Neighborly, the world’s largest franchisor in the home services space, is connecting its brands to the power of ServiceTitan technology. By joining forces and tapping into the full functionality of field software built for the trades, franchise owners can drive business growth more efficiently.
The founders of ServiceTitan created the software and continue to develop it as an end-to-end platform capable of running every aspect of a home service’s business, from lead generation and call booking all the way through to invoicing, payment collection, and financial reporting.
And rather than requiring businesses to use third-party services to fill any gaps, ServiceTitan developers are working to cover every angle with powerful new features and products.
“We realized if we can give you the ability to run more of your business inside ServiceTitan, there's just so much more you can do,” says Brett Kawanami, ServiceTitan Strategic Pro Account Manager, who works exclusively with Neighborly brands. “It can save you time because you can just focus on one interface instead of hopping back and forth between Windows or maybe just not logging in.”
As part of that ongoing software development strategy, ServiceTitan is hosting a series of webinars to introduce Neighborly brands to its add-on Pro products, such as Marketing Pro, Dispatch Pro, Phones Pro, Pricebook Pro, and Scheduling Pro. In this webinar recap, Neighborly brands learn about Fleet Pro, a tool to maximize business operational efficiency.
“This is really the full funnel on how to help push your business to the next level,” Kawanami says. “Pro products are designed to help you not just save time and streamline your operations, but also to have new ways to drive additional revenue and/or save revenue.”
For example, ServiceTitan customers who utilized the Pro products in 2023 reported a nearly 6% increase in organic year-over-year revenue, as compared to the year before with no Pro products in use.
“That's about average for what we see on a yearly basis,” Kawanami says.
Even better, ServiceTitan data shows companies using at least one Pro product saw an 11% increase in year-over-year revenue growth.
“That is fantastic, because that’s usually Marketing Pro being able to drive more leads,” Kawanami says.
Businesses that adopt multiple Pro products realize even higher revenue growth.
“That’s what these Pro products are designed to do, to drive more revenue, save your staff time, and allocate your time, energy, and your office's output more efficiently,” Kawanami says.
What is Fleet Pro?
Fleet Pro, one of ServiceTitan's newest products, automates your fleet management system with actionable, accessible vehicle and fleet data to minimize unnecessary costs, avoid risks, ensure accountability, and improve driver performance and safety.
“I know you guys are using a lot of different systems,” Kawanami says. “Maybe it's GPS Track USA, Azuga, Zubie, or Samsara. We’re basically taking that functionality and bringing it into ServiceTitan.”
Neighborly companies make fleet tracking a huge priority, he adds, often dedicating whole maps, big boards, or elaborate spreadsheets to the process.
“It’s a very manual process to keep record of information like the tech’s driver license, when it needs to be renewed, and the [maintenance] logs of the different trucks,” Kawanami says. “Anytime things are manual or they're outside a system, it takes a lot of work to update and the process can often be prone to error. It's not the most efficient way to work.”
While most GPS fleet-tracking systems provide information and better visibility, many fail to help fleet operators manage more proactively.
Enter, Fleet Pro.
“Fleet Pro is more data-driven and AI-powered, giving you real-time visibility into the state of the fleet and data that allows you to be proactive, and even predictive, for things that will happen,” Kawanami says. “It’s using different automations and AI to give you data-driven insights so you can make the best business decision based on true data.”
Did you know fleet managers lose over $2,400 per truck per year due to process inefficiencies? Kawanami says things like not following through on scheduled truck maintenance, making unscheduled stops during the work day, or forgetting to clock out affect the company’s bottom line and expose it to risk.
Inefficiencies affecting expenses and performance include:
Inaccurate wages and idling
Maintenance and fuel costs
Side jobs and unauthorized vehicle use
Inefficiencies affecting risks and safety include:
Accidents and insurance claims
Unsafe driving
Liability and lawsuits
“These are all the different areas where our customers have told us they’re leaking oil,” Kawanami says. “When you think about running an operation, it's always winning at the margins. That's key. And when there are things that just slip under the radar, that's where your ship may be leaking some oil.”
Fleet Pro maximizes operational efficiency through automation to help you save time, money, and the hassle of managing a complex fleet-tracking system.
How Fleet Pro works
On your Fleet Pro dashboard, you’ll see a live map and fleet information, such as vehicle data, asset data, driver data, and camera data. There are also sections for reports, maintenance data and reminders, and alert settings.
ServiceTitan Senior Solutions Engineer Ersto Alfaro says home services companies can use Fleet Pro to:
Consolidate fleet data into one system to ensure easy access to driver and vehicle information.
Use AI technology and reporting to capture real-time actions of your technicians to ensure a safe driving experience.
Save time on payroll by integrating Fleet Pro with timesheets. This saves the office time from manually cross-referencing GPS data with timesheets.
Below, Alfaro takes a look at each section of data contained within Fleet Pro.
Vehicle data
Once you install a Fleet Pro tracker onto your company vehicles, the system stores all vehicle data in one place, such as the make, model, year, vehicle identification number (VIN), odometer reading, and assigned driver or group.
Driver data
Driver data stored within Fleet Pro includes information about each technician’s driver’s license, such as whether it’s valid or expiring, as well as the vehicle assigned to the tech and what role the tech performs for the company.
This section also includes a driver scorecard, giving each driver of company vehicles a score for driving behaviors such as speeding, idling events, hard-brake events, distance travel, and more. Alfaro suggests using the scorecard data as a coaching tool during performance reviews.
“When it comes to your total overall score, anyone below 65 are individuals who you might want to keep an extra look-out for, as compared to anyone over 75, who we consider good drivers,” Alfaro says.
At Aire Serv of Aggieland, co-owner Rebekah Hatcher uses Fleet Pro’s driver scorecard to incentivize technicians to achieve the best overall score in monthly competitions. She also uses it to monitor a technician’s driving behavior following a fender bender.
“His driver probation says he has to continue to maintain over 75 on his driver score for the next 90 days,” Hatcher says. “So, we're able to really dial in and watch what he's doing, if he's breaking any laws, speeding, hard braking, anything like that. I can see it at a glance, which is fantastic.”
It’s also important to note that driver scorecards are based on the actions of the vehicle itself, and not the driver. Alfaro says it’s best practice to assign each vehicle to one driver for more accurate data, and Hatcher makes her techs accountable for all driving behavior in their assigned vehicles regardless of who’s behind the wheel.
Asset data
Asset data tracks information on any large pieces of equipment your crews may operate, such as an excavator or utility trailer. Companies need to track all equipment assets to know when they’re available for use on the next job.
“We do offer trackers and GPS devices for our assets. One of them is a large air tag, and the other one we're able to actually hardwire to it if it has a motor or battery,” Alfaro says. “Then, you are able to see the assets on a live map.”
Camera data
Installing cameras inside company vehicles benefits service businesses in various ways, such as qualifying for insurance discounts or protecting owners from liability. Fleet Pro offers in-facing rear cameras and front-facing cameras.
The front-facing cameras capture what’s happening in front of the vehicle, so you can detect whether techs are braking hard or tailgating drivers in front of them.
The rear-facing, in-cabin cameras use AI technology to better understand the tech’s driving behavior. Are they distracted? Are they looking out the window or using their phone?
When Fleet Pro detects unsafe driving behavior, the system automatically sends an audible to alert the tech to correct the unsafe practice and captures snippets in the system for managers to later address with techs during one-on-one meetings or reviews.
Fleet Pro helped Aire Serv — a 12-year Neighborly franchisee operating a $2 million shop with four trucks in College Station, Texas — to dispute a claim that a tech was speeding when that recent fender bender occurred.
“There's some writing on that screen on the front-facing camera, and you can see at any time the exact speed the technician was going at that moment,” Hatcher says. “Our technician rolled into the person in front of them, but we were able to determine he was going 3 mph when he rolled, instead of the exaggerated 20 or 30 mph the person he hit was talking about.”
Fleet Pro also came in handy during an unusual ice storm in Texas, which caused multiple auto accidents on the roads and spurred a flurry of calls to Aire Serv for heating repairs.
“We had guys on the roads to the best of their ability, and we had a technician slide off into a ditch,” Hatcher says.
“I was able to see immediately with the rear-facing camera and the forward-facing camera, did he do everything in his ability to try to keep the vehicle from sliding in the ditch? Yes, he did. Did he have both of his hands on the steering wheel? Yes, he did. Was he distracted in any way? No, he wasn't. How fast was he going? I knew exactly at the time he slid off, he was only doing about 7 mph,” she adds.
By seeing the data in real-time, Hatcher says, Aire Serv applied the appropriate disciplinary measures instead of blaming the tech for something outside of his control.
Fleet Pro reporting features
Reporting features and filters in Fleet Pro allow users to target a particular vehicle or asset as well as a particular event category such as asset events (when equipment moves from job to job), vehicle diagnostics, driving infractions, or geofencing alerts.
At Aire Serv, techs must arrive to work with a full tank of gas, and Fleet Pro reporting helps Hatcher monitor and improve fuel efficiency.
“We're very easily able to see which technicians are constantly arriving with low fuel in the morning and then having to stop at the gas station before they can get their day started as compared to the ones who are doing the right thing and getting gas in the evenings like they're supposed to,” she says.
Alert configurations
Fleet Pro also allows users to configure alerts for a variety of inefficiencies, such as low fuel or driver speeding, and even notifies owners when techs unplug the GPS tracking devices.
The user-friendly app makes it easy to set up and customize all of your alerts and alert triggers, and assign any alerts to a specific vehicle or business group in your fleet. If techs take trucks home, Alfaro suggests setting up alerts to notify you 24/7 by email. If they don’t take vehicles home, you can customize your own alert notifications for a shorter time period.
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Maintenance reminders
Maintenance reminders help fleet managers stay on top of which vehicles need oil changes, tire rotations, and other repairs. Users simply create an alert, add a reminder name, select the vehicle, the needed service type, and the timeframe for service based on mileage interval, engine runtime interval, or time interval.
“We want to make sure you guys are always on top of your game when it comes to those trucks being well maintained,” Alfaro says.
Geofences
To maintain better control over your fleet, you can now create geofences directly within Fleet Pro. This gives you insight on how much time techs spend at supply houses, for instance, or whether they’re using the vehicle after hours on side jobs or other activities.
The Fleet Pro app allows you to draw out specific areas on a map to trigger the geofencing alerts, such as the area surrounding a Home Depot in Denver (below).
At Aire Serv, Hatcher set up geofencing to alert her when trucks arrive or depart from the main office so she can ensure techs get dispatched correctly with appropriately stocked trucks. She also set up geofencing around each supply house in town.
“We want to make sure they're being as efficient and productive as possible when they’re there,” Hatcher says.
Like alerts, geofences are simple and easy to set up, Alfaro says.
“Make sure you assign your vehicles and assets, then create a schedule as to when you want those alerts to come through. And again, those alerts will come through via email,” Alaro says.
Payroll dashboard
To help contractors save time on payroll, Fleet Pro matches its GPS tracker data to the data collected on the ServiceTitan mobile app to ensure accuracy, allowing you to process payroll more efficiently. And the system automatically populates any discrepancies onto the dashboard, where you can click “View Discrepancies” to see the issue, then work to resolve it.
Payroll discrepancies can result from inaccurate work times, dispatch times, locations, or idling events, Alfaro says. Users can quickly pull up a map view of the discrepancy to gain better visibility, then work to resolve it with a few clicks.
“Payroll has to be accurate at all given times,” Alfaro says. “You can use this to your advantage, and at the same time, make sure you do it in the most streamlined manner possible.”
Live map
The Fleet Pro live map view allows you to see every technician’s location in real-time, and receive GPS pings for things like the truck ignition turning off or idling. Fleet Pro can even provide a breadcrumb trail to show you where techs have driven throughout the day.
Hatcher says she loves using the live map view to know techs’ current locations or zones, whether they took the most efficient route, and to anticipate their availability for the next job.
“A quick glance at the live map tells you exactly what you need to know,” she says.
What’s next for Fleet Pro?
As the newest ServiceTitan Pro product, Fleet Pro continues to evolve with new features coming for:
Reporting
Driver’s scorecard, fleet diagnostics, extensive trip data
Integrations
Payroll and timesheets (completed), dispatch data with live map, job progress
Forms
Driver vehicle inspection, maintenance needs
“As a franchise owner, I know my time is limited and putting a new system like this into place is sometimes a little bit difficult,” Hatcher says. “With Fleet Pro, the onboarding is incredibly easy. The installation into the vehicles is incredibly easy. We put it in four vehicles to start, and we were able to get it in all four vehicles in one day. It was a very easy system to put into place.”
