Like it or not, the workforce is increasingly mobile and workers on the go need to be fully productive from mobile devices. Service companies need to keep up with the demand of an ever-growing digital world and should take advantage of the continued streamlined benefits that go along with a mobile solution. A recent article in The Air Conditioning/Heating/Refrigeration News speaks to this very message.

Most service companies already have cell phones distributed to improve in-the-field communications and most cell phone providers now offer bundled text/phone/internet solutions that are the same price if not cheaper than the individual plans. Adding a mobile service management solution will organize and streamline the work flow of both small and large service companies, making them more manageable and profitable.

ESC Mobile is a simple and affordable way to outfit your mobile technicians with real-time job information and time tracking. ESC Mobile is a powerful and intuitive smartphone, tablet and laptop App for Service Technicians to manage work orders in the field, Technician managers to manage technicians in the field and office personnel to monitor everything with real-time updates to and from the field.

ESC Mobile has all the tools and features growing service companies need. Benefits and advantages include:

• Increased tech productivity by arming your team with the right information in the field ensuring jobs are completed faster and more efficiently.
• Increased response time with features such as GPS tracking and mapping.
• Increased field accuracy with access to all information needed to identify and work on the right equipment and eliminate illegible hand-written field notes.
• Increased customer care and professionalism with easy access to complete customer information across your network.
• Increased sales by increasing the productivity of your technicians and in turn allowing them to complete more jobs daily as well as giving your team information needed to quickly identify up and cross sale opportunities.
• Reduced costs by identifying areas of waste and inefficiencies. (Example. Reduced fuel costs with ESC’s route optimization and mapping functions.)
• Improved internal communications by giving your employees access up-to-the-minute company and customer information, all in a single location.
• Improved external communications with appointment reminders, status updates, technician profile emails, surveys, coupons and more.  
• Reduced collections by allowing techs to process payments in the field lowering processing costs, ensuring accuracy, reducing collection issues and improving cash flow.

The benefits of implementing a mobile solution far outweigh the cost. So what are you waiting for? Contact us today for a personalized demo on our ESC mobile solution.

Many HVAC, Plumbing, and other service companies that have been in existence for years and have never used software to manage their dispatches, quotes, invoices, or service agreements. However, in this fast-moving business environment, even traditionally low-tech industries can no longer afford not to use technology in their businesses.

Change is difficult, and keeping the fear of change from influencing your boss’ decision about introducing new technology into their business is difficult but necessary.

Some owners of HVAC, Plumbing, and other service companies are gung-ho about using new technology to advance their business, but others are more technologically averse and need more coaxing and convincing. If you have determined that your company would greatly benefit from service software, but your boss is hesitant about introducing new technologies, here are a few tips to pitch your idea to your boss.

When you know what technology your company needs to move to the next level, you need to get your boss not only accept your point of view, but act on it. To sell your idea to your boss, you have to communicate how your software choice will help your company accomplish what it has set out to do.

For instance, if one of your company’s goals is “same day service,” a dispatching tool that lets your dispatchers schedule your technicians efficiently is necessary. Alternatively, if you company loses money because of lost or illegible invoices, mobile computing tools might be the answer.

To get your boss to listen to your idea for software, you must select the key points and deliver them in a convincing way. Here are some quick ideas for presenting your idea to your boss:

1. Make a one-page handout for your boss that makes the case for the software you want.
2. Set an appointment to discuss the document.
3. Go through the document point by point to persuade your boss of why your company will benefit from your idea.
4. If you cannot get a commitment from your boss right away, schedule a time to follow-up and get a final decision.
5. If you believe that your idea is the right one, do not give up after an initial “no,” but instead, focus on communicating the bottom line implications of not going forward and keeping the status quo.

The most important part of selling service software to your boss is that it meets his needs. Your software idea has to solve your boss’ problems, not yours. Your boss cares less about how it will make your life easier and more about how it will contribute to the bottom line.

To sell your boss on your software idea, you have to demonstrate how it will help him reach his business goals.

The service business climate is competitive and constantly changing. That means your company need to be willing to adapt to the current business climate, plan and budget, focus on customer service, use benchmarks, and be open to new ways of doing things. The ideas below can give you some direction of what to do or reassurance that your company is on track.

Be willing to adapt to the business climate around you

Today is different from yesterday, and you may not even recognize tomorrow. Running a service business means making the best decisions with the information you have. The service business climate is always changing, so keeping abreast of the current climate is an important part of making sound decisions for your company.

That does not mean just to do what everyone else is doing. Sometimes that is the worst strategy of all.

Plan and make a budget

Even though you cannot know what tomorrow will bring, it is critical to have a plan and budget. It may only serve as a guideline, but it is better than going in blind. In running your business, you can only improvise and go off script when there is a script to begin with.

In making your company’s budget, remember all the unplanned expenses and make sure there is money available to take advantage of new opportunities for growth.

Focus first on customer service

Your customers determine the success or failure of your business. Serving their needs always has to be the top priority. Without their trust in your company’s ability to perform, they will not come back to you the next time they need service and they certainly will not recommend you to a friend.

You want your service company to come to mind first when your customers need service. The way to get there is to make sure they are the first priority in every interaction they have with your company.

Set benchmarks to measure company performance

We live in a digital age. You can measure everything your company does. With benchmarks, you can also determine if what you are doing now is better or worse than what you were doing before.

With these benchmarks and measurements, you can see what parts of your company are making you profitable and which parts are holding you back. You can see where success is happening and replicate it, and you can see where there is still work to do.

Never say, “This is how we’ve always done it.”

What worked in your business before might not be working now and certainly will not work forever. A business that makes decisions now based on what they did five years ago is looking for trouble.

Instead of saying, “This is how we’ve always done it,” try, “We tried it that way before. How can we do better?” An attitude that you can do better is self-fulfilling.

Running your business by the principles above will not only keep your company in business but will set it up for growth and development. It is not possible to do business like you used to, but new techniques and new tools mean your business can still get ahead.

Capital budgeting is the process where a business decides if a long-term investment is worth pursuing based on its long-term benefits. These types of capital investments could be in vehicles, buildings, tools, or technological improvements.

Usually, businesses will look at the lifetime cash flows (both in and out) that will be associated with the investments to determine if the returns make sense. For instance, when purchasing a new truck for your business, you may also have to hire a technician to drive it and to go to job sites in it.

The cost of many larger capital investments can be spread out over time through financing. However, for some investments there will be a larger investment up front, but then benefits that continue indefinitely.

Capital budgeting decisions can become a key factor in the long-term profitability of a company. Therefore, owners and managers need to compare the benefits and costs of the various capital investments they can make in their companies. There are many techniques companies can use to determine the long-term value of an investment.

I won’t go into them in too much detail here, but I will list and link to places to learn more:

• Accounting rate of return
• Net present value
• Profitability index
• Internal rate of return
• Modified internal rate of return
• Equivalent annuity

Most of the methods take into account the incremental cash flows or cash savings from the potential investment or project. Using these methods can help you determine if investing in new vehicles, new equipment, new warehouses, or new technology will be a wise investment.

The most important factors to consider are the total costs that will be present, including purchase price, maintenance costs, operational costs, etc. Vehicles for your service company, for instance, are good investments, but there is also the cost of running another vehicle (including maintenance, fuel, and manpower) to consider.

The process you use to budget for your equipment or technology improvements will vary based on what you are thinking of purchasing or accomplishing. However, one of the most important parts of budgeting is determining what you need and how it will help you.

Determine what the capital improvement project will accomplish or what time-consuming task it will replace. Look at the opportunity costs that not having the equipment or technology is costing both in the short and long-term. Then look at the cost of doing nothing both in the short and long-term compared to the total cost of the investment.

Finally, remind yourself why you were considering this capital investment in the first place. What are you trying to accomplish? What pain do you expect it to ease? With the costs and benefits in mind, estimate what kind of return on investment you can expect. Are you assumptions realistic? Will the benefits outweigh the costs by enough?

Thinking through all the costs and benefits of any capital improvement project will let you make the smartest decision for your company. Sometimes inaction is more expensive in the long-term than the investment in the new equipment you’re considering. Keep that cost in mind too when doing capital budgeting.

How do you go about deciding what investments are right for your company?

Service Roundtable has shared a PowerPoint presentation by Linda Couch, Chief Operating Officer of Parish Services. She gave the presentation at Comfortech 2010 in Baltimore, MD.

The presentation shares 10 ideas for making your service technicians more productive. You can get it from Service Roundtable’s website or by clicking the image below.

Linda’s 10 tips are:

1. Clearly define and prioritize “productivity” for your techs
2. Define and manage productivity goals
3. Equip your techs with productivity enhancing tools
4. Equip techs with a proper, organized inventory
5. Train your techs: Technical
6. Train your techs: Advising
7. Use supporting customer service and dispatch strategies
8. Use supporting warehouse and purchasing strategies
9. Use supporting sales and marketing strategies
10. Use IT to increase productivity

She goes into much greater detail within the PowerPoint presentation, which also includes her speaking notes. Implementing all of Linda’s tips will take a great deal of time, focus, and dedication. But the effect her tips will have on the profitability of your business will be profound.

This week, dESCO was one of the sponsors of the Fall 2010 Vegas Roundtable. Service Roundtable put on the event at Planet Hollywood, located on the iconic Las Vegas Strip.

Top Left: afterhours party; top center: dESCO's prize table; top right: discussion panel; bottom: group workshop

dESCO gave out prizes to a few of the participants. There were three winners in the drawings. Joe Gerolami of Border Mechanical Services, Ltd (a dESCO customer) and Ryan Snow of Western Heating & AC, both won 2 one-hour training sessions with one of dESCO’s technical specialists. Mindy Krueger of Krueger Mechanical Services, LLC won a 300-piece poker set.



The theme of this year’s Vegas Roundtable was “building your business for stellar growth.” The website promoting the event had a great overview of who was going to be there and what it was all about:

Grow or die. Move or stagnate. Business is tough! But we provide the path to success through an amazing line up of speakers, personal time with top industry consultants, members sharing with members, and a great opening reception.

A few highlights…

Olympic Gold Medalist Lanny Basham – his story is inspirational, thought-provoking, and provides lessons in success for all us in business.

Add a new line to your company portfolio. Jim Hinshaw tells us about the exciting opportunities in Solar available for all Service Roundtable members.

Two years ago a Service Roundtable member lost $200,000+ in employee fraud. (But that will never happen to YOU, right?) Don’t be fooled! Michael Bohinc gives simple, easy to implement tools for preventing fraud.

How different would your business be if all the coworkers thought like owners? Greg McAfee shows us a fun, innovative way to engage coworkers.

Back by popular demand: Ken Goodrich’s story of stellar growth is so compelling, inspirational, and PACKED with amazing information that we asked him for an afterhours reprise. If you missed it before, don’t miss it again!

Double Down with Charlie Greer. Always a wild card, Charlie Greer takes your questions in a no limits Q&A.

But there’s more: Joe Cunningham, Drew Cameron, Matt Michel, Contributors of the Year, Consultant of the Year, Gene Burch, Frank Besednjak, the Idea Roulette. And a special announcement from Service Roundtable!

(via 2010 Vegas Round Table)

Sponsors for the event, along with dESCO, were Service Net, Jackson Systems, Goodman, and Visible Defects.

We are pleased to announce the official release of ESC Mobile Web for the iPhone/iPad and Android based phones. We have customized both applications to make full use of the device’s touch screens and feature the following abilities:

• View complete dispatch information
• Change dispatch status
• Track time spent on jobs
• Add dispatch notes
• Create new customer records
• Create new dispatches
• Send text messages to the office

The applications work with the ESC desktop software through a link to the Connections Server in your office, so you will need a connection to the Internet to use the software. The link is in real-time, so any changes you make, either from the office or from in the field on the phone, are instantly visible on the other. This gives you unlimited flexibility in scheduling.

Both apps include a connection to a demo database. This means that you can download the app today and see exactly how it will work for you in the field without any setup or commitment. Once you are ready to buy this add-on, just give us a call at 800-226-7529 and we’ll help you get everything working perfectly with your database for just a small monthly fee per user.

You can download the iPhone app directly from iTunes for free by searching for ESC Mobile or viewing this link. Please note this app looks fantastic on the iPad as well.

You can download the Android app for free directly from doubleTwist, the Android store, by clicking this link. You can also download the app by scanning the following QR code with a bar code scanner application on your phone.

We come across articles and blog posts every day that help service companies better operate, market, and grow. There’s simply too much out there to keep up with. That’s why we periodically will publish a collection of useful links like the ones below.

Mobile Payments As Marketing Strategy – John Jantsch lays out the argument for using and accepting mobile payments as a marketing strategy, as a way to set your company apart from the competition. He poses this question: “The question marketers of all kinds need to start asking is if their customers are mobile, how mobile does the business need to be?”

Golden Opportunity – Garry Upton and Robert Wilkos write in Contracting Business Magazine about how to get the most out of your existing customers by expanding your service agreement offerings.

Top 10 Tips on How to Sell a HVAC Maintenance Contract – Following on the idea of growing you service business with service contracts, we have a post from The Service Coach about how to sell maintenance contracts more effectively.

Forming a Board of Directors is Crucial for HVACR Businesses – Greg McAfee has a post on his blog about the importance of getting outside advice from trusted advisors, or a board, for long term HVAC success.

HVAC Marketing Terms – Ron Smith published a post on his blog says there are terms HVAC contractors and other service contractors use to describe their business that are less than idea to share with customers. He suggests 14 improvements to your marketing vocabulary.

If you come across a great link you want to share with your service company colleagues, email it to jonathanf [at] desco-soft [dot] com