Grow Your Home-Service Franchise With Automation + 3 Examples
The home-services industry has seen a surprisingly positive gain in customer demand in recent years and mobile franchises are experiencing spectacular growth as a result.
While any home-service company can capitalize on activity, it’s the more established businesses that have automated a lot of their business functions with the biggest advantage.
Franchises are using automated business processes to enable their expansions and improve their service and operations.
Customers who value convenience and professionalism are booking more home-service jobs than ever and they’re telling their friends & neighbors about it.
In this article, we go over three ways your mobile franchisees can utilize automation to fuel growth and the specific ways automation impacts customer service to help increase sales.
But first, we’ll explain what mobile franchises are and why the sector is experiencing explosive growth.
Mobile Franchises Experiencing an Unprecedented “Moment”
Mobile franchises are businesses (some of them home-based themselves) that make house-calls in a vehicle.
Cleaners, trades, junk removal and installers of all kinds are experiencing growth.
This sudden growth of mobile franchising is due in large part to recent, large-scale changes in people’s work habits.
With so many employees working from home these days, there is now a huge demand for home services.
Mobile franchises, built with business models that leverage repeatable systems, use those systems to delight their customers, drive recurring business and boost their customer service.
This surge in demand makes sense: more people spending time at home equals more attention paid to the home. Virtually all home-service companies are responding to demand increases.
Perhaps not surprisingly, the businesses in the best position to meet that demand are the ones enjoying the most growth.
The single biggest factor in a home-service company’s ability to handle additional volume is whether they take advantage of business-automation tools.
3 Examples of How Automation Enables Growth for Mobile Franchises
The mobile franchises experiencing the most growth are also the ones adopting processes that help them not only to save time but also to improve their level of service.
As home-service companies grow and continue to reach new economies of scale, they must keep finding efficiencies, reducing errors and minimizing friction in their operations.
It’s important to focus on tips for small business automation because with the right automation tools, these companies can do more while still pleasing their customers.
Here are three ways that automation helps mobile franchises level up their customer-service game. Note how each item on the list is a “win-win”—both customers and businesses benefit.
1. Centralized Online Booking
Online booking is first on this list because this is a big priority. For customers who value convenience, online booking is a major differentiator. And the easier the better!
Centralized online booking means using a single web address to serve customers no matter where they are.
Companies that can offer a centralized online booking option, like Velofix does with a franchise management software, can compete for the customer who is always looking for convenience.
As a result of online booking, Velofix was able to save nearly 90% of their booking costs compared to manually scheduling jobs.
An online booking option is becoming the norm because it reduces errors, reduces administration costs and more customers prefer the freedom to book a job whenever they want.
With online booking, they don’t even have to talk to anyone and bookings can be made any time by choosing the available spots on their calendar.
Customers love the ease of being able to book a service when it suits them and have the service time automatically added to their calendar. The less fuss, the better.
This level of convenience is a big reason for them to remain loyal to a company, leave positive reviews and refer their friends.
And the better customer service you can provide with the help of automation, the more those positive customer reviews can spur new business, which is why reviews are important.
2. Appointment Confirmations, Online Quotes and Invoice Reminders
Another key automation is sending reminders to customers about appointments as well as confirming your crew’s arrival times. This saves everyone a lot of time and energy.
Customers often forget, so reminders help prevent the dreaded “no-shows'' as well. Both your customers and your team can rest easy knowing that the reminders will happen automatically.
Mobile franchises can automate their online quotes, appointment reminders, invoices, invoice reminders and more while focusing on performing the job at hand.
Such features are vital too for customers who prefer contactless service.
Appointment-reminder messages with specific safety instructions, for instance, mean that service providers can safely enter premisses and customers can give them the space needed.
This is a level of convenience that many customers will always love and they won’t be shy about talking about it in their reviews.
3. Payments and Accounting
The easier mobile franchises can make the invoicing and payment processes, the faster they can receive payment.
Customers, especially those who enjoy comforts like online booking, also appreciate online payments. Plus, with automated online payments come automated receipts.
All of this automation makes for a more frictionless experience for both the service provider and the customer.
Start Scaling your Mobile Franchise With Automation Today
In today’s world of convenience and efficiency, these seemingly simple automations can differentiate you in the market to please customers and keep them coming back for more.
The benefits of field service management software for small business, from automating bookings and appointments to quotes and payments, are proven to scale mobile franchices.
FieldPulse, a trusted and integrated partner of NiceJob, is the #1 rated FSM software and is tailored for trade businesses looking to scale. Businesses using FieldPulse have reported growth of 78% year over year, on average. FieldPulse helps streamline business operations by automating franchisee communication, performance tracking, ensures consistent service quality, and improves operational efficiency across all franchise locations.
With more automation and by streamlining the operations of your services, your employees or technicians can focus more on providing a great customer experience to increase sales.
When the customer’s happy and you’re happy—everybody wins!
