How Smart Contractors Turn Data Into Dollars

“These KPIs give you a clear, practical picture of how your business is running day to day,” said Jessie Barrack, senior vice president of sales and partnerships for Xplor Technologies’ FieldEdge platform. “When you track them consistently, you start to see patterns: where time is being lost, which jobs are most profitable, where repeat business is coming from, and where small changes could make a big difference.” 

But, given all the daily tasks they need to accomplish in an industry where being shorthanded is the norm, how can contractors best start leveraging that data to improve performance and grow their businesses? And how can they avoid data overload? 

Barrack and experts from two other FSM software companies have a few pointers. 

Smart Small, Stay Focused 

Don’t jump into the deep end by acting on everything at the same time, the experts said. 

“The biggest trap contractors fall into is trying to track everything at once,” said Barrack. “It feels productive, but it just creates noise.” 

A better approach, he added, is to start small and stay focused. Pick a metric that matters most to the business, link it to a goal, take a few practical steps toward improving the metric, and watch for change.  

“When you start to see results, you’ll build confidence — and that momentum is what really drives progress,” Barrack said. 

Contractors adopting FSM software should focus first on, in Barrack’s words, “measuring what matters” to avoid becoming overwhelmed by data. “At the end of the day, the goal isn’t to track more data — it’s to make better decisions,” Barrack said. 

“Pick one metric that ties directly to money and move it for a quarter,” said Zach Nader, sales director at Sales Ask, which offers software for coaching employees of home service businesses. “Then move to the next.” 

Contractors should be ready to act on the data they decide to track, Nader added.  

“Never measure what you’re not willing to coach — data you don’t act on isn’t insight, it’s noise,” he said. 

Ellen Rohr, brand and industry marketing lead at ServiceTitan, which offers a suite of FSM software tools, suggested contractors gain insights by visiting another shop before launching a system. 

“Go visit another ServiceTitan company shop,” Rohr said. “Go see how they’re doing it. Watch what their service manager is doing minute by minute throughout the day. What data are they checking? And then what decisions are they making?” 

Reduce Windshield Time 

Dispatch and scheduling efficiency are important points to measure. 

The Dispatch Pro tool, from ServiceTitan, uses technology to figure out where each tech is and how to get them to their next calls the most efficiently, Rohr said. 

“That’s an absolute game-changer,” she said. “I mean, that company right there making that move would create so much efficiency … Who wants to sit around in their truck for an hour and a half for the next call?” 

In addition to its field service management platform, FieldEdge offers dispatch analytics that help contractors identify scheduling inefficiencies, reduce technician drive time, and improve overall dispatch performance. 

“If techs are spending too much time on the road between jobs or being sent across inefficient territories, that’s time the business can’t bill for. With better visibility, managers can tighten schedules, improve routing, reduce windshield time, and create more productive workdays,” Barrack said. 

Find Coaching Opportunities 

Use software to identify what top-performing technicians and comfort advisors are doing, then use those insights to coach the rest of the team.  

“If certain technicians consistently generate higher ticket values, don’t treat that as a coincidence,” Barrack said. “Look at what they’re doing differently. Is it how they explain options to customers, how they spot additional work, or how they build trust? Turn that into coaching for the rest of the team.” 

“The most valuable dataset in an HVAC business is also the one almost nobody measures: what actually gets said in the home,” said Nader. “Owners track leads and revenue, but they’re blind to the 45 minutes at the kitchen table where the deal is won or lost.” 

Sales Ask’s platform captures conversations with homeowners and analyzes them, pulling data points such as talk-to-listen ratios; close rate by employee, by lead source, and by system type; homeowner objections; and whether an employee presented good-better-best and financing options.  

The analysis, plus the platform’s automated Coach Dean, can be used to improve presentations.  

For example, Nader explained, “If a comfort advisor’s close rate is low but their leads are just as good as everyone else’s, the transcripts almost always show they’re skipping diagnosis and jumping to price, so you coach that one step instead of guessing.” 

Reps who make it a practice to mention financing and good-better-best tiers on a first visit tend to close more and at a higher rate, he added. “It’s the single biggest lever in the data,” Nader said. 

And the coaching tool can also be used to avoid overloading coachees, Nader said. “Coach Dean tells a rep the single thing to fix before their next call, not 40 charts to interpret,” he said. 

Coaching tips can also apply to new employees, Nader said, cutting their learning curve.  

“Instead of handing a new hire a binder, you have them study real winning conversations from your top reps. That alone cuts ramp time dramatically,” he said. 

ServiceTitan also has coaching within its Field Pro platform. Field Pro uses artificial intelligence (AI) to measure the relationship-building elements of a service call, eliminating the need for management to go on coaching ridealongs, Rohr said. 

“AI is helping an average person do an extraordinary job when it comes to coaching their technicians,” she said. 

Measure Marketing 

Marketing attribution data helps contractors find which channels provide the best return on investment. 

“It shows you which marketing channels are turning into paying jobs, so you can invest more confidently and stop wasting budget on what isn’t working,” Barrack said. 

ServiceTitan’s Marketing Pro tool, said Rohr, provides granular information about marketing metrics, providing data such as how many leads or calls are coming from each marketing vehicle, how much is being spent per lead or per call, and how many sales result.  

That kind of information helps contractors make decisions about what kind of marketing to invest in and where, perhaps, to pull back. 

Marketing Pro, Rohr added, can also help target marketing efforts toward existing customers who might need a nudge, via a phone call, a targeted discount, or a social media posting, to get a nagging home problem repaired. 

“The way we’re interfacing with our customers is shifting, and having that digital connection with them, as well as all those other traditional marketing leads, is really, really important,” she said. 

Sales Ask, even though it has a coaching focus, can provide marketing insights too, said Nader.  

By analyzing customer conversations, contractors can identify recurring homeowner concerns, common objections, seasonal trends, and the messaging that resonates most, helping them refine both their marketing campaigns and sales approach. 

“When reps consistently hear the same objection from a given lead source, that tells you something about lead quality, not just rep performance,” he said.