Smart Solutions Category: Internet-Based Product

Growth Up 25% In One Year with ServiceTrade & Hurst Mechanical

Since adopting ServiceTrade, Hurst Mechanical experienced 25 percent growth in a single year, a testament to the efficiencies gained through the platform. In addition, using ServiceTrade to streamline preventive maintenance (PM) scheduling and management led the company to increase PM volume by 20 percent.

Hurst Mechanical is a leading provider of commercial and industrial HVAC services in West Michigan. They faced significant inefficiencies that were both time-consuming and prone to errors, including lengthy quote times, cumbersome purchase orders, and difficulties tracking their customers’ service history. Additionally, they lacked timely access to crucial business insights. After years of managing their business on paper and a failed attempt with another software solution, in 2020 they ultimately selected ServiceTrade for its comprehensive features and user-friendly interface.

From Skeptics to Wizards

After switching to ServiceTrade, Hurst Mechanical quickly saw the benefits. In two months, the team was up and running on the software. Despite some initial reluctance, particularly from veteran technicians who had experienced previous software failures, the transition proved to be highly successful.

Those once-skeptical technicians have since become proficient users of ServiceTrade. Alex Haan, vice president of service at Hurst Mechanical, now describes them as “wizards” with the software. Their ability to quickly adapt and fully use ServiceTrade’s features has been a key factor in the company’s enhanced efficiency and operational success.

Streamlining Pays Off

Using ServiceTrade revolutionized Hurst Mechanical’s operations. The platform has streamlined processes, particularly in quoting and parts management. “It used to take three days to deliver a quote to a customer—but now it takes less than one,” said Haan.

Technicians use the service history feature to access previous job details to understand prior customer interactions, reducing time spent on phone calls with the office. ServiceTrade made obtaining purchase orders significantly easier, eliminating unnecessary delays. Now, technicians can issue purchase orders and enter receipts directly in the mobile app and plan ahead for parts without wasting time calling the office.

Take advantage of this free one-hour webinar from ServiceTrade, Slash Tech Downtime.

Haan noted that ServiceTrade has enabled the company to streamline operations across the board, creating a more efficient workflow that supports sustained growth. A significant part of the

success is the growth in PM, with PM agreements now making up roughly 40 percent of Hurst Mechanical’s business. ServiceTrade not only streamlined scheduling and management of PM but also helped Hurst Mechanical uncover more high-profit repair opportunities, contributing to the overall revenue increase.

Haan highlighted that the new processes allow them to keep up with the growing demand for PM services, ensuring that Hurst Mechanical can provide timely and high-quality maintenance to their clients. The proactive approach to maintenance has also strengthened customer relationships, positioning Hurst Mechanical as a reliable partner in their clients’ operational success.

Read Service Trade’s blog, Eight Ways to Sell Commercial HVAC Contracts in 2024.

Information Increases Efficiency

Previously limited to monthly reviews, Haan now uses ServiceTrade’s business reporting to review the backlog report daily, ensuring PM work is on track. The labor analysis report helps track job types and growth trends. This real-time data access empowers informed decision-making and sustained growth. Additionally, Hurst Mechanical can access revenue reports and other critical data anytime, allowing for continuous monitoring and optimization of business performance.

Hurst Mechanical’s strategic adoption of ServiceTrade has transformed their service delivery and operational efficiency. By leveraging ServiceTrade, they continue to drive growth and success, positioning the company as a preferred partner among their customers.

For more information, visit servicetrade.com.

Fueling Growth With a Software Solution

Former service technician Kevin Harris started Preferred Mechanical Group (PMG) 4 years ago with two technicians; now PMG employs 52 technicians and an office staff of 26—and Harris projects continued growth over the next few years. ServiceTrade talked with Harris about his company’s impressive growth and how the service software helped him build an efficient, technician-centric company.

When you started the business, did you anticipate this kind of success?

It’s been a dream of mine for a long time, and I’ve been planning for 15 years. I knew what the competition was like and felt fully confident that we would do things better. We’d have better software, better processes, better techs. I felt like if we could do all that—and I felt we could pretty easily—then the sky was the limit.

And PMG has used ServiceTrade from the beginning?

Finding a software solution was one of the top priorities on my checklist. We’ve had ServiceTrade since month three of being in business.

You worked as a technician for over 20 years. How did that influence your decision when shopping for software?

I was very vocal as a tech. None of my technicians can be more vocal than I was. I knew what my techs needed and what they didn’t and was looking for a company that could meet my high standards. When I looked at software, there were many that worked, but they weren’t built for techs in the way ServiceTrade is. ServiceTrade provides my techs with a single place to do their work in an easy-to-use, intuitive interface.

To get valuable insights from the field, ServiceTrade created a Mechanical Trades Advisory Board: https://servicetrade.com/blog/servicetrade-announces-mechanical-trades-advisory-board/

How does ServiceTrade help streamline operations?

We use ServiceTrade for all parts and labor management. It forces techs to input their time accurately and correctly document what they’ve purchased on a job. It is the ultimate way—the only way—that you can guarantee all of your costs hit the job.

Without ServiceTrade, I’d have to hire one or two additional office staff and devote them exclusively to labor and parts management. I believe in using software for these kinds of things and utilizing office staff to grow the business in other ways.

Another thing: I’m a firm believer in not touching things twice! Once someone enters something into the system, the system should be able to take that information to wherever it needs to go. And that’s what ServiceTrade does.

“When I looked at software, there were many that worked, but they weren’t built for techs in the way ServiceTrade is.”

—Kevin Harris, President and CEO, PMG

It sounds like you are really utilizing the platform to its fullest potential.

The platform has scaled with the business. We’ve started a new plumbing division and controls division on top of our commercial HVAC work, and we’re able to use ServiceTrade for everything.

What I really love about ServiceTrade is that I am always pushing, asking for more, and while I don’t always get it, I have a true partnership with the ServiceTrade team. They’re always willing to listen and strive to provide the best software solution. That is a big deal to me. I’m always trying to innovate and be better than others. I don’t like to settle. If you’re not striving to be better, then you are going backwards. ServiceTrade aligns with me on that.

One of my goals as an owner of a mechanical contracting business is to have a better work/life balance and more time with my family. Having the right processes and a software partner like ServiceTrade helps the business run better. I don’t have to be so “on it” and wear myself out. I can use technology to help with that.

For more information, visit servicetrade.com.

Enhancing Customer Experience and Repair Reliability

Crockett Facilities Services uses XOi to improve customers’ experience, which translates into more confidence in Crockett’s recommendations and repairs. XOi also provides Crockett’s technicians with easy access to a knowledge database, repair manuals, and expert guidance, so they can make well-informed decisions, and repairs are done right the first time. Happy customers and efficient, effective technicians help Crockett be more productive.

Listen to XOi’s podcast for more insights on how to empower your field technicians: https://xoi.io/podcast/empowering-field-techs-for-today-and-the-future/

XOi gives Crockett’s customers access to live updates on the status of their service requests, work orders, and project progress. Customers can easily communicate with the Crockett team, ask questions, and provide feedback through the XOi platform. They can also download images and work orders to save for future reference or invoice approvals. This streamlined communication process ensures that customers’ needs are addressed promptly, leading to quicker issue resolution and a more satisfying experience.

Read XOi’s tips on boosting the bottom line for field service: https://xoi.io/article/boosting-the-bottom-line/

For more information, visit xoi.io.

SitelogIQ Speeds Up Processes Using XOi Technologies

SitelogIQ, a full-service facilities solution provider in California, has proof that seeing is believing—and they are speeding up their quote approval process as a result. “We’re capturing XOi content—physical video, pictures—onto quotes, which has expedited how fast those quotes are approved. We seem to get less contested quotes, less questions,” said Jason Saunders, service operations manager for SitelogIQ.

“If we can show them rather than tell them, it gives them a nice verification,” explained Service Manager Eric Yocum. “We’ve had some customers tell us right away that they want video on every future work order.”

In addition, SitelogIQ found that using XOi reduced the lead time for sales follow-up on field-originated opportunities from two weeks to one or two days.

Although they initially purchased XOi to help technicians, the company realized many additional benefits, including increased customer transparency. In particular, SitelogIQ found that partnering with XOi:

  • improved the clients’ perceived value of mechanical services;
  • improved workflows throughout the organization, resulting in greater efficiency;
  • helped property managers provide better documentation to offsite supervisors and building owners;
  • eliminated most of the data collection from field service calls; and
  • spurred creation of a video training library featuring senior journeymen.

XOi’s Six Tips to Create Safe Business Practices During COVID-19

During the COVID-19 pandemic, businesses of all sizes and types are wondering how to stay active and safe given the need for social distancing. Using the XOi platform can help you protect your teams and your customers by taking advantage of video, photos, and augmented reality tools. XOi offers some techniques for using its technology to keep workers working and businesses running while ensuring safety.

1. Social Distancing

By sharing content from workflows virtually, rather than in person, Vision allows your team to connect to the home base and customers using videos, photos, and written recaps of services provided instantly and with no face-to-face interaction. XOi’s Live Call functionality allows technicians to get live support from an technician, who can see what the tech in the field is seeing and use augmented reality tools for collaborative problem solving.

2. Limiting Exposure to Team Members at Risk

Protect those on your team who are at higher risk for contracting COVID-19 by utilizing them in the virtual environment. Record their expertise and create training videos that capture their years of know-how. Let them support others in the field through the augmented reality support of Live Call.

3. Maintaining Quality Work While Limiting Field Exposure

A quick and customizable review workflow will allow quality control from service managers directly in the field without requiring them to travel to a jobsite or engage in multiple diagnostic conversations. Technicians can see “what right looks like” for each step in a process through video, photo, or text instructions and know what must be completed for the job to be finished. XOi customers show an average 35-percent increase in service requests completed after implementing XOi. That means more jobs completed in less time with high quality, protecting your employees and your bottom line. XOi customers also use these workflows to institutionalize the knowledge and make it readily available to their entire teams through the XOi platform.

4. Growing and Establishing Differentiation While Social Distancing

Sharing a quality recap that includes photos and videos virtually after each service builds trust and respect among customers. Showcasing this automatic transparency not only will help reassure existing customers but also can be a positive factor when you head to the bidding table.

5. Not Over-Burdening Experienced Techs

New technology can be intimidating or seen as a burden by techs who have been operating well without it. The ease of implementation is the deciding factor in workforce adoption. Users on XOi’s platform average only two minutes of use to capture meaningful information shareable with both their companies and their customers. The platform was created with simplicity in mind, with features such as automatic note dictation, electronic workflows that replace paper ones, and instant submission. Users can take a picture of a data plate and automatically generate tags for unit make, model, and serial number. They can easily access an extensive knowledge base with over 50,000 schematics, wireframes, and manuals. Users can also import their existing libraries of information into the platform, tagging all content to create a fully searchable source of relevant information to help technicians solve problems.

6. Reducing Unnecessary Jobsite Visits

Live Call can connect your techs safely to your customers virtually to put eyes on the site or on the unit before making the decision to send someone to the location. Once you know what you are looking at, you can ensure that you are sending the right technician with the right skills—and avoid sending out additional trucks and employees when they are not needed.

For more information, visit http://www.xoi.io.

Mine Your Own Data to Find Opportunities for Faster Recovery

ServiceTrade Gives an Example Using Nationwide Data

Since March 2020, the commercial and industrial mechanical service contracting industry has been reeling from the impacts of COVID-19. In the early days of the pandemic, when cities and states started shutting down, the uncertainty made everyone question the future of our business—for our employees and for our livelihood. At ServiceTrade, we looked at usage data from over 550 facility service companies using our software application, which is designed to help service contractors manage their operations and deliver better customer service, to measure the effects of COVID-19 on business.

Appointment Volume Drop, Recovery, and Stall

Figure 1. Mechanical Service Appointment Volume Recovery in 2020

In the second half of March and into the first week of April, mechanical service, repair, and maintenance appointment volume dropped by 28 percent from February levels. This low point is marked with a yellow circle in Figure 1. From the first week of April until the end of May, the appointment volume recovered to about 120–125 percent of February levels with a jump after the Memorial Day holiday week (marked by a brown triangle in Figure 1). Appointment volume has held steady since then, with the exception of a small dip during the July Fourth holiday week (marked with a gold star in Figure 1).

Figure 2. Mechanical Service Appointment Volume Recovery, 2019 vs. 2020

Although 20–25-percent growth in service appointment volume during a global pandemic might seem like fantastic news, 2019 data show us that the mechanical industry typically sees a significant seasonal increase in appointment volume from February to July, because warming weather causes system failures. In fact, data from the first week of April 2019 (the green line in Figure 2) suggest that appointment volume in April 2020 should have been 27 percent more than February 2020 levels. That means that during the first week of April, with the gap between the expected appointment volume (27 percent higher than February) and the actual appointment volume (28 percent lower than February), the industry was actually 54 percent behind where it should have been.

 

The Gap Between 2019 and 2020

Figure 3. Appointment Volume Gap with New COVID-19 Cases

When we graph the gap between expected and actual appointment volume as a line in Figure 3 (instead of an area, as in Figure 2), it is easy to see some recovery, as the gap narrowed through April and May. However, as the number count of newly reported COVID-19 cases started to increase again in June (red line in Figure 3), the recovery stalled, and the gap between the expected and actual appointment volume grew after the July Fourth holiday to 26 percent.

This view of the data helps us better understand the timing of the appointment volume drop compared with the onset of new cases. In March, the sudden drop in appointment volume preceded the spike in new COVID-19 cases, as governments proactively put in place stay-at-home and shelter-in-place orders. Initially, like the rest of the country, the mechanical service contracting industry was hit very hard by these orders.

Not only were contractors losing work and considering how to keep their businesses afloat, but many who had not adopted technology had to scramble to put systems in place so they could go paperless, enable office employees to work from home, and help technicians limit face-to-face interactions with other employees and customers. It was a big distraction during a stressful time.

As contractors adapted to the new work environment and states began reopening, the gap between expected and actual appointment volume decreased. The general recovery trend from the beginning of April until the end of June was heading in the right direction, but it appears that, as of the end of June, the recovery had stalled or even reversed. These data suggest that the industry could be negatively impacted by spiking COVID-19 cases.

Approved Quotes for New Work

So, what do the data suggest you can do to speed up your company’s recovery? For that, we looked at quote approval rates for over 120,000 service, maintenance, and repair quotes processed through ServiceTrade for February through June of 2020. When we measure the number of ServiceTrade quotes approved in a week and divided by the number of quotes submitted to customers in that same week, we can chart a normalized quote approval rate over time.

Figure 4. Quote Approval Rate February to June, 2020

For all quotes, there was a dip in the normalized quote approval rate in March during the initial response to the pandemic. The normalized quote approval rate mostly returned to prepandemic levels in April and May. However, there is a noticeable difference between quotes above and below $5,000. Historically, quotes over $5,000 (gold line in Figure 4) are approved at a lower rate, but they are not recovering to prepandemic approval rates as quotes under $5,000 are (purple line in Figure 4). Just like you, your customers are still recovering and are likely sensitive to price. These data suggests that you should keep sending repair quotes and focus on the smaller repairs that could prevent more costly breakdowns in the future to help replace your lost workload with planned repairs.

At ServiceTrade, we have a saying: “Feelings fool, and data rules.” If the recovery stalls and the appointment volume slows again, mechanical service contractors must be prepared to respond. The companies that respond based on data about what is happening in their business and with their customers will make better decisions than those who have to rely on their gut feelings. We have focused here on appointment volume and quote approvals. If you are not plotting those data points every week, you should start now.

For more information, call 919-246-9900 or visit servicetrade.com.

Havtech, MacMiller Better Connect With Customers Through XOi Technologies

Havtech and MacDonald-Miller Facility Solutions (MacMiller) are among those MCAA members using XOi Technologies to capture facilities information that helps them improve service and better communicate with clients. In a highly competitive market, video documentation helps them get client approval quickly, demonstrate that work is completed, and bring technicians up to speed quickly before they go onsite to provide service.

Communicating the complexities of a service call to a customer can be extremely challenging. Video of a service call can explain a lot, but it can be difficult to email a large video file. XOi Technologies’ holistic communication tool allows a service contractor to send a PDF to a facilities manager with an easily shareable link that provides documentation in the form of photos, videos, notes, and text narration of recommended and completed work. A link to a customized, cloud-based file that shows the entire service call provides unbeatable transparency.

“Capturing photo and video content of the opportunities our technicians find in the field has become extremely valuable to our customers. It is becoming an expectation in our marketplace.”

—Rory Olson, Service Operations Manager, MacMiller

Sometimes a service call cannot be completed in a single visit. For example, repairs might require ordering specialized parts, which might threaten to exceed a customer’s service and maintenance budget. Typically, there are many moving parts when completing and recommending work, and dealing with an offsite facilities manager can be an added challenge when trying to get additional work and orders approved. Attaching links with visual confirmation of necessary parts and service can be a huge help to expedite the decision-making and approval process.

Enhanced Credibility

Havtech, one of the mid-Atlantic’s largest and most experienced providers of commercial HVAC equipment, building automation systems, field services, distribution, and energy solutions, uses XOi Technologies’ platform to document jobsite conditions before, during, and after each visit, taking the guesswork out of what is really going on with facility equipment. Doing so allows their customers to make informed decisions and feel confident in their investment.“XOi has given us a tool to increase credibility and just overwhelm people with communication,” said Erik Hess, service operations leader of Havtech. “We’ve had times where customers called in and challenged the work performed. Havtech has the ability to provide the customer with an electronic link to watch the associated video.”

Collaborative Communication

The wealth of information the XOi solution documents and provides ultimately makes the facilities manager’s job easier, strengthening the relationship between customers and service providers. MacMiller, a leader in design, retrofit, and service capabilities in the Pacific Northwest, counting Nike, Boeing, and Microsoft among its clients, implemented the communication tool after company executives identified mobility and collaboration technology as two key growth drivers to ensure continued success and differentiate the organization.

“Capturing photo and video content of the opportunities our technicians find in the field has become extremely valuable to our customers. It is becoming an expectation in our marketplace,” said Rory Olson, service operations manager of MacMiller. “XOi’s platform provides a clean way to connect our customers with the solutions we provide. It has also become a useful training tool for mentoring and developing technicians.”

Building a Data Library

Perhaps more important than the ability to show and tell are the data that the software captures. The solution creates a library of all the videos created for a customer, allowing the next service technician sent to that site to access the complete work history for the specific piece of equipment. This library of knowledge and data ultimately improves the contractor’s quality control.

“XOi has given us a tool to increase credibility.”

—Erik Hess, Service Operations Leader, Havtech

The data captured can be used to show energy consumption, based on instrument readings taken by technicians. The data can also be used to track the integrity of a unit over time, identifying whether the unit’s performance is degrading. Such information can be paired with additional software to track the amount of money a client has spent on each piece of equipment, the number of service calls required, the type of repairs needed, and whether the equipment requires callbacks. The combined information can be used to make the case for buying and installing a new piece of equipment rather than continuing to repair an old one.

XOi Technologies also enables users to construct a database of service videos, service manuals, wiring diagrams, and all kinds of the other information that a technician needs when he’s in front of the equipment. No wonder that XOi Technologies CEO and cofounder Aaron Salow calls the cloud-based video platform “the future of service.”

For more information, visit www.xoi.io.

Atomatic Handles Increased Workload With XOi App

Atomatic Mechanical Services Inc. credits XOi with helping them manage their workload. “Before using XOi, we were on the brink of having to hire more inside support to handle quotes,” said Jordan Goldenstein, general manager of Atomatic’s residential group. “Now, with this smoother process, we are able to handle the work with our existing personnel.” 

Atomatic was founded in 1945 to install, service, and design HVAC systems for the residential new construction marketplace. The company has grown and continues to serve commercial, institutional, industrial, and residential buildings and homes throughout the Greater Chicago area. 

The XOi Vision app has set Atomatic apart from its competition by allowing their techs to provide thorough information to both clients and team members through the use of photos and videos. By implementing XOi, Atomatic has seamlessly enhanced job summaries and information with more detail, reduced workflow errors, and streamlined internal processes. The app enables them to give visual information that justifies all of their recommended and completed work. 

“We can now utilize existing completed workflows as marketing pieces for potential clients,” said Goldenstein. “Not many contractors in our area are using technology like this, so it has added great value for us. The streamlined process for our quoting is allowing us to be more efficient internally and provide a better product to our clients.” 

For more information, visit www.xoi.io.

Dormatech Sees Explosive Growth Fueled by BuildOps Cloud-Based Software Solution

Dormatech Mechanical Systems of Northern California faced a familiar litany of challenges using multiple software platforms to manage its business. After switching to an integrated BuildOps software solution, Dormatech rapidly increased revenue by 50 percent. 

The multiple systems were impossible to fully integrate, leading to inefficiencies and redundancies that inhibited the company’s ability to grow. Spotty Wi-Fi and cellular connections frequently interfered with technicians’ ability to communicate with the office, delaying new work orders and slowing other paperwork. 

In response to these ongoing difficulties, Mark Mulholland, Dormatech’s president, and Dorothy Natividad, chief financial officer, made the adoption of an all-in-one, cloud-based software solution a top priority for the company. Over the course of a year, the Dormatech team tested several different platforms. Dormatech ultimately selected BuildOps, a fully integrated solution that empowers commercial mechanical, plumbing, and electrical contractors to effectively manage operations and field service on a single platform while maximizing efficiency and driving profitability. 

“We went through a few different software systems,” said Mulholland. “There were multiple platforms that we tried unsuccessfully to integrate, which created many challenges.”

Technicians frequently could not send reports into the office or receive updated assignments because of software that relied on wireless or cellular connections instead of operating through the cloud. Disparate disconnected systems meant repeated effort and increased risk of human error across workflows, from dispatch and scheduling to quoting, invoicing, and accounting. 

“What made BuildOps stand out was that it was cloud-based,” Natividad said. “Because it’s an all-in-one software platform, it encompasses and integrates every function, including quoting, dispatch, administration, and purchasing. The bundled package means BuildOps is more efficient and accurate than relying on multiple separate platforms.” 

In addition, Natividad said, the onboarding process and integrating BuildOps with Dormatech’s existing digital infrastructure were efficient and intuitive. The increased transparency and accuracy provided by BuildOps streamlined workflows and dramatically enhanced customer experience. 

“The most surprising thing about using BuildOps was how user-friendly it is, and how easy the flow is working through each module,” said Natividad. “It’s definitely improved our business. We’re able to track jobs, track quoting and deploy field resources more efficiently, allowing us to protect revenue.” 

“We’ve seen an increase in day-to-day operations efficiencies that’s going to add up to significant savings in time and energy over the course of a year. I would strongly recommend BuildOps to other companies in field service.” 

— Mark Mulholland, President, Dormatech Mechanical Systems

Because of the ease of operability and accessibility, technicians readily adopted BuildOps in the field. “Our field team loves the BuildOps product,” Mulholland said. “It only took a few days for them to get up to speed. They’ve expressed appreciation for the ease of use and the ability to transition from smartphone to tablet, depending on the job. That functionality is an important feature in optimizing efficiency.

“BuildOps has also provided unparalleled support compared to other companies we’ve worked with,” Mulholland continued. “They worked with our team extensively to configure the software specifically for our needs and worked closely through onboarding. It’s been refreshing to have a team that supports us and answers our calls and emails in a timely manner.” 

The results speak for themselves: In the company’s first quarter using BuildOps, Dormatech increased revenue by 50 percent compared with the same period the previous year and increased quoting output by 80 percent. 

“It’s been an amazing experience,” Mulholland said. “We’ve seen an increase in day-to-day operations efficiencies that’s going to add up to significant savings in time and energy over the course of a year. I would strongly recommend BuildOps to other companies in field service. We see BuildOps as a strategic partner that can provide a backbone for our company and a platform for growth.” 

For more information, visit buildops.com. 

Tolin Mechanical Improves Business, Increases Transparency With XOi Vision

Tolin Mechanical of Denver, CO, adopted the XOi Vision app to streamline data capture and communication among its technicians and customers, improving customer satisfaction, decision making, and repeat business. Tolin is a full-service facility management company that works with commercial, industrial, institutional, and government organizations to maintain safe, healthy, and energy-efficient building operations. 

Tolin selected XOi Vision after observing the success that its sister companies had with the app. The move has resulted in a new level of transparency through visual documentation and work verification. 

“XOi is more valuable than I could have imagined. I think the access to information and the ability to send that information directly to a customer is really valuable.” 

— Kurt Bocim, Director of Operations, Tolin Mechanical 

 

“XOi gives our techs the ability to really show the value that they’re providing to the customer—what they’re doing when they’re onsite,” said Michael Clement, Tolin’s chief operating officer. “That level of transparency is especially helpful to a customer that’s not super technical. It gives them a better understanding of what’s going on with their equipment.” 

In addition, Tolin has used the app to streamline quoting through remote diagnostics, increase close rates, decrease call backs, and increase repeat business. Tolin’s senior technicians also use Vision to better share knowledge with the incoming workforce. 

“XOi is more valuable than I could have imagined,” said Kurt Bocim, director of operations. “I think the access to information and the ability to send that information directly to a customer is really valuable. Especially when you see a really good XOi workflow that a technician just nails from start to finish in a very short period of time. It’s short, concise, and complete.” 

For more information, visit www.xoi.io. 

Fostering a Learning Organization to Avoid Human Error and Accidents

Adapted from materials provided by Frantz Belot, Ph.D., Co-Founder, Tyfoom

Human error is often misinterpreted as solely a human issue. However, it predominantly arises from system flaws within organizations. We inadvertently create systems that tolerate poor processes for the sake of rewarding outcomes, leading to constraints and errors. To effectively prevent and mitigate human error, it is crucial to shift our focus towards understanding the systemic factors at play.

Identifying Root Causes

Traditionally, human error has been labeled as the root cause of incidents and accidents. However, this perspective oversimplifies the issue. Human error should be viewed as a result of flawed organizational systems rather than an isolated failing of individuals. Errors can be caused by various factors, such as the following:

  • Inadequate training
  • Unclear procedures
  • Inadequate supervision
  • Ineffective communication

When organizations solely focus on blaming individuals, they miss the opportunity to address the underlying causes and prevent future errors through targeted interventions and system improvements.

Systemic Analysis

Adopting a systemic analysis approach allows organizations to delve deeper into the factors that influence human behavior and contribute to errors. This analysis involves examining the organizational culture, leadership practices, communication channels, training programs, and work processes. By thoroughly understanding these elements, organizations can identify potential weaknesses in their systems and make targeted improvements to prevent errors.

People do things that make sense to them at the time given other constraints and priorities. Investigation should ask why employees thought they were doing the right thing or why their actions made sense to them at the time.

Creating a Learning Organization

Building a learning organization is a key aspect of addressing human error and promoting safety. A learning organization encourages a proactive approach to safety, where employees are empowered to improve their skills and knowledge continuously. It fosters a culture of open communication, where reporting errors and near-misses is encouraged without fear of blame or punishment. This approach enables organizations to learn from incidents and implement preventive measures.

One of the pillars of a learning organization is effective training programs. Organizations can use video-based microlearning courses to provide employees with accessible and engaging learning experiences. Companies like Tyfoom offer short, focused content that can be easily understood and retained. By delivering training in bite-sized formats, organizations can ensure that employees have the knowledge and skills necessary to navigate complex systems and make informed decisions that prioritize safety.

            See a sample microlearning video from Tyfoom.

Tyfoom’s platform enables employees to create their own videos to share their best practices with their peers—the ultimate expression of a learning organization. Microlearning courses are designed to be easily accessible to employees at their convenience, allowing for learning during short breaks or downtime. These modules can be accessed whenever employees encounter specific tasks or situations, promoting just-in-time learning and reducing errors caused by knowledge gaps.

See the sidebar, MCAA Partners With Tyfoom, to learn about MCAA member access to select Tyfoom educational materials and products.

The Power of a Learning Culture

A learning culture encourages employees to embrace a mindset of continuous learning and development, which in turn leads to better decision-making, increased efficiency, and reduced human error. Employees are empowered to share knowledge, learn from mistakes, and actively contribute to improving systems and processes. This collaborative and innovative environment nurtures engagement, motivation, and a sense of ownership among employees, ultimately creating a safer and more productive workplace.

            A deep dive on this topic is available here.

Learning cultures thrive on continuous improvement and feedback loops to identify system weaknesses and implement corrective actions promptly. Organizations should establish mechanisms for employees to provide feedback, report concerns, and suggest improvements. A strong learning culture also builds a safety culture that not only protects employees from harm but also enhances productivity, reduces costs associated with incidents, and improves overall organizational performance.

Let’s embrace a systemic perspective, unlock the potential of our systems, and cultivate a learning culture that prioritizes safety and optimal outcomes.

For more information, visit www.tyfoom.com.

Sidebar: MCAA Partners With Tyfoom

Tyfoom offers MCAA members access to select MCAA-produced training and education material and products via Tyfoom’s video-based microlearning format. With Tyfoom’s advanced training capabilities and MCAA’s safety training content, members can stay competitive and keep their employees safe. MCAA safety training content will be rolled out throughout the second and third quarter of 2023. New users may sign up at www.tyfoom.com/signup.

Western Allied Mechanical Cuts Quote Delivery Time in Half with ServiceTrade

Since they implemented ServiceTrade software in 2021, Western Allied Mechanical’s service department has been able to cut their quote delivery time in half and send invoices three times faster, while also providing clients a better overall experience with more visibility. ServiceTrade allowed Western Allied to streamline their operations and improve thecustomer experience while sticking with their existing accounting software and processes. In this Q&A, Western AlliedVice President Jeremy Goodland talks about how the company has been improving operations, customer experience, and sales since implementing ServiceTrade.

Please describe your prior processes and the journey to ServiceTrade.

Five or six years ago, we were doing everything in editable PDFs. Time cards, repair work orders, everything was aPDF. Techs would either email them as attachments or upload them to the cloud. Then we’d take all that information and manually enter it into Spectrum, our accounting software.

In 2018, we began utilizing Spectrum’s service component, but it fell short in a few areas where we knew we could dobetter. One of the areas we really felt was lacking was proposal (or quote) generation. We were doing all of our estimates in an Excel spreadsheet. So every job would have an Excel estimate and a Word proposal that we’d have to type up, save as a PDF, and email to the client to sign for approval. Then they’d have to email it back.

It was a clunky process, and given that we’re a service business generating hundreds of proposals each month, we feltit was in our best interest to try and streamline that process.

Was streamlining that quoting process a big factor in choosing ServiceTrade?

It was. We knew that if we were able to reduce that turnaround time by even just 20 percent, we’d be able to crank outthat many more proposals and generate that much more business. We ended up cutting the time from identifying arepair in the field to sending the proposal to the client by 50 percent on average.

How have customer communications changed with ServiceTrade?

ServiceTrade’s customer portal allows our clients to access all of their information—which is great for them, of course, but also for our account managers. I can’t tell you how often our clients reach out, saying, “Hey, can you send me the last two years of records for our account?” Now, with this portal, they have all that data at their fingertips, and that’s really helping out our account managers with that pain point.

The client portal is huge. It has a big impact on how we’re able to go to market. We’re able to pitch that added value to the client and differentiate ourselves. Prospective clients see that value. Tasking is also well received, and it’s nice to be able to sell it as it connects to the customer portal. As soon as the tech submits a task sheet, the client can access itthrough the portal.

Does that visibility help you sell to bigger or more complex clients?

Our construction division does a lot of work in life science and biotechnology buildings. Those clients have strict requirements and have to run a pretty tight ship. In order to work with these types of clients on the service side, weneed the ability to send them the information they need right away. So, yes, it has definitely been a big selling point for these clients.

For more information, visit www.servicetrade.com.

Northwest Mechanical Group Ramps Up Business With BuildOps

When their out-of-date software started slowing them down in the office and the field, Northwest Mechanical Group switched to the BuildOps platform, simplifying and streamlining data management so they could grow their business. “Before we knew it, we were seeing quicker turnaround times on job closeout and a huge improvement in the time it took for quotes to be accepted by our customers,” said Chris Howard, owner and CEO.

Operating out of Portland, OR, Northwest Mechanical Group has been in the commercial service industry for more than 30 years, specializing in low-temperature refrigeration and HVAC services for supermarkets. Northwest relies heavily on technology to help manage its operations and improve overall productivity—both in the back office and on the jobsite. However, their previous software system was out of date, with no future updates in sight. As a result, they were experiencing pain points in the field and slowdowns in the back office. Data were being lost between different platforms. The constant need for repetitive entry and manual processes was causing growing frustration throughout their workforce. As a critical step to growing and scaling up their business, Northwest needed to find a better solution to help manage operations more efficiently.

Northwest spent years looking for software that could keep up with the modern needs of their growing operations. Eventually, they discovered BuildOps. “Since switching over to the BuildOps platform, we’ve experienced a significant jump in job satisfaction from our field technicians and back-office employees,” said Chris Howard.

“The platform is much more user-friendly than what we were used to,” Chris Howard continued. Northwest’s technicians appreciated the easy-to-use nature of the platform and its mobile app. “The [BuildOps] simple approach to field service and project management is unparalleled,” said Howard. “It lets us do exactly what needs to be done, no questions asked.”

BuildOps also saves Northwest both time and effort with invoicing. “The process has become far smoother than it’s ever been,” said Liz Howard, CFO. “And we no longer have to rely on insight from multiple applications to build an invoice—it’s all right there, rolled into one single platform,” she added. This new and improved process has allowed the company to refocus their efforts—helping them take on additional work, which in turn has helped them grow their business.

Since integrating the new BuildOps platform, Northwest Mechanical Group has increased their staff by 30 percent. With more staff, Northwest can keep up with the growing workload—a testament to the impact the right field service management software can have on a commercial business. “We highly recommend BuildOps to any other commercial contractor in the industry,” Chris Howard said. “It’s been a great tool for us to use both in the office and in the field.”

For more information, visit www.buildops.com.

Simplifying the Way We Capture and Transfer Knowledge

By Frantz Belot, Ph.D.
President and Co-Founder, Tyfoom

With more than 70 million baby boomers set to retire by 2030—more than 10,000 each day—organizations need to rethink the way they capture and transfer knowledge before it is lost forever.

In fact, 42 percent of company skills are only known by one person.[1] Much of this information is mission-critical, proprietary, experiential, and unique. It is based on how employees apply what they have learned throughout their careers—and in the case of baby boomers, what has led them to be the most efficient and productive generation of workers the earth has seen.

Yet today’s training is getting lost on the next generation. Eighty-seven percent of millennials say that their corporate learning experience is boring and not relevant.[2] And, it’s not just millennials: one third of all employees say the training their organization provides is out of date.[3]

If learners don’t see training as relevant to what they do, they will become frustrated and it is more difficult to retain them. They will also forget what was taught, which is frightening considering that employees forget 70 percent of information after one day.[4]

Video-Based Microlearning

Video-based microlearning delivers highly engaging content in a way that ensures knowledge transfer. It differentiates itself from other forms of microlearning in a few significant ways. First, it simplifies rather than overcomplicates communication and training. Second, it uses the concepts of spaced learning and video content to provide a daily cadence and repetition of topics to improve retention—and confidence—in learners.

Video-based microlearning also allows organizations to have user-generated, manager-approved content, which can greatly enhance top-down communication and training. It will often be made available in the flow of work so employees can remember in the moment they need, but also in an on-demand library for when they forget.

Most platforms that provide video-based microlearning were developed on iOS or Android mobile devices—not a desktop computer—and as a result are designed to be mobile-first. This means they leverage the functionalities and behaviors that are inherent to smartphones. It also means that video-based microlearning is short—often under two minutes.

Video-based microlearning training modules don’t need to take 7–10 hours to create. Rather, they can be created in minutes following a simple step-by-step methodology that we created based on years of scientific research.

Using a Proven Methodology

By following the methodology below, organizations can quickly create and distribute video-based microlearning training for their organizations.

Step 1: Determine the Topic

First, identify the topic that requires training. You may want to understand what employees already know on the topic, where they can improve, what new skills need to be taught, or which old skills need review. Training topics are strategic, broad ideas that are important to your organization.

Some organizations will regularly survey their employees and managers to determine what skill sets are needed by managers and desired by employees.

Step 2: Isolate Best Practices

Next, break that topic down into several skills or best practices that can be taught. Don’t include anything that is unnecessary. Typically, asking top performers at your organization about the skills and best practices that make them top performers will help you identify and isolate these skills.

Each skill taught should have three or four main points that can be taught. If there are more, break them down into multiple lessons—unless they are processes, such as the steps of how to change a tire or importing information into a database, where a short list of steps is still brief.

Step 3: Outline in Small Chunks

The average attention span in humans is approximately 8.25 seconds.[5] Research shows that effective training takes about two minutes to ensure knowledge transfer. As a result, training should be short.

This is a good thing—and what employees want—in that it allows organizations to provide short bursts of useful information that is relevant and to the point.

To keep your training short, create a brief outline of the training that includes a brief one-sentence introduction that stresses the importance of the topic. Then, include three main “takeaways” that you want learners to remember. Then, close with a call to action asking them to implement what was taught.

A formal script is not needed, which saves time and builds credibility.

Step 4: Record the Video

Because your training video is less than two minutes, communicate only the information that is needed and in a way that is clear and easy to understand. Shoot the video in less than three takes, as the delivery of information will likely degrade and length increase.

For quick training and communications, you can use your mobile phone, which is more than adequate for most training modules. You can also record video on a computer desktop with screen capture software and a microphone.

Step 5: Edit the Video

To edit, use software that is available in your app store or bundled with your device. Get right into instruction as you start the video. Don’t employ an opening title sequence, rather include a branded bumper at the end to reduce distraction. Where possible, add text on the screen to reinforce key concepts.

Distribute, Test, and Report Daily

Distributing training on a daily basis is critical. It is equally important to test daily to ensure knowledge transfer and provide accountability.

A simple quiz format that covers each of the main points of the outline is ideal. Not only does it reinforce and test retention, but it has the added benefit of helping understand if learners are engaging with the content they create.

As a result, make sure that your training platform allows you to automate the quick uploading, distribution, and testing that is required. In addition, it should allow for the creation of an on-demand library so employees can quickly access crucial information in the flow of work.

This new training methodology is designed to help contractors reduce the time required to create video-based microlearning. Whether the outcome is safety, culture, reducing rework, or standardizing best practices, it can help you create the most effective training modules that are easily remembered and put into practice by your workforce.

MCAA members can download Tyfoom’s “cheat sheet” of this methodology: https://www.tyfoom.com/cheat-sheet-create-effective-training-in-7-minutes/.

For more information, visit www.tyfoom.com.

 

[1] Davis, J. (2018, July 18). Knowledge loss: turnover means losing more than employees. HR Daily Advisor. https://hrdailyadvisor.blr.com/2018/07/18/knowledge-loss-turnover-means-losing-employees/
[2] Adkins, A., & Rigoni, B. (2016, June 30). Millennials want jobs to be development opportunities. Gallup. https://www.gallup.com/workplace/236438/millennials-jobs-development-opportunities.aspx
[3] Lorman Education Services. (2021, September 1). 39 statistics that prove the value of employee training. https://www.lorman.com/blog/post/39-statistics-that-prove-the-value-of-employee-training
[4] LoCicero, C. (n.d.). 10 facts & stats about learning retention you’ll want to remember. Bridge. https://www.getbridge.com/blog/10-stats-about-learning-retention
[5] Zauderer, S. (2022, December 26). Average human attention span by age (infographic). Cross River Therapy. https://www.crossrivertherapy.com/average-human-attention-span

ServiceTrade Helps B&W Mechanical Put Customers First, Building Long-Term Loyalty

B&W Mechanical, one of the largest mechanical contractors in the Southeast, chose ServiceTrade software to help them make the move from paper to digital, shortening the time it takes to provide quotes for repairs. Swift, detailed, clear communication is one way that B&W builds trust that leads to long-lasting customer relationships.

Telling the Story

The measure of B&W’s success has always been the quality of their work—whether their customers’ systems are operational and facility needs are met. But before implementing ServiceTrade, even while their priority was exceptional service, they found that communicating their top-notch work to customers was not always easy.

“Not knowing what the technician was up against or what was required—sometimes it’s difficult to justify what that invoice may be,” said Brad Boggs, vice president of B&W. With ServiceTrade, B&W customers now receive a chronological record that tells the full service and repair story.

“ServiceTrade helps us communicate clearly and accurately with our customers as well as transparently. They know everything that we know, and there are no surprises. When the invoice comes, there’s a clear, rich record of what was involved and what the customer is paying for,” said Boggs.

Decades-Long Relationships

B&W customers have come to expect that the right work will be done, and quickly. That kind of service nurtures customer relationships and grows businesses.

Using the ServiceTrade mobile app, B&W technicians document equipment issues during routine maintenance calls with rich media, such as images and audio files. When repairs are needed, those data are available instantly to the office, which uses the information to estimate the costs of repairs rapidly. Boggs pointed out, “The technician is able to gather a lot of the data in the field, and that allows us to get a quote back to the customer a lot of times on the same day.”

And those rich media records, delivered to customer via a one-click link, help paint the whole picture. “Our customers really love the fact that they’re getting data in the form of visuals and narrative,” Boggs said.

“This customer experience gives us the opportunity to create relationships that last for decades, where we’re a trusted partner who gets the right things done quickly,” Boggs noted.

B&W also appreciates that ServiceTrade software caters to commercial service contractors. “If we wanted to be the best we could be as a mechanical contractor to our customers, we had to also know that the software company we used was specialized in their field,” said Boggs. “Since onboarding ServiceTrade, we’ve found that it’s differentiated us from our competition pretty significantly.” 

For more information, visit servicetrade.com.

ASSC Rapidly Improves Efficiency, Customer Experience With ServiceTrade Software

When Sacramento-based Air Systems Service & Construction (ASSC) began shopping for new software, their main priority was improving customer experience. Within eight months of adopting ServiceTrade’s commercial service software in 2021, ASSC was already seeing significant improvements in customer communication and increasing efficiency. ASSC was established in 1996; they specialize in fast-track, complete turn-key mechanical systems and now serve clients all over Northern California.

Better Customer Experience

“There’s nothing sexy about purchasing a preventative maintenance program,” said ASSC Operations Manager Gregg Perry. “Nobody gets excited about how we spend money on air conditioning repairs. So a big driving factor in our software decision was the ability to enhance the customer experience and use it as a differentiator among our competitors.”

After just eight months of using ServiceTrade, Perry feels ASSC has accomplished this.

“The number-one thing I hear from customers is that they value communication. Now, if they want, we can tell them when their tech is in route, tell them when he gets there, and when he leaves. All of that is available.”

With ServiceTrade, ASSC customers also enjoy being able to access work summaries and invoices as well as approve quotes in seconds via their online service reports.

Improved Efficiency

The added efficiency that ServiceTrade brings to ASSC has further improved customer experience and reduced time-to-bill.

“The speed of doing business has improved greatly. We pride ourselves on getting quotes to customers within 24 hours and usually on the same day. I also have a goal of getting our time-to-bill down to seven days, and I think that’s very possible,” Perry said.

With their data centralized in ServiceTrade, ASSC can quickly provide customers with any information they need.

“We might have a customer that calls and says, ‘We’re going to sell this building. Can you send me my last six months of PM [preventive maintenance] history, all the open deficiencies, and open invoices?’ Before, we’d have to find them, print them all, scan them all. Now we just click on what we want to include and send it out,” said Perry.

ServiceTrade’s QuickSight dashboards also enable the ASSC team to access internal data on demand.

“I like having that dashboard,” Perry noted. “I can see my open costs on a daily basis. I can see open work orders, open PMs, and revenue being billed on a daily basis. I’m not waiting until the end of the month when our financials come out to see how well we did.”

Read ServiceTrade’s blog, “Selecting Service Management Software (That Keeps Accounting Happy)”: https://servicetrade.com/2019/05/selecting-services-management-software)

For more information, visit ServiceTrade.com.

Geauga Mechanical Reduces Duplicate Data Entry and Cost Overruns with eSUB Cloud

Ohio-based mechanical contractor Geauga Mechanical Company keeps projects on track and recoups more than 750 office hours annually through eSUB CLOUD’s project management and time tracking software. Prior to transitioning to eSUB, the contractor’s paper-based system of time reporting required field employees to call in to the office weekly or submit written time sheets that had to be reviewed, approved, and then manually entered into the accounting system.

Geauga needed a better application to track field time that would also easily work with their accounting and design systems, but “nothing did all of the things we were looking for,” recalled Craig Berman, CEO of Geauga Mechanical. The company, which specializes in design/build construction of energy-efficient mechanical systems, used a sophisticated formula for assessing job data but lacked a system for collecting time sheets and allocating hours in the field to specific job codes and phases. This approach put them at risk of underestimating how much time was required for each task.

“When we saw eSUB, we realized it was a good fit for time reporting, but that it could also solve the problem of getting information into Sage without double data entry,” Berman said. “There were a lot of solutions out there that were intriguing, but eSUB did more of the things we needed.”

“We’ve really focused on technology as a way to make our crews more productive and allow them to get work done more efficiently.”

— Craig Berman, CEO, Geauga Mechanical

Before eSUB, Berman said, “Our accounting staff was in the office every Monday, calling people in the field. This took at least two hours of time from people in the field and four hours from accounting. Now it takes only a few minutes. eSUB also saves me time approving timecards. If I’m out, I can quickly review and approve them from my phone.”

The pandemic made an inefficient system even more tedious. It was clunky and left hours reported in a way that made job costing imprecise. “There was always a bit of confusion in the field as to task codes,” Berman said. “A lot of stuff got dumped into ‘duct installation’ even it was something else. It was all going into one big bucket.”

Switching to eSUB has made labor productivity tracking for Geauga Mechanical much more precise, like being able to see at a glance exactly how much time it took to hang 100’ of duct work. One year into the transition to eSUB, the wealth of project data available is providing better visibility into productivity and job costing—and doing it in a lot less time.

One of the first jobs using eSUB showed early on in the project that labor costs were trending 15 percent over estimate. Being new to the software, the project team did not yet trust the accuracy of the data. “We got to the end of the job and we were about 15 percent over. Had we trusted eSUB, we could have done a few things differently to improve the outcome,” said Berman.

“eSUB is a pretty good indicator, early on, of how we’re doing,” Berman noted. “We had been using the same formula, but the data we were getting was not that great. Now we can trust that the data is more accurate. With a high level of accuracy, we can see how we are doing on each task.”

Along the way, eSUB support and the ability to tweak the system to the company’s specific needs has more than exceeded expectations, and Berman said he would not hesitate to recommend it, especially to companies that are already using sophisticated data to track productivity and job costing.

For a company like Geauga Mechanical, success is built around strong customer relationships. “Being relationship-based, we can’t afford to get a bad job or do something that is not up to the standards of our customers. We’ve really focused on technology as a way to make our crews more productive and allow them to get work done more efficiently.”

See eSUB’s top 10 reasons why mobile and cloud-based software can revolutionize your construction business: https://esub.com/top-10-reasons-cloud-construction-software/

For more information, contact eSUB for a personalized eSUB CLOUD demo or visit www.esub.com.

Warwick Mechanical Boosts Business with XOi System for Technicians

Facing a tight labor market, Warwick Mechanical Group turned to XOi for technology solutions that make it easy for less-seasoned technicians to get information and communicate with supervisors and customers quickly. Warwick’s revenue reached around $115 million in 2021, and Ron Clark, vice president of Service, credits solutions like XOi with contributing to that success.

Warwick focuses on commercial and industrial projects—such as military, federal government, hospital, and educational facilities—throughout central Virginia and northeast North Carolina. Clark was tasked with turning the service division into a profitable part of the business. Immediately, he recognized that building a culture for best-in-class service was the way to grow their business. He applied his sales management experience to build relationships with technicians and develop processes to increase productivity and sales.

Support in the Field

Clark quickly learned how important it is to take care of his team out in the field. “If I want a tech to take care of a customer the way I want them to, I need to take care of them, too.”

He reached out to XOi because Warwick did not have enough qualified technicians. “If the more-experienced techs are unavailable, the only option is to send a less-seasoned tech to assess the situation. They may make numerous calls back to the office, or a supervisor may be needed at the jobsite to facilitate the repair.”

In late 2020, Warwick began using the XOi Vision solution to help bridge the skills and equipment knowledge gap. The software provides technicians with the tools needed to accurately perform service tasks and satisfy internal and external customers.

“Partnering with XOi not only improves our operational processes but enhances value by increasing the trust between our technicians and our customers,” said Clark. If techs get stuck by a particular jobsite problem, the cloud-based app allows techs to communicate with a supervisor and show exactly what they are working on.

“The supervisor sends a link via the XOi app to the technician, who authorizes mobile app access to the supervisor,” Clark explained. “Now, the supervisor can see exactly what that tech is seeing.”

 To assist in onboarding and training, Warwick’s service team assigns new technicians a few XOi videos to watch and recap what they have learned. “It’s a good onboarding tool for the newer guys. It’s hard finding a seasoned technician who knows what they are doing, so we need to develop our own. This process is our way of getting new techs up to speed much quicker,” Clark noted.

Building Trust

XOi’s powerful curb-to-curb technician enablement solution offers Warwick essential tools for maximizing customer value through industry-leading efficiency, accuracy, and accountability. Incorporating XOi’s data-based visual documentation platform equips Warwick to deliver the top field service technician support and optimize customer deliverables.

“In our industry, trust is not where I think it should be,” Clark said. “With XOi, a technician takes videos before, during, and after the repair or replacement. They can share a link with the customer, who can see that the work was done as the technician said. It builds trust much quicker, especially with newer customers.”

Customers can also send live videos to Warwick to help explain their dilemma before a technician comes to their location. This helps the Warwick team diagnose issues faster, provide better quotes, and select the correct parts for each piece of equipment.

Clark credits the Service team’s success to establishing new ways of working and having the right solutions to get the job done and build relationships with their customers.

Sales teams also use XOi to document and explain repairs to each customer via a shared link and get direct feedback to inform the installation and service teams. This level of detail and quality customer experience helps technicians stay transparent, educate customers, and increase return on investment.

For more information, visit xoi.io.

The Cost of Not Training – Tyfoom Explains How Training Makes Employees More Productive, Profitable, and Committed

By Frantz Belot, Ph.D.
President, Tyfoom

Training is key in driving desired systematic improvement in any organization. Yet many businesses see training as an optional cost rather than as a necessary investment with a significant return. Consequently, training often drops to the very bottom of companies’ priorities.

Prioritizing training, however, makes your employees more productive, more profitable while at work, and more committed to your organization.

The Hard Costs of Training

At first glance, investing in employee training may seem like a high-priced expense. Most businesses understand the need to help new employees get up to speed with a basic understanding of their role and responsibilities, but many mechanical contracting companies struggle to see the benefit of ongoing training outside of weekly toolbox talks or an occasional mandatory safety training.

The Society for Human Resource Management reports that it costs roughly $4,100 each time a new employee is hired in the United States—most of this is spent training and onboarding until the new employee becomes productive at around five to eight months. This is what it costs for that employee to be successful in the new job. (You can find a link to the 2016 Human Capital Benchmarking Report here: https://www.shrm.org/hr-today/news/hr-news/pages/shrm-benchmarking-report-$4,100-average-cost-per-hire.aspx).

When it comes to ongoing training, companies spent an average of $1,071 per employee in 2021 in the United States (according to TrainingMag.com’s 2021 Industry Training Report, available here: https://pubs.royle.com/publication/?i=727569&pre=1). While this amount is down $215 from 2019, this figure has been considered the baseline of what companies should spend to empower their employees and make them successful.

Using these two spending figures, we learn that it is 73-percent less expensive to invest in current employee training than it is to hire new employees. Effective microlearning tools, like Tyfoom, are even less expensive to implement. We’ll explore this further in a moment, but untrained or undertrained employees can become a significant liability for the company, affecting quality of work, safety, productivity, customer experience, employee turnover, and even the company brand.

Most of us know this, but ensuring that we invest in employee training when times are difficult can be a challenge. So, what happens to mechanical contractors who spend little or nothing on training?

The Cost of Not Training

Employees have become more demanding of their employers for training and engagement. Engagement in this context means employees feel a two-way connection to the organization and leaders that employ them and are committed to mutual success. As a result, employees naturally want more touch points with leaders who can mentor them. They want to shrink the skills gap, and they want to become more expert at what they do. If they do not feel their organization is investing in them, they become unengaged with the business and uncommitted to their work environment. And the consequences can be cataclysmic—especially for mechanical contractors.

One study by Gallup asked what employees want from their jobs. Number three out of the top six things reported was “the ability to do what they do best.” (You can read more about the study here: https://www.gallup.com/workplace/236261/better-health-best-every-day.aspx). In fact, according to another Gallup study, 87% of millennials—the single largest demographic in the workplace – say professional development at work is important to them. (Learn more about the poll of millennials here: https://www.gallup.com/workplace/236438/millennials-jobs-development-opportunities.aspx) And nearly 70% of other generations also see jobs as opportunities to learn and grow.

The Gallup study of millennials in the workplace also specifies that when employees are trained, they enjoy their work and remain engaged. Engaged employees are 87 percent less likely to leave their place of work (according to data from the The Muse, cited by TechJury here: https://techjury.net/blog/employee-engagement-statistics/#gref), while disengaged workers have an 81 percent increase in absenteeism, 64 percent more safety incidents, 59 percent higher turnover, and are responsible for 41 percent more defects than highly-engaged teams (according to other Gallup data, found here: https://www.gallup.com/workplace/236366/right-culture-not-employee-satisfaction.aspx). In our industry these numbers are game changing.

The linchpin for employee engagement is training and development. When employees feel that the organization is developing them both as individuals and as workers, they feel valued and they become engaged, leading to higher productivity and ultimately more profitability. Gallup estimates between $450 billion and $550 billion is lost each year in the United States due to disengaged employees. (See Gallup’s report, State of the American Workplace, for additional insights: https://www.gallup.com/workplace/238085/state-american-workplace-report-2017.aspx)

In our industry, employees who are not trained work inefficiently and are at the root of many preventable issues and injuries in the workplace. In fact, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration reports that more than $1 billion a week is spent by U.S. businesses on serious non-fatal workplace injuries—resulting in nearly $59 billion in direct U.S. workers’ compensation costs. (Read the agency’s business case for safety and health: https://www.osha.gov/businesscase.)

The risk of not having development opportunities in your organization far outweighs other concerns when it comes to your employees.

The Return on Investment of Training

On the other end of the spectrum, effective and profitable mechanical contractors are systematic at employee engagement, disciplined at sharing of best practices, and laser-focused on developing employees in order to become operationally efficient as an organization. The heart of this approach is an emphasis on training.

One landmark study found that companies that invest $1,500 on training per employee can see an average of 24 percent more profit than companies that invest less. (Get the details from HR Magazine: https://www.shrm.org/hr-today/news/hr-magazine/pages/0101wells.aspx.) While this study is 20 years old, new research shows that profitability for companies who engage is statistically the same at 23 percent two decades later. (See more here: https://www.gallup.com/workplace/236366/right-culture-not-employee-satisfaction.aspx.)

Another study by IBM found that a 10-percent increase in educational development produced a 9-percent gain in productivity. (Read the full story here: https://elearningindustry.com/training-engagement-boost-bottom-line.) Most organizations would be quite happy with this amount of productivity gains and double-digit profitability improvement. Yet, we trade that $1,500-per-employee investment for less effective and untested programs that have not been proven again and again over time.

Aside from keeping employees productive, profitable, and committed, training helps organizations standardize work processes and outputs so that the things a company produces are uniform, wastage is reduced, and safety is improved. It also optimizes and reduces the time it takes to complete a task. From an employee-morale standpoint, training improves job satisfaction, increases loyalty, empowers employees, and develops future leaders. Each affects your organization’s brand.

Excellent products and services are delivered by well-trained employees. Happy, loyal, and productive employees are well-trained, and organizations need a platform that will help them get their employees well trained.

Investing in Training

So is training an unnecessary cost or a crucial investment? You decide. The data is, however, conclusive that employee training improves engagement, thereby increasing the productivity and profitability of an organization while making employees happy.

For more information, visit www.tyfoom.com.

With XOi App, Havtech Improves Communication, Expedites Service

XOi Technologies’ cloud-based mobile app takes the manual work out of getting critical information from the field into the hands of those who need it, which is helping Havtech streamline communication and improve efficiency. Havtech now has full transparency with their customers at every stage of the contract—from quote to completed work.

Headquartered in Columbia, MD, Havtech is one of the mid-Atlantic’s largest and most experienced providers of commercial HVAC equipment, building automation systems, field services, distribution, and energy solutions. Havtech sought to leverage their position in the market and consistently exceed the highest level of service that consumers have come to expect. With XOi, Havtech’s technicians are able to document every jobsite, capturing initial conditions, any recommendations as they arise, and an overview of what was done on site.

The XOi platform is a cloud-based mobile application that technicians access on whatever device they are already using in the field. Be it Apple or Android, tablet or phone, techs are able to leverage the XOi app at any time—without even an Internet connection required.

Full Transparency

With the app, Havtech’s technicians can provide photos and videos as visual evidence of their work, taking the guesswork out of what is really going on with facility equipment. As a result, clients can make informed decisions and feel confident in their investment.

“XOi has given us the tool to increase credibility and just overwhelm people with communication. We’ve had times where customers called in and challenged the work performed. Havtech has the ability to provide the customer with an electronic link to watch the associated video,” said Erik Hess, Havtech’s service operations leader.

“Before XOi, it would require additional meetings or technicians’ time to resolve the questions or disputes. The XOi solution has positively impacted Havtech’s credibility and quality of communication with our customers,” Hess noted.

Benefits Beyond

As the XOi solution took off, Havtech discovered the workflow automation they were using could also improve many other aspects of the business, including sales, warranty, and supply chain. For example, Inside Sales Parts Representative Chuck Hicks likes the way technicians can simply snap a photo of an equipment nameplate, letting the technology handle the rest. XOi uses optical character recognition to automatically capture make, model, and serial numbers. “We can turn the warranty in with a lot less aggravation. It’s made my job much more efficient,” said Hicks.

When it comes to parts requisition, a process that Hess formerly described as “inconsistent” was totally transformed as Havtech began using XOi workflows to manage it. Requests for parts were previously submitted through a service ticket or through a text, phone call, or email. Customers often had to call the office to inquire about when a part would arrive. Many hours were spent tracking down the order status, often leading to the need to expedite missing part orders, incurring next-day shipping costs.

“Now, the tech sends in the request, it is verified, and off we go. It’s repeatable and consistent. They send requests via XOi while they’re right there at the job, so it’s almost instant,” Hess said. He continued, “If you really want to get your business dialed in, XOi’s workflow automation is what you need for your business. It’s a customizable solution that produces results.”

For more information, visit www.xoi.io.

LAARS Slashes Operating Costs with MobiliForms

Implementing the iBusiness Technologies Solution Completes Company’s Move to a Paperless Process

LAARS Heating Systems adopted MobiliForms from iBusiness Technologies because they wanted to make their familiar site visit reports fully interactive and gain access to image capture, dictation, and cloud storage, which was not possible through their primary computer system. The new digital workflow saves LAARS significant time with each service visit, significantly reducing operating costs.

Part of the Bradford White family, LAARS has been a heat exchange innovator since 1948. It offers more than 20 products, with capacity up to five million BTUs, all made in the United States. Quality products, deep support, and extraordinary field service have enabled LAARS to grow and thrive for over 70 years.

Through MCAA, LAARS has seen and evaluated numerous technology options available to the industry. The ability to replicate their site visit reports in digital form and gain other capacities made MobiliForms a natural fit for the company. MobiliForms runs on Apple iPads® and iPhones®, the top choice for contractors seeking battle-tested mobile devices.

Factory-trained partners across the country maintain and service LAARS equipment. When circumstances warrant factory personnel becoming involved, the LAARS regional service managers use MobiliForms to assess, record, and archive every facet of the equipment and operating environment. Findings and resolutions are also instantly shared with all stakeholders.

Using MobiliForms saves each LAARS manager 45–60 minutes per visit. Each regional service manager is responsible for one fourth of the country, so time efficiency is paramount. Bill Shaw, technical service department manager said, “MobiliForms has been a tremendous timesaver, streamlining our service and replacing the last of our dreaded paperwork.”

Regardless of organization size or existing computer system, many companies still shuffle some paperwork to satisfy customer requirements or complete documents that fall outside of their current software. MobiliForms is the choice among many MCAA members who want to go completely paperless while keeping their existing software. The MCAA Smart Solutions Case Studies library offers many examples.

For more information, visit MobiliForms.com, call Steve Metzman at 215-850-5565, or email him at steve.metzman@iBusiness-Tech.com.