Well, no, we all want that.
00:54:16.243 --> 00:54:21.883
Maybe that's the next thing we shouldn't we should invent is the the true plug
00:54:21.883 --> 00:54:23.703
and play all in one software.
00:54:24.623 --> 00:54:31.743
I thought about how that might work. And I was going back and forth with ChatGPT,
00:54:32.583 --> 00:54:37.943
and asking ChatGPT if the technology exists for it to do it.
00:54:38.103 --> 00:54:42.603
And it said it's not ready yet. But I thought that what it would be is it would
00:54:42.603 --> 00:54:47.163
be an interview. It would start out with an AI agent that's interviewing the
00:54:47.163 --> 00:54:50.323
company and all the key players in it.
00:54:50.383 --> 00:54:55.363
And it would build the software based upon the company's current processes.
00:54:56.223 --> 00:55:02.403
And it would also interview them based upon those processes and help them refine
00:55:02.403 --> 00:55:04.563
them if they weren't ready to go.
00:55:04.923 --> 00:55:08.963
And if they didn't have a process for it, it would utilize best practices.
00:55:08.963 --> 00:55:14.523
So I'd imagine, if it's still in a browser, a service type interface that is
00:55:14.523 --> 00:55:19.943
completely customized to the workflow of that particular company.
00:55:19.943 --> 00:55:23.763
And I believe that AI will be able to do that in the future.
00:55:24.063 --> 00:55:29.363
And then on top of that would be an AI agent that would understand users',
00:55:29.823 --> 00:55:34.123
keystrokes and mouse movements to understand their intent of working around
00:55:34.123 --> 00:55:39.183
the software and basically say, okay, you're not using this right.
00:55:39.323 --> 00:55:44.703
This is how you use it, right? Or I think you're trying to do this. This is how you do this.
00:55:44.983 --> 00:55:50.063
Basically like having a staff member from your company sitting next to every
00:55:50.063 --> 00:55:52.483
person, coaching them and everything.
00:55:52.623 --> 00:55:59.223
I would think that that would be something that could exist in the future.
00:55:59.463 --> 00:56:02.803
Obviously stages, but that's kind of what I believe people...
00:56:03.601 --> 00:56:08.821
Think AI is capable of and what it does. But it's not. We're still a ways away from it.
00:56:09.341 --> 00:56:12.181
No, yeah, definitely. Definitely some ways away.
00:56:12.401 --> 00:56:17.001
But you guys, I'm sure, will be one of the first people to know if something
00:56:17.001 --> 00:56:22.781
like that exists because you must have to evaluate a ton of tools.
00:56:23.201 --> 00:56:26.501
Yes. Tons. All day. Yes. Evaluating things.
00:56:26.961 --> 00:56:29.921
We have a team member and that's all he does.
00:56:30.481 --> 00:56:35.501
That's all he does is he is very much an expert, first and foremost, in Service Titan.
00:56:35.921 --> 00:56:41.481
So the critical component, as we've said, is knowing exactly what Service Titan
00:56:41.481 --> 00:56:44.441
can do, trying to keep as much natively as possible.
00:56:44.981 --> 00:56:50.741
But he researches the market, interviews vendors, vets vendors.
00:56:51.381 --> 00:56:53.481
Interviews our clients, our contractors.
00:56:53.481 --> 00:56:58.681
His sole job is understanding what's in the market, how it works,
00:56:58.681 --> 00:57:02.801
if it's a valid product, if they have a good reputation, if they do good work,
00:57:02.921 --> 00:57:05.741
and if we'll welcome them into our partner network.
00:57:05.921 --> 00:57:12.461
And so a big part of the way that we see ourselves as being an extension of
00:57:12.461 --> 00:57:17.801
a contractor's business is when we make a recommendation, we need to know this
00:57:17.801 --> 00:57:19.581
is a product that will work.
00:57:19.581 --> 00:57:24.501
This is a product that we'll share in a partnership with us where if it's not
00:57:24.501 --> 00:57:29.121
producing what we thought for any reason, that we'll collaborate together,
00:57:29.361 --> 00:57:33.081
we'll come together to make it make sense for the contractor instead of just
00:57:33.081 --> 00:57:35.221
watching that turn of tools over and over.
00:57:35.501 --> 00:57:40.421
So that is something that's critical to the success of that CRP or contractor
00:57:40.421 --> 00:57:47.701
resource planning is the end work. Like contractors do that themselves.
00:57:47.701 --> 00:57:49.941
They evaluate tools through demos.
00:57:50.361 --> 00:57:56.401
That takes a real skill to understand if that tool is going to apply to your business.
00:57:56.721 --> 00:58:03.121
And you really would have no way of knowing if it's a tool does what.
00:58:03.898 --> 00:58:05.378
The salesperson says it's going
00:58:05.378 --> 00:58:08.378
to do. Because there's not like a lot of reviews out there on every tool.
00:58:08.518 --> 00:58:13.698
Some of the stuff that you search online, unless you have experience using it, you don't really know.
00:58:13.898 --> 00:58:17.158
And someone like that staff member that you have,
00:58:17.824 --> 00:58:22.604
Like there's a lot of skill and a lot of experience in being able to evaluate those tools.
00:58:23.064 --> 00:58:26.864
And I think that would be very important, too, for contractors to be able to
00:58:26.864 --> 00:58:29.184
lean on that instead of trying to do it themselves.
00:58:29.784 --> 00:58:34.204
Yeah. And so let me give a little tidbit or piece of homework,
00:58:34.344 --> 00:58:35.524
I guess, to your listeners.
00:58:36.604 --> 00:58:43.624
When you're evaluating a tool, you know, evaluate two or three vendors.
00:58:43.624 --> 00:58:47.144
Don't just interview one but have
00:58:47.144 --> 00:58:50.404
a list of questions maybe it's this five questions
00:58:50.404 --> 00:58:53.444
ask those same five questions to
00:58:53.444 --> 00:58:58.504
each of them so like end to end what does a product do for me to have access
00:58:58.504 --> 00:59:03.544
to everything you just demoed is it included in the cost you show me yeah or
00:59:03.544 --> 00:59:08.344
is there additional fees that's important because you have to run a cost benefit
00:59:08.344 --> 00:59:11.584
analysis you might really really want that tool.
00:59:12.124 --> 00:59:16.264
And I realize what promises, but if it doesn't fit in your tech budget,
00:59:16.484 --> 00:59:20.044
in the budget that you set forth, you can't have it.
00:59:20.324 --> 00:59:23.324
Adhere to the budget, you know, grow into that tool. Otherwise,
00:59:23.504 --> 00:59:27.044
you may not realize the return on investment that you're on.
00:59:27.564 --> 00:59:32.424
So write down the same five questions. So why am I seeking this tool?
00:59:32.624 --> 00:59:36.904
What's the problem I'm looking to solve? and then write down the five questions
00:59:36.904 --> 00:59:39.684
that you need to know. What will it do?
00:59:40.124 --> 00:59:44.284
How is it implemented? What type of ongoing support do you provide?
00:59:44.864 --> 00:59:49.244
What's needed on my end? You know, how much of my time do you need?
00:59:49.384 --> 00:59:50.684
Am I given a project plan?
00:59:50.904 --> 00:59:55.144
How much does it cost? Are there any hidden fees? So that's our recommendation
00:59:55.144 --> 01:00:01.764
is when you are DIYing this research, always interview multiple vendors.
01:00:01.764 --> 01:00:06.264
Don't just stop at one and then ask the same questions to each vendor to ensure
01:00:06.264 --> 01:00:08.024
that you can make a good decision.
01:00:08.840 --> 01:00:12.100
Gosh, I think it would just be easier to have you do that, right?
01:00:13.000 --> 01:00:16.200
You know what I mean? Like, that sounds like a lot of work.
01:00:16.340 --> 01:00:21.540
It's so much easier to click a button for a half hour demo, show up not prepared,
01:00:22.140 --> 01:00:27.000
get excited about what it can do and the end result and just click buy it now.
01:00:27.160 --> 01:00:31.700
That's so much easier, right? So I think it would be better to just have somebody,
01:00:31.920 --> 01:00:34.480
have the pros tell you whether or not this is good.
01:00:35.480 --> 01:00:38.640
I do think that's the future that we're headed toward
01:00:38.640 --> 01:00:41.960
bill it's not that it can't be done it's just
01:00:41.960 --> 01:00:45.480
that requires a significant time investment
01:00:45.480 --> 01:00:48.220
and a learning curve and so
01:00:48.220 --> 01:00:51.480
taking that learning curve and applying it to every piece
01:00:51.480 --> 01:00:54.260
of technology for your business it can
01:00:54.260 --> 01:00:57.180
become very overwhelming and like we talked about
01:00:57.180 --> 01:01:01.760
earlier it could take your attention off of other parts of your business so
01:01:01.760 --> 01:01:07.600
as the owner operator is that really where the time is best sent or have a trusted
01:01:07.600 --> 01:01:14.320
advisor that knows your company that can do this heavy work for you and then present you with a plan.
01:01:14.760 --> 01:01:20.280
This is relatively new in our space to have to analyze an entire tech stack
01:01:20.280 --> 01:01:22.220
and look at all these AI tools.
01:01:22.800 --> 01:01:28.280
Before, it was just a couple of different things, but we outsource all of the
01:01:28.280 --> 01:01:34.260
things that we know professionals can do. We don't do our own accounting tax
01:01:34.260 --> 01:01:36.660
preparation. We outsource that to a CPA.
01:01:37.020 --> 01:01:41.640
And so now that we're using these software tools, there's a lot of stuff we
01:01:41.640 --> 01:01:43.660
should be able to outsource with that too.
01:01:44.240 --> 01:01:48.960
I don't know why contractors don't do it. Maybe they just don't think that they...
01:01:49.891 --> 01:01:53.731
That they should or that there is professional help for this.
01:01:53.891 --> 01:01:55.211
I'm not sure why they don't.
01:01:55.931 --> 01:02:01.851
Yeah, well, so we were we were really on the I would say on the pioneering front
01:02:01.851 --> 01:02:07.851
of Service Titan Consulting being one of the first to partner with Service Titan
01:02:07.851 --> 01:02:11.111
and and grew quickly alongside them.
01:02:11.931 --> 01:02:18.031
We saw a much a large change in the market from five years ago when we started.
01:02:18.031 --> 01:02:23.631
It was such a new concept of bringing in third-party support for Service Titan.
01:02:24.051 --> 01:02:31.331
Now it's really commonplace. You know, I think most contractors understand that
01:02:31.331 --> 01:02:36.011
there are companies that specialize in Service Titan that can help them. Yeah.
01:02:36.865 --> 01:02:42.505
The idea of tech stack evaluation and planning is completely new.
01:02:42.705 --> 01:02:50.705
So we're introducing this to the market because I've called this a huge unspoken problem.
01:02:51.145 --> 01:02:56.085
It's like we can all feel the weight of the technology overwhelm,
01:02:56.185 --> 01:03:01.065
but nobody's really articulating why it's happening or what's going on.
01:03:01.065 --> 01:03:06.825
And so we started trying this concept on probably two years ago,
01:03:06.985 --> 01:03:10.745
maybe two and a half years ago, when our clients, our Service Titan clients,
01:03:10.925 --> 01:03:14.185
were coming to us saying, should I buy this tool?
01:03:14.185 --> 01:03:18.105
I just heard about this new company or I just signed up for this.
01:03:18.225 --> 01:03:19.485
Can you implement it for me?
01:03:19.845 --> 01:03:23.145
And we looked at them and we'd say, well, why did you sign up for this?
01:03:23.225 --> 01:03:29.005
Yeah, we're already doing it. And what I realized is it's all of these flashy,
01:03:29.245 --> 01:03:33.465
shiny sales tools and objects, and everybody has good intent.
01:03:33.745 --> 01:03:36.525
You know, these tools shouldn't, I'm not villainizing them.
01:03:36.625 --> 01:03:42.505
In fact, as I mentioned, many of them are our partners, and they offer incredible
01:03:42.505 --> 01:03:45.785
products and services into our industry.
01:03:46.185 --> 01:03:49.485
But you have to know when and how to use them.
01:03:49.585 --> 01:03:54.065
And that's where it starts to get difficult and confusing. and then as we've
01:03:54.065 --> 01:03:58.965
talked about over the show, you start layering those tools on a shaky foundation.
01:03:59.545 --> 01:04:03.105
And then all of a sudden you're like, well, that tool's not working for me.
01:04:03.385 --> 01:04:06.385
Well, it's not working for you because you were feeding it bad data.
01:04:06.465 --> 01:04:11.625
So it goes back to your foundation. It keeps going over and over again with every tool that you buy.
01:04:11.765 --> 01:04:14.105
And I think a lot of contractors are going to get,
01:04:14.764 --> 01:04:21.184
kind of sour to AI because of every tool that you buy today has AI in it somewhere.
01:04:21.864 --> 01:04:24.844
But if you don't adopt it correctly and you don't have the plan,
01:04:24.984 --> 01:04:29.584
like you said, eventually you're going to stop believing that AI works well,
01:04:29.924 --> 01:04:31.884
right? Right. And that's not true.
01:04:32.164 --> 01:04:39.144
It can be incredibly beneficial if used right, but then also really bad if used
01:04:39.144 --> 01:04:45.524
wrong. So I don't want contractors to get to think that this is some hype technology
01:04:45.524 --> 01:04:47.104
that's going to pass. It's not.
01:04:47.264 --> 01:04:51.924
It will always be there. It's just not not something you can just press a button
01:04:51.924 --> 01:04:53.904
and you're good to go. Yeah.
01:04:54.424 --> 01:05:00.564
So one of the leaders, a leader of one of the prominent coaching groups,
01:05:00.564 --> 01:05:06.244
I love when he talks about the reality of business coaching.
01:05:06.244 --> 01:05:09.324
He's like oh it's not sexy and it's
01:05:09.324 --> 01:05:12.124
like technology love it
01:05:12.124 --> 01:05:14.984
it's it's fabulous it's shiny it's
01:05:14.984 --> 01:05:17.984
attractive they've got the greatest sales people
01:05:17.984 --> 01:05:21.004
and the coolest web lights and you know very
01:05:21.004 --> 01:05:28.084
sexy but like the work to get it to work for you all of that you don't see that
01:05:28.084 --> 01:05:33.444
you're so blinded by this and so the reality is it the work that we need to
01:05:33.444 --> 01:05:39.244
put into these tools to get them to do what they promise will never go away.
01:05:39.404 --> 01:05:42.884
And so we have to approach technology with that mindset.
01:05:43.264 --> 01:05:49.684
It takes work. And then the decision is, do I have the capacity internally to
01:05:49.684 --> 01:05:51.804
give it the work and the attention it needs?
01:05:52.024 --> 01:05:54.624
Or do I bring in a third party?
01:05:54.924 --> 01:05:57.864
That's something that we just haven't thought about as contractors yet.
01:05:58.024 --> 01:06:00.664
I think other industries have been down this path before, right?
01:06:01.224 --> 01:06:04.144
Any company that's ever adopted something like Salesforce?
01:06:05.132 --> 01:06:08.592
Has had to understand that. But this is very new to us.
01:06:08.712 --> 01:06:15.172
I would imagine that the PE companies, the PE owned companies understand about this or maybe, really?
01:06:15.692 --> 01:06:21.552
That's right. Yeah. So we do contractor resource planning at large scale as
01:06:21.552 --> 01:06:27.832
well, because that's a whole other level of complexity when you're rolling a tech stack out,
01:06:28.012 --> 01:06:33.032
not only the parent company or the corporate level, but also down to the subsidiaries.
01:06:33.032 --> 01:06:37.752
And so the concept itself, to your point, it's not new.
01:06:38.072 --> 01:06:40.792
It's enterprise resource planning or ERP.
01:06:41.192 --> 01:06:49.252
And so if you now see contractor resource planning, we do it specifically for contractors.
01:06:49.252 --> 01:06:55.732
But the concept itself of building a tech stack is not at all new.
01:06:55.732 --> 01:07:01.292
It's new to our industry. Because if you think about, we were slower to adopt
01:07:01.292 --> 01:07:03.292
technology in the truth. Oh, yeah.
01:07:03.592 --> 01:07:08.512
We really were. I mean, I think I still had people wanting to fax me stuff in 2020.
01:07:09.652 --> 01:07:12.092
Yeah, yeah, really. I mean, how
01:07:12.092 --> 01:07:17.772
long was it till we adopted cloud-based software and iPads in the field?
01:07:17.992 --> 01:07:22.592
Well, I'm glad that companies like yours exist that can help contractors out. I love it.
01:07:22.972 --> 01:07:24.932
Love that. So, awesome.
01:07:26.352 --> 01:07:30.652
Thanks for listening to the Home Service Hacks podcast. Be sure to subscribe
01:07:30.652 --> 01:07:34.492
on your favorite podcasting platform so you never miss a future episode.
01:07:34.752 --> 01:07:39.272
For more information or to connect with Bill, you can check us out on Facebook
01:07:39.272 --> 01:07:44.632
at ServiceTitanHacks or visit our website at ServicetitanHacks.com.
01:07:44.712 --> 01:07:46.252
We'll see you next time.
01:07:48.732 --> 01:07:49.312
We'll see you next time.