Catherine Keo is enthusiastic about customer service. She’s only been with The Original Plumber in Ball Ground, Ga., for a year—but in that short span of time she’s seen her responsibilities grow.
Not long after starting at the company, she was tasked to be the in-house liaison for onboarding ServiceTitan. Keo says the software platform has enabled an already service-oriented team to be even more efficient in connecting with and meeting the needs of customers.
Keo’s early role at The Original Plumber was marketing. She was blogging about plumbing and working to bridge the gap between homeowners and home services.
“I was in the field quite a bit—with homeowner consent, of course—getting before-and-after pictures,” she says. “It was all about transparency to our clients, and them seeing that we were putting in all the work—from laying down tarp to making sure everything is proper, doing several checks before we leave, just to show them we’re really thorough.”
Finally we found comfort in ServiceTitan. It does everything for us. It’s so great for my customers. I've had positive feedback on the text messaging applications and the notifications.”
From there, Keo moved on to the customer service role, to the dispatching role, and now she’s head of sales in the front office.
She’s proud to have helped usher The Original Plumber into the ServiceTitan era.
“We used Joist, we used Housecall Pro, and finally we found comfort in ServiceTitan,” she says. “It does everything for us. It’s so great for my customers. I've had positive feedback on the text messaging applications and the notifications.”
She’s also gotten positive feedback on all the resources that ServiceTitan provides on the customer-service end. And more kudos from her office staff and CSRs, who like being able to have a recorded line to refer to, and GPS mapping.
“And, just the organizational follow-ups and keeping up with clients, making sure they get the services they need,” Keo continues. “Our technicians also really enjoy ServiceTitan because they like hearing those calls bridging the gap between office and out in the field.”
Above-and-beyond community service
The Original Plumber has been in business for a dozen years. The company recently acquired a secondary office in Acworth, and it has eight technicians working a relatively large residential service area in the outskirts of Atlanta.
Keo says most of the company’s business comes from lifelong clients. To stay connected to the community, The Original Plumber participates in charity fundraisers like the Woodstock Scarecrow Invasion, and sponsors Little League Baseball teams.
“My customer service team here in the office is very empathetic to customer needs, and my technicians really deliver,” she says. “Our technicians have a great love for their customers. We try to keep our clients with their technicians because they do build a bond.”
Customers are extremely loyal to their techs, Keo says. Over the past few years, several clients that have had the same techs do multiple aspects of their homes—from remodels to re-pipes to fixing and helping with emergencies, at odd hours of the day or even during holidays.
Keo points with pride to one tech who has become the go-to guy for a mountainous region where other companies won’t go because of the terrain and the inconvenience of getting there.
“One of our leading techs uses his truck to go there, outside his coverage zone,” she says.
“There was one client who had a main water service break in Ellijay. Nobody would come up the mountain to trench it and help get the water service working. Our tech wouldn’t give up—even after five or six other plumbers that the client called never showed up to the appointment.”
Onboarding ServiceTitan
Keo says the onboarding to ServiceTitan taught her what the plumbing industry is all about and allowed her to transition from social media marketing to the front office.
While any software transition can be tricky, Keo says a key to success is learning the terminology as soon as possible.
“The program is so intricate that, if you are not knowledgeable on what filters and what terminology you're using, that’s where a lot of people will have problems,” she says. You won’t understand the capability of the resources ServiceTitan offers.”
Keo says her ServiceTitan Success Managers were outstanding in explaining the definitions of certain terminology.
“After that, it’s a whole new world,” she says.
During the onboarding process, Keo says ServiceTitan reps kept on a tight regimen and paid special attention to accounting processes.
“With (our previous software), we were not organized as a company,” Keo says. “ServiceTitan helped us move forward and catapult our revenue, catapult our resources, track our marketing, and really push us to what we were capable of—simply by showing us the options and customizing things.”
Keo also raves about ServiceTitan customer service.
“My original Success Manager made sure I had all the analytics I needed,” she says. “If things get a bit disarray, it’s easy to reach the right people to find a solution. I go on chat support almost every day. They’re very patient and knowledgeable about what I’m asking.”
Customized benefits
Keo believes the way to get maximum benefit from ServiceTitan is to modify the program to the specific needs of your company.
“If customer service is what you want for your company, ServiceTitan is the way to go,” she says.
Per customizing the program, Keo says The Original Plumber has utilized conference calls on a few jobs—because they wanted to utilize the recorded line and be able to track all of their clients.
“We use the conference calls to dispatch to jobs and consult over the phone with clients that don’t necessarily want a face to face visit,” she says. “These helped us find a work-around that didn’t affect the close rate, and helped us maintain the client.”
Keo says she’s also gotten assistance going step-by-step through the expectations of different modules—for the office or for the techs.
“Whether it’s from turning on our truck replenishment and getting our inventory module set up, to organizing reports that can help me with job performance and help me with cross examining different marketing, they’ve really helped me in a lot of different ways,” she says.
In essence, Keo strongly believes that the customized, service-oriented assistance The Original Plumber gets from ServiceTitan goes right back out the door in the form of service the company provides to the community.
ServiceTitan is a comprehensive commercial and residential plumbing business software solution built specifically to help companies streamline their operations, boost revenue, and achieve growth. Our award-winning, cloud-based platform is trusted by more than 100,000+ contractors across the country.
Ready to learn more about what ServiceTitan can do for your business? Contact our team to schedule a demo today.
