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Based in Indianapolis, IN, KC Services Inc. is a full-scale commercial facility maintenance company. The team provides coverage across the central Midwest, serving customers throughout Indiana, Eastern Illinois, Western Ohio, Southern Michigan, and Northern Kentucky.
KC Services grew quickly, but the manual systems behind the scenes didn’t keep pace. As call volume increased, the company’s reliance on spreadsheets, email, and paper made it harder to stay on top of every job. Follow-ups were missed. Paperwork got lost. Quotes went out late, if at all.
When KC Services reached 20 technicians and several million dollars in annual work, it reached a breaking point. Jobs were hard to track, dispatch got slower, and techs lost time to admin tasks. The result was missed revenue and unhappy clients.
“It wasn’t sustainable. We had to do something,” said Nick Caplinger, Chief Operating Officer of KC Services. “We would never miss the first appointment, but we missed the follow-up. We realized we were leaving a lot of money on the table and losing clients, all because of poor paperwork. It was time to find a better solution.”
KC Services evaluated three field service platforms before choosing ServiceTrade. “We chose ServiceTrade for its versatility,” Nick said. “We can do so much more than just schedule calls. Data tracking, asset tracking, and automating recurring services—that’s what makes ServiceTrade the best.”
Today, KC Services runs its entire operation on ServiceTrade, giving the team visibility and tools they never had with spreadsheets, including:
The dashboards have been a big win for the office. “Our account and service managers are much happier now,” said Dylan Holok, Director of Service Operations of KC Services. “They get a view into just their work rather than searching through every open work order. It makes the process much more efficient.”
And for KC Services, the partnership didn’t end at go-live. The team meets with ServiceTrade regularly to stay aligned, troubleshoot quickly, and keep improving how they run service. “Our account team gets us answers fast, connects us to the right person, and consistently brings us ideas that save us time,” Nick said.
With better visibility, tighter processes, and faster turnaround, KC Services scaled from $3 million to nearly $15 million in annual revenue. The company attributes much of that growth to the operational efficiency, speed, and improved customer experience enabled by ServiceTrade.
“I haven’t seen another software platform out there that can help us like ServiceTrade does,” Nick said. “ServiceTrade gave us the tools to take the business to the next level.”
Before ServiceTrade, KC Services needed four dispatchers to support 50 technicians. Today, they run 65 technicians with one full-time dispatcher, managing about 1,150 work orders per month. Booking a new service call used to take 10 minutes. Now it takes about two. “That time savings let me move people off chasing paperwork and into other important work we didn’t have time for before,” Nick explained.
KC Services uses that time to continually improve the business. With clearer visibility, Nick and his team can spot patterns, identify areas for improvement, and make smarter decisions about pricing and staffing based on demand. “Using ServiceTrade, we found a high-volume call area where we didn’t have a tech, so we hired one,” Nick said. “And with the service history, our techs can spot recurring problems and recommend the right fix, instead of just doing another temporary repair.”
With real-time visibility into recalls, incomplete paperwork, and job trends, KC Services’ leadership can quickly identify issues and remedy them before they escalate. “ServiceTrade allows us to catch issues right away rather than a year from now,” Nick said.
At one point, a technician logged too many recalls in a single month, triggering an alert. “Finding this early gave us the time to sit down with the tech, figure out what was going on, and move him to a job where he could succeed. In the old model, he likely would have been fired. Instead, we moved him into a role he’s better suited for, and he’s now one of our best techs.”
KC Services has turned operational efficiencies into a competitive advantage in the market. “Our goal is to turn every job around within 24 hours. If our tech goes to see them on Tuesday, we want to either invoice the work performed, reschedule for another visit, or quote the services they need by Wednesday.” Nick said. “ServiceTrade enables us to consistently hit that goal.” That consistency builds trust. Customers know KC Services responds quickly and follows through.
The platform has also become a recruiting advantage in a competitive labor market. “ServiceTrade gives us a big advantage when we’re hiring techs, because they love it,” Dylan shared. “The built-in AI and the fact that they don’t have to type or write if they don’t want to — that makes their lives so much easier.” In an industry where skilled labor is hard to find, giving technicians modern tools that simplify their day-to-day work has become an important differentiator.
KC Services is expanding its use of ServiceTrade with PartsManager to gain tighter control over inventory. “If we stock a $500 part in a van, we want to know where it is,” Nick said. “It also helps us know if the tech has the right parts to fix the issue.” With tighter inventory visibility, they expect to further improve first-time fix rates and protect margins.
Nick doesn’t hesitate when asked what he would tell other mechanical contractors. “If you have 20 techs, then you’re late. If you have 5 techs and want to scale your business, my advice is to get ServiceTrade now. This business is not sustainable without this software.”
“The expectation of the industry is to be fast. ServiceTrade enables us to meet that demand.”
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