The Marketing Pro and Scheduling Pro Automation Power Combo |Podcast Ep. 60 | Mastering ServiceTitan

We moved to Scheduling Pro and that even alone increased our bookings. Just having that new platform and it's mobile friendly and I would say the biggest thing is going where your customers are and I don't see people giving up cell phones anytime soon.

Welcome to Mastering Service Titan where you get expert advice from power users. I'm your host, Josh Liu and today I'm joined by Sam Hager from, from Nixco Plumbing. You're the director of marketing and operations there. And we are talking all about Marketing Pro and Scheduling Pro and especially how they work together. And so Sam, thank you so much for being here.

Thanks for having me. I'm excited, super pumped to be here.

Yeah, I'm really excited to talk about this topic. I know most of our customers are already on Marketing Pro and a lot of them are looking at Scheduling Pro and especially how they work together. So there's a lot to cover. But first, maybe if we start off with Marketing Pro, what do you think are some tips or tricks with Marketing Pro or maybe underrated features with it that people should use more?

I think my biggest one that I think we underutilized when we started on it first was email and automation and letting the program work for you and not you working for the program. I know you hear it a lot that you know people aren't getting into it, getting into the weeds and that takes a while and that kind of puts them off from the product. But I think if you just get the basic sound of the email automations now you can do sms, you know, within the legal, legal means. We set up a bunch of email automations with email follow ups. There's even a past due invoice one, we have membership renewals, there's a couple more we've got and just letting those go and work for you and then obviously you know, touch and optimize them over the course of a couple months or a year. But having that set and letting it work for you, that's, that's really, really big for us and has really helped. There's been positive ROI on all of that and yeah, I said it once and go and so it's been awesome.

Okay, cool. With those email automations, let's say someone hasn't set up any automations. Which one do you think they should start with?

I would say the biggest one is unsold estimates and letting people follow up on them again, letting the system work for you. You know, if you don't have someone that you can designate to do outbound calling and you have someone that can at least get in there you yourself and set those up and then let those run and you can set a drip campaign, have multiple ones go out over a course of a month or however long. You know, that would be my biggest focus because then you're, you're getting revenue back and you're not really having to put that much time into it.

Okay. So yeah, unsold estimates, that makes sense as like the priority if you don't have some kind of automation.

Get those on some leads.

Yeah, yeah, get them re engaged. Is there a particular like in terms of dripping that out, like timing that you recommend or that you found works best?

So our estimates, a lot of them are good for up to 30 days with pricing changes, different things like that material. So we will hit someone the next day saying hey, here's the link. Having the link to the estimates in the portal, that's excellent. Including that. So they can do it all online. After that it would be another 48 hours. And then we hit them again nine days after the first one went out just to kind of remind them because we obviously, you know, if an issue is more urgent, we don't want them to forget about it. So we try to keep it within. Yeah, I would say 10 days is the, the three drip campaigns.

Okay, gotcha. So one day and then two days later and then nine.

Okay.

All under 10 days just to make sure you catch everybody.

Yeah, we don't want to miss them. Yeah. And then I think we also have a SMS one set up and that is at the end of 30 days. We run that just in case, you know, they got busy, had other priorities come up. We just want to, you know, keep on them.

Okay, cool. For the SMS campaigns, you know, you mentioned something about the legal. Because there's some are like double opt in or opt in or. Yeah, how does all that work and making sure you're good there.

You know I, I would love to say that I really know but I think I'm still learning a lot. I know the big one for us is to focus on transactional messages and those are within. You don't have to have that marketing opt in if it's transactional. So as long as it doesn't have, you know, an offer or, or you're trying to secure them, you know, through a campaign. A true marketing campaign. Being legally compliant has. We've just been doing transactional stuff. I have not moved into the fully marketing ones yet. Until I get a better grasp on that, I don't want to get down that road. Yeah.

Yeah, that makes sense. We are not lawyers, so this is not legal advice. If you're listening to this, please do not pursue it at your own risk. Every state's different, I think, in optims and whatnot. So there's like, I think what you're saying, there's some CAT communication that's categorized as transactional versus actually, like marketing campaigns. For example, maybe like getting a coupon or a promo that would categorize it as marketing, where in some states you need people to opt into those kinds. But I believe transactional, you're pretty safe.

Yeah. So the ones where it says, here's your estimate, we're not proposing anything. There's no offer involved. We've already been in their home or we've already been with them and made that connection. So we're not having. We're not sourcing them from another. From another, a different area, like, you know, miscellaneous list mailing addresses or anything. So that's where you're safe with those. Okay.

Yeah, makes sense. So that's a great one to start with. The unsold estimates, automating those campaigns and trying to capture every dollar. Don't. Don't drop those opportunities. Let's say someone's got that set up. What do you think would be next in line for. Of priority?

So we're. We're just plumbing, but to kind of go outside of that. I know obviously we just have memberships, but service agreements, service plans, maintenance plans for H vac. Think doors, even garage doors. I would set up a renewal campaign for that if they're not already automatically renewing. But also scheduling those. Those maintenance agreements, scheduling those visits. You could do all that and automate it through a campaign, and that might segue into the Scheduling Pro. Yeah, actually, including that. Yeah. Yeah.

So how long were you all on Marketing Pro before you guys got Scheduling Pro?

Let's see. I think we were on Marketing Pro pretty quickly after we moved to Service Titan, and then we capitalized on Scheduling for. We actually were on Schedule Engine.

Oh, okay.

Okay. And that. So that was pretty quickly. Probably a year into Marketing Pro, we were on Schedule Engine, and then when Schedule Engine became Scheduling Pro, we just moved right to that as well. Yeah.

And how did you know you guys were ready for Scheduling Pro?

Being a millennial part of it was probably me pushing it based on what I wanted. I knew to, you know, stay ahead, be your competitors, you know, what's the next thing coming. And to me, that would have been online scheduling. And you can do it with Yelp and Resi. And so why can't we kind of thing. So I figured that's where the industry was going because that's how I wanted it to be. So I was okay with it. That was when I knew that if we didn't do it, we were going to be missing out on customers. That's when I figured we should take that leap.

Yeah, I know. Before we started recording out front, we were chatting about how like I. I barely call anybody anymore. I'm one of those people for sure, that just want to book online. It's so easy that way.

So easy. And you don't have to talk to anyone or. Yeah. And you can do it whenever. I think is also just how instantaneous as well.

Yeah, I heard a lot of people, the jobs that come booked online are like, usually after hours or like late at night or something like that. I don't know if you find that to be the case with you guys.

You know, that was one of my goals here at Pantheon was to try to figure out how to run that report and to really get. Because there's that performance data and to really understand that and how do I make that. How do I make my Scheduling Pro widget better from that data? So that's something that after this, I will go back and review to see how many people are actually booking after hours and how many people are booking in on the weekends, but then also like during the day, because we get those as well.

Right? Yeah, that'd be really interesting to see.

Yeah.

I think a common question people have about Scheduling Pro is, you know, there's like that in Service nine Core. There's like a book online thing that you can. Like a widget or something like that.

I believe so. It's pretty basic.

Very basic, Yeah. I wanted to see. I think some people are confused or curious about what's the difference between Scheduling Pro and like the basic online scheduler.

So I think there's a big difference, honestly. I think the first part would be, especially now, just how much more customizable it is over that basic widget. Now you can do logos, you can do your colors, your brand, and then there's just. And you can have all these questions built in and really control the flow and the touch points of where your customers are going to get them in the right spot. Just the customization of it makes it worth it for me.

Gotcha. So let's say I'm a customer and I go to your website and book online through Scheduling Pro. Could you walk me through what that experience would Be like as a customer.

Yeah. So it's pretty easy. I've done it so many times now. We made sure that on our site, the button is everywhere, the schedule now button. It sticks out, it's obvious. And then you just simply click on it. The widget pops up. We have it where they can see our availability first and they don't have to put their information in first. Again, it's user preference. That's what I liked and wanted and looked for. They put their problem in the issue at hand and they select that, and then it pops up their. The schedule. And if they find the time, a date and time that they like, select it, then they put their customer information in. And if they're an existing customer, pulls them right up. If they're not, they can put their information in. Then we have it. They simply hit. We have a dispatch fee, they accept it, and then hit schedule, and that's it.

Wow. Okay.

Yeah.

Super simple.

I've done it. I think, you know, if you're pretty confident in it as a millennial, it takes you two minutes maybe. Yeah. So it's nice.

It's very, very convenient.

Yeah.

For the availability, do you have, like, a specific time windows and how big are those windows?

Yeah, so for us, we have three arrival windows. So 8 to 9, 9 to 12, 12 to 4. And it brings those right in. It shows them. We use adjustable capacity planning for the scheduler right now. We haven't moved to adaptive just yet, and it's been great. There's. We've never had an overbooking, and obviously if we need a booking that day, if it shows it and it'll stop it on the board. So that'll be great for us, you know, if we're waiting for a call to come in.

Right. That is awesome. And actually, those time slots seem pretty strategic. So you said you have an 8 to 9 and then a 9 to 12 and then a 12 to 4. Yes. How did you guys arrive at those time slots?

You know, that would be a question for my dad. He. He started it when I came in. I wasn't going to mess with that. But I do like it because some people, you know, they want to be in and out in the mornings, and other people, as they get into the later part of their day, they've got so much going on that that window helps them a little bit.

Yeah. I would imagine an 8 to 9 is a great. To me, it seemed like 8 to 9, 9 to 12, and then the big one 12 to 4. It gives your guys more Flexibility in case jobs take longer.

Yeah, it helps us for sure if that. Eight to nine, you know, they go in and they sell something that's going to take them four hours, we can move things around, push things down. Yeah. It keeps our board really flexible and it just has worked out great for us.

Yeah. Because for some reason I thought, like, the availability would have been like just hour by hour or something like that. But I like how you guys set it up. And I was. There's probably some strategic reason, so that makes sense.

I'll have to go find out for you.

How about in terms of setup, like, if you go back to the early days of when you first got Scheduling Pro, are there any lessons from that that you can impart on people who are just starting out?

Yeah, so when we started, I was super excited with it. Building it out took a while. If you're kind of really nitpicky or specific about what you're wanting, but, you know, you can chat in and help and like the support and the walkthroughs on the academy, like, everything's great, the support there. So once you get it live, that was easy. Honestly, it just took took time. Then I got it on there and I was all excited. I thought, you know, we were going to kill it. We were going to get like 50 online bookings. That did not happen. I was sitting there, I'm thinking, you know, what is wrong? Why isn't this working? And I figured out that it was a lack of customer awareness or, like education around it. They just didn't know that it was there for them. So we did a couple of different things. I sent out an email through Marketing Pro and that helped generate to existing customers, you know, hey, you can do this now. And here's the link, you know, save it, whatever. The other thing I did that really, really helped us is, is we used our integration that we have with Mail Shark, actually, and we sent out a postcard mailer with an offer, and the whole thing was just highlighting that we now have a book online feature on our website and to maximize and you know, to use that and the ROI from that was just fantastic. I think it cost US$700 or something to send about 2,000 postcards out. And I think the ROI or the revenue sales from it was about $140,000 in the span of like six months. So it was just crazy. Yeah. Yeah. And, you know, not all of them were scheduling online, but they were calling in and acknowledging it. And then some of them actually were just scheduling online from that postcard mailer. And yeah, it's. I think that helped make customers aware of like, oh, they have this now. That's great. And so a lot of our users are existing customers. Users of the widget are our existing customers.

Okay.

Yeah.

How excited were you when you finally started seeing them come?

Oh my gosh. So excited. Because I thought I had done something wrong. Yeah. But yeah, no, when they finally started coming in, it was like kind of like a sigh of relief. Like, okay, we're good, we got this and it's been great. And it's, it's never gotten stagnant or anything. It's just always. It's been growing for us. And the bookings have increased month over month as well. Wow. Yeah.

Couple of things I wanted to highlight there. One is you said in the Marketing Pro email, you provided a link in there as well. What was that link that you, you put in there?

Yes. So in the Scheduling Pro widget, in the Work Connect app, you can do a direct link to the widget. You can put it in your emails, you can put it in your SMS campaigns as well. And instead of taking them to just the site, it actually will take them to the browser and then it pops up the widget automatically so they don't have to navigate your site anymore. It takes them right to where they need to be.

Gotcha. Okay. So they can skip the site and pretty much right away book online straight from that link itself.

Yes. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And it's gotten even more complex. You can, you know, create different links that have specific job types already. So if like they might have a heater problem, you can set the link to pop up on water heater already for the job type.

So it can kind of pre fill some of the form already for them. If you already know the answers, well.

That'S make it easy for them, right?

Yeah, yeah. Have it already partially filled out. They just have to click a couple things there on the calendar. And I do want to go back to. So you said in the initial setup before the fun went live, it took a little bit of time. Is that because of the configuration and you have to select like what questions you wanted in there and options and stuff?

Yeah, I think the build out can be pretty intensive if you want it to be. I think there's some options that, like a standard workflow, it'll give you the basic options. But if you wanted to get more intense into it and really build it for your business, that's an option. And that's kind of where I went so that I could understand it and learn it and then maximize it from there.

Okay, so it sounds like there's like an out of the box kind of flow. If you want, you can quickly just throw it up on the website. But then if you want to customize it way more, that's where the time.

Yes, I believe so. Yeah. And you. The great thing that I think about it is that you can go back in and customize it whenever you want and then just hit save and it pushes it right to the site.

Okay, cool. That's good to know. Because I'm the type of person who would have just been like, oh, out of the box. Yeah, let's just throw it out there and just see what happens.

And then you get to it and it's, oh, no, what did I do?

Yeah. Did you have to make any tweaks to how you set it up along the way?

Oh, for sure, yes. As we went through and kind of determined what was easy or what's pushing people away from scheduling. Are questions too confusing or did we ask too many questions? Are there roadblocks? And then we would tweak from there. At first, we only had a plumbing category, and within that plumbing category, there would be 10, 15 different job types. Well, customers are just getting lost in all of that. So we would add multiple. We added, you know, multiple categories so that we had drain and then water heater. Easier for the customer to see, you know. Okay, yeah, I need to go here. This is my problem. Instead of having to hit just plumbing and scroll, that was one of the things. Make it. How quick can we make it for the customer?

Gotcha. And. And so did you guys have too many options? Did you have to shrink it down or you had too few and you had to add a few more?

So we had too few of the one big category. So we added more categories so that people could say, okay, yeah, my water heater's leaking. Here's water heater. That's my problem. And then. Yeah, okay.

And then when people book online, do you still have anyone called to follow up with that customer or make any kind of connection there? Do you just show up at the time?

So when they book, it goes into our unassigned currently. And then we move it up. And then as soon as it gets moved up, a booking confirmation gets sent out. So a lot of times we do that instantaneously if we're in the office. And so right away, they're getting it within five to 10 minutes. That okay, yep, your appointment's been confirmed. And that's really taken away from people having to call and follow up. Sometimes we'll get the older customers that you know, are still a little bit hesitant, like did I actually get an appointment or not? And so they'll call. But really there's not been much confusion over any online bookings.

Okay. I guess for Scheduling Pro, I mean, to me, maybe it's because I am also a millennial and I like booking. It seems like something that's just such a no brainer. But if anyone's on Marketing Pro and they're just hesitant about Scheduling Pro for some reason, what would you say to those folks?

We were on Schedule Engine and it was a very basic software and then we moved to Scheduling Pro and that even alone increased our bookings. Just having that new platform and it's mobile friendly. And I would say the biggest thing is going where your customers are. And I don't see people giving up cell phones anytime soon. And so everyone's on their phone all the time, constantly. And that's the way the world is going to be going. So why not be there already when it gets there if it's not already? So yeah, I think you need to be visible where your customers are and do what they want. It's all about them. And booking online is, is where it's at, in my opinion. Yeah.

Yeah, I think so. Are there any people who should not use Scheduling Pro or online booking?

If you are aware that your customer or your target market, your demographic is an older audience, I wouldn't put sole focus on just booking online. Obviously still maintain a call center, csrs and it's just an added benefit. I don't think I would shy away from it though, because obviously you can't just survive on an older target market. But yeah, I think that would be. That could cause some confusion if you know that, you know, I'm sending out mailers because that's all they respond to. You know, emails don't work for this generation or for that target market. I may be a little bit more hesitant about that. Depending on where you're located.

Yeah. Yeah. Probably be very few people, I imagine.

I don't think so. Right.

Yeah. Besides the website, is there anywhere else that people can book online for?

Yeah, actually we put the QR code on our truck wraps.

Okay.

Yeah. So on the back it says scan to book online and it's a. It's on the backs only. I haven't figured out a way to actually see if it's been working, like attribute it to that. But it's there. And yes, it's there to get them to have an action. But also it's, to me it's more branding as well. Like hey, we can book online. And you're seeing that on a truck. So that's where it is. We also have it on like we have water heater stickers or stickers that we put around. We have QR codes on those as well. So I have tried to throw them everywhere.

That's really smart because like you said in the beginning when you just had it on the website, there's some education that needs to happen as well and that can take time. So I think that's smart to put it on the trucks and on the sticker, on the water heater.

Yeah, yeah, it was, it's been a trial and error. Like where is it going to work? So we've thrown it everywhere probably. Yeah.

Very cool. Are there any other improvements or like next steps that you're looking forward to in terms of online scheduling and scheduling pro for your business?

One of the things they actually just added is the membership. You can put like are you interested in joining the membership? And it's a box, an opt in box and it says yes or no. And I actually just turned that on the other day. So that is interesting to me. And I think expanding on that because customer retention is so big and huge. Expanding on that and you know, adding where they could renew online or sign up online without us having to come out and get them, you know, bought in before we're even in the door. That would be super helpful.

Wow, that'd be really cool. And I think I heard an update. I don't know if it was announced here at Pantheon or maybe before. Is there some kind of like abandoned cart, like automated text follow up or something?

Yes. Yeah, I signed up for that so hopefully I get in on it. That would be very helpful too. Just we, I've seen in mine, you know, we've had a thousand people open it and then we've had 5, 500 people abandoned it. It's like, where are you going? So having a text go out after again, automation people aren't having to do it on their own. A follow up would I think will maximize the scheduling widget even more.

Yeah, that's interesting because if a thousand people clicked on, clicked book online and then partway through like 500 people left but they're, they still need something fixed.

Yeah, yeah.

How do we find a way to go and re engage those. Those people?

Exactly.

Can you see who they are or no? Oh, you can't.

Well, yes, you can. If they don't put their information in, you don't have much to go on except for like an IP address, which I'm not that techie. I can't stalk them. I can't do that. You know, you have like, my dad will look at it and be like, so what are you not doing? Right? And I'm like, I don't know. So having that already be automated, then you don't have to go in and look all that up for yourself.

Yeah, yeah. Okay, got it. So if they include their email or phone number, then you can see some way we can. Yeah. Do you have any marketing campaigns right now to reach those people or are you waiting for the automated?

Waiting for the automated. Okay, cool.

Yeah, that'll be so much easier once that comes out.

For sure. Yeah, yeah.

So you said you signed up for it Sounds like it's probably like early access or like in beta or something like that.

Early access.

Early access. Okay, cool. We'll include the link in the description of the episode. Those of you already on Scheduling Pro, if you want to sign up for Early Access for the automated text follow up, we'll include that for you to wrap up, I guess. What's next for you all and what are some of your big takeaways from Pantheon?

Ooh, that's a good one. I think obviously the hot topic of Pantheon was AI. Based on what we're talking about. How can AI help the Scheduling Pro app? What can we do with AI in combination with the widget or Marketing Pro to make it better and to reach our customers even faster? I think this one, I really focus on meeting people, expanding my network, and finding mentors. But then also I got a personal level. But then, you know, for. For our business, just. That's hard.

But I know there's so much. There's so many new things. I feel like every session there's like five or ten other.

Like the big one. I think Atlas, like, okay, what does that look like in, you know, getting. Finally getting a hold of it potentially and really hoping that maximize, like how we use service site. My favorite thing is to drive service site in like Ferrari and not like Volkswagen Bug. Sorry for people that drive those. But so I've really been focused on maximizing how we use it.

Very cool. There's going to be a lot of people listening who are not at Pantheon, so they might not know what Atlas is. How would you, in your own words, describe what Atlas is?

I would say it's chatgpt for Service Titan. It's your all in built in go to. He'll be your best friend, I think to navigate service Titan for the upcoming, you know, years to come. For sure. Yeah. Sounds like he's only going to get better as he grows.

Yeah. I got a glimpse of Vahe's keynote when he was demoing it. Hey Alice. And just ask whatever you want. I'll go find all the information you need.

Yeah.

Technicians can do it in the field.

So so crazy. But it'll be very cool. I think our technicians will really like it. For sure.

Yeah. And maybe it can save some time instead of them having to call the office for something. They can just ask Atlas and that would be nice.

It would save us some time too. Yeah. Yeah.

So lots to look forward to. Sam, thank you so much for joining us today and for sharing your wisdom and all the lessons along the way.

Thank you. Thank you. Hopefully someone can take something away from it.

I'm sure they will.