From Data Entry to Dispatcher to Ops Manager: How Jayme Luersen Helped Home Team Electric Scale from $750K to $4M

Welcome to Successful Contractor, powered by CertainPath, a show for residential contractors about residential contractors. We chronicle business journeys, share insights, and celebrate successes in this wonderful industry. I'm your host, Bob Houchin. For more information on how CertainPath can put your contracting company on a certain path to success, visit our website, www.mycertainpath.com. I hope you enjoy today's show and take away another or two. Jamie, thank you so much for being here today. I greatly appreciate it.

Of course.

For those who haven't met you at an expo or training, can you share with everyone your name, what your company name, and what you do for them?

Yeah. So my name is Jamie Larson and I am the dispatcher at Home Team Electric out of Palm Springs, California.

Very good. Very good. And we're talking today for a great reason. First of all, anytime Sonya Fryer recommends anybody that I have to talk to them, I'm like, okay, go to the top of the list because she's a tough cookie. And she said you've really grown with the company, taken a lot of responsibility on, and I know you've got an exciting new role that's, that's coming your way. And I don't do enough of these interviews with people that are working in the office and really keep the machine rolling. So I'm excited to learn about what you do day to day and how you've influenced the business. So I want to talk about the business itself, first of all, because it is a family business, right? Maybe share with everyone, you work for your folks, right?

Yeah. So I started working in 2017 for my dad. I was 22. I was nervous because who wants to work for their dad? But he had me doing data entry.

Yeah.

And I knew I'd be happier doing that than where I was at.

Right.

And so, yes, I was nervous about it because it wasn't just him. I was working with my sister, my uncle, my aunt.

Yeah.

You know, a lot of family and it was only a team of 5.

Yeah.

So majority of us were family, right? So I was nervous about the dynamics and how that could work, but I don't know if I just have a unique situation. Our family is so capable of being able to set aside the personal and business.

Yeah.

So we all have the same goal, you know? And so it's so easy to work together.

That's great.

Yeah, that's awesome.

And coming in when you did, you've seen the business change.

Yes.

Significantly. Maybe talk about then versus now. I mean, it's the time to brag about what you guys are doing now.

Yeah, well, so when I joined, I was joining as the 6th person on the team. We now have 18, well, 19 if you count my parents, the owners.

Yep.

12 in the field, 5 in the office.

Yeah.

And when I started, we were doing around $750,000 in revenue, and we're gonna hopefully be hitting $4 million this year.

That's fantastic.

It's awesome.

Yeah, and you know, your dad's just—he's just the greatest. It's always neat to see good people do well. There's a lot of them in this group too, which is—which is why it's so exciting to be here. So, so very exciting. So you started in data entry. So talk about your journey. What was next for you?

Yeah, so starting in data entry, we had Service Titan. Didn't—they didn't really know what they were doing with it. We do paper invoicing, so I was just entering it all. Yep. And then I went to EP. A couple months later, kind of started to understand the home services industry and what SGI at the time was.

Yeah.

Then I went to a Profit Day with my dad where he gave a testimonial, and that was like the light bulb for me. I got the why.

Yeah.

And at the time I was actually about 5 months pregnant. And so for me, feeling all emotional, you know, I was like, this is exactly how I can create a legacy for my son.

Yeah.

And I knew to be able to do that, I had to make a severe impact. So when we got back, I started digging on how to use ServiceTitan. And then I'd say about 6 months later, we switched over to iPads.

Yeah.

And everything was digital at that point. I was starting to kind of really understand it. They decided, we're going to put you on phones because I actually had experience, like I worked in a restaurant for 4 years and then I worked at a hospital. So I've had customer service experience. And that kind of stuff just kind of came naturally to me. So I started on the phones. I was very, very nervous. Sure, sure. It's scary. Yeah. Trying to convince people to pay you to come out. Yeah. But then once I got the hang of that, while also playing with ServiceTitan, kind of figuring out how to utilize it, we realized I could kind of take over the dispatching. Okay. Which at the time my Aunt Cindy was doing. She was wearing all the hats. She was the office. Okay. And so I was able to kind of relieve her of some of that. Yeah. And build it into something different. Right. So at the time it was very, very old school. Right. How was that?

Sure. So you're— so you were answering the phones and dispatching and figuring out ServiceTitan all at once?

Yes. Now it sounds like a lot, but at the time, yeah, my dad was one of 3 techs in the field. Sure. It wasn't that much. Right. So compared to now, at least. Right, right.

When did you start? When did you replace yourself answering the phones?

How long did that take? Just about 2 years ago. 2 years ago. Yeah. So I had, I'd say about 2019, I was full-time the primary call taker. Yeah. And then Cindy was kind of my backup. Yeah. And we would tag team it. And then in 2022, we actually ended up hiring on my Aunt Shannon, who she's actually our team relations, but she kind of took over for me as primary call taker. Yeah. Out the gate did amazing. Really? Oh my gosh, yes. Me and Sonia had so many conversations. She was killing it. That's great. And then we actually recently, I'd say in May, hired on another girl who's going to take over as dispatcher, and we've been training her. So she's now the primary call taker as she's a learning dispatcher. Okay. So I'm kind of third in the queue.

Yeah, yeah.

Which is nice. So how do you— sure, sure.

I mean, I know this has got to be especially difficult. You're talking to your aunt, someone you look up to. She comes in and you got to kind of train her, right?

Well, she was like an older sister for me. I'm the oldest of my siblings and she was like an older sister for me. And so I was nervous about that dynamic. She's older and I hadn't trained anybody before. I was the one being trained. And so that was scary for me, but her and I have such good camaraderie, right? It was easy. She's a natural.

What I mean, having done it now a couple of times, you know, your people watching this, they're going to be looking at adding call takers. They're not sure how to train them, right? Send them to training. Obviously, you can have Sonya and Missy show them the way. But what are some things that you learned how to train a call taker? You know, what, you know, what are some things you should— you would recommend people doing, how to make it go a little more smoothly?

Think about the best thing you've learned on this podcast or any podcast ever. Now, on a scale of 1 to 10, how life-changing was it? Did it change whether you could take vacations or where you vacation? Did it change how much time you spend with your family or what you could provide for your family? Now, I'm not saying learning new things that make a smaller impact isn't helpful. Of course it's helpful. So is hearing from people who've been in your shoes and who know what you're going through. It's why we made this podcast, and we hope you get new insights, tips, and techniques from it, as well as encouragement. But if you're looking for truly life-changing transformation, then information alone isn't going to do it. You need a coach. I'm Rebecca Castle, CEO of CertainPath, and I know you need a coach because I needed one when I was in your shoes. Running a home service business where I was the CEO, the head trainer, the ops manager, the sales manager, the salesperson, the call taker, and everything else. That's why I'm certain that knowledge isn't enough, because I'd been a coach to home contractors before starting my company. I knew all the stuff, the right things to do, the procedures and strategies, and I still needed a coach. Fortunately, I had one. So I was able to grow that tiny HVAC company large enough to sell it for life-changing money. And since coming back to what was then SGI and coaching other home service businesses through that same life-changing journey, I know what's possible when you're given the tools and a coach and a community. But you don't have to take my word for it. I'll prove it to you. If you've got 90 minutes, I have a free virtual starter session that'll beat any podcast, or seminar you've ever taken for delivering truly transformative content. It's free, no commitment. We just want to share with you 4 major things that we do think are the first steps to transforming your business. And all you have to do is go to mycertainpath.com and book a starter session because as helpful as our podcasts are, I'm betting you're going to find our starter sessions to be the best first steps you can take Towards true transformation.

So definitely the training. I had them both do the online versions and the in-person classes. Oh yeah, that's like a must. But what I kind of learned over the last couple of years is they need to know electrical terminology, at least a basic idea. So they sound like they know what they're talking about. Yeah. Yeah. But also Sonya and I had a conversation and I felt like it really changed the game when I was training my Shannon.

Yeah.

It was mystery shopper. And so basically I had several local companies who I knew were not like CertainPath members. And then I also had several companies who I knew were, and I wouldn't say who was who. And I had her call to pretend to schedule service. And just jot down notes on the differences. And she immediately was like, oh my gosh, this company, they're kind of short, they didn't really care, but this company, they sounded exactly like what you're teaching me.

Right.

And it— so that kind of clicked for her.

Right.

And I realized, oh, this works. So then when I did it with our newest girl, Alicia, same thing. She was like immediately noticing the differences and why it was important to do it the way we do it.

Right.

That for me felt like a game changer.

That's awesome. How do you onboard? Because I mean, those classes don't happen every day, right? And sometimes someone comes in and we were like, we really want to get them up and rolling. So what's the onboarding process look like, you guys, for a CCR?

Yeah, so I actually, I created a CCR success manual. And so it has kind of everything you need to know. It has a copy of our script, the electrical terminology guide, the mystery shopper thing. And a lot of it is Oh, it also has a list of all the videos that I want them to watch on the hub.

That's great.

Because those are like so important and a lot of it is repetitive, but it really drives home why it's important.

Sure.

And I'd say the first week or so, have them do that. We usually know that they're gonna be hired on probably a month or so ahead of time. So I just preemptively sign people up for classes.

Yeah.

I can always cancel.

Right.

But I don't wanna miss an opportunity. So like Alicia, Kind of was backwards. She ended up having to do Dispatching for Profits online first and then Telephone Essentials and then went out and did the class. Yeah. Ideally, I would have liked it swapped. Sure. But it's still important. You know, even as a call taker, I feel like, and this is something I stress to them too, is schedule with a purpose. Right. So even though you might not be a dispatcher, if you keep dispatching type of thoughts in your head and you're Very intently scheduling, then it just helps everybody. Yeah.

How much more effective is it going in-person training? I mean, I'm sure, you know, online training is great. The same trainers, right? And it is helpful. But what's the difference with the in-person training?

It's so much better. You get the hands-on experience with the trainers like Sonya and Missy are amazing. And you also get to talk to the other people at your tables who are either experiencing the same problems you're having or have been there and know how to get you to the next level. That networking just, it can't be matched when it comes to training.

This is the best. So the new process, you've got this manual there. When is someone allowed to kind of go on their own, start taking calls on their own? Does this depend on their personality?

It depends on the person. Yeah. So like with Shannon, She was hired and then I ended up going to Expo about a month later. So we had to kind of fast-track it a little bit.

Sure.

I didn't have her full-time, like, on the phones when I was gone, but we did have her do a couple of test calls. Um, Cindy and her were in the office holding it down. And then when we got back, I reviewed those calls and it was basically, you just got to do it. That's how you learn. Yeah. Is you just got to practice. Right. Because I know if it's not booked, I can review it, see why it wasn't, and maybe we can save it. You know, we can call one of us, probably me. I could call back and try and save it. And that's the best way to learn.

Sure. Sure. You made the list of electrical terminology, right?

Actually, Shannon made that. Really? Yeah. Well, she was kind of the guinea pig. I didn't realize I was saying all these things that she didn't understand. Yeah. Because in my brain, I knew what I'm talking about. I know a GFI, I know a breaker. And she's like, oh my gosh, what are we saying? And so she kind of shared that with me and worked with me. She came to me, she's all, look at what I made. And so we kind of put it in like a format. Yeah. Yeah. She really took the lead on that one.

Why is that valuable for, for someone in taking calls? Like, what value does that provide?

Well, it makes us sound like we know exactly what we're talking about. So it already gives credibility to us as a call taker. Yeah. But it also helps you understand the severity of the situation. You know, so if somebody's having loss of power to, say, a bathroom, this happens a lot. They call, oh, I was using my hair dryer and then all the power went out. Automatically, you probably might pick up that, oh, well, they probably tripped their GFI, overloaded the circuit. So you already have an idea of what's going to need to be done and who should be going to that call.

Right.

And so that basic knowledge just with— and, you know, a lot of that comes from experience talking to the techs and stuff, but having the guide and kind of just Talking amongst each other, yeah, really helps.

Is there how many pieces of terminology? Is there like ten to fifteen?

Well, we made a massive list. Yeah. But I'd say typically about ten to fifteen.

Yeah. Yeah. Did you feel like your your call booking rate went up by being able to talk like that? Yes. Yeah.

Tremendously. Yeah. And so for me, I I didn't notice it as much because that was all I kind of knew just based off experience. But watching her booking rate.

Yeah.

I was like a proud mom.

Yeah. Do you feel like she was more confident too? That was part of it, right?

Oh yeah. And now even more so, Alicia is way more confident because we know what to do now.

Yeah.

And how to set her up for success.

Right. You know, when you pivoted into the dispatch role, I mean, it's a completely different animal, right? You know, it's unique. It's probably the most important job there is in a good company because you make sure you get the right opportunity with the right person. What are some hard lessons maybe you learned in the early days, you know, in learning that dispatch role?

Definitely, we use this term a lot, sink the shovel. So if a tech is on a job and say they have another call that they have to go to, well, that call hasn't been sold yet, this one has. And so do we really wanna risk them canceling Just to not have to waive service fee or whatnot. So we really— and I wish I had known this years ago. Yeah, it's become really important that they stay and get as much done as they possibly can before they have to return. And that's something I've been able to kind of anticipate now with our technicians. And so I don't load the schedules.

Okay.

Because I also still don't want to waive any fees if we're not doing the time. But that to me was always really important. Yeah.

How do you, how do you handle that conversation with a homeowner? I mean, like, hey, we're going to need to come back out. Any little tricks of the trade?

You mean like if they have to return? Yeah.

If they like, you've got to, you want to get them to another job to sell a job if they're really good at it and you know this is going to continue for another, you know, and all of a sudden you don't want to lose that opportunity.

Yeah. So before I even call them, I kind of explore every possibility I have because we have a lot of technicians at this point. Sure. And they're all awesome. They're like all crown champs.

Yeah, they are.

And so I kind of look at every option before I call the customer because that's kind of the final, like, okay, this is permanent. We either have to bump them or reschedule, whatever. So for me, I feel like if there's a way, like say I know somebody's doing something maybe low priority that I need to bump up them to do that, I will, because I know they can still make the sale. Yeah, it's really case by case. Sure, sure.

How did you learn what each of your techs are better at? What, what jobs they like to sell? I mean, you obviously want to maximize the revenue, but I mean, how do you learn the nuances? And, you know, you want to close the most, but you want to keep them happy a little bit. There's a little delicate balance, right? So how do you learn what everyone's good at? Like, how'd you figure that all out?

Well, half of it was just experience and what they were closing.

Yeah.

I'd say that was a majority of it, is just day-to-day observing.

Right.

I had all of them kind of tell me, if you had an ideal schedule for the day, what does it look like? Because then they're telling me their favorite types of calls, and those are normally the ones that they know they close on.

Right.

And also, my dad has had since 2006 to figure that out with them. And so he knows. So I consult with him a lot, collaborate with him a lot on this kind of stuff.

Right. So you're training a new dispatcher, right? Yes. What does that look like? How do you get them to wrap their head around it? Especially because what was her background?

She's done all sorts of things. She was actually perfect. She worked at several gun stores. Okay. So she had lots of experience working with men.

Okay.

And she also worked at a tile store, so dealing with contractors.

Okay.

So she had a very unique experience behind her in dealing with that. And her, we did the DISC test on her. So I'm a very high S and then C. She, if you look at like the chart, she's just a little of all of it. And I've never seen that. So she can be everything. But typically for a dispatcher, it's a little easier if you have a bit more of a D personality to be assertive.

Right.

And she's really good at that.

Interesting.

Yeah.

Okay. So what did that training look like? How do you get someone? Because she, again, no, no dispatch experience whatsoever.

None at all.

She just has the soft skills that matter, right?

Yeah.

So what did that look like?

So to start, we needed to get her excellent on phones. She needed to know how to book and get comfortable talking to customers. And then I would have her observe me. I, when I would debrief with the technicians or just any decisions I was making, I was saying them out loud versus just in my head.

Yeah.

Which was a challenge for me because I've always, you know, it's kind of dispatching is a job where it's just in your head nonstop.

Right.

So that was hard for me. But saying everything out loud, having the conversations with the technicians, I mean, she's a very also C personality, so she likes charts and graphs. So I made her lots of charts of like their skill set, where they live, like things like that to kind of help her just right at her desk.

Yeah.

And then like the script, she at first really wanted to read the script. And the biggest thing for me was you can know the script, but you need to master the bullet points because you don't want to be robotic on the phone.

Right, right.

As long as you know you have to get it across, you want it to be an organic conversation.

Yep.

And so getting her dialed on that. And then as far as dispatching, we're still— that's still happening right now. This is her actual first week.

Oh, okay.

Without me there.

Sure.

And I've been very hands-off, not butting in, asking Hey, how's it going? Just do your thing. But she's doing wonderful. She's got backup, Shannon there. But it's one of those things you just have to learn as you go. And if you make mistakes, I almost encourage her to make those mistakes because she won't make them again.

Right.

And as weird as that sounds—

No, I get it. And she feels comfortable. She's not going to be super judgmental with herself going, oh, did I do the right thing? You just got to kind of do it. Right.

I actually had a conversation with her this week. I told her, because the goal is by January she kind of is full dispatcher, right? And I was telling her, because I started thinking about it, I'm like, I don't want you to think that means I'm no longer available. You have a full support team. Yeah, that just means I'm not going to be sitting here shadowing you anymore as you do it. Just call me if you need me. You know, that's great. And I'm so confident she's going to do amazing.

What's the hardest part about Being a dispatcher? What's the thing that you're like, man, this is the part you gotta really master, it's hard?

Technician personalities.

Yeah.

Because you are really the person that they talk to all day, every day. And in their mind, you're only dealing with them.

Right.

And in reality, you have all of their personal schedules to help keep work-life balance good. You have all of the jobs, every schedule, I feel like I know all of the customers on the schedule, like just on a day-to-day basis. I could just name them. So there's a lot of stuff going on behind the scenes that they really don't see. And so when they're having a rough day, they tend to take it out on you. And being an S personality, I sometimes take it a little personal. Sure. No, I'm aware it's not right. And so that's always been a challenge for me. Yeah. So that's why I feel like she's perfect, because that kind of stuff does not affect her.

Right, right, right. How'd you get through that? How did you realize this is just— you're their outlet, unfortunately?

You know what, I actually, I had conversations with them. Yeah. And just said, hey, you know, you're kind of being rude right now. And I'm here as a support. I'm here to help you. Yeah. How, how can I be helpful while getting respect? Yeah. And we're all such a close team. I have such good relationships with them all that it's easy to have those conversations. It's more a me thing.

Yeah. Yeah.

But that's—

sometimes they may not even realize they're doing it, right?

Yeah, yeah, exactly. And they all eventually do and come back and apologize. But it's— so I'd say that's the toughest, but also it's super rewarding when you're able to make things happen for them.

Right, right.

You know, right. So it's good.

Yeah, yeah, that is pretty cool. When did— how long did it take you to feel comfortable in that dispatch role? Did it take a bit?

Surprisingly, no. It felt pretty natural. I love organization.

Okay.

So I felt like once we kind of got me into that role, it was like, oh, this was where I was supposed to be.

Yeah. I mean, you said you were making charts and graphs, so you're—

Yes. I like that stuff. That's cool. That's cool.

I know Sonya had mentioned you taking much more of a leadership role. You're just kind of inserting yourself into it, right? You're doing some trainings with the guys and stuff like that.

Yeah.

What inspired that?

Sonya. Yeah, I— well, Sonya and Rebecca, actually. So, um, my first expo was the Vegas Expo 2017. Yeah, I met Rebecca that night and then started that Monday, and I had a great conver— it was quick, but it was a good conversation with her, and it was empowering. Yeah. And then Sonya is just a powerhouse.

She is.

I could not say enough amazing things about her, but just talking To her and getting the confidence that I had.

Yeah. So what were some of these new ideas, things that you're like, we're just gonna go talk, talk to the team about this?

I, I don't know that I'd say it's a new idea. Yeah, it was just finally implemented. Okay. Sonia and I had a conversation about discovery questions, and it was about the technicians. And so I thought, okay, well, who knows better all the questions that need to be asked than the technicians themselves. So I kind of made a worksheet, had a meeting with them, said, here's the service we offer, what do you need to know? And all of them filled out their own. So a lot of them had the same answers, but a lot of them had different things that somebody else maybe with less experience had. So I was able to kind of take all that and I figured out a way to actually put it into ServiceTitan so that way it automatically shows up for the call taker when they select the job type.

Makes it a lot easier that way.

Yeah, and so the initial goal was to help the techs get more info to be better prepared. But what I ended up finding was it was actually, it was beneficial for them, but it was like way more beneficial for the call takers.

Right.

'Cause all of a sudden, you know, you have a customer who's like, oh, I wanna install a ceiling fan. Why can't you gimme a price over the phone? Oh, well, do you know this, this, this, and this? Oh no, I don't. Okay, well that's why we have to come.

Yeah, yeah.

And all of a sudden our booking rate jumped.

Wow.

And I was like, I did not see that coming. That's really cool.

I hate to put you on the spot. Maybe, you know, again, it's in the software, but like what other discovery questions, things, you know, like that do you— can you remember off top that were like, oh, that one? Oh, you know, we used to get trouble with booking people, but once you ask those 2, 3 questions, they were like, okay, come on out.

I would say the ceiling fan one is the biggest because everybody thinks it's just such a standard thing. Right. There was tons of questions with that, like how high are the ceilings? What's the wire size, the breaker size? Is it a standard ceiling fan or specialty? You know, things like that people didn't really know. But then also people who were looking to get estimates on like car chargers. Yeah. Which was really helpful because for a typical person they think, yeah, it's just the charger, you put it in, but they need to know how far from the panel. Same thing, wire size, breakers. size, um, how big is the panel, how many amps does it have, so many things that a typical person wouldn't know, right? And even I was like totally shocked when I was reading these. I was like, how did I not even think about that? And I'm in the business.

Sure.

So that definitely has helped improve the book you read, but it also really helps the techs because then they have what they need before they go versus having to leave to go pick up parts and Yeah, it's helpful.

That's super cool. So that discovery question exercise, that was something you did. Well, what are some other things that you've got to kind of been working with the team on?

Think about the best thing you've learned on this podcast or any podcast ever. Now, on a scale of 1 to 10, how life-changing was it? Did it change whether you could take vacations or where you vacation? Did it change how much time you spend with your family? Or what you could provide for your family? Now, I'm not saying learning new things that make a smaller impact isn't helpful. Of course it's helpful. So is hearing from people who've been in your shoes and who know what you're going through. It's why we made this podcast, and we hope you get new insights, tips, and techniques from it, as well as encouragement. But if you're looking for truly life-changing transformation, then information alone isn't going to do it. You need a coach. I'm Rebecca Castle, CEO of CertainPath, and I know you need a coach because I needed one when I was in your shoes running a home service business where I was the CEO, the head trainer, the ops manager, the sales manager, the salesperson, the call taker, and everything else. That's why I'm certain that knowledge isn't enough, because I'd been a coach to home contractors before Before starting my company, I knew all the stuff, the right things to do, the procedures and strategies, and I still needed a coach. Fortunately, I had one, so I was able to grow that tiny HVAC company large enough to sell it for life-changing money. And since coming back to what was then SGI and coaching other home service businesses through that same life-changing journey, I know what's possible when you're given the tools and a coach and a community. But you don't have to take my word for it. I'll prove it to you. If you've got 90 minutes, I have a free virtual starter session that'll beat any podcast or seminar you've ever taken for delivering truly transformative content. It's free, no commitment. We just want to share with you 4 major things that we do think are the first steps to transforming your business. And all you have to do is go to mycertainpath.com/start. .com and book a starter session, because as helpful as our podcasts are, I'm betting you're going to find our starter sessions to be the best first steps you can take towards true transformation.

Um, we really revamped the debrief. Okay, so, um, Frank and I collabed a lot, and then we collabed with the office on it, and basically We used to do it and it was a paper that they would fill out and it was effective, but it kind of died out.

Sure.

So what we did now is at the end of every call, instead of the technicians closing the job out, they have to text over that they're ready for debrief and then they get on the phone within like 2 minutes.

Yeah.

And there's a whole list of questions already embedded on the job for the dispatcher to go through. And It's a lot of stuff that I in the past wouldn't have thought about. Certain things like, because like we roll out the red mat. So did you use it? Did you upload a picture to show you used it?

Yeah.

Did you complete your safety evaluation? You know, a lot of that stuff.

Yeah.

But also more recently, did you close the panel cover? Did you grab your price guide? Things that maybe were just forgotten that now top of mind awareness.

Sure.

And they actually have a checklist, like a prep checklist. So they can be ready so that way they don't get stuck.

Right.

You know, because if they answer no to anything, they get put on hold to talk with the service manager, Frank.

Ah, I was going to ask you. Yeah.

Yeah. So, so if there's a no to any question, they talk to Frank.

Yeah.

If it's a service fee only, they talk to Frank. And we used to refer to it as a TO with Frank, talk over. But within the last week, we changed it to CO. Coaching opportunity.

I like it.

Because it's not a gotcha. It's not a, hey, you didn't do your job. It's how can we help you with this next one? And I think we're going to start seeing, and I know I've already seen it a little bit just since we've done it, but a different level of respect from the technicians with the debrief process.

Okay.

It's a good accountability. Yeah.

Oh, big time. And it goes, people don't do it. Yeah, very often. So what you were experiencing happens very, very much. So this is, this is really, really good, really insightful. Um, what other things?

I mean, that for me are—

those two are the two big ones.

Yeah, I feel like, um, I know— so we have a culture shout-out box.

I was gonna go there if you didn't bring it up. That's where I was going next.

I, I don't want to take credit for that. It's, it's a big collaboration with the office. Um, Shannon, who's now our team relations, she really kind of spearheaded the whole thing.

Okay.

Um, basically, so extra— we go the extra mile to make you smile. That's one of our things. And it's not just to the customer, it's for the team. So we have a culture shout-out box, and if any of us sees each other doing something awesome, went the extra mile for a customer, for the team, whoever, you get a shout-out in the box. And we do a bimonthly meeting, so every 2 months we have a big team meeting, celebrate the scoreboard success, celebrate just all the success in the team. But that box is filled. And so we all get like 4 or 5 cards and we all read it out loud.

That's awesome.

Everybody's getting shouted out.

Yeah.

It has helped our culture significantly.

Yeah.

And so now we have an Extra Mile winner. So after everybody reads all that, we all vote who it is.

Yeah.

Submit it, we put it in the box and then it gets tallied up. And at the end of that meeting, after we've already gone through everything else, done our prize wheel, Then Frank gets handed an envelope. He doesn't even know who's winning. Yeah. And he announces who won. It was voted. They're with the team and they get some sort of prize. I think the last time we did like $250 steakhouse gift card. It's really cool.

But I like it's the team that gets to make the decision, not the boss. Yes. Yeah. It's so important too. Yeah. And I love that we do shoutouts at CertainPath on calls, but I like that you put it in Writing, because it's so easy. Like when we do it—

It's genuine.

Well, it's genuine and it's easy to forget when people do really helpful, nice, positive things, but you're busy. You know, if you get like for us, you get to the meeting, I forget sometimes. But if you think to write it down, right, and you put it in, you stop yourself. And so someone does get recognized where sometimes it's easy for them not to get recognized if you don't do that.

Yeah. If something happens, like say on a weekend and an on-call tech does something, I will set an alarm for myself for Monday morning so I don't forget.

That's awesome.

Because it's so important that they get recognized. They all do amazing things every day. And the fact that we all have that same mentality doing it for each other, I think that— so we have this saying on our team, high performance team, high performance family. So we all hold each other to a certain level of accountability. A normal family kind of lets things slip through the cracks or you get away with things because that's unconditional love. But that's not going to make an impact. And so we all kind of have an agreement. We're all going to hold each other accountable. We're going to call out what's right, but we're also going to help you if something's not.

I like it.

And I swear in our group chat every day I see high performance team, high performance family from the technicians and stuff. It's so cool.

That's so cool.

Yeah.

Very cool. Tell me more about this club membership you developed. I heard there was some— you were—

I don't think I really developed it, to be honest.

That's what I heard.

I know. I don't know where that came from. So I really think that was more of a Shannon and Frank thing. So the club membership is really cool. They made this folder that gets left behind with our customers and it has like a welcome letter that Frank hand signs, like hundreds a month, all these little goodies. There's a friends and family discount card in there, like all kinds of stuff. But I definitely, as soon as she got hired on, I was able to step back from that. So I definitely—

That's why—

Credit myself for doing that.

But, you know, there's members will be watching, they'll go, what about it? Like, so there's a— it's a folder. What else is involved?

Yeah, so it's the— we have our monthly or they can pay annually.

Right.

But we also have the included ones and that comes with our higher package deals like panel replacements. It's kind of built in there.

Okay.

And with that, a lot of people who are getting it included may not even realize they're getting it unless we know the tech has gone over it.

Right.

So then they get this leave behind. It's a nice pretty folder. It's got the welcome letter. It's got some coupons in there. It has a service record showing when their next service is due, right? Um, yeah, the friends and family discount referral card. It's really cool.

So it becomes a talking piece for the technician, right?

And then the technician also tells them, anytime we're out here, put your invoices in here. You keep it all together, right? Um, and it makes somebody like with my personality, that is so helpful. Yeah, you know, just keep my electrical stuff all together, right? So, and we're actually getting ready to Start doing folders for every customer.

Yeah.

And then those ones will be a little bit different. I think that Shannon and Frank are working on that.

Oh, cool.

Yeah.

I've heard you've also been working on the marketing side.

A little bit.

A little video or some content or what's that all about?

I used to a little bit earlier on with the team. That's more so Jennifer and actually my 2 sister-in-laws who do that. I just participate if they ask me to.

Okay, I gotcha. Sure.

We've done some cool commercials and stuff though. Like we had this one, it was kids who were like dreaming of being technicians. And so I got to be involved with that. But I definitely— that's not my strong suit.

Okay. You know? Yeah. Yeah. Now your role is changing though, right? So what is the new role you're going to be officially in?

Operations manager.

Operations. So how did that come about? How'd that discussion happen?

So I had expressed to my dad that I was kind of ready to move on from dispatching. I felt like I had done everything I could do with it. And it wasn't that I felt stuck, but I just, I needed something new. I was getting a little older. And then we were just talking about the business and kind of where it would be in the next 10, 20 years. And the ultimate goal is for when he retires, I would love to take it over.

Wow. Okay.

You know, I'm his oldest and I don't know that that's his vision. Sure. But that's my goal. Yeah. And so I got to— there's stepping stones to get there, you know? And so operations manager kind of seems like the next step for me. Right. I have already worn kind of a lot of hats doing— I mean, I've dabbled in pretty much everything. Yeah. I observe him a lot. Yeah. He's really like the service manager. And so I listen to a lot of his conversations with the technicians, with Customers who were upset or not upset, just all of it. And so now I can kind of really oversee a lot of that and take a lot off of his plate. Right. Right.

So that's what the role for you guys as operations managers, managing the techs, handling customers that are maybe upset, just kind of keeping an eye on everything.

Yeah. And overseeing still the whole CCR. Okay.

Everything. All right. Totally a general manager. Okay. Feels like that, but I sorry Frank. I don't want to get in trouble.

Yeah, I'd say the day-to-day operations. Yeah, I feel like the dispatch world is still one of the most important things. Oh, for sure. Because the techs can't do what they do without an effective dispatcher.

That's right. That's right. So what advice would you have for somebody? I mean, there's a lot of people work for family, right? And you've you've been able to to move up, and you've kind of asserted yourself into it. Like what what advice would you have for someone? You know, that's maybe in a lower role right now, but aspires to get to be an operations manager in a family business. How do you approach, you know, a parent about taking on more responsibility when sometimes they always think of you as this 12-year-old, right? Or as this young person, right?

Yeah. That was actually a tough one for me because I'm definitely the type of person I don't want to just assume that I'm good enough for that. Yeah. And I'm very much like a shy person, I feel like. And so it took me a while to kind of get to the point to have that conversation. Yeah. But really just have those tough, honest conversations about how you're feeling, where you're at, what your goal is, and how to get there. Yeah. And the rest will just work itself out. I feel like I definitely got lucky. My family is very easy to work with, and I know not everybody's family is.

Sure.

We are all very much capable of business and family. And so, like, I don't even call him dad at work, and everybody makes fun of me on the team because I say Frank. But I'm like, we established that in 2017. You were Frank at work. Yeah. And now he's Frank at home too. Yeah. You know, but, but yeah, just those tough conversations have to be had.

I like it. You being in this new role, You said you're pretty much— you're backfilling for your dad, for Frank. What made him so effective in that role? What are you going to have to do that he does or has done for so many years so well?

He wears all of the hats and he has worked so hard my entire life. Yeah, it's funny. He tells these stories of working super late when I was young and this, that. I don't remember that because he— when he was home, he was very present. And so then when I got older and I got to see just how hard he was working, all the different things he was having to do, that was one thing I really wanted to eventually take off of his plate.

Yeah.

And I knew I needed to make an impact on the business to be able to help get to that point.

Yeah.

And I feel like I've done that so far, but now he doesn't need to be— he has too much going on. He doesn't need to be the one talking to every customer about everything going on, to every tech, like, If we're doing these COs with every tech after every job, he does not have that many hours in a day.

Right.

But I do. And I'm already going to be so well-versed. I'm still so well-versed in what's going on day to day.

Yeah.

It just makes sense naturally that I take that over. So I really— that I know alone will save him so much time.

Yeah. Are there any big initiatives you see that you're, you know, you want to adjustment changes you want to make in this new role with the business, or you're going to kind of take it easy and ease your way into it?

Yeah, I definitely— I mean, we're all on a roll right now. Everything's going good. We're definitely still going up. And so I'm not one to try and come in and rock the boat and be like, hey, I'm in charge now. That's not my personality.

Yeah, no, that's great.

Definitely fine-tune some things. There's little Him and I just had a discussion yesterday about how we can kind of improve, maybe doing like a debrief process with the office.

Yeah.

And how we can get more things done effectively day to day. So there's little things I definitely would like to do, but that's something we would more so work hand in hand on so it doesn't come off as, hey, she's just coming in and taking over.

Yeah.

You know?

Yeah. What advice would you have? I mean, it sounds like you have a great relationship with the technicians, right? It's a male-dominated industry. So what advice do you have for other young women coming in, you know, coming into the trades, dealing with strong personalities? A lot of them are male strong personalities. How do you earn respect, especially S personality? I get it. I'm an SI, right? So, you know, how do you go about doing that? I mean, what's, what's the secret to your success in that? And what, what can they do to establish themselves in the trades?

So for me, I started faking my confidence.

Yeah.

And it worked.

Right.

You just have to kind of know that you were supposed to be there and you were just as effective doing what you do as what they do. I've always had that mentality. We in the office, especially as a CCR, we're the first impression. So if we're not doing our job effectively, they don't have a job to do.

Yeah.

And if you kind of look, I mean, look at Rebecca. The home services is kind of being taken over a little bit, I feel like, by women. Yeah, we're, we're kicking ass. That's all right. But yeah, I would say be confident. Know that you deserve a place there. Yeah. And just own it. Yeah. Do your thing.

I like it. I like it. Just kind of wrapping up. You, I mean, you're the oldest. You know, you've seen your dad and your mom and what they've built with the company. And it's Remarkable. How nice is it to see what they've built grow and sustain like this? It's got to be very rewarding.

Oh, I cry all the time. And I don't know if it's just because now that I'm a little older and I have a different level of respect and I'm a mom, so I'm emotional all the time. But just knowing where it was in 2017 where I started, And then where we're at now. So we started out when I joined the team, we were in a marketplace of like 25,000. And then we ended up moving office locations down to a larger market, which we had already served, but now it was more opportunity. And at the time, that new office seemed massive. And I was nervous, like, how are we going to grow to fill this office. Sure. And the last, I'd say, month, we're shopping for a larger office. Is that right? It is amazing. Yeah. I'm so proud. Yeah. Like I said, my goal is to one day be able to be the one to take it over. Sure. And so just the legacy that our family has built. Yeah. I can't even put it into words. I'm so proud.

Yeah. You talked about that with your son. You wanted to help Build a legacy. Yeah, you're a part of it.

He tells me all the time he's going to be my boss one day. That's the goal.

What's what's SGI Certain Path meant to you guys in this process?

We would not be where we are without them. Yeah. So funny story. So we joined in 2014, but technically my dad joined in 2007, right? Till 2009, and he left. Yep. He thought he could reinvent the wheel. Yeah. Then he realized he can't. And so when he came back, we never stopped. And so a lot of these things that are said that I have not pioneered, but taken hold of or innovated, I don't feel like I did because they were already there. The systems and processes were there. I just put in the work to make them happen.

Right.

And I feel like They've been here for how, 25 years? Yeah. And so to anybody who's like looking to join, they're proven to work. Yeah. I mean, within a 7-year period, we went from $750,000 revenue to almost $4 million right now. And that's only 3 to 5 trucks. Yeah. It works. Yeah. And so I can't say enough good things.

A lot of people watch this video that They're not members. They might be up late, stressed out business owners looking for answers, looking for advice. And they see this, they watch this and they go, huh? And you mentioned this Profit Day, you got to sit in on one. Why would you say— what would you say to them to say, hey, it's worth going to Profit Day and checking what this is all about out?

It's definitely worth it. As somebody who went to one with really very little to no knowledge of really what this, this whole organization was, hearing the impact it had on, you know, small business owners like my dad. Yeah. And the way it changed the course of their life. It seems like a no-brainer. Yeah. I just, I can't— if I'm hearing from somebody that this works and they've been in business 25 years and there's Hundreds of thousands of companies who are doing the same exact thing. There's got to be something to it. Yeah. And so I 100% would say to anybody who's questioning whether or not to go, it doesn't hurt to go to just hear it. Yeah. And I think that they'll all be signed up as members. Love it. I can't see why they wouldn't.

Jamie, thank you so much for all your time. I really appreciate it.

Yeah, I appreciate you. Thank you for having me.

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