Jackie discusses the often-overlooked value of contractors, as well as the PR challenges facing the facilities industry.
Jackie discusses the often-overlooked value of contractors, as well as the PR challenges facing the facilities industry. It’s critical to emphasize the importance of trades, and to attract talent with not only wages, but top-notch company culture.
Welcome to Elevating Brick and Mortar, A podcast about how operations and facilities drive brand performance.
On today’s episode, we talk with Jackie Aubel, host of the “Toolbox for the Trades” podcast and Senior Content Marketing Manager at ServiceTitan. ServiceTitan is an operating system for the trades, which it believes has been underserved by technology. The platform enables thousands of business owners to accelerate growth, drive operational efficiencies and deliver a superior customer experience.
Guest Bio:
Jackie is a Content Marketer, Podcaster, and Comedy Writer. She’s been working as a marketer in the B2B SaaS space for 10; She specializes in creating thought leadership content through webinar and podcast channels. When she’s not hosting webinars, interviewing guests for the Toolbox for the Trades podcast, or managing her growing team of content creators , she spends her free time writing sketch comedy and short stories. Jackie recently got her Master’s in Marriage and Family Therapy.
Guest Quote:
“Contractors are the foundation of society as a whole. And unfortunately, due to some poor stereotypes and bad PR the last couple decades, people don't see them as the incredibly valuable members of society as they are.”
Timestamps:
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Links:
[00:00:00] Sid Shetty: Hello, everyone. Welcome to Elevating Brick and Mortar. Thank you for joining us. I am here today with Jackie Aubel, host of the Toolbox for the Trades podcast, an industry public speaker, and the Senior Content Marketing Manager at ServiceTitan. Jackie, welcome. Thank you for being here.
[00:00:17] Jackie Aubel: Thank you so much for having me, Sid. You were such a great guest on my podcast and I hope I can do the same for yours.
[00:00:24] Sid Shetty: Oh, I am sure you will. Very excited to have you on. Um, so Jackie, for folks in our audience who might not be familiar with the brand, can you share some insight into ServiceTitan, um, as well as your show, Toolbox for the Trades?
[00:00:38] Jackie Aubel: Yeah, I would be more than happy to. So, Service Titan is a CRM for contractors. We are an end to end solution for folks who are looking to run their service business in a more efficient way, to grow profits, streamline operations. All of that good stuff. So if you're talking about booking calls, dispatching technicians, presenting options, collecting payment, analyzing data, seriously, Service Titan does it all.
[00:01:05] I've been in tech for all of my career and I have never worked for a platform that impacts Lives the way that ServiceTitan does. So highly recommend you guys check it out. We have a ton of content on our website and where you can hear from other contractors and all that good stuff. A few years ago, I started Toolbox for the Trades, which is ServiceTitan first podcast.
[00:01:26] And on that show I interview service entrepreneur entrepreneurs from all walks of life, whether that be HVAC, plumbing, electrical, garage door water treatment. I'm gonna have some roofing folks on, and I really talk to them about how they, so, I'm going to talk about how they got into the trades and how they operate their business.
[00:01:44] We talk about challenges they overcame, strategies they implement to make their business work smoother.And what's even better about that is we talk to everyone from the owner operators, to marketers, to dispatchers, to even private equity folks we've had on the show, because private equity has had such an impact on the trades in recent years.
[00:02:01] And I've had an absolute blast doing it. We're in episode 150s, somewhere around there, as of this recording, and we are not stopping anytime soon.
[00:02:11] Sid Shetty: Congratulations on the success. Um,
[00:02:13] Jackie Aubel: Thank you.
[00:02:14] Sid Shetty: What made you start the podcast? Like, why'd you do it and what has the response been so far?
[00:02:19] Jackie Aubel: I came on at ServiceTitan about six and a half years ago, actually as the social media manager, and within my role, very, I'm actually employee number, I think, 286 at ServiceTitan, and for those who aren't, don't know, we are now in the thousands, so I have seen ServiceTitan grow exponentially, and I'm someone who By nature loves to wear a lot of hats.
[00:02:41] So my role kind of always evolved with the ever growing needs of service Titan but one of my big things was talking directly with contractors and Figuring out what it is. They want to see on social what kind of content they want to get in our emails What kind of blogs can we write that will get them engaged and help them better run their business and just through So, learning that and doing these interviews, I had done a comedy podcast in a past life, and so I went to my, my managers and I said, you know, I think we should really start recording some of my interviews because there are some great nuggets here that I know a ton of contractors could benefit from.
[00:03:19] And luckily, I had some forward minded leaders at Service Titan who greenlit the podcast and that's, that's how it happened, so could not be more grateful.
[00:03:27] Sid Shetty: As the host of the show, what impact are you trying to make? Like what, if you were to look back, you know, let's say two years from now and you look at everything you've done, what are you looking to have achieved by then? Or even now, right?
[00:03:42] Jackie Aubel: question. Great question. So, I actually, this is something that I say all the time, and it may be because I have always worked at tech startups, which are always fast and moving. I don't really think about professional goals. Longer than like three, six months out. You know what I mean? Because you never know what's gonna happen.
[00:04:01] You never know how you're gonna pivot. But your question, which was, you know, the impact I made. I always say to folks who are coming on the show and maybe aren't familiar with it yet. We kind of have Two big goals when it comes to the show. The first one is to, actually three, the first one is to highlight contractors stories.
[00:04:20] You and I both know that contractors are the foundation of society as a whole. And unfortunately, due to some poor stereotypes and bad PR the last couple decades, people don't see them as the incredible valuable members of society as they are. So, I love to highlight contractors stories and showcase their growth and their success.
[00:04:40] That's one. The second one is, and this is one of the things I absolutely love about working in the trades, I find that service entrepreneurs love helping one another. They absolutely love it. They're such a strong community. And so the show serves as a microphone, right? Or a megaphone to the industry. That's what I always say to folks coming on. This is your chance to take a megaphone to the industry and share some really key insights that have helped you along your journey. And the third one, I guess kind of circles back to the first one, but it's to help with this hiring shortage, which I know you guys have talked about before. There are so few people coming into this industry or the trades as a whole compared to the folks that are preparing to retire out. And I like to think that my show is doing its job of showing that if you join the trades, there are so many opportunities for you, truly.
[00:05:33] Sid Shetty: Yeah,
[00:05:35] Jackie Aubel: You know, I went to college. I, you know, did the traditional educational path. I will tell you this. I know much, many more successful people in the trades than I do from my college career. And when I say success, I mean running multi billion dollar, multi million dollar businesses. Billion? I don't think so yet. Maybe, one day, eventually. But those are my three things that I really like to focus on when it comes to this show and the impacts that I would like to make.
[00:06:00] Sid Shetty: I love it. I want to double click on that in a little bit. Before we go there though, I want to talk about your background and how you got to where you are. You have a fascinating journey. Can you share that with our audience?
[00:06:16] Jackie Aubel: Oh my goodness, I would love nothing more than to confuse your audience, uh, and maybe in the process figure out what the heck my brand is, because I cannot figure it out. Uh, so I grew up in New York City, I'm from Flushing, Queens, like the nanny, if anyone loved that show with Fran Drescher in the 90s like I did.
[00:06:35] I went to college in New York. I loved live. I loved living in New York and I actually got my undergraduate degree in Neuropsychology and business, and my plan was to become a therapist after school. In my year off between undergrad and grad school, I discovered the robust improv and com comedy community of New York City.
[00:06:58] I got really involved in Upright Citizens Brigade, the People's Improv Theater. And I got to this point where I got accepted into a graduate program, and my sister, who's younger than me, she kind of told me, we kind of discussed my options. At the time, I had taken a job in tech, B2B SaaS, which is, you know, where I'm at now. And I was like, I cannot do three things. I can't do comedy, I can't do B2B sass, and I can't do grad school all at once. I have to pick. And my sister was like, well, you could do comedy for no money, which is what you're doing.
[00:07:31] You could go to grad school for negative money. Or, you could do tech B2B SaaS for some money. And I'm like, I think I'm gonna go with the some money and no money option, just so I'm on a positive. Uh, and so I did that. I actually traveled to Los Angeles. I relocated here almost eight years ago. My anniversary is coming up in a few days. And I got involved in the comedy scene here. Launched my own called Guilty Pleasure, so I had been doing this for about seven, eight years, while working a full time job.
[00:08:02] So I had, it's funny because I had actually, you know, maybe, made the decision to take a step back from comedy and then was thrust into the pandemic. And as you know, the trades You know, we were, we were all nervous there for a second, those first few weeks of the pandemic, but what ended up happening, especially in the Service Titan community, our customers did incredible business during the first two years of the pandemic, and so we were going like gangbusters.
[00:08:28] It was, honestly, the hardest I've ever worked. Um, so we did that for about a year and a half, just working at Service Titan. And then about, uh, two years ago I got the calling to go back and get that graduate degree that I wanted. So I got my Master's in Marriage and Family Therapy. So I am a trainee therapist at this point. I wear a lot of hats, Sid, uh, and I'm kind of trying to figure out, I think there's gonna be a place in the future where all three of these things, comedy, podcasting, and therapy come together, and I'm excited for what the future holds for me, but it's, it's a banana's journey, not a lot of people have gone on it, so thank you for giving me the space and the time to talk about it.
[00:09:09] Sid Shetty: No, I love it. Now that's fascinating. Thank you for sharing that. Guilty pleasures. I've made a note of it. We'll, we'll make, make sure to go check it out.
[00:09:17] Jackie Aubel: I will tell you, the best episode is the Alan Iverson episode. I'm not a big sports person, but the guest we had on talking about Alan Iverson was funniest episode, I think. So,
[00:09:29] Sid Shetty: perfect, perfect. Noted. So, so let's talk about, um, Service Titan, right? Can you share like what, what service Titans brand promise and what problem are you trying to solve?
[00:09:41] Jackie Aubel: So, Service Titan was founded by two gentlemen by the name of Ara Medesian and Vahe Kozoyan. They are Armenian immigrants who grew up in Glendale, which is where I'm at, Glendale, California. And they both went to amazing colleges. They both got, you know, these incredible degrees. Their plans were to go work at Facebook or Google or one of the big tech companies after they graduated school. But as luck would have it, Ara and Vahe met on a skiing trip for Armenian immigrants, uh, you know, during some time during college, and they both connected because, you know, of their status and also that their fathers were in the trades.
[00:10:19] Sid Shetty: That's right.
[00:10:20] Jackie Aubel: They got together, they got along really well, and they're like, you know what, before we go work for Google or for any of these other big tech companies, why don't we like take a summer and just build some software for our dads?
[00:10:30] We know what will make that their lives so much easier. And here I am in 2024 with thousands of other employees, we've got locations across the country, like across the globe at this point, uh, and it's, it's an incredible story. So, Service Titan was started with the mission of helping our dads, and I connect with that as well because my father actually was a carpenter throughout his career, so that is where I connected with the, the mission as a whole.
[00:11:02] So our mission is to be the number one operating system in the trades. When I first joined, we were very much the company that was bringing tech forward into a. Into an industry that has historically been underserved by technology. And I think we've done a phenomenal job. And in those six years that I've been here, I've seen RNVA lead the charge in a really authentic and genuine way.
[00:11:25] We bring on subject matter experts to our staff full time who help inform how we build the product and what type of content pieces we create. And we're always, always, always going back to how are our customers responding to our software updates, to our products, and how can we make it better for them. So, it's a really wonderful mission, to be honest, and I consider myself really privileged to be a part of it.
[00:11:50] Sid Shetty: Yeah, it's a great story, right? I mean, you know, I think ServiceTitan is really well known and we'll talk about, you know, um, some of the markets you serve, uh, but that's a pretty fascinating story as to how it started. And if you look at the success that, uh, that you guys enjoyed today, uh, it's pretty amazing and a pretty meteoric, uh, rise.
[00:12:12] Um, you know, when you look at your customers and the space that we're in, how do you measure success in terms of the value you're creating for your customer, which is, you know, the service provider who's ultimately turning the wrench, um, in. You know, the location or the business owner, um, who has, you know, their technicians that they're responsible for and for meeting service levels. How do you measure success and how does that translate to the great experiences that you're hoping that will help them provide to their customers?
[00:12:46] Jackie Aubel: Yes, so so, with our software, we enable customers, our contractors, your providers, to get real time data, to fine tune their business, to make sure they're doubling down on systems that are work, improving systems that aren't. And at the end of the day, increasing their revenue, increasing their average ticket, and better serving their customers. I think one of the foundational things about ServiceTitan is all of our features enable providers to provide this incredible customer experience. I mentioned earlier, you know, kind of this bad PR and some of the stereotypes that the trades have gotten in the past. And ServiceTitan that helps focus and it enables our contractors to completely like go against that stereotype. When a homeowner, so just also as a clarification, Service Titan was originally designed for residential contractors and since then we've now, we've now grown into commercial and construction, which is how you and I know each other.
[00:13:41] But you know, historically, you would call up the provider to maybe come to your house or come service your business and you'd get like this guy answer the phone and he'd be like yeah I can make it on Tuesday and you're gonna be like, well how much is it gonna cost, and he'd be like, I don't know we'll see we'll see when we get there. I'm not sure I actually couldn't tell you of what that experience was like but it was very unclear it was really hard to determine when that contractor was going to be coming, when they were going to be servicing, uh, your unit, and if they were going to give you a good deal, all that stuff.
[00:14:15] So, um, with ServiceTitan, we enable our contractors with the ability to let their customers know exactly when the tech is arriving. They have a little, we have a little tech tracker, which is amazing. All of their customers get technician bios, where they get to see, Hey, Jackie's coming to your house, and just so you know, she's been working at ABC Plumbing for four years, and she has a dog named Russell, and so you can kind of develop that, that, um, that, like, knowing who this person is that you're letting into your home or to your business.
[00:14:49] So, I think to circle back to your question here, how we measure success is by our customers success and our customers are successful when they deliver incredible experiences to their customers.
[00:14:59] So, that is really what we're looking for in the end.
[00:15:03] Sid Shetty: Yeah. You know, when I was, uh, in Princeton, New Jersey, living there for a few years, um, I actually used an HVAC company that used ServiceTitan, um,
[00:15:13] Jackie Aubel: Oh, I love it.
[00:15:15] Sid Shetty: And I know that because I think I'm an annoying consumer because I ask a lot of questions and I actually asked them what platform they used and they, you know, tell me Service Titan.
[00:15:23] And then I had them show me what it looked like because they needed parts. And, you know, they ended up showing me how they were going to go into the inventory and look at the part and find the part. And here I am like, you know, as a consumer, you know, getting information that, you know, I'd love to know when I'm making decisions, but also I was very inquisitive because I was looking at what it was like to be a technician in the field using a platform. So I, I appreciate it and I, and I saw it firsthand. Um, now as you said, like you move from, you know, not just being in residential to also being, um, in the commercial side of the business, which, like you mentioned, that's how you met the, uh, how we both met.
[00:16:02] When you look at, you know, service Titan and you look at the impact you're making to the, your customer in that space, and as it relates to brick and mortar, what is your view on brick and mortar in general?
[00:16:16] Because, There was this one phase where everyone said, well, everything's going to go to e commerce now and brick and mortar is dead. Well, anything but, right? Brick and mortar will always have a huge role to play, uh, and has a big impact on the brand experiences that are offered by, um, the brands to their consumer. You're on the other side, you know, compared to service channel, right? You're servicing the service provider. How do you look at, you know, the impact you're making to the brands that ultimately are your customer's customer.
[00:16:51] Jackie Aubel: I'm glad that you kind of mentioned how we, you know, again, we started as residential and as I'm sure any provider who may be listening. MNO, or even some facilities managers who may be listening.
[00:17:01] Say you, you know, you have your own home, you have your own situation, you have a contractor come in and that contractor is great and you're like, oh my god, this guy was awesome. I'm gonna call this guy and I'm gonna ask him if he can help service my business. And that's kind of what we found in the residential space is that like out of all of the breakdown of business that our customers had, there was always like, they always had like 10 or 15 percent commercial and construction.
[00:17:26] And as Service Titan grew and our brand grew, we had more and more commercial and construction clients coming to us saying, hey, can I use this? And so, we had to really innovate and think about, okay, we kind of stand foundationally on, we want to help our customers grow and we believe that one main tenant of that is delivering them exceptional customer service.
[00:17:47] How can we do this for the commercial and construction contractors? How can we do it for people who are serving facilities managers, who are, who are serving businesses? And so we worked actually collaboratively with customers to in it to develop those, develop those features. One, uh, one customer in particular was Jackson Services in LaGrange, Georgia, which uses ServiceTitan now to manage multi day projects, which go sometimes as long as like 18 months.
[00:18:17] And so they worked with us directly to figure out, hey, how should this feature look like in ServiceTitan, that we can better manage the project, and that our point person, the facilities manager, the person in charge of our relationship, is getting those updates in real time.
[00:18:33] So we had to kind of think about what is the best way to serve that end customer, the facilities manager, the And so we've done that in a couple different ways. One of them is developing our project management functionality, which has been very popular amongst our commercial clients. We also have client specific pricing, which is huge, because as we know, different clients sometimes have different deals, so being able to churn out that pricing is huge, it's a must have for folks who are doing the type of business that folks listening to brick, elevating brick and mortar are.
[00:19:04] Um, so I think the short answer to your question, the too long didn't read or too long didn't listen to what Jackie just said is, we collaborated with our customers to create these features that would help them better serve their end customers, which are your customers.
[00:19:19] Sid Shetty: That's right. That's right. You know, you, you also mentioned that our industry has a PR problem, right? And I wholeheartedly agree. Um, I said this a lot too, which is our industry has a massive PR problem because we don't do a good job with really articulating the impact we make. On the brands that we serve, right? Our, um, a lot of the folks in our audience are, you know, folks that design, construct and maintain the physical spaces as well as service providers who are actually out there in the site, taking care of the physical space and the built environment, but we are always there when something goes wrong and you know, you can trust that this team's going to be there, take care of the issue and then move on to the next issue. But no one is necessarily articulating the impact we have on the brand experience, the, you know, the customer experience and the top line because ultimately, what better manifestation of a brand and what they think of a customer than the actual physical site that the customer is walking into. There is no lack of choice and what we are all competing on is mind space, right? If I'm walking down the street, not only am I deciding which door to walk into, I'm also deciding if I want to walk into a door or if I just want to go back home and sit on the couch and order everything online, so that mind space, you know, is, is going to be captured only if you have tremendous brand loyalty and you're able to elevate the experience that customers have.
[00:20:56] And ultimately, you know, I think part of what we're both trying to do here is share that story and help elevate that narrative, you know, and hence, that's why we call our show Elevating Brick and Mortar. Um, but I'd love to hear like in, in the hundreds of conversations you've had with service providers or technicians. What are you hearing about, you know, from their perspective about the built environment and the space as a whole and
[00:21:21] the impact that they make, you know, to, you know, the physical space and the brands, do you feel like they believe that they get enough credit?
[00:21:29] Like our customers or facilities teams, want providers they can trust and rely on that have the right data, have access to information, have the right skills, and are able to ensure that they're fulfilling their, their service level agreements so that ultimately they can provide the best level of service to their customer and ensure the least amount of downtime, right? So our, uh, our service providers. empowered with this kind of narrative and information to talk about value as opposed to, you know, being kind of relegated to talking about, you know, cost per hour, right? Which doesn't mean much.
[00:22:07] Jackie Aubel: Cost per hour, you know what's so interesting actually, when I first started at Service Titan again, 2017, A lot of things I was hearing at the time were time and material versus flat rate pricing. Uh, everyone who was, you know, flat rate pricing was the new thing. It's like, forget about time and material because at that point you're just like, everything is unique and it's kind of hard for a customer to, I should say a homeowner in this case, to grasp.
[00:22:32] Like, why is time material this way? Like, I don't understand the calculation versus flat rate makes everything. It's easy communication and it makes you more profitable in the end. And now I'm finding in 2024, the conversations I'm having with contractors, for the most part, everyone in my. Ecosystem in the Service Titan ecosystem has adapted flat rate pricing because we know that that's the best way to communicate with customers.
[00:22:58] And I think that all of the providers that I work with are all incredibly versed and know how impactful branding is. Especially when it comes to emergency services like HVAC, plumbing, electrical, all that stuff. This is something that comes up on the show all the time. A lot of the time when you get an inbound call as a service provider, it's an emergency.
[00:23:21] It has to be sorted right now. No one is like, you know what, I would really love a new air conditioning unit, let me just like shop around. I mean, I'm sure maybe there are people out there who do that. But generally speaking, it's, you know, 105 degrees outside, your air conditioner unit just broke, and you have children at home, or going to the facilities management side, you have a business to run, and your air conditioner just blew, you need to get that fixed ASAP, or you can't have people in your store physically.
[00:23:49] So it's an emergency. So the service providers that I talk to talk about how brand is so important because when you're in that fight or flight mode, when you're in that problem solving mode, you're not really going to peruse and do some window shopping. You're going to call the people that made an impact for you. And I think some of the The folks that I've had on the Toolbox for the Trade podcast have really incredible, incredible brands and they know the value that a brand has.
[00:24:15] So I think service providers are always thinking about At least I think the ones that are really savvy are always thinking about how can we always stay top of mind for our customers. Because they're not just going to call us just to chat. They're going to call us when they actually need us. And it's usually an emergency. And we need to make sure that we have their mind share. So that when they're in that, you know, really heightened state, they remember to call jackie's Plumbing or Sid's, uh, Sid's Electrical Shop. You know what I mean? So, I think they're very aligned there with the same thing as facilities managers in terms of thinking about brand and what that impact has when it comes to, at the end of the day, driving revenue and driving growth.
[00:24:55] Sid Shetty: Yeah, by the way, I've used Sid's Electrical Shop. They're, you know, they're fantastic. Highly
[00:24:59] Jackie Aubel: Oh yeah, 10 out of 10, 10 out of 10, five stars.
[00:25:02] Sid Shetty: Yeah. Um, you know, Jackie, coming off of COVID, right? There are a few challenges that we face as an industry that haven't really gone away. You know, I think, you know, the industry tends to forget, like, you know, brands and customers tend to forget, right?
[00:25:17] But ultimately there are some things that are still lingering and are still, uh, challenges. You know, for example, there's a labor shortage, you know, a skilled trade shortage, there's a supply chain issue globally that hasn't gone away. It hasn't, it eased out, but it hasn't gone away. You know, what are you hearing, uh, about the challenges that are being faced and how is it affecting your customer?
[00:25:40] ultimately like who's a service provider who has to rely on those parts being available, has to rely on those skilled technicians to be available and on their roster to be able to go and fix the issue. What, what are you hearing out there?
[00:25:53] Jackie Aubel: Oh my gosh, I could answer this question so many ways, but I would not be doing my due diligence as a trainee therapist if I did not take this opportunity to say the pandemic was crazy. And if anyone listening has been experiencing some weird stuff since 2020, that's okay. You're normal. It was a, it was a life altering event for so many people. And I mean, the reality of the situation is. So many of us still had to work, we still had to show up every day, and we still had to keep doing our jobs, even though, I mean, if you remember those first few months, like, it was terrifying, and so I just wanted to share that, like, there's also a mental health component to this, too, that I think gets glossed over a lot, and I, I would be remiss if I did not mention that.
[00:26:36] Now, what we're seeing on the Service Titan side, it's incredible. So, as I mentioned, like many tech companies in the early pandemic, if you recall, there were crazy layoffs. Uh, I think Service Titan, we were bracing for that and we were incredibly fortunate that that was not the case because when COVID happened and when everyone was forced back inside, guess what?
[00:26:59] That draft that's in your office that you, you know is there but doesn't really bother you that much, now that you're in your office for nine hours a day, oh, that's really bothering me. IAQ, Indoor Air Quality. I want to make sure that we're filtering air in here, that things are clean. Um, oh, I noticed that my toilet runs every once in a while.
[00:27:16] People were in their homes using their utilities more than they ever have before. And so, what this is ha what happened is this forced a really big boom in the industry. And what's interesting now in 2023, 2024 big replacement jobs that maybe could have been pushed out a year or two happened in 2021, 2020. And so now in 2023, 2024, we're kind of seeing the other end of that. Like we had that serious growth and I think now we're starting to see The, the, um, the trends kind of level out a bit, so I think for today and for moving forward, contractors are pressed more than ever before to keep their margins high and to make sure that they're Keeping their growth momentum going because, you know, it's always like, I'm trying to think of the metaphor that works. This happens on my podcast all the time. I try to think of metaphors and I can't in real time. I need a list. But, you know, you have the extreme of one hand of major, major, massive growth that was unprecedented for two years. And now we kind of have the correction that's happening. So what I'm hearing from my contractors that's really helping them in this moment is diversifying. So you'll see contractors that have multiple service lines or that are now growing. Uh, residential division in addition to their commercial division, or if they were residential first, they're growing into commercial, and they're finding new opportunities within their community, which is helping them kind of weather through, uh, their shoulder seasons, and also helping them kind of weather through, You know, keep momentum going during their peak seasons, which maybe aren't peaking as much as they were the last two years.
[00:28:59] And to your point about supply chain issues, I mean, one thing that with ServiceTitan that I think is one of the best features we have, is we have dynamic pricing. And one of our commercial clients, Buyer Plumbing, at actually uses dynamic pricing to help keep their high, their profit margin high. So basically what that means is in their service type instance, they see the real time cost of their materials. So they're able to adjust for their cost to the customer. So they're still making a profit on every job. Because as you know, like, the pricing for materials these last few years have been wacky, so being able to get that real time data as to how much things are costing when it comes to time and materials is really helpful to help them kind of continue on with their growth and continue on their trajectory.
[00:29:46] There's also another part here, which is like inventory, you know, prior to COVID, I would talk to contractors, providers all the time who would say, I don't want to keep an inventory because what ends up happening is, you know, you have, you buy stuff just in case, and then it sits on the shelf and then in three years it's obsolete and you just wasted money. And so there's definitely contractors out there who have figured out an inventory process that allows them to not lose so much money on stored inventory. But then now with the, the supply chain issues, it's kind of making the argument for keeping some sort of an inventory. So I think it's really forcing contractors to do regular, regular checkups of their price book, regular examination of their data, what type of jobs are we doing, and making those decisions pretty quickly and being very nimble when it comes to that.
[00:30:34] So kind of looking at the effect COVID had on our industry, which was Incredible, boom, boom, boom. Now we're kind of like having to adjust. That's my take as, at least, and that's from me talking to contractors who still are operating very successfully and doing great work, but these are the challenges that I'm hearing on the show.
[00:30:54] Sid Shetty: That makes a lot of sense. Um, what about, you know, the lack of skilled, you know, uh, technicians or the lack of enough new blood and talent coming into the space? There's a massive shortage right now. And you know, that's causing businesses to, you know, uh, hike their prices up because they have to compete for talent. Um, but there's still not enough. Why do you think that is? Like, what's your perspective talking to, you know, all your guests?
[00:31:27] Jackie Aubel: So, I can tell you two things. I can tell you what I see really, what I'm seeing folks have a lot of success with in terms of the labor shortage, which I'll get to first. And two, why it's not happening. I think, and I think the why, so I'll talk about the why first. I think, personally, I think the why goes back to what we were talking about before. The PR issue, the, um, the stereotypes. I'm hearing folks talk over and over again about, you know, the lack of trade schools and trade programs within high schools and how that's impacting, you know, the, Um, the talk track still for most high school counselors is go to college, go to college, go to college, when in actuality they could be advising, advising students in a bad way depending on what their skill sets are. So a lot of my contractors are actually working on the local levels to partner with schools to kind of spread the good word of the trades. There's actually one customer I'm thinking of right now, Matt LaMartina in, for Martina, I want to make sure I get the name right, but it's Matt LaMartina in St. Louis and he's partnering with his, so, biggest competitor to overturn local legislation because there's a stupid legislation in this part of St. Louis where you, for every apprentice you brought in at a shop, you needed one journeyman. And as you know, journeyman for providers is the highest level you can get and not everyone is a journeyman.
[00:32:56] So, they're trying to overturn, they're working together collaboratively, these competitors to overturn legislation which is actively inhibiting them from them hiring more apprentices. Now, for folks in other parts of the country, now this is where I'm going to talk about what's working. Uh, they're building their own training programs and they're doing it really successfully.
[00:33:15] Just the other day I spoke to a contractor, Katie Biddle from Call Dad. What a fun name, right? For a service provider. It's called Call Dad and they have their Dad University. Uh, where it's a five year program, which at first I was like, Oh my God, that's a commitment. But, you know, the first three years is them taking people from green, green, green to becoming a journeyman. That's incredible. And then all they ask in return is two years working for Call Dad and then you can do whatever you want. And in their last, their last round of classes, they got 500 applicants, five, zero, zero.
[00:33:53] Sid Shetty: Wow.
[00:33:54] Jackie Aubel: Yeah, I know. My mouth was on the floor when she told me that. I was like, are you kidding me? Because I've heard of a lot of companies on the show who are building their own training programs to basically take green folks, take folks who have really great customer service skills and giving them the technical skills. That's actually like one thing that I've learned from Toolbox for the Trades is, hey, if you're having trouble hiring, we all get it.
[00:34:18] We're all there. When you're out in your community and you get great customer service at a retail shop, at a bar, ask them if they're looking for another job and Think about what benefits you can give to entice them to come work for you. And you know what's interesting? It's like, I think people defaulted to, Okay, I gotta give a dollar extra than my competitor in hourly wages. But the thing is, if you do that, then your technician's only gonna be as loyal as you to you as long as you can keep that salary high. And so what a lot of, I think, proactive thinking contractors are doing is they're really investing in their culture and making sure that they're creating a great place to work, which again, my father's a contractor in the, you know, 80s and 90s, in the aughts. Uh, I can tell you he was not thinking about culture in his various businesses. And, you know, this kind of goes into the PR stereotypical mindset, right? Like, so I think people that are combating this successfully are building their own programs. They're doing proactive outreach in their communities. to, um, to get more people, to educate people about the trades, and then they're also building really strong cultures at their organization. If there's one other thing I may say in regards to this, because I had a wonderful conversation with, uh, Plumber Paige, who is a trades advocate.
[00:35:38] She's a 20 year old plumber in Pennsylvania, and she is all about spreading the good word of the trades, uh, to her generation. She's like, you also have to get the parents too. So, and I've heard this from a couple of folks as well. If you're trying to attract, like, you know, your young talent locally, you also have to do some education with parents as well.
[00:36:00] Um, so if I was in this position, I'd be thinking about, okay, how can I get in the minds of parents? I don't know, maybe if you're Maybe it's talking to your customers like, Hey, do you know anyone who'd be a good fit for our company? Like, just so you know, this is the average pay, which is usually higher than what you get from a four year degree.
[00:36:16] I think there's a lot of creative solutions contractors have come up with in the last couple of years, and let me tell you, we talk about it, I think, on every episode of Toolbox for the Trades, because it's hitting everyone, and you have to be creative to solve for this.
[00:36:30] Sid Shetty: Yeah, I love that. I mean, I love that, you know, there's companies doing things at the local level and, and there are individuals that are taking it upon themselves to go and help educate their communities on the benefits of, you know, going into the skilled trades. You know, I think as a society, we've done a disservice, right, by only showing one path to the next generation, which is, oh, you gotta go to college and it has to be a four year degree.
[00:36:55] No, like you could be great with your hands, you could be really skilled in so many other ways and it's okay to choose differently. I mean, we need that and you can imagine if in our society, we didn't have plumbers or enough carpenters, it would be chaos. So, you know, I think the more, yeah, the more we can do to encourage. You know, folks in the younger generation to decide what they're good at and what they want to do and choose it and we should encourage it and look at it with the same respect and in the same positive light as we would any other degree, then we, that would really help strengthen, you know, our communities and I think that the fact that you're sharing all the stories tells me that things are improving and that's awesome to hear.
[00:37:40] Jackie Aubel: Yeah, and I will also just say too, another thing I like to think about is, this is a wonder, if you are, if you want to be an entrepreneur, If you want to be a business owner and run businesses, this is an awesome trade to get into. Like, this is just an awesome industry to get into because it's more or less recession proof.
[00:37:58] You know, definitely you see trending down in a recession, but people are not going to not fix their toilets or their heating and cooling systems when they have to. And also we've learned it's pandemic proof too. I've actually also seen a trend in the last few years where there's a lot of folks in my age range, I'm 34, who are coming in and kind of purchasing these companies.
[00:38:20] I don't know how they're doing it, don't ask me about that strategy, but they're coming in as millennial owners, operators, taking over from folks who have been running the business for maybe 20, 30 years and they're implementing processes that make the business more profitable. So that's also a pathway too. So I think it's a great path to entrepreneurship if that's what you're interested in.
[00:38:39] Sid Shetty: Yeah, there's a lot of P. E. money coming in, uh, and a lot of consolidation. So, like you mentioned, there's a lot of companies that are coming in and helping consolidate, you know, different trades or companies and kind of branding them to, you know, create more value and improve internal processes. So, that's very interesting to see.
[00:38:58] as you look to the future, what excites you about what's going on out there? There's a massive amount of technological advancements. Uh, you know, what you, what excites you as a consumer? And then what are you hearing, uh, from your guests as, as to the things that they're looking forward to, to use in their own businesses or, uh, areas that they think that they have to get up to speed on to service for their customer.
[00:39:25] Jackie Aubel: Yes, so I've spoken with several folks who are leveraging the Internet of Things, which is such a fun phrase to say, isn't it? The Internet of Things to put in smart technology in homes and in businesses. I really, I mean in the last few years, I've seen the trades take a hold of technology and just run with it. So memberships, especially for the residential providers. We're, you know, a way to ensure recurring revenue in the slow season and also to make sure that, you know, they're coming into the house and they're potentially identifying new opportunities. But now with smart thermostats and other smart technology coming in, you can, you know, proactively run systems tests and you don't actually have to have the tech come out.
[00:40:07] You can do that all from the office and, like I said before, you can brand those smart thermostats so if the home is Sold. Then the new pr, the new owner now can see like, oh, this was run by Jackie's HVAC company. I'm gonna call them and see what's the deal with this system. So I'm seeing a lot of stuff with the internet of things.
[00:40:24] We're also seeing AI come in. Um, I, I will tell you that I had episode 1 25 with two wonderful women in the trades, Brie Skiffington from Ad Leverage, and Amanda Tlo from Grasshopper, which is in upstate New York. They talked about chat GPT with me for like 30 minutes and how much choppy chat GPT is just saving them time and making things more efficient when it comes to meetings and growth. So I think there's so many tools out there right now that folks can be using, um, in order to provide better service, provide more efficient service, and to communicate with the end customer, which as I think you probably know from our conversation at this point, that is my thing. Like, let's increase communication, let's make communication as easy as possible.
[00:41:08] Sid Shetty: yeah, I love it. I mean, there's so much going on,
[00:41:11] you know, that's a lot of new technology and that would mean that someone needs to go take care of it, right? And so I think we're going to see a new type of service provider, you know, uh, show up in our space because ultimately, as things advance, you're going to need a certain, uh, type of provider that is able to service, um, certain kinds of technologies that didn't exist yesterday. Right. And so I think they're going to, yeah, so we're going to see that evolution happen.
[00:41:42] Jackie Aubel: Exactly. And I would be remiss, actually, if I didn't mention, uh, we recently launched a new product called Dispatch Pro, which is smart dispatching, and what it is is basically leveraging AI and smart technology to limit the amount of dispatchers that folks need, and I just spoke to someone from Above, uh, Above and Beyond Service Company, and they have one dispatcher for 20 technicians. Isn't that incredible? Yeah. So, I mean, there's so many tools.
[00:42:09] Sid Shetty: Yes, Jackie, you know, before we end, you know, like we mentioned earlier, Service Channel and Service Titan got into a partnership last year. Um, what excites you about the partnership?
[00:42:21] Jackie Aubel: It goes right back to what I've been saying, because it makes communication easier. Like, the ServiceTitan and ServiceChannel partnership is enabling ServiceChannel users to better communicate with their providers. In a more seamless way, and so basically the providers, our team, are able to get those service channel leads in, in real time, they're not having to avoid duplicate, uh, duplicate entry, and we released the integration a few months ago, and we're even continuing to improve on it, but we're hearing some great feedback from our customers.
[00:42:50] Lawton Commercial Services specifically said, That they've attributed an extra 250, 000 to the integration, which is awesome. And they also said that they increased their service channel score. So people who are using the ServiceTitan service channel integration are seeing a higher service channel score, which as you know, helps them get more business within that universe. So it's, it's really great. We're seeing some awesome benefits on our end and I hope that your team is seeing the same.
[00:43:18] Sid Shetty: I love it. Yes, absolutely. So, uh, huge win win right there. Um, Jackie, for all those in our audience who are absolutely curious to, uh, reach out to you if they have any questions or, or to listen to your podcast. Can you tell them where they can find you and your show?
[00:43:35] Jackie Aubel: Yes, servicetitan. com slash podcast is where our website is. You can find all of the episodes there, you can see my face at the bottom, and you can request to be on our show if you're a provider who wants to share your story, please let me know. You can also reach me at jaubel@servicetitan.com I would love to hear from you. Search Toolbox for the Trades wherever you get your fine podcasts, you know, whatever you listen on. And we also have a Facebook group, the Toolbox for the Trades Community. So feel free to join that. Me and my colleagues are in there always posting about new episodes.
[00:44:07] There's a lot of former guests on that group as well. So, would love to have you guys join the conversation.
[00:44:12] Sid Shetty: Love it. With that, I just want to say a huge thank you, Jackie. I really, really appreciate you being on the show. I thoroughly enjoyed our conversation.
[00:44:20] Jackie Aubel: Oh, thank you so much, Sid. I had such a great time and I really appreciate you giving me the space to talk.
[00:44:27] Sid Shetty: Thank you. And with that, I just want to say a huge thank you to all in our audience. Thank you for joining us, and I'll see you soon on our next episode of Elevating Brick and Mortar.
[00:44:36] MUSIC BREAK
[00:44:37] I hope you enjoyed this conversation with Jackie Aubel, podcast host and content extraordinaire at ServiceTitan. As Jackie mentioned, she and the team at ServiceTitan have had more than 150 amazing conversations with service providers over the past three years. And what is abundantly clear, is that service providers are foundational to society and our businesses. If you're a brand that leverages brick and mortar to create and deliver amazing experiences to your consumer, you're gonna need amazing partners and service providers to take care of those spaces, treat them well, collaborate with them, and reap the benefits. What we also agree on is that we all have a role to play to encourage the next generation to consider the trades as a viable career option. And the more we can do to respect and highlight the trades, the better we will all be for it. With that, I'm Sid Shetty, and I'll see you on the next episode of Elevating Brick and Mortar.