Last week, I stumbled upon a relic from the past—customer tickets—and as I held one in my hand, all I could think about was how lucky I am. Let me explain.
My father, Rodney Bradham, started Bradham Brothers with my Uncle Larry in Charlotte, North Carolina, back in 1975. They built the company on simple principles: fair prices, a family atmosphere, and slow growth driven by word of mouth. And I was obsessed with it.
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From as early as age 5, I rode in the van with my dad on calls. I cried every day on the way to kindergarten. I didn’t want to go to school; I wanted to be in the truck with my dad. He often worked seven days a week while my mom worked in the office part-time as a bookkeeper. There was something special about being in the office and on the job with my parents during those days.
Fast-forward many years, and it’s no surprise that I wound up working in the family business. Today, as president of our HVAC and electrical company, part of my job is to have an eye toward the future and find ways for Bradham Brothers to continue building and growing. That’s ultimately why we joined ServiceTitan in the spring of 2021.
Our company has roughly 50 employees and 20 trucks on the road. We use the software for everything, from the dispatch board to tech report cards to customer communications. ServiceTitan has really streamlined our work lives and made running our business much more efficient.
That’s why I paused when I saw the customer tickets, dated 1983.
Back then, a technician would go out and basically call in and say, “Hey, I did this. I did that. I did this. I’m ready for my next call.” And then my mom would type up that information on a typewriter and then mail the bill out to the customer.
It’s quite different now. With ServiceTitan, when a customer calls, it pops up on the computer and we already know who it is. We don't even have to search for that person. The software literally carries that interaction all the way through, from the call to the invoice and beyond.
Our transition to ServiceTitan couldn’t have gone better. But that customer ticket was a blast from the past. It reminded me of my childhood, of riding alongside my dad in the van on a warm summer day or running around the office while my mom answered the phones.
I’m just so proud. My family worked very hard to build this company, and I’m really lucky that they did.
