Absolute Services ‘basically doubled in size every year’ with investment in ServiceTitan

A common theme among ServiceTitan users is that the cost is best looked on as an investment.

Businesses who use the cloud-based software for the trades do not deny that the initial assessment of costs might cause a bit of angst. But once the software is up and running, what seemed costly initially is merely the start of something beneficial.

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It’s not an expense. It’s an investment in a better company.

That’s exactly the experience of Vince Heuser and Kasey Thorn of Absolute Services in northern Kentucky.

“From the time that we’ve gotten ServiceTitan, we’ve basically doubled in size every year,” said Heuser, the company’s owner and founder. “We also added HVAC and plumbing in 2019, and six months after that electrical.”

Which means that with the help of ServiceTitan, a garage door business was able to add three more divisions and open a new office in Lexington to go with Louisville and Elizabethtown – while annually doubling revenue.

“We actually doubled four years in a row,” Heuser said. “And we will probably double again. That’s my goal.

“Actually, my goal is to almost triple this year.”

When Absolute started with ServiceTitan in 2017, it had $1 million in business. Four years and a few months later, it does $10 million.

To be fair, neither Heuser or ServiceTitan would say that the affiliation with the software was the sole reason for growth. At about the same time as he brought ServiceTitan on board, Heuser joined CEO Warrior, which helps give service businesses strategies, processes and resources to grow the business and scale profitability.

But ServiceTitan certainly contributed.

Heuser started Absolute Overhead Door Service in 2008 when he lost a job with a construction company during the recession. He realized if he wanted to do the work, he had to own his business.

“Income was the main thing,” he said. “I like to eat.”

Nine years later, the company hit $1 million in revenues.

“But I was still in a truck, and I was working seven days a week, and it pretty much sucked – though it wasn’t horrible,” he said.

It was then that he discovered The Home Service Expert podcast of Tommy Mello, who grew A1 Garage Door Service into a $44 million juggernaut. Mello talked in one podcast episode about how ServiceTitan had helped him, which led Heuser to switch software . 

“Once we got into ServiceTitan, because ServiceTitan pulled our data in through QuickBooks, I quickly saw, ‘Man, we suck,’ in terms of average ticket and closing rates,” Heuser said.

One specific way that ServiceTitan made a difference was in the red/green/yellow codes on forms and inspection reports. The color-coded system easily showed potential customers what was lacking or needed in their systems. Previously, Absolute had used checkboxes.

“What's more effective, a checkmark or a red/green/yellow?” Heuser said. “I mean if I show you red/green/yellow, you know what that means, I don't have to explain it.”

If red is predominant on the 30-point inspection list, the customer immediately can see the issues. Which gives Absolute’s techs a chance to explain suggested remedies.

“When they see red, they listen to why,” Heuser said.

The average ticket “skyrocketed,” Heuser said. “I mean overnight.”

When he saw the impact on garage doors, he changed the forms for all the facets of the business.

ServiceTitan also allowed Absolute to track marketing in more precise and informative ways.

“It was eye-opening to see that the stuff that we thought were our best sources of revenue were actually some of the worst sources of revenue,” he said.

Thorn, Absolute’s Marketing Manager, said that tracking of CSRs has helped the company schedule better to meet demand. And Payroll Pro has helped, as has the ability to break down KPIs and revenue individually.

“We'll have two technicians side-by-side,” Heuser said. “Maybe they have the same revenue for the week, or close to the same revenue. But when you look at the KPIs, I can tell you what they're doing on the job.

“One guy may have a 50% close rate and a thousand-dollar average ticket, and the next guy may have a 80% close rate and a very low average ticket. That tells you: Are they presenting options? Are they only giving one option?

“I call them the "Babe Ruth guys" because we have some that they will only swing for the fence, every single time. They only give one option, the super high-dollar option.

“If the customer says ‘no,’ they turn around and walk out. So they strike out. You can see what they're doing wrong with that, so we know what to coach on.”

Thorn and Heuser both acknowledge – and ServiceTitan understands -- that onboarding can be daunting. But they both promise it’s worth the effort.

“You have to have it,” Heuser said. “There's only maybe a couple other softwares out there that can even come close to giving the data that ServiceTitan gives. If you don't have at least something to that effect, you are not going to be anywhere near as successful as you could be or should be.”