Smarter Processes: AI and Automation for the Trades

AI is reshaping the trades, and forward-thinking businesses are using tools like ChatGPT to automate processes and improve efficiency. 

Dan Lizette, Director of Process Improvement at Mattioni Plumbing, Heating & Cooling in Downingtown, PA, joins the Mastering ServiceTitan podcast to share expert insights on integrating AI into your daily operations. 

As a power user of tools like ChatGPT, Lizette breaks down real-world examples and offers actionable advice to help ServiceTitan users enhance capacity planning, optimize inventory, and refine business workflows.

This podcast episode covers:

• Basic AI use cases, including for capacity planning

• How to properly talk to ChatGPT

• Using AI to clean up your Pricebook and inventory

• Using AI for notetaking and transcribing meetings

Basic AI use cases, including for capacity planning

If you’re new to AI tools like ChatGPT, Lizette explains how they’re similar to Siri, Alexa, and other virtual assistants. 

ChatGPT is an AI-powered assistant that can have human-like conversations, answer questions, and help with a wide range of tasks, such as writing, brainstorming, coding, and learning new topics. 

Lizette says he first saw ChatGPT in action when his Nexstar coach started feeding Mattioni’s ServiceTitan data into the tool to examine if his technicians were leaving estimates in customer homes.

“Within a few seconds, he was able to tell us which technicians had left the most estimates, which job types we were leaving the most estimates on, and then tie that to revenue,” he says. “It made my wheels start turning on how I might be able to use this in my new role here with the company.”

One of those use cases is for capacity planning, which is the process of determining the workforce, equipment, and resources needed to meet customer demand efficiently. Lizette took a screenshot of his capacity planning screen in ServiceTitan and uploaded it to ChatGPT.

“OCR (Optical Character Recognition) is built into ChatGPT, so it will actually look at the image and you can train it,” Lizette says. “It has an internal memory. So, over time, you can train it to answer things in the way you would like it to.”

Lizette says it took some back and forth with the tool and he had to explain what the different data fields meant. But after some queries, he says ChatGPT was able to accurately analyze his data. 

“It's really helpful for the call center in terms of setting work on the board, and helpful for some of the department heads who may be approving future time off or scheduling training sessions. It really is just a spectacular alignment tool,” he says.

Lizette now sends the capacity report each morning to his department heads and they use it during their daily huddle to plan for the day and week ahead. 

How to properly talk to ChatGPT

Podcast host and ServiceTitan Content Marketing Lead Josh Lu asks Lizette to explain how a first-time user should talk to ChatGPT and approach capacity planning.

“ChatGPT doesn't know what it's looking at when you upload that screenshot,” Lizette says. “So, the first thing you want to do is just explain what it's looking at. It's going to feel really weird if you've never done this before, because you sort of have to explain, ‘OK this line right here is our HVAC maintenance business unit. These hours mean this. These are a technician’s scheduled shifts.’”

He suggests explaining data to ChatGPT as if it were a friend who knows nothing about the industry.

“It may take some back and forth to make some adjustments and tweaks, but you'll be surprised how well it will give you the result that you're looking for,” Lizzette says.

Lizette also cautions that ChatGPT isn’t a magic solution, and users need to understand how to calculate capacity in order to make sure the tool provides accurate results.

“If you’re able to do this, you’re going to save a whole bunch of time,” he says. “For me, the beauty of what these tools have been able to provide has really just been a time saver. This process used to take me 25 to 30 minutes a morning. Now, it's about three minutes.”

Lizette understands why many people fear AI tools, especially if they worry about losing their jobs. However, he encourages service businesses to view AI as just another tool—no different from the ones in their work truck or back office.

“Tools like email and Excel didn't exist at one time or another. Well, ChatGPT and its similar competitors didn't exist before either,” Lizette says. “These are new tools in the workspace, and right now I don’t see them replacing anybody. ChatGPT isn’t going to go into a customer's home to fix their A/C. That's just not going to happen.

“But it may be able to make your technician more efficient or make the customer experience that much better,” he adds. “That's the way I look at it. This is another tool, and it's up to us to maximize how we're going to be able to get our best work done using this tool.”

Using AI to clean up your pricebook and inventory

Lizette says the pricebook is typically the largest data set service businesses manage and explains how ServiceTitan does a good job surfacing product information. However, he says it can get muddy when integrating pricebook data with other reporting tools. 

“As some of you probably know, you can export your whole pricebook as an Excel document, which is what I did, and then uploaded it to ChatGPT. Then, I uploaded some information from Ferguson, one of our vendors. I looked at all the items that we purchased previously from Ferguson over the last 12 months, and then I uploaded that into the same project in ChatGPT and asked for any item that we'd purchased more than two dozen times in 2024, and is it marked as our primary vendor?”

Within seconds, he says the tool gave him a list of items his company uses frequently, yet they had been purchasing them from other sources. 

Lizette also uses ChatGPT to compare part numbers. He says some parts in his pricebook use part numbers from vendors, while others are listed with internal numbers his business came up with.

“I asked it to start to compare, ‘Are we using their numbers in our pricebook or are we using our numbers,’” he says. “This type of cross-referencing of data has been huge for us in terms of maintaining an accurate pricebook.” 

Lizette says Excel can technically perform a similar analysis, but requires complex formulas most people never use. 

“You don’t have to remember the formula you haven't used in ten years; ChatGPT gets rid of all of that,” he says. “And you don't have to worry about highlighting columns and looking up results. The best part about it is that you can just go in and tweak it continuously, almost like a conversation.”

Using AI for notetaking and transcribing meetings

Lizette explains how he regularly uses ChatGPT to write internal emails, promotional campaigns, and other tasks. He says it helps him overcome writer’s block and produce high-quality results.

“You can obviously refine it. If you don't like it, you can ask it to try again,” he says. “You can ask it to give it another shot. You can ask it to change tone. You just massage it to the point where you've got something that you like.

“I always add a sentence or two of my own thoughts, just to make sure it doesn't come off as something I would never say or write—I think that’s important,” he adds. “While there's nothing stopping you from lifting something whole cloth from ChatGPT and putting in an email, throw in something where people still know it's your voice.”

Lizette also uses AI tools to record meetings and produce a clean transcript of the conversation. He suggests using PLAUD, an AI notetaking tool powered by ChatGPT. He says he simply records the meeting, and within a few minutes, receives “a clean, crisp, and well-organized summary” of the meeting along with a transcript that identifies each speaker in the meeting. 

Beyond simplifying meeting management, Lizette says the recordings provide an easy way to reference what was said in previous meetings, hold managers accountable, and be more present and less distracted during meetings.

“None of us are even taking notes anymore because we know the recording is going to give us all of our action items, all of our notes, and probably do a better job than we can produce ourselves,” Lizette says.

Even without recording tools like PLAUD, Lizette says you can simply upload an audio file to ChatGPT and ask it to provide a summary or analysis of the recording.

Lu mentions how ServiceTitan currently leverages AI in several ways, including Dispatch Pro, which uses machine learning and AI to assign the best-matched technician to every job based on factors like their skills, proximity to the job, and recent sales performance. Similarly, Marketing Pro - Ads Optimizer uses AI to train Google to optimize online ads to maximize revenue.

Regardless of experience with services like ChatGPT, Lizette encourages service business owners to familiarize themselves with AI tools, even if they seem intimidating. 

“AI is where so much of the world is moving to,” he says. “If you're not using it, your competitors might be, and that means they might be saving some money and doing things a little more efficiently.”

You can find this interview and many more by subscribing to Mastering ServiceTitan on Apple Podcasts, on Spotify, or here.

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