In recent years, artificial intelligence (AI) has greatly impacted various industries, and the home services contracting sector is no exception. From HVAC technicians to plumbers to electricians, AI is changing the way these professionals work, offering many benefits that enhance efficiency, customer satisfaction, and overall business performance.
“AI helps contractors get the job done faster, better and quicker,” says Leah Page, director of customer experience coach at Nexstar Network. “Efficiency is top of mind for everyone. Accuracy is important, too. These tools have been around for a while, and whether they’re good or not, they’ve been available. We didn’t use them because they weren’t accurate. Now, efficiency is there and so is accuracy. Now, we have no excuse not to Use of technology, except perhaps through stubbornness or ignorance.
One AI company revolutionizing the home services industry is Rilla, which makes software that provides virtual journeys for home services contractors by providing recordings, transcripts, summaries and analytics from each sales visit. According to Rilla, sales managers who train using Rilla’s AI are eight times faster and 20 times more efficient.
Derek Cormier, CEO and founder of Climate Experts Air, Plumbing & Electric in Melbourne, Florida, started his business in 2016 with just one truck. Today, the company has 45 employees and 25 fleet of vehicles. Climate Experts expanded plumbing in 2023 and added electricity this year.
Cormier heard about strategic partner Rilla from another member of the Nexstar network, Josh Campbell of Rescue Air, who had been using Rilla with amazing results, including tripling his plumbing department.
“With Rilla, we definitely saw an increase in the number of technicians closing their jobs. “We were able to actually see what was going on and correct any issues much faster because we were seeing them almost live,” Cormier says. “And we were able to get the field operations manager focused.” On the most important tasks because he was not outside. It definitely helped with time management. We have seen an increase in conversion rates and an increase in average sales.
The Rilla app can be downloaded and used on any smartphone, iPad or smartwatch.
“Rilla goes out with the technician on his phone, and the meeting is recorded, sent to the cloud, and converted to text with over 95% accuracy,” says Sebastian Jimenez, founder and CEO of Rilla. “Every company, when you start with Rilla, will upload their sales script, service system, or process. Rilla will compare every conversation to that process. It will score the salutations from one to five. It will record the company story. If the technician forgets to mention the special safeguards that Provided by the company, it will automatically provide that feedback, so when the field supervisor sees the report, he can address the matter with the technician.
Buck.ai is another innovative company that uses artificial intelligence to help home service contractors increase efficiency. The software helps leverage company data to increase the average ticket. Buck.ai ensures that the company hires the best technicians for the highest paying jobs in the shortest time.
Mark Pope, Grimes’ president, Golden Rule Plumbing, Heating, Cooling & Electrical, founded the company with his wife in 1999, and celebrated the company’s 25th anniversary in May. With 140 employees, Paup was looking for a dispatch solution to help the company operate more efficiently. He looked at several possibilities before landing on Buck.ai.
“Before, you didn’t care about the miles and time it took a technician to get from point A to point B, but with Buck.ai, he can think logistically much faster than we as humans can,” says Baub. “One dispatcher trying to do all those logistical math for 17 to 25 technicians — it’s literally impossible. Using Buck.ai, we’ve been able to make more calls per technician and still get the right tech to the right job, versus sacrificing one for The other.
Utku Kaynar, CEO of Buck.ai, explains that the company is leveraging AI in the fields of dispatch, call center and web lead generation to automate parts of these processes.
“Ultimately, the goal is to accelerate profits while maintaining a level of in-office overhead,” Kenar says. “Our DispatchIQ solution incorporates the ‘right technology, right job’ philosophy, but with a look at live traffic data to create dispatch boards every day that are optimized for the most dollars per day and the least time for technicians on the road. So, contractors who adopt DispatchIQ can Seeing the benefits of open capacity to run more service appointments per day, a 30-40% reduction in windshield technician time, and they can truly create a fully optimized dispatch panel with the click of a button.”
Technology is advancing more quickly and with greater capabilities than ever before, Baub explains.
“Our business has to be based on how to be more efficient – getting more work done with fewer people because of the shortage of technicians in our industry. So, quite frankly, a lot of people consider dispatcher or CSR to be an entry-level job in our industry. Once they get there Here, I think they’re the most important people on the front line. We don’t do any work unless the social worker books the call and the dispatcher brings the right technician to the call. How can we simplify this process and make it smart at the same time? Brought to us by technology.
Cormier admits that there are pros and cons to everything in this world, including technology.
“It’s great that we have all this technology at our fingertips, literally on our phones and tablets,” he says. “We’re using technology to the fullest extent. But a lot of construction companies and commercial companies are understaffed in offices because they’re too focused on profitability, not customer satisfaction. People want to talk to a human more, they want to hear a real person. They don’t want to hear a chatbot.” This is frustrating. If you automate your entire business and it is controlled by a robot, people will not want to use your company. AI is great because it helps with processes, efficiency and saves time.
Paige agrees, adding that AI will never replace the human voice.
“We will make them smarter, faster and better, but they will still need humans to survive,” she says. “Look back 30 years, when they told us computers would take over the job I have now, and it never happened. I know I’m not smarter than a computer. And I don’t want anyone to be afraid of it. If you bend over and come forward, you won’t have any problems. Someone told me Once upon a time an analogy: The dolly was created for moving companies today; we just use the dolly all over the world because it helps us do the same job we used to do without the stress, pain or headaches We need it.
