WHAT’S THE VALUE OF YOUR
TASK & TECH
By: Eric Hankins
B y now you’ve already had a conversation with your Franchise Consultant about your goals for 2017 (and beyond). Like any savvy business owner, your goal is likely to have an increase in revenue. But how will you achieve that increase? Of course, there are many ways to do this that involve marketing, pricing and operational changes. These are excellent tactics and should be pursued. One of the easiest ways to show quicker increases in revenue is to increase your average ticket sales through additional tasks. What is an additional task? To answer this, it’s important to define a “task”. A task is essentially an all-inclusive service that includes labor and materials…together (think of Menu Pricing). So, when your technician is replacing a toilet, the task in ServiceTitan should be set up to include all the labor and all the materials it takes to replace the toilet. Additional tasks are everything above and beyond the initial task the customer called you for. They are typically discounted to help entice the customer to make a purchase decision while the technician is at the home. For example, if your technician fixes a drippy faucet and determines that during the Plumbing Check Up (PCU) there is sediment in the line caused by the water heater, and is able to get a water heater replaced the same day…the water heater replacement is the additional task. So why do additional tasks? Aside from the obvious answer that it will increase revenue for your business, it also can result in much more profit than an initial task. The chart on the right shows an example of a task’s value when it is a primary (initial) task and what its value is when it’s an additional task. The reason for the huge difference: the fuel cost and fixed costs are already accounted for when the primary task is completed. This
means that not only do you acquire more revenue when adding tasks to the same invoice, but you also KEEP MORE MONEY per dollar spent by the customer. The Mr. Rooter Plumbing corporate office is tracking task counts and task values for each franchisee. This information is available to you through your Franchise Consultant. Your assignment (should you choose to accept it), is to contact your Franchise Consultant and determine how many tasks-per- invoice your shop is producing. If it’s less than two, there is definite opportunity to improve. Furthermore, work with him or her to determine how to increase not only the number of additional tasks, but also their value. Attending ACE training, Business and Systems week training in Waco, Mr. Rooter University (MRU), and your own in-shop training sessions will help your technicians increase their task count, average transaction amount and personal income.
*For Example Only
PRIMARY TASK
ADDITIONAL TASK
$89.50 $89.50 27.0% 0.0% 21.0% 48.0% $42.96 0.0% $0.00 52.0% $46.54
$100.00 $100.00
A. Task Value B. Labor C. Fuel D. Materials & Other COGS E. Total COGS (B+C+D) F. G&A (Fixed Expense) G. Net Profit (A-E-F)
27.0%
4.0%
21.0%
52.0%
$52.00
35.0%
$35.00
13.0%
$13.00
22 PIPELINE® | EDITION 1 2017
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