Creating Estimates in the Field + Follow-Up

Richards Plumbing & Electric more than doubled its number of field technicians, growing from 20 to about 45 in the last two years, and the multi-trade company utilizes ServiceTitan software features and tools to train those techs to create and present estimates in the field.

“As we’ve grown, we do a lot more estimates than we used to do,” says Josh Moree, Operations & Accounting Manager of Richards Plumbing & Electric in Bradenton, Florida. “How to do proper estimates is something we've had to implement as part of our training for technicians.”

Richards’ techs attend four training meetings per month, with one specifically focused on how to use ServiceTitan properly to create estimates in the field, such as taking pictures, including the right product, using the correct verbiage, and outlining any exclusions or warranty information.

“Our most seasoned techs, the guys who do the best job with it, get up and do presentations,” explains Moree, during a recent episode of the Mastering ServiceTitan podcast. “It’s just getting the guys to utilize the technology properly.”

During the training sessions, techs learn how to make sure everything is covered in the estimate and how to relay that information clearly to the customer.

“When the technician leaves the person's home, the customer knows exactly what they've been offered,” Moree says. “It works really well for us.”

>>Listen to the full podcast on creating estimates in the field now on Spotify, Apple, or YouTube.

The customer estimate journey

Once the technician creates the estimate using ServiceTitan and presents it to the customer, Moree says sometimes they sell it immediately or the customer asks for more time to decide, so the tech emails the estimate to them. The email triggers an alert to the CSR manager at Richards to let them know an estimate has been sent to a potential customer. 

After 48 hours, about 25% to 50% of Richards’ customers accept the estimate and move through the process, Moree says. For the 50% to 75% of customers who do not accept the emailed estimate, the CSR team makes follow-up calls on the third day. 

“The CSR will follow up, ask them if they have any questions about the estimate, make sure they received it, and see if there are any details missing or anything additional they wanted,” Moree says.

Sometimes, the CSR can close the sale on the follow-up call, accept payment for a deposit on the project, or help the customer arrange financing. If the CSR emails the customer financing information without finalizing the sale, the CSR will call the customer a second time.

“At that point, they ask the customer again, ‘Is there anything holding you back? Are there any concerns? What can we do to get you moving forward?’ They're trained to handle that, and come up with an appropriate response,” Moree says.

If the customer has technical questions about the estimate, the CSR will arrange for the technician who created the estimate to follow up. If the customer says they’re not interested at this time, Richards drops that estimate into a queue in their ServiceTitan dashboard, which triggers an email reminder about the estimate to the customer after 30 days.

“The great thing about ServiceTitan and the way you guys built it is, the technicians who go to that service call in the future, they’re trained to look and see if there are any opportunities out there, and then to discuss, ‘Hey, last time we were here, I see we recommended a surge protector, but you didn't do it. Is there any reason why?’ Then, we go over the benefits again,” Moree says.

A second technician may respark the customer’s interest in a particular product or service, then the whole estimating process starts over.

By automating much of the estimating process with ServiceTitan, Moree says the right alerts get sent to the right team members, unsold estimates get followed up on, and fewer customers resort to calling someone else for their plumbing and electrical needs.

“That's why we do so much follow-up,” he says, “to stay on top of them so they don't go elsewhere.”

Follow the basics when estimating in the field

One of the first things Richards’ technicians learn through training is that every job is not simply a service call. 

“You're looking for other opportunities,” Moree says. “It's not that you're trying to upsell the customer, but you're trying to make their lives better or improve the functionality of their property. We always teach our guys: ‘It's not necessarily about sales. It's about improving customers’ lives.’ So, the first thing would be to identify that opportunity.”

As an example, a customer might hire you to perform service maintenance on a tank water heater for their large vacation rental home. To accommodate a large number of guests taking showers or washing clothes at the same time, the tech might suggest installing a tankless water heater for unlimited hot water, Moree says.

If the customer agrees to explore the idea, the tech would then take a picture of the current tank water heater as well as the location for installing a tankless water heater and the current electrical panel. Then, the tech uses a ServiceTitan estimating template to write up the estimate, comparing the pictures they took with pictures of the tankless model from their pricebook.

And the estimate should fully explain “the why” behind the proposal.

“We're not doing it to sell you a product,” Moree says. “We see a need and we have a product that will fulfill that need.”

Creating estimates in the field often requires techs to shift their mindset a bit.

“We always try to stress that we're not trying to give customers anything they don't need. We're not an upsell company,” Moree emphasizes. “A lot of times, the customer doesn't know there are better products out there. There's a lot of stuff out there on the market that wasn't there 20 years ago that can prevent huge catastrophic issues like flooding and things like that.

“It’s training the technicians to get away from the whole ‘we're not selling anything.’ We're providing benefits. We're offering solutions. That’s what we do,” he adds.

In the case of the surge protector mentioned above, an electrical technician might offer multiple options or upgrades, depending on the size of the home. And since Richards cross-trains its plumbing and electrical techs, a plumber might spot the same electrical need and offer to schedule an appointment with an electrician, or vice versa for a plumbing need.

In ServiceTitan, you can mark these types of calls for a future appointment, which automatically sends an email to the service manager for follow-up, and a CSR calls the customer to schedule the appointment. 

“It's all about providing that extra level of service and going above and beyond,” Moree explains.

For techs who struggle to present professional, good-better-best options for customers when estimating, Moree says his team started using the pre-built ServiceTitan estimates to guide them through the process.

“It makes it so much easier for the technicians,” Moree says. “It also gives us as managers more control over what the actual summary says. We can make sure everything's good and there are no mistakes.”

Train CSRs to follow up on estimates

At Richards Plumbing & Electrical, the CSRs receive a $25 to $50 bonus for every estimate they convert into a sale by following up with the customer. The company also awards the top performer each month, creating a sense of competition among the CSRs.

Just like techs, Richards trains its CSRs to not sell, but simply follow up with information.

“We try to tell them, ‘All you guys are doing is calling and following up. You guys aren't sales people. All the information is right there. If the customer asks you to resend it, you can easily resend it. You can resend any pictures. If they start asking technical questions, we're going to either push it back to the service manager or have the technician follow up with them.

“Because it's not really their job to sell. We're just following up to make sure there are no questions and to get the deal closed, basically,” Moree says.

By training the techs and CSRs to operate with the same helpful mindset, Moree says the process promotes teamwork and accountability within each department. The techs get excited when they come back to the office and discover estimates have sold, and the CSRs get excited when they finally close hard-fought jobs or earn the top performer spot.

“It's great to see them do that, and they all get excited,” Moree says.

Building this type of company culture often begins with an all-hands-on-deck meeting with your field technicians and CSRs.

“If you can get that buy-in and you can get the CSRs and the technicians working together, then the more you can get that, the more they're willing to do, and it kind of snowballs on itself,” Moree says.

Use ServiceTitan features and integrated financing to convert more estimates

In addition to the pre-built templates and automated alert features in ServiceTitan Plumbing Estimating Software or ServiceTitan Electrical Estimating Software, Moree says Richards’ service manager uses the task management features to track tech-created estimates and assign follow-up calls to CSRs, as well as tags to show the customer’s job history.

For instance, if a customer reports the same four or five drain clogs in a month, the tech can easily see there’s a bigger plumbing problem going on and recommend a camera inspection to diagnose the issue, which then can lead to creating an estimate to fix it.

ServiceTitan also makes it easy for Richards to offer customer financing, Moree says, with integrated options, such as Service Finance and GoodLeap.

“They're integrated into our system, so it's really easy for the technicians to use it onsite if they get an approved estimate,” Moree says. “If they sell that estimate on the same day, they're going over finance options. It's not their decision on whether the customer needs financing or not. We always present it.”

If your technicians seem hit-or-miss on offering customer financing, Moree suggests training them to use the ServiceTitan integrated financing options.

“I would say it's crucial,” Moree says. “Everybody knows how their technicians are. The easier that you can make it for them, the more likely they're going to do it.”

You can find this interview and many more by subscribing to Mastering ServiceTitan on Apple Podcasts, on Spotify, or our website, or search for Mastering ServiceTitan in your favorite podcast player.

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