Technology Drives billyGO’s Rapid Growth
billyGO opened for business just over two years ago and now is the fastest-growing home service company in the area (and the Southlake Style Readers’ Choice poll winners in plumbing and HVAC).
Common threads in more 600 customer reviews (averaging 4.9 out of 5) show why: professionalism, on-time service, innovation and convenience.
Convenience And Transparency For Customers
Innovation and convenience are understatements. billyGO’s website has a Customer Portal that allows customers to:
- Schedule their own appointments to the day and hour on billygo.com
- Access complete service records of all work ever performed at their homes and properties, including all technician notes, if needed for insurance purposes
- See warranty information for all plumbing and HVAC equipment installed by billyGO (consumers spend millions needlessly every year for repairs that could have been covered under warranty if customers remember to ask
- Get Immediate notification about all factory notices and recalls for their HVAC and plumbing equipment
- Receive service reminder notices for scheduling regular maintenance and tune-ups
- Have separate accounts for each property they own, including rental properties, indexed by address
- Use the Customer Portal via mobile phone while on the go.
The Unlikely Technologists
The innovative application of technology comes from the improbable sources of a dairy farmer and a professional motorcycle racer. Jeff Sims, former dairy farmer, and Adam Mennenga, ex-pro motocross rider, knew all the soft spots in home service businesses because they had worked together for years running the plumbing and HVAC operations of a big service company.
In time, both became disappointed that company, as customer complaints increased. They ran the operational side but not the business strategy.
“We were so frustrated with the way we scheduled service appointments in four-hour blocks of time, such as mornings 8 a.m. to 12 p.m. or afternoons 1-5 p.m.,” Sims says. “People often waited half a day for a service technician to arrive, depending on how the day was going for us.”
Automation Leads The Way
Mennenga explains that scheduling and customer support people throughout the industry were trained to take all calls and work with dispatchers to fit them into the schedule. Some calls would be moved to later in the day or even the following day, causing more problems for customers and service companies alike.
Mennenga and Sims knew technology was the way to get rid of the constant manual updating of spreadsheets, whiteboards and hundreds of daily emails among the staff. Some delays are unavoidable. Emergencies must take priority, and sometimes a part must be delivered to complete a job. How to handle emergencies while allowing customers to set the schedule was a significant challenge that required scheduling and dispatching be integrated and automated.
Sims and Mennenga also agreed the fastest path to achieving a high degree of automation was to start a new company from scratch and build it into the company’s DNA. That idea gave birth to billyGO.
Introducing The “Super Dispatcher”
With scheduling and dispatching functions inextricably linked and automated, job descriptions changed. Moving appointments around on a whiteboard or computer screen when schedules changed required calls to every customer and technician affected, often five or more people. Dispatchers are constantly stressed to get everything done, a situation ripe for mistakes.
billyGO’s serviceSHIFT® software makes real-time rescheduling and dispatching decisions assigns and sends an instant notification to each person involved, which freed up time for the dispatcher. Early on, Sims and Mennenga wondered if human dispatchers might not be needed at all but changed their minds.
Automation made the job of dispatching one of overseeing the full range of business operations instead of handling every detail themselves. By not being mired in detailed, repetitive tasks, dispatchers could spend more time analyzing real-time data, making business decisions and interacting directly with customers. Excellent dispatchers become Super Dispatchers who are priceless assets for the company.
Customer Portal Is Even Better With billyGO Now!
While the array of services provided by the billyGO Customer Portal may sound a bit elaborate for a locally owned and operated plumbing and HVAC company, that is not part of a big conglomerate.
Sims says, “Wait till you try it.”
Mennenga says the perfect complement to the Customer Portal is the billyGO Now! membership plan. For $99 dollars per year,f it includes spring and fall tune ups on all HVAC systems in a home, a plumbing tune up, priority scheduling and discounts from standard pricing.
The Customer Portal keeps track and reminds you when it’s time to schedule, of course!
