Lawrence Riley awoke at 5 a.m. on a Monday in August and started his day the same way he’s started it for five weeks: by checking his TitanAdvisor (TAD) score.
“I click on the rocket ship (icon). It’s the first thing I do,” he said. And on this morning, the number staring back at the owner of Riley Plumbing and Heating did not make him happy.
It was 285—the second highest score among all ServiceTitan users. But just a few days earlier, his score was 288, which led all shops.
“It should be the highest (score) in the country,” Riley said. “Our company goal is to go into Pantheon with the highest score.”
TAD scores are reflective on how many features a shop uses. Each TitanAdvisor feature is worth one to five TitanScore points, and you can earn points for a feature by completing setup and usage checkpoints.
Riley Plumbing and Heating’s score has skyrocketed in the past year. Around this time in 2023, the residential and commercial service shop in Gardnerville, Nevada, had a score of 176. Their year-over-year 100+ point swing has come with a tangible result, Riley explained.
“We have $1.2 million in more revenue since last year,” he said. “And I think (TitanAdvisor) has something to do with it.”
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Using all parts of the software
Riley now obsesses over utilizing all of ServiceTitan’s features, but the opposite was true when his shop went live with the software five years ago.
“We did not know what we had for about the first two years,” Riley said. “We got it for dispatching and taking pictures. I can't believe that it was just over time that we learned how robust and beneficial it is to the business.”
One decision that expedited that learning process was when Allie Mariscal, the controller at Riley’s, enrolled in EmberSessions.
EmberSessions are small groups of non-competitor ServiceTitan customers who meet over six sessions to better understand and implement the features in the Launch stage of TitanAdvisor. These free, one-hour sessions are run by an expert ServiceTitan facilitator.
Through Ember, Mariscal learned about the importance of TAD.
“It’s this little tool that ServiceTitan says, ‘Make sure you use it, and use it continuously so that (you can) maintain your score,’” she said.
The score is meant to advise contractors, as well as point out areas where they might be lacking. For example, Riley Plumbing and Heating’s former bookkeeper wasn’t consistent with their responsibilities. How did Riley know this? Through TitanAdvisor.
“You could just see her points go up and down, up and down. And that's such good information,” Riley said. “You can click in the morning and see, ‘Oh, the bookkeeper wasn't here yesterday. We lost two points for (not) making deposits.’
“It shows you what to work on and who's not doing their jobs the best. We're trying to hold everyone accountable here, and our TitanAdvisor score seems so excellent for that.”
It even held Riley accountable for Marketing Pro, when he forgot it had been two weeks since he’d sent out a direct mail campaign.
“I lost points,” he said. “Which meant it was time to send out some more mailers.”
The ‘Point Hog’
Boosting his shop’s score is important to Riley. Then he learned that ServiceTitan was keeping track of its customers with the highest TitanAdvisor scores.
That’s when his competitive edge kicked in.
“I was like, ‘Well, now that you're keeping track? Bring it on.’ (I want to be) the best of the best.”
Every morning, he prints out a copy of the current rankings and leaves it up on the wall of his shop. Every Wednesday, he holds a team meeting to talk about what’s been working and identifies where they’ve lost points.
“We're lagging on memberships right now because the guys aren't doing their job. They're not selling memberships. We're at like 3%,” Riley said. “By (next) Wednesday's meeting, I hope we're above 3% on membership sales because I want the points. I don't mean to be a point hog, but we're getting the points.”
Riley consumes every ServiceTitan update “the minute it comes,” and loves how ServiceTitan continues to improve on itself as well.
He’d love to have the top TitanAdvisor score in time for Pantheon, but he knows that whatever happens, an endeavor like this will only improve his shop and team.
“It's a great team goal,” Riley said with a smile. “I just need everyone else to wake up at five in the morning and hit the rocket ship, that's all.”
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.
