Goal Setting Backed by Accurate Data Leads to Revenue Surge

Rolling out ServiceTitan

There’s an upside and a downside to coming into a new company when a software change is occurring. Nagle admits there were hiccups. But, overwhelmingly, he thinks he was in the perfect position to get the front-end labor done that’s necessary for an effective ServiceTitan rollout.

“I really do feel like our setup went pretty well,” Nagle says. “We weren’t prepared for switching from paper invoicing. There were things we were forgetting when we started doing it electronically. But nothing we couldn’t rectify within a month or two.”

Nagle was steadfast in his quest to move Bay operations out of the pen-and-paper era.

“We were doing the paper invoices, and there was also electronic invoicing being done in the office,” he says. “We were creating a lot of extra work for ourselves.”

It was a challenge, but Nagle was up to it.

“I was always presented with new challenges,” Nagle says. “My goal wasn’t just to be a resource from the financial side. My goal was also to help business owners brainstorm and find ways to grow and expand and get more profitable.”

Boosting sales 

Nagle did draw on his banking background to revamp the company’s compensation schedule for technicians. It was based on best practices for financial advisers. 

Bay has two dedicated estimators who only do replacement leads. But Nagle changed the selling technician program. He installed a tiered bonus structure based on 12-month rolling sales figures, instead of making his employees start over every December. 

“It's been a big differentiator for us,” Nagle says. “Our estimators all pretty much doubled their output very quickly because they were actually getting compensated fairly for what they were doing.”

ServiceTitan reporting made that possible. And it supercharged the salespeople. 

“It was a game changer for us because you don’t have to babysit these guys,” Nagle says. “We started weekly coaching, but a big part of what now drove them is the opportunities to make more [money].” 

Another change was powered by the ease of offering upgrade options to customers through ServiceTitan’s price book integration. Where the company in the past often sold middle-to-low options, now it sells middle-to-high-end products, increasing the average ticket. 

“They know that if they’re closing those deals, it’s going to be better for them,” Nagle says. 

Increasing efficiency

Nagle says the company has 11 total technicians, spread among service techs, full-time install crews and a backup. Bay’s switch to ServiceTitan allows him to use those technicians more efficiently to increase profits. 

“If you can find ways to be more efficient, that should translate to additional opportunities,” Nagle says. “The invoicing got better. It was easier to track if we weren’t billing for things, if things weren’t being taken care of. “We found ways to be more efficient, and ServiceTitan was a big part of that. It was kind of an engine [for efficiency].”

Among the ways Nagle says ServiceTitan has improved efficiency:

• Dispatch of technicians is quicker and easier. 

• Technicians’ time spent on each job was reduced.

• Install became better organized. 

• Membership scheduling and management was streamlined.

• Immediate reports produced by ServiceTitan provided an up-to-the-minute look at the entire business. 

In short, Bay better utilizes its employees’ time now. 

“We're not only running more calls, but we’re bringing in more calls, and we're able to see where everything’s coming from,” Nagle says. “Overall, the whole functionality of it has helped. And as we get more efficient, we find additional opportunities. 

Getting better through coaching and training

Managing employees has also become easier since the switch to ServiceTitan, Nagle says. 

“It was a matter of having good information, having good reporting, which we didn't really have before,” he says. “We’ve got all the reporting and everything now for the coaching.”

Nagle has instituted regular meetings for everyone from estimators and salespeople to installers and service technicians. 

The meetings allow Nagle to set clear goals that his employees can track with the software. 

“We go over their total revenue, their callback percentages, their average service ticket size, we look at their billable hours and their net billable efficiency,” Nagle says. “We look at accessory sales, we look at replacement leads and replacement sales, membership opportunities, and then invoicing and time card issues.” 

Each employee has a dollar figure or percentage goal they are expected to hit every month.”

Nagle says his employees appreciate the training—and the transparency. 

Building on success

As ServiceTitan reporting has gotten more granular and more flexible with the new reporting 2.0, Nagle says this year he’s moved to more one-on-one coaching with the techs. 

“I pull all the data from ServiceTitan and plug it into a spreadsheet for each one of the techs,” he says. “That way, we can stay on top of all their goals and make sure that they are performing properly on an individual basis.”

Nagle says the one-on-one coaching makes the team feel better personally about striving to hit goals.

“Still, the goal is to have two team meetings with the service and install techs a month to make sure we cover global issues,” Nagle says. “But I also want it to be a little bit more granular.”

Those one-on-ones cover total revenue. But they also can drill down into service revenue from service calls or maintenance revenue from those kinds of calls.

Bay is targeting 15% growth in 2021. Personally, Nagle wants that number to be closer to 25%.

“If executed properly, we could even hit 30% to 40% growth,” he says.

Ultimately, all aspects of Nagle’s processes boil down to one thing: continually achieving goals.