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Photo courtesy of Sera Systems.

The Challenge

If you’re a small business owner in the home service industry, it can sometimes be hard to know where you need to focus your time. You’re trying to grow the business, deal with the daily chaos of day-to-day operations, and probably still feel the pressure to serve customers yourself. But you need to step back and get a holistic understanding of your business to really unlock growth.

No one knows this better than Chaz Mills, who founded Texas Pride Heating & Air in 2019. After struggling with two previous field service management (FSM) solutions despite being tech savvy, Chaz found that what he really needed was simplicity. Instead, he was getting:

• Complicated FSM software meant for a much larger business
• Unreliable reports that were difficult to pull and interpret

That meant he was short of both time and visibility into his business.

The Solution

Chaz knew his customers needed simplicity, too. That’s why his biggest incentive to move to Sera’s FSM solution was the online scheduling that integrates with his website and boosts his search engine rankings.

As for the simplicity Sera offered Chaz and his team, Chaz says it was a no-brainer. Simplicity was evident throughout the platform:

• The Sera Admin dashboard was instantly more accurate than Texas Pride’s previous FSM software, giving him peace of mind that he could trust the data in the system
• Chaz no longer felt like he had to dedicate a team member to learning and supporting the team on the system
• When Chaz does need support, Sera’s customer service is easily accessible and helpful

While Chaz had heard a lot about how easy Sera is to use, he was pleasantly surprised to find out it was true.

The Results

After just 5 months of using Sera, Chaz now has visibility into all parts of his business – allowing him to make strategic decisions, power efficiency, and unlock growth. For example:

• Chaz has been able to look at his time allotment and realize that he actually needs to shrink his service area
• Memberships have grown by 67%
• Managing dispatching is getting easier as Sera’s dynamic dispatching feature puts people where they need to be, making a significant dent in the office staff’s workload

As Texas Pride grows, the simplicity and efficiencies will only get better.

Final Thoughts

In keeping with his desire for visibility into all aspects of his business and the business insights he enjoys with Sera, Chaz says the advice he would give his younger self — or anyone just starting a business — would be to “learn spreadsheets a lot sooner. Understand a P&L better.”

By the Numbers

Membership Growth: 67%