Stanislav Pakarin wants to keep Scheduling Pro under wraps.
“Nobody else should do it,” Pakarin said. “It’s our competitive advantage. No way. Don’t tell it to anyone.”
For the record, his statements were made with tongue firmly in cheek.
Just as much for the record, Pakarin’s positive feelings about Scheduling Pro are tangible.
“To be honest, Scheduling Pro, that's the best I've ever seen,” Pakarin said of the software that integrates with ServiceTitan to allow online booking, live voice and live chat 24 hours per day. “It’s easy to understand. (As a customer) I don't need to think about stuff. I go straight to my purpose, go straight to book an appointment and that's it.”
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Pakarin has seen a lot in his life. Born in Russia, he immigrated to the United States about six or seven years ago and settled in the Bay area in Northern California. He met a friend who worked in the appliance repair business, and the two hooked up to work together.
When the friend earned his HVAC license, he opened Fuse Service near San Jose, and Pakarin partnered with him. Initially there were five or six employees, including the owners. Everyone worked the same schedule: Customer appointments during the day, office operations after.
The business took off, and growth led to one more partner and the hiring of 100 employees. Work has expanded to HVAC, electrical, plumbing and refrigeration and 20 franchises in California. Fuse just earned a license to operate in Texas, and is working toward operations in Florida.
“I don’t know,” Pakarin said. “I just fell asleep one day and woke up here.”
Scheduling Pro builds on growth from ServiceTitan
Fuse went through a couple of different softwares as it grew, and at one point had a number of separate softwares handling different processes. Motivated to find an all-in-one software, Fuse researched ServiceTitan and eventually added the cloud-based software for the trades.
“ServiceTitan has all these automations, follow-ups,” Pakarin said. “Basically, the whole process is set.”
When he found Scheduling Pro had been integrated into ServiceTitan, he realized how much easier that application could make things, too.
“That's what I needed, because everything we used before was way too complicated—and you don't want to make a client overthink,” Pakarin said. “A confused brain is just a closed brain. They need to go straight to the process, and that's exactly what Scheduling Pro does. It's just simple to use.”
Fuse relies on Scheduling Pro for appointments, connecting Scheduling Pro to data in ServiceTitan on technician capacity. And when a customer books a job via a Scheduling Pro widget on their website, an interface with Slack means Pakarin gets a notification about the booking immediately.
“We have it set up so if a call isn’t answered in a certain amount of time, it goes right to Scheduling Pro,” he said.
As he spoke, he checked a recent week of activity in what he called Fuse’s slow time. That showed 29 bookings through Scheduling Pro, 10 through Scheduling Pro Live.
“Good numbers,” he said.
And he admits to initial skepticism. To assess the knowledge level of Scheduling Pro’s live, 24-hour voice and chat connection with human beings, Pakarin and others called to ask questions. They found the industry-trained CSRs who answer the phones for Scheduling Pro knew their stuff.
“They’re pretty good,” he said. “Yes, maybe they don't know some small details about the company, like... I don't know … some specific details like our license number maybe or some other teeny tiny details.
“But I can't say they answer phone calls worse than our dispatcher who just came to the company. They are better.”
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As customer habits change, contractors must follow
Pakarin’s real-life experience backs up data gleaned by SearchLight, an analytics space for the home services industry that connects online activity to offline sales.
SearchLight’s data from an in-depth 2022 study showed that 80% of Scheduling Pro leads matched to a new opportunity for revenue, and 57% of leads ended up as a paying customer (compared with 20% for phone leads). Scheduling Pro also had a higher average ticket.
All of those data points reflect changing consumer habits. When groceries, dinner or coffee are available through online apps, it’s only logical that customers in the trades will take advantage of online booking. The next generation grew up managing their lives on cellphones.
Jonathan Torrey, SearchLight’s Director of Marketing and Strategic Partnerships, said companies that take advantage of online capabilities “ride the wave as it’s forming,” and those who take full advantage of what Scheduling Pro can offer “are going to absolutely crush.”
Pakarin does not disagree.
“Absolutely it helps,” Pakarin said. “It helps because if it wouldn't be for Scheduling Pro, maybe we would book half of these appointments manually.”
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