ServiceTitan Next Environment: Safely Test and Prep for Future Updates

Juan Lopez’s determination and drive began in earnest at the tender age of about 6 when he decided to remove his own training wheels and learn to ride his bike, all on his own. His first goal was simply to stay upright and make it past a particular bush.

“I think I probably ran into that bush 15 to 20 times. Bunch of scratches on my arms, but I just kept getting back on the bike. I was determined,” Lopez says. “I finally made it past this bush, which was fantastic. I attained my goal. Unfortunately, right past the bush, which I never really went that far because I played in our front yard, there was a hill—and it went straight down.

“I don't know how fast I went. I didn't know how to use the brakes. I got all the way down and before I could hit the street, I just jumped right off of my bike,” he says. “That kind of drive and ‘get-after-it mentality’ is kind of how I live my life. I like to say, ‘I live one bush at a time.’”

Clearly driven to succeed, Lopez took that same approach to learning all about ServiceTitan, ultimately becoming an expert user and ServiceTitan point person for Franklin Electric, a global company that produces and markets systems and components for the movement of water and energy.

Lopez, now IT Business Analyst at Franklin Electric, says he’s particularly passionate about utilizing ServiceTitan’s Next Environment, a powerful tool that allows businesses to test and prepare for future software updates. 

“They let me loose into the Next Environment, and it was awesome,” Lopez says. “I got to push buttons and try this, try that, or add this. It was almost like playing video games, which I have a passion for. I was just in there playing, learning, and it didn't take me long—probably about 100 hours—but all of a sudden, I kind of became the guy who knew what was going on in ServiceTitan.”

In our next Mastering ServiceTitan podcast—where we get expert advice from power users—Lopez unpacks Next Environment and shares the key strategies he used to master new features, optimize business processes, and train his team. 

>>Listen to the full podcast on leveraging memberships with ServiceTitan now on Spotify, Apple, or YouTube.

Next and Practice environments allow creativity to flow

Before Franklin Electric launched ServiceTitan in May 2022, Lopez says the company used SYSPRO as its software operating system.

“Anytime we would try or test something, we were impacting everybody. So, we weren't really able to get creative or figure out different ways to do things,” Lopez says.

In ServiceTitan Next, a sandbox environment, you can test out new processes without making unwanted changes to your ServiceTitan live account and maintain the integrity of your company data. ServiceTitan Practice enables long-term training sessions to help your team become familiar with learning new features.

“Practice is basically a stagnant site, so it stays the same. It looks exactly how your live site looks. You can go in there and [practice processes] or mess with the way it looks,” Lopez explains. 

“The Next Environment is basically how it's going to look in the future… when they drop in new releases, new features, new user interface, toggles and buttons and views,” he adds. “You practice what you do on a daily basis with the new features and see if everything works.”

Lopez checks Next Environment at least once a quarter to look at new features, make sure everyone knows how to use them, and schedule training sessions with those who don’t. 

Prepping for the next release

In addition to Next, ServiceTitan offers a variety of resources to help customers understand new products and features, such as release notes, YouTube videos, or conversations on ServiceTitan Community or the ServiceTitan Masterminds Facebook group. Lopez reads everything, then creates his own newsletter to unpack and decipher the information for Franklin Electric employees.

“To create my own personal newsletter, I go in and I read all the features, watch the YouTube video, and then I go try them out for myself in the Next Environment,” Lopez says. “And if there's something really cool and fun, I'll highlight that. I try to have fun with it as much as possible.”

Recent releases in the Next Environment focus on accounting, and Lopez met with the company’s accounting department to explain the changes, show them how to use the new features, and make recommendations for implementing new processes in the future.

“Everybody knows with ServiceTitan, it's not one way or the highway. We have a couple different ways you can do this,” Lopez says. “We try to outline what works best for our company and then fill in the blanks through integrations or third-party connecting apps, things like that.

“We try to assign training once every six months to existing users. New users get the full rollout every time,” he adds.

Lopez uses the Practice Environment to launch ServiceTitan at new locations acquired by Franklin Electric, or for new hire training.

“If it's somebody that's existing, they hop into the Next. That way they're working on the next best thing. If it's a new location, we want them to hit the ground rolling in Practice. We want them to train in what they actually see as soon as they go into the computer. That way they're not confused.

“For beginners, Practice is really where you want to go. For people who are starting to get more comfortable with ServiceTitan, the Next Environment is where you want to be,” Lopez says.

Become an expert with ServiceTitan groups

While Lopez drove himself to become a ServiceTitan expert, he also tapped into the vast expertise of other ServiceTitan users by getting involved in the Spark and Ember sessions, the Torch Network, and serving on a product advisory group. He also completed the course to become a ServiceTitan Certified Admin (now ServiceTitan Certified User program).

“I've been entrenched in ServiceTitan for the last 20 months. And I can say I've definitely learned a lot more by taking those courses and interacting with other people using ServiceTitan than I ever would have just by trying to do it on my own,” Lopez says.

“ServiceTitan has allowed people to be fearless. Get in there, explore, take advantage of these groups. There's some fantastic people out there who are on ServiceTitan, not just the people that work for ServiceTitan, but the people who are using 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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