Amazon Plumbing? Google HVAC? Navigating the Digital Service Contracting Landscape.
What does it mean when two of the biggest names in Internet technology jump into the service contracting business? It means that service contracting is a huge and lucrative market that is due for a shake up (or a shake down, depending on your perspective). Amazon and Google are both taking on initiatives that will […]
Introducing the Digital Wrap: Deliver More Service Calls to Get More Service Leads!
Want More Service Call Leads? Deliver More Service Calls! There is an old saying in sales “Activity yields Activity”. The more outbound calls you make, the more inbound calls you receive. The more conversations you have, the more clients you will gain through the insights those conversations yield. The same holds true for service calls. […]
Perpetual Service – Creating Service Contracting Value in a Connected World
Service Contracting value no longer begins and ends in the driveway or parking lot of the customer. Showing up on time in clean uniforms and doing the job correctly are simply table stakes in a world where everyone is seeking the attention of the customer from every corner of the globe. Billboards in your service […]
Jesse James’ Advice for Service Contractors
Jesse James, Train Robber I have been to multiple events in the past several months where service contractors from many trades (food equipment repair, fire safety, specialty cleaning) lament the insertion of one or more parties between themselves and their customers. It seems that when they do not directly influence the terms of service with […]
Looking for Software Innovations? Look for Loosely Coupled Integration
ServiceTrade integrates with any other application you might find necessary to run your business through what we call “loosely coupled integration.” What this basically means is that the two (or 3 or 4 or more) applications DO NOT SHARE the same database. Instead, data is synchronized across the applications in a manner that is based […]
The Rich Get Richer: Why Smart Service Contractors Make Smart Software Decisions
I have noticed an interesting trend with ServiceTrade customers: the large majority are already in the top 10% of the industry regarding both systems capability and typical service contractor metrics – growth, gross margin, net margin – when they first engage with us, yet they readily buy ServiceTrade (typically with only about 2 weeks of […]
Fishing Report: First Annual OBX Customer Retreat and Fishing Tournament
Last week, ServiceTrade held its first annual Outer Banks (OBX) customer retreat and fishing tournament. Eleven representatives from across our customer base converged on Manteo, NC for a full day of business discussion on best practices for applying modern technology in a service contractor business along with a full day of offshore fishing. Shawn Mims, […]
The Tesla Lesson: 4 Takeaways for Service Contractors
I am a big believer in market signals. I think Tesla is one of those signals. As a breakthrough company with a skyrocketing stock value, Tesla is clearly doing many, many things correctly and making very few mistakes. I believe there are some lessons in the Tesla experience that service contractors should be learning. As […]
It Pays to Know: How Service Contractors Get Paid For Expertise, Not Just Labor
The best service contracting business model is based upon customers paying a premium for expertise instead of simply paying a markup on parts and labor. When true expertise is offered, the customer perceives that in the long term they will have better outcomes for less money – no callbacks, fewer breakdowns, less energy consumption, higher […]
If Communism Failed, Why do Software Vendors Continue to Embrace It?
With the winter games taking place in the former Soviet Union this month, it got me thinking about “Software Communism” – the practice of central planning by a single vendor that prevents the users from ever leaving. At the AHR Expo in NYC, I met with more than one prospect that was irate because he […]