Leveraging Memberships with ServiceTitan

One of the first big projects Zachary Kays tackled when he joined Intelligent Design Air Conditioning, Plumbing, Solar & Electric two years ago was learning how to leverage ServiceTitan memberships to grow revenue for the five-trade home services company based in Tucson, Arizona.

Kays dived right in, completed the ServiceTitan Certified Administrator program, then proceeded to revamp Intelligent Design’s entire membership program. Today, the company is on track to bring in just under $2.5 million in revenue this year—from sold memberships, alone.

“We didn't have to spend an extra dollar to get any of those jobs … there was no additional marketing spend needed to acquire that,” says Kays, Software Administrator at Intelligent Design. “Memberships are a great way to get some additional work down the line without having to do any more marketing spend.”

Kays also improved Intelligent Design’s TitanScore from 68 to 200 in a relatively short period of time. ServiceTitan data shows contractors who improve their TitanScore often see improved outcomes and revenue growth.

In our next Mastering ServiceTitan podcast—where we get expert advice from power users—Kays shares details on how to set up memberships correctly in ServiceTitan, which mistakes to avoid, and the pros and cons of a tiered-membership system versus one flat membership.

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

Setting up memberships in ServiceTitan

Initially hired to schedule preventive maintenance jobs for customers, Kays quickly discovered the company’s recurring services were not properly linked to jobs in ServiceTitan, and memberships were set up as deferred revenue.

“It was causing a lot of misreporting there,” Kays says.

That’s when Kays signed up for ServiceTitan’s Certified Admin Program (soon to be renamed  ServiceTitan Certified User Program) to learn the software and how to leverage memberships.

“I went through that entire program and just saw that it needed to be done differently,” Kays says. “Fortunately, our company was doing a change to their memberships, so I was able to build them from the ground up utilizing the membership types in the settings.”

Before the revamp, Intelligent Design offered a Diamond Club membership for one, five, or 10 years, and a Legacy Club membership for more than 10 years with no dispatch fee. The revamped membership offers a four-tier Family Protection Plan.

“We have our Basic, Classic, Deluxe, and our Premium, but all of those come with different discounts and different benefits,” Kays explains. “So, it's important you set them up properly to make sure they work smoothly and there's less manual work and more automation.”

4-tiered membership versus one flat membership

With tiered memberships, you can add a different percentage discount to each type of membership (5%, 10%, 15%, or 20%), and include certain benefits depending on the tier. 

“Our top-tier membership is $68.88 a month, but it comes with a lot of benefits. And then our lowest tier is $28.88 a month. It still has good benefits, but it doesn't come with the ‘client-favorite’ no-dispatch fee,” Kays says. “The benefits of having a tier is you can add on more stuff and then still keep revenue on the back-end profitability where it needs to be.

“Whereas, if you just have a one-size-fits-all solution, not only are you going to lose some clients, you may end up over-discounting, and that will affect your profit and loss on the backend,” he adds.

Just note: If you’re new to offering memberships in ServiceTitan, Kays says it’s best to start simple with one type of membership plan to give techs time to learn it and for you to see how well it impacts your bottom line.

What to include in your first membership plan

Offer recurring service visits in your membership plan and give customers a “why” for signing up for it, Kays says.

If you sell HVAC services, offer a complimentary tune-up in the spring or fall to get your foot in the door with a new customer. Then you can spot new opportunities to keep their system in prime working condition during the summer and winter seasons.

“We're there to make sure your system doesn't break down when you need it the most,” Kays says.

This approach also applies to plumbing and electrical, giving your technicians the opportunity to spot potential safety issues and educate customers about possible solutions. Kays says if plumbing fixtures are bad, customers might wake up in the middle of the night with 2 feet of water on the floor, or if the electrical panel is arcing and sparking, their house might catch fire. 

Spotting safety issues during preventive maintenance visits helps to build trust with customers and position your brand as a company they can rely on.

“Go into those appointments with the right mindset. Don't be super salesy. If you go in there and are just trying to sell somebody something, you're going to lose money every time,” Kays says. “But if you go into it by asking questions, finding out their pain points, and giving them solutions based on their pain points, that's when you're going to see the revenue trickle in.”

Other benefits to offer in a first-time membership might include priority service, but with a discounted dispatch fee. Kays says it’s best to not immediately give up that dispatch fee, but rather show customers the value of your priority service.

Two ways to set up memberships

When creating memberships in ServiceTitan, you can set it up based on your categories or a flat-rate percentage in your pricebook.

“If you’re a shop that only has one membership plan and your categories aren't really built out to a granular level, definitely just do it in your pricebook. It's going to be a lot easier,” Kays says.

And if you do it based on your pricebook, export your pricebook, add all your discounts into the Excel sheet, and then import that pricebook back into ServiceTitan.

“I personally export my pricebook at least once a month just to get the history,” he advises, pointing out how it saves you time and prevents a 30-second fix from turning into a 3-hour fix.

On the other hand, if you plan to expand your memberships in the future to offer multiple tiers, set up memberships with categories. You can add your discounts to all service and repair items, but don’t apply it to new installs so you can build upon it in the future.

You also need to be careful with add-on pricing in your pricebook if you’re setting up memberships based on categories, Kays says, to make sure you’re not giving membership customers too steep a discount.

“This isn't something you rush into. Don't be me. Learn from my mistakes,” Kays says. “We do have a saying here at Intelligent Design, it's “Fail Forward.” When it comes to money, you don't want to fail forward too much, because then you'll just fail behind.” 

Send recurring service reminders

In the follow-up screen for memberships, you can send text messages to remind customers about upcoming recurring service appointments and clearly see who’s due for service. Just make sure your date range is set appropriately and use the bulk dismiss button to remove unscheduled appointments from your pipeline.

Kays says he bulk dismisses appointments about a month after the heating or cooling season ends, but the company still honors recurring service appointments if the customer calls in.

“We're not going to keep kicking the cart down the road, but we will honor it within reason,” he says. “The last thing I want my scheduling team to do is call people for their heating maintenance when it's in the middle of summer.”

You’ll also see a follow-up screen for recurring services, but be careful to not change the recurring service date if you’ve applied any automated features. This will help you avoid sending recurring service appointment texts or emails at the wrong time. 

“Definitely leave that recurrence service date alone,” Kays says. “Use the follow-up schedule screen to schedule things as they come up. If you go into the follow-up screen, you set up your date range. You're going to see everything that's due, and how many times you’ve called. You do not need to move the recurring service date.”

Also, set up your membership sales tasks and renewal tasks in ServiceTitan, to monitor the number of new memberships sold and give customers the option to renew when memberships expire. You can also set up renewals to be “continuous,” with no expiration date. Just be transparent with customers about how your subscription service works.

Train technicians to utilize ServiceTitan Payments

If techs are selling memberships and accepting payment in the field, train them to use ServiceTitan Payments, Kays says. This feature offers flexible payment options, enables techs to securely capture checks and credit cards, or send customers a link to a personalized online payment portal. You’ll get paid faster with less hassle and fewer mistakes.

To train the techs at Intelligent Design, Kays created PDF files for techs to upload into their pricebooks, so they can easily see and explain to the customer what’s included in each Family Protection Plan tier.

However, Intelligent Design starts the membership conversation with customers back in the scheduling office, rather than with the techs on the job.

“We don't want our techs to have those conversations. When the techs are in the home, we just want them to focus on finding out what the pain points are for the client and giving them the best estimate for their needs,” Kays says. 

But both schedulers and technicians receive incentives for selling memberships.

“We have four tiers starting at $28.88 going all the way up to $68.88. If you sell a membership, you get that first month,” he adds, so the more you sell, the more the incentives add up.

Final advice for setting up memberships 

• Go to settings and find membership types

• Connect with ServiceTitan Academy to take membership courses

• Build memberships in the practice environment before introducing it to the production environment

• Make tags to display membership types, especially the elderly tag 

• Check out the ServiceTitan Mastermind Group on Facebook for more tips and advice

“We're in the desert, where it can get up to 110 degrees, so one of our most important tags is our elderly tag,” Kays says. “We're able to get to those people sooner.

“About a year and a half ago, we got to somebody sooner,” he adds. “They didn't have money to buy a new HVAC unit. So we reached out to the manufacturer and we got them to donate a unit to us. Our company donated the labor, and we installed an HVAC unit at no cost for this person who just needed to be comfortable.” 

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.