Winning the mobile marathon as a commercial service contractor
There are plenty of examples of companies that have built market success because of their use of mobile technology, including Domino’s, Chick-fil-A, and Starbucks. Starbucks launched their mobile app in early 2011, and it included a mobile pay feature similar to a gift card. Mobile innovation has paid off for Starbucks. They reported that in […]
Mapping your customer’s journey
Do you have ambition to become the leading service contractor in your market? Does it feel like operational and administrative inefficiencies are holding you back? We get it. It’s not easy to lead the market when it feels like you can’t even get your own house in order. We’ve helped hundreds of our customers streamline […]
How much information is too much?
Check out this image from an Amazon notification that I received during the holiday season. It included imagery of the product (some black pajamas), a map of my neighborhood that indicates the location of my house, the current location of the delivery driver (the Santa sleigh), and a caption telling me Santa (aka Amazon) was […]
5 reasons why hiring millennials no different than hiring previous generations
For the last decade, my career has been centered around recruiting and managing millennials. Plus, I am one. When we talk about recruiting and retaining millennials, I know what a lot of people are thinking: I don’t want to. Millennials have been labeled as entitled, unfocused, and job jumpers. Some even call us narcissistic. When […]
The road to success is paved with good integrations
As VP of Customer Success at ServiceTrade, what everybody calls me at work is “that guy who can answer your questions about integrations.” The number of meetings I’ve been called into to discuss integrations with customers has gone up dramatically in 2018. I’ve noticed a theme in a lot of these conversations: customers aren’t really […]
Challenging to win the information arms race
You know the information arms race in your market has begun when both Microsoft and Amazon are advertising big data solutions on Sunday night football. Commercial property managers will surely be tempted to invest in technology to commoditize your services. Fortunately, we have a plan, and Billy Marshall will show you how to challenge to […]
What contractors can learn from the mechanic
Megabrands like Amazon and Domino’s are outselling their competitors and changing consumer expectations by going on offense and providing better customer experiences that are convenient and transparent. As easy as it is to dismiss these examples because they are seemingly unrelated to service contracting, even the local mechanic is giving their customers a better service […]
3 more ways to get customers hooked on your feel-good brand (part 2)
You won’t make your customer feel good if you provide convenience, transparency, and avoid bad surprises. Those are the bare minimum to meet their expectations. From my last blog post: Dr. Feelgood, from the 1989 Mötley Crüe single, was a drug dealer who got the name because he made his customers feel good. This kept […]
Good is not good enough – how amazon raised expectations to feel good for commercial service contractors
Several dozen books (at least) have been written about the Amazon phenomenon, and I could probably go on and on myself about the lessons that can be drawn from its success. The lesson for the service contractor is that making your customers feel good about your service will likely lead to greater riches for you […]
Prioritizing customers above accounting – b&w mechanical
They spent hours on it. Brad Boggs at B&W Mechanical and Shawn Mims of ServiceTrade met several times to discuss how to integrate B&W’s accounting system with ServiceTrade. They planned it strategically, they talked with an integrator about the details, they held several follow-up calls. But as they say, the struggle of connecting ServiceTrade’s open […]