What takes up more of your time than it should?

Question

Hey everyone — I’m Matt. I’m new to the community and wanted to introduce myself.I work in business operations and automation, and I’ve been spending more time learning about the home-service industry and how different companies actually run their day-to-day operations.One thing I’ve found interesting is how differently businesses handle things like incoming leads, scheduling, customer follow-up, office work, and all the systems behind the scenes.For those of you running a home-service business, what’s one part of your day-to-day operation that takes more time or causes more headaches than you think it should?Looking forward to learning from everyone and contributing where I can.

matthewfleury · Answer

Thanks for the welcome and kind words Travis! That’s exactly the kind of workflow I’m interested in — taking repetitive follow-up off the owner’s plate without making the customer experience feel automated.
It sounds like you’re still having to do some of that manually even with Jobber. If you’re open to it, I’d be interested in learning how you’re handling it now and seeing if there’s an opportunity to streamline it further.

travisshepherd · Answer

Hey Matt, welcome aboard.​For me, it’s chasing down quotes and following up on invoices.​When you're out running jobs and managing the crew all day, the last thing you want to do at night is sit behind a screen typing out manual reminders to people who went silent on an estimate or forgot to pay a bill. Getting those back-office follow-ups handled automatically without losing that personal touch is a game changer for getting time back.​Glad to have you in the group—looking forward to hearing your take on streamlining things!!!

julie · Answer

Hey Matt, welcome to the Home Service Community!

One topic that comes to mind is the use of AI within home service business. Many are aware of how useful it can be but have no idea where to start or what it can actually do. And the anxiety that can follow when trying to learn something completely new has people not starting at all (therefore end up spending a lot more time on tasks that AI could support with).

Happy to have you 👋

matthewfleury · Answer

Thanks Julie! I think you hit on a big part of the problem. Business owners shouldn’t feel like they need to become AI experts just to figure out whether it can help them.

That’s really how I approach it with Northway — start with what’s taking too much time, falling through the cracks, or just frustrating to deal with, and then figure out the best way to improve it. Sometimes that involves AI, sometimes it’s a simple automation, and sometimes there’s an easier solution already sitting in the tools they use.

If anyone here has one of those “there has to be a better way to do this” processes, I’m always happy to take a look and share how I’d approach it.

travisshepherd · Answer

Thanks Matt!​Taking that repetitive follow up off your plate is huge. To address how to streamline it without sounding like a robot, Jobber is actually built to automate those exact client touchpoints while keeping things personal.​Inside Jobber, you can set up automated text or email follow ups that trigger as soon as a tech completes a visit or closes out a job on the mobile app. Technicians can snap before and after photos, complete custom job checklists, and log internal notes right from their phone on site. That data syncs immediately, so you can either let Jobber auto send a review request or quality check text right when the visit ends, or open the client record, pull up the job photos and tech notes, and send a custom text in about ten seconds.​That way you're taking the manual work off your plate, but the client still gets a specific, detailed message that feels like you were right there on site. Just know im always here to answer any questions you may have if I am able to.&nbsp; Thats what it is all about on the Jobber Home Service Community.&nbsp; &nbsp;Helping and supporting each other anyway we can to promote each other's success is the ultimate goal! So know im always here for you if you ever need ideas or just another Pro's perspective I've got you!!!&nbsp; Just curious, how are you handling field dispatch and post job check ins on your end right now?

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What takes up more of your time than it should?

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