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Mobility: The Next Generation of HVAC Service

John Edmisten, Edmisten Heating and Cooling

 

A low-cost, high-ROI technology that can be deployed within weeks, works for HVAC businesses of any size in any location, and streamlines daily work for both service technicians and office staff seems too good to be true.  Yet it’s not only true, it’s largely untapped by today’s HVAC businesses.

Edmisten Heating and Cooling, my 10-year-old service company for residential and commercial structures, has saved hundreds of staff hours with mobile technology from myServiceForce.com; its handheld device and software manage technicians on the road and share information between trucks and office staff in real time.  The result is more customer visits with less overhead, better service and more accuracy.

Edmisten Heating and Cooling had seen consistent growth over the last decade from many of the same internal and external factors affecting the industry overall: local population growth (full-year residents and part-year vacation home owners), expanded support to new equipment lines such as American Standard and Lennox, and tried-and-true word-of-mouth referrals.  We now employ nearly 20 full-time employees, including four service technicians, six installation crews and only three office staffers.

But to grow the business to the next level, we required a more efficient infrastructure.

Mobility Need & Benefits

The business serves three counties in western North Carolina, covering nearly 1,000 square miles; for reference, that’s slightly larger than Orange County, California.  We install HVAC systems in new homes and commercial buildings, retrofit systems for existing structures and service equipment of all brand names.  We also provide emergency 24-hour service.

Our operation requires that installation teams and service technicians minimize travel, accurately stock new systems and parts and still maintain the flexibility to add a call in the middle of the day or after normal business hours.  Meanwhile, office staff has to ensure accurate and on-time bookkeeping, and have easy access to customer records.

myServiceForce.com allows us to accomplish these goals, as well as save in other areas; typical savings for our company – and for other HVAC businesses – include:

  • Fuel.  Covering such a large area, we can easily waste hundreds of dollars of gasoline per week on return trips to the office.  With the mobile technology, technicians know their work schedules for the entire day when they leave for the first call, allowing them to eliminate return trips for customer information or to stock inventory for subsequent jobs.
  • More service calls.  Fewer trips to the office create more time for service calls.  Even a few additional calls per weeks add thousands of dollars in profit to the bottom line.  More revenue with the same staff working the same amount of hours is every business’ goal.
  • Accounting.  When technicians complete jobs, invoices are printed immediately on site, and data is automatically and remotely synched with the company’s back-end QuickBooks® software via a wireless connection.  Administrators do not have to re-enter any data, and technicians have access to customer invoice histories on their devices.  If a device is out of range, it will synch data when a signal becomes available.
  • Billing.  We’ve reduced our billing time by weeks compared to the pre-mobile days.  By handing invoices to customers, they can question any service or part cost immediately, ensuring they have an accurate bill immediately following the service – leading to quicker payment and fewer follow-up calls.
  • Paperwork and IT.  myServiceForce.com stores information on the Internet, removing the company’s burden to manage the data on our network or in countless paper files.  We put office space to better use for more staff, and leave myServiceForce.com to manage the technology maintenance and upgrades.
  • Flexibility.  Mobile technology cannot be too rigid, or it becomes a hindrance instead of an enabler.  myServiceForce.com gives our team the ability to add new emergency calls right away, pulling up new customer data, prioritizing urgent needs and re-routing trucks to save fuel and time for customers and the company.

Ease of Deployment

 

Like most HVAC service companies, Edmisten Heating and Cooling had primarily spent technology dollars on typical small business expenses (e.g. computers and related software) and equipment to improve system installation and repairs.

 

We knew that a new type of investment was necessary, and that we would need to be cautious about the best way to manage remote workers.  The company considered a variety of cell phone and handheld computer dispatching programs, reviewing the device and software features that would give us the most bang for our bucks.  We needed a system that all workers would embrace, could be deployed in weeks and would give a quick payback.

 

Keys to a successful deployment included simple online ordering and phone support for our questions.  Our technicians and office staff were trained within a two weeks, giving us rapid savings that grew with each customer service visit.  Devices cost around $400 each, far less than their price points even from two years ago.

 

Mobility technology seems like a “neat-to-have” solution for HVAC service businesses, with added gadgets and technical wizardry that makes competitors jealous.  In fact, after using it for the last 2 years, myServiceForce.com is a “need-to-have” partner that allows us to easily grow the business, cut costs and better serve our customers.

 

John Edmisten is the owner of Boone, N.C.-based Edmisten Heating and Cooling, a 10-year old HVAC service and installation company.  He can be reached at (828) 264-0130.

 

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Low-Cost Mobile Technology Helps Get the Job Done Right on The First Visit

Fred Ross, Deckside Pools, Mission Viejo, California

Deckside Pool Service, a 25-year old pool maintenance company based in Mission Viejo, Calif., has developed remote repair best practices for small field service businesses through its use of myServiceForce.com’s low-cost technology. 

Deckside Pool uses myServiceForce.com to turn its field technicians into fully-functional mobile employees who can track inventory, print invoices and efficiently route themselves between jobs with minimal back-office support, in real time.  myServiceForce.com’s low-cost devices and hosted service give big-business functionality at an affordable price for companies with a handful or dozens of employees.  The technology is designed for small businesses in electrical contracting, plumbing, HVAC, pool and spa service, and commercial contractors. 

“It would cost us nearly $4,000 per month to hire enough people to do the same amount of work that myServiceForce.com does for us,” said Fred Ross, president and owner of Deckside Pool Service.  “We handle 1,700 service and repair calls per month, and the efficiency means better prices for customers and better compensation for employees.  Any field service small business owner can do this, too.”

Ross has identified three top strategies to successfully deploy and manage mobile technology:

 

  1. Leave IT to the experts: Let the solutions provider manage the setup and maintenance of your mobile IT.  This guarantees superior performance and system reliability, with dramatically fewer problems.  Do-it-yourself IT costs can triple the price of an unmanaged solution.
  2. Be able to run your business wherever you are: Make sure that software can be delivered through a simple Internet connection.  Software as a service (SaaS) delivery models give small business owners the ability to manage day-to-day tasks without having to be in the office.
  3. Keep it simple: Use low-cost, user-friendly mobile devices.  If devices break, whether dropped in a pool or fallen off a truck, they should be easy and affordable to replace.  Adding excessive features and functionality not only increases initial costs, but also adds to monthly expenses. Upgrades will always be available if necessary.

This strategy has helped Deckside Pool Service generate a 30 percent monthly increase in revenues, as well as improvements in technician billability, daily planning and single-visit work orders completed.  The software’s scheduling and routing functionality has helped the company increase the number of jobs per technician per month without having to increase technician working hours.

“We’re aiming to help small businesses provide their customers with excellent service – without adding costs – by taking advantage of affordable mobile technology,” said Gary Rawding, president of myServiceForce.com.  “Deckside Pool Service is a model to any field service business.  Fred Ross and his team have used strategic IT deployment to support and grow the entire business operation.”

Through the use of myServiceForce.com’s hosted solution, Deckside Pool Service technicians’ are able to view their daily work orders without stepping foot in the office.  Dispatchers leveraging the solutions’ real-time communication capabilities, route the pool technicians based on knowledge, location, availability and job urgency -- ensuring quality customer service at every client touch point.  Once the job is completed, the technician can invoice the client instantly from the job site, speeding time-to-payment and eliminating paperwork.

“I can’t imagine going back to the old way of doing business,” added Ross.  “It’s a no-brainer to make more money and spend less.”

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Pro Mechanical Services - Systems Based Business

Tom Willison, Pro Mechanical Services

 

Tom Willison has been president and owner of Pro Mechanical Service (PMS), an HVACR contracting company, for four years. That number doesn’t accurately describe the depth of his experience in this field.

 

“I come out of a long line of HVAC businesses,” he said. The family business, Willison A/C, was founded in Nebraska in 1906. “We moved to California in 1971,” Willison said. He is the fourth generation to run the company, which now concentrates on industrial projects.

 

He has made a lot of changes to improve the company’s stability and value.

 

“I watched my grandfather and father build up the business and try to sell it; the sale flutters, fails, and falls apart,” he said. As he sees it, the strength of the company is based on the relationship between the owner and the customer. “The strength of the ownership holds the company together.”

 

What would happen to the value of the company, then, if something were to happen to the owner?

 

SYSTEM FOR LONGEVITY

 

In order to maintain business continuity no matter what, Willison turned the company into a “systems-based business.”

 

“If something were to happen to me tomorrow,” he said, “my business would run just fine.” The systems include a policy manual, insurance, and a high-tech customer history/dispatch system. The latter, in particular, is “valued by me and my customers,” he said.

 

MyServiceForce.com, a mobile technology field service company, recently launched on-demand software that is integrated with Windows Mobile 5.0. The hosted solution gives field service teams real-time access to sales and customer information, eliminating paper-based tracking.

 

In addition, the mobile technology “has a wonderful piece to it that most people haven’t thought of: Internet access for my customers,” Willison said.  “They can see their history and information on all their service equipment. Instead of them having to pick up the phone and research their service history with me, they can look it up online. Or, if they want to sell a specific property, they can view all of the information, a complete history of all their equipment, service calls, and costs. It allows them to make great decisions, and the buyer knows exactly how much work and maintenance has been done.”

 

Customers can also view work orders and invoices, so they can see what has been done to each piece of equipment. This helps operations staff justify equipment replacements and upgrades. It makes them so happy, in fact, “They’re less likely to float off to some other service company,” Willison said. “They get true value for what they paid for.  I don’t want satisfied customers; I want cheerleader customers.”


CUSTOMER BASE

 

PMS offers sales, service, and design services for a broad range of HVACR projects, “from complex, multistage, low-temperature refrigeration systems, to conventional comfort conditioning systems,” Willison said. “We’ve worked with construction management and we’ve been assigned the role of construction manager often.”

 

The company’s techs are trained to service, repair, and maintain large-tonnage refrigeration systems, centrifugal units, and small-tonnage comfort systems. They are dispatched through a computerized system, and are on call 24/7/365.  Typical projects have included the installation of a 110-ton absorption chiller system on Ghirardelli Chocolate’s cogeneration generators to provide chilled water for the company’s binder room. The contractor also installed a Carrier R-134a backup chiller.

The contractor also removed the old air quality system and replaced it with new air scrubbers and Greenheck ventilation systems for the Santa Rosa Water District, a project valued at $250,000. This included the installation of an FRP duct system for high-corrosion areas.  And at Nellson Nuetracuetical, PMS designed and installed a new brine process chiller for the chocolate process. The equipment was piped in while keeping the process lines in operation.

 

“Our services include identifying air quality problems, solving comfort complaints, and performing energy and operating cost studies,” Willison said.


PAPERLESS AT LAST

 

All of the information accessed by customers and the contractor is logged online on a secure server. The benefits of this system are not just on the company’s service side. “We track all of our construction work with this technology,” Willison said. “We know day to day what labor has been put into it, and what materials.” A field report can be extended to the construction team, such as outside project engineers and the owners. “It has made us a paperless company,” he said. “Hardly any paper floats through the business anymore. From a work order standpoint, it’s all done electronically.”

The resulting growth for PMS has been a $1 million increase for every year he has been in business. “I get my billing out in three days on average,” Willison said. “We’ve reduced accounts receivable to under 45 days.  We’re also running 22 guys with one dispatcher. I’m the backup dispatcher. You don’t have to have expensive hardware in your office,” he added. “Everything is Internet-based.”

 

The company also backs up its QuickBooks account daily on a flash drive. Regarding information security, myServiceForce.com “is 200 percent redundant,” Willison said, with a large database system out of New York. There are no expenses related to bandwidth use, he said.  “Instead of having six file cabinets, I have two. It cuts paperwork by about two-thirds, and allows me to run thin and lean.”

 

Willison said that PMS’s overhead has dropped to 8 percent, thanks to the technology. “Most air conditioning companies carry 18-19 percent overhead nationally.”


TECHNICIAN BENEFITS

MyServiceForce.com provides PMS with handheld devices and field service software that allows all 18 technicians to print bills on site, post invoices online immediately, and update customer information in real time. Data is instantly synced back to the main office via a wireless connection.  As a result, only three other staff members have to manage the remaining work: one dispatcher, one bookkeeper, and the president, Willison.

 

A main benefit is that the company’s techs love it. “It took ‘em a little bit to get used to,” he said, “but with the new PDAs [personal digital assistant], it’s a no-brainer. It slides apart and has a keyboard on it.”

 

According to Willison, “A lot of what a/c guys face is the training issue. With myServiceForce, you can build a custom troubleshooting checklist; all you have to do is fill in the blanks. The checklist writes the service order for him.”  It’s necessary to take care setting up the checklists in the first place. “The better your checklists are, the better your service is. I create the checklist myself with my service manager.” They can be customized for specific kinds of service calls.

 

“No cooling call?  He has to check a lot of things, and young guys tend to forget things,” said Willison. “These lists are the best training tool I’ve ever had.”

 

Sales leads can be forwarded from the technician’s PDA. “If he sees he’s working on a 1986 unit that needs to be replaced, he taps the sales area, adds information on what kind of unit, voltage, amps, etc. I have it e-mailed to the salesperson and myself.” It is not included in the company’s online information.

 

Speed is increased for installation and maintenance work, he said. “We replaced 63, 30-year-old units on a roof in one month. We know all the maintenance history on them. Our company has a belief in having service and maintenance contracts to keep units lasting longer. You can just about double the life expectancy of a unit.” The data logging helps document and justify the savings.  “It makes it very easy for us to sell service contracts,” he said. “They get to see the service history and what we are doing. We create value by giving them excellent reporting.  Our net profitability stays up in the 20-26 percent range,” he continued. “There is a lot less slipping through the cracks. Most techs hate paperwork; they stack it up to the end of the week, then fill it out from memory. With this program, they can’t get their next service call without completing the paperwork for the service call they’re on.”

 

The profitability is passed on to the employees. Willison said he can offer his techs $25 to $35 an hour, and profit sharing on large projects with key personnel.

 

MyServiceForce.com said it gives field service businesses a lower cost of entry to mobility solutions. The company offers a range of handheld devices, including PDAs, smart phones, and ruggedized field handheld computers and tablets running Windows Mobile 5.0 or Windows XP Tablet Edition. It can be used by large or small service companies.

 

For more information, visit www.myserviceforce.com or www.pms4svc.com.


From: “The News” ACHR News

Letting Customers View Their Histories
by Barb Checket-Hanks
October 9, 2006