For many electrical contractors, the field technician serves as the face of the company. They are the first person the customer interacts with face-to-face—often on one of their worst days, when loss of electrical power disrupts their schedule or even jeopardizes their health.
As an electrical business owner, no matter if you work on residential jobs or large-scale construction projects, you need highly skilled techs to succeed. Due to the ongoing labor shortage facing the trades, you probably find yourself scouring LinkedIn, apprenticeship programs, and training programs to find the next batch of electricians to support your business. Your techs, on the other hand, face different challenges.
While the tech's primary job involves troubleshooting problems, servicing circuit breakers, and installing new systems and electrical supplies, the tech needs to perform several other tasks to help the electrical business thrive, from recording important job details and presenting customers with multiple service options to relaying critical information to dispatchers in real time.
If a problem occurs on the job site—the tech arrives with an incorrect work order or shows up to the wrong home—it not only makes your small business or electrical construction company look disorganized and unprofessional, but the tech needs to pick up the pieces and resolve the situation.
ServiceTitan’s customer relationship management (CRM) software helps savvy electrical business owners solve common technician pain points before they happen.
The cloud-based, end-to-end software for the trades is much more than just dispatch software. It improves communication, enhances operational efficiencies and optimizes workflow, supports digital marketing and e-commerce, reduces data entry, simplifies project management, and ultimately equips electrical techs with powerful tools that allow them to focus on meeting customer demands and delivering a flawless customer experience.
Empower your team with user-friendly ServiceTitan field service management software to solve the following pain points experienced by service technicians in the electrical industry. Let’s go!
1. Arrive to the Job Site Fully Informed
Nothing ruins a home services experience like technicians arriving at a job site completely unfamiliar with the customer’s needs or the task at hand. Your tech might show up without the right tools or parts, misidentify a long-time customer, or perform the wrong repair. All of these outcomes potentially harm your business, from wasting electrician work hours and revenue to generating negative online reviews.
ServiceTitan’s award-winning mobile app for iOS and Android, ServiceTitan Mobile 2.0, syncs with your office—equipping techs in the field with key information your CSRs collected during the intake process, including customer contact info, address and routing information, and even outstanding estimates. Techs can also review a customer’s initial call or listen to recordings of phone calls between customers and CSRs—allowing them to understand in greater detail what their current assignments might entail.
When techs reach their job sites, ServiceTitan has already provided them with a ton of information: customer needs and preferences, on-the-ground conditions, and outstanding requests. Your electrical techs can also view complete service history, existing equipment and systems, club or service memberships, worksite images, notes, previous invoices, and more, to accurately address customer needs.
2. Present Multi-Level Service Options to Increase Revenue
One of the most effective ways to grow average ticket size—and company revenue—involves offering customers good-better-and-best service options for every new install or repair.
However, as many business owners in the field service industry know, some technicians feel uncomfortable giving sales presentations, while others simply get busy and forget to provide multiple service options. But a tech needs more than a friendly reminder and a flashy sales pitch—they need to show the value of the upsell to truly get customer buy-in.
“People have to believe there's a need before they buy into any solution,” says Jerry Hanessian, a sales professional with more than 20 years in the trades. “Showing customers pictures of the problem, and good-better-and-best solution options, allows them to decide for themselves. Education is huge.”
ServiceTitan’s digital pricebook and mobile estimate templates make it easy for technicians to build estimates with good-better-and-best options in minutes.
Before building the estimate, techs can use the mobile app on their tablet or phone (iOS or android) at the job site, or another location, to input all information and notes specific to the job, such as:
Measurements
Materials and equipment
Permits to be pulled
Details about the work to be done
Using detailed descriptions with photos and videos, electrical technicians can explain the value of each service level, which in turn educates the customer, creates better understanding of options, and ultimately helps techs close larger jobs, such as winning a bid for electrical service on major construction projects.
Techs can simply tap their mobile tablet for a customer-facing presentation, then hand it over to the homeowner to review and select from the different options, mirroring an online shopping experience.
Additionally, ServiceTitan’s integrated pricebooks and inventory management features allow you to instantly verify material pricing and availability with electrical distributors, which is crucial to creating an accurate estimate.
A quick turnaround on estimates—a proven way to increase conversion rates—helps techs increase their average job ticket, earn more money, and excel at selling more jobs. And because ServiceTitan’s field service management solution uses cloud-based technology, all of the data updates instantly in the field and at the office.
3. Offer Financing for New Installs and Repairs
Successful electrical contractors know the key to growing revenue directly involves raising techs’ average ticket, typically by offering customers multiple repair or replacement options. To make these higher-priced jobs more appealing to customers, field service companies must offer easy financing for new installs and even routine repairs.
With ServiceTitan’s integrated financing solution, your techs can offer financing on the job site, and customers can quickly apply and receive instant approval using ServiceTitan Mobile. It helps your technicians close bigger jobs while still on site.
It’s truly a no-brainer to give your field technicians an easy financing solution right on the spot to grow average ticket size and increase electrician pay.
4. Automatically Solicit Positive Customer Reviews
In today’s digital-first world, most consumers vet prospective field service companies by first checking online reviews on trusted review sites and social media platforms. In fact, one survey shows 82% of customers say they read online reviews for local companies before they make a hiring decision. It’s reassuring to hire a company with a stellar reputation and a track record for generating customer satisfaction.
Naturally, some electrical field service technicians feel uncomfortable asking a customer to leave a review, and many customers often forget to provide an online review, even for a job well done.
A lack of positive online reviews might influence new customers to call a different business—even for a well-respected, established company—or cause the customer to suspect your business performs shoddy work or lacks trust.
ServiceTitan's mobile app allows electrician technicians to generate more reviews automatically by texting a direct link to customers as soon as they finish the job. With Marketing Pro Reputation, an add-on software solution, you can manage consistent messaging on all social media listings in one simple dashboard.
Travis Ringe, co-owner of ProSkill Services near Phoenix, knows all about the power of online customer reviews. He started the company 14 years ago with his brother, Tyler. Today, they’ve grown the business into a $14-million-plus operation with nearly 5,800 Google reviews with a 5-star rating.
What’s ProSkill’s secret? After a field tech closes out a job in the ServiceTitan Mobile App, the app automatically sends satisfaction survey texts for prompt customer feedback. Travis also notes the instant notification must be accompanied by a positive customer experience.
“If you want to drive reviews, you have to deliver a full experience worthy of writing a review,” Travis says.
5. Simplify Communication Between the Field and Office
Poor communication between CSRs or dispatchers and your field technicians causes a wide range of avoidable problems, including sending the tech to the wrong address or dispatching an inexperienced tech to a complex repair. In some cases, a tech may arrive at the job site with the incorrect details about the task at hand.
These mistakes waste time and money, and negatively affect how customers view your service business. Miscommunication in the trades often results from not using a field service management platform featuring real-time communication capabilities.
With ServiceTitan's dispatching software, your office team can communicate scheduling changes, job updates, and other pertinent information in real time to techs in the field via SMS messaging. It keeps the entire team on the same page with the most up-to-date information, simplifies work order management, and ensures lines remain open for every customer opportunity.
ServiceTitan’s electrician software also provides dispatchers with a real-time view of the technician job cycle. When things come up, they can quickly adjust as needed, rerouting or reassigning to best meet the requirements of their employer, their customers, and the circumstances of the day.
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6. Leverage Digital Forms in the Field
Electrical techs need to document key information when they arrive for a service call or repair, including customer signatures, service dates, inspection details, and more. Traditionally, field electricians relied on paper forms and checklists, raising the risk of user error or lost paperwork.
ServiceTitan’s customizable digital forms, designed specifically for the trades, help your techs easily create and implement a variety of custom forms to ensure they follow your procedures and collect the necessary information for every job.
Some of the core benefits of using ServiceTitan forms include:
Triggers for certain jobs: ServiceTitan can trigger a form based on the job type, such as a checklist for a maintenance inspection, or warranty form for new product installation.
Required actions: ServiceTitan can require a technician to fill out a form before allowing them to close out the job and move to the next one.
Request for a picture or signature: Requiring pictures of the finished installation documents that the work was done properly. And requiring a signature, for example, from a customer who forgoes a technician's recommended repair, could cover the contractor if the customer’s preferred solution fails in less than a year.
Utilizing ServiceTitan’s customizable forms, Michael Solomon, President of Anthem Mechanical in Palm Desert, Calif., says his organization reduced call-backs by 50%, while increasing revenue by 20%.
“We have a team of about 12 technicians, 3 installers, and 3 apprentice helpers, and we were having trouble getting all of our techs to collect the same information on every job,” Solomon says. “By using ServiceTitan forms and requiring forms to be completed on jobs, we've gotten all our techs to collect the same information on each job, which has reduced go-backs with incomplete information and ordering wrong parts.”
7. Earn Rewards and Bonuses for Going the Extra Mile
Service techs can feel deflated when they don’t receive recognition for exceeding goals or going the extra mile to put an unhappy customer at ease. As a result, many business owners in the trades encourage healthy competition not only to reward a job well done, but to increase visibility and accountability for every technician.
ServiceTitan’s field reporting software, including the technician scorecard, allows you to build customized reports and dashboards to drill into technician key performance indicators (KPIs), including conversion rate, average ticket size, customer satisfaction, memberships sold, generated leads, billable hours, billable efficiency, tasks per call, and other key metrics.
Mike Losoya III, president of Mike’s Plumbing and Electric in McAllen, Texas, uses ServiceTitan’s Technician Scorecards to monitor real-time performance metrics on new revenue per tech, customer satisfaction, and other key metrics.
“We're getting the most potential out of each tech and each employee because of ServiceTitan,” Losoya says. “We have a weekly goal, and we have a technician goal for each field.”
Additionally, Losoya uses ServiceTitan’s call recording feature to review communications between CSRs and customers. He says it provides a key tool for delivering training and feedback.
8. Easily Selling Membership Agreements or Service Contracts
Club memberships, loyalty programs, or recurring preventive maintenance contracts help field service organizations guarantee future billable work in a highly competitive environment.
It’s also a great way to book more time in a customer’s home, build brand loyalty, increase revenue, and give homeowners discounted or exclusive access to your services.
“If you don't have a service agreement or club membership program, it's very hard to schedule and plan for work going forward,” says Chris Hunter, ServiceTitan’s Director of Customer Relations and former owner of Hunter Super Techs. "Every time we sold one club membership, that was four hours of guaranteed future work."
Besides helping Hunter secure ongoing work, he says, memberships made it easier to know how and when to scale his team of maintenance technicians.
“I could bank on when I could take someone who was on the bench and put them into a permanent role as a maintenance technician, because we were guaranteeing future work.”
ServiceTitan’s service agreement software allows you to streamline marketing strategies and create new maintenance memberships and equipment-based contracts with just a few taps. You can easily apply discounts, schedule regular appointments, and customize multiple fields to best fit your business.
Tailor memberships for each customer, so you can customize additional monthly charges, opt-ins for extra maintenance tasks, membership upgrades for additional services, and more. And when you customize an agreement, ServiceTitan automatically tracks labor and material costs in real time, so you know invoicing will be accurate to maximize profitability.
ServiceTitan: The All-In-One Electrical Software
ServiceTitan’s comprehensive electrician software streamlines operations in the office and in the field, for a more polished and professional approach. Our cloud-based solution is the best business management software in the construction industry and includes:
Customer portal for easy online booking
Marketing automation for email and direct mail campaigns
Service agreements, contracts, and inventory management
On-site quoting, payment processing, job costing, and estimating software
Digital sales presentations with multiple pricing options
QuickBooks integration, including QuickBooks Online, and other accounting software
Regular software updates, feature additions, and functionality improvements
Looking for new technology to help your electrical business grow its bottom line? Contact our team to schedule a demo today.
ServiceTitan Software
ServiceTitan is a comprehensive software solution built specifically to help service companies streamline their operations, boost revenue, and substantially elevate the trajectory of their business. Our comprehensive, cloud-based platform is used by thousands of electrical, HVAC, plumbing, garage door, and chimney sweep shops across the country—and has increased their revenue by an average of 25% in just their first year with us.
