Would you use TikTok to find your next hire? đź‘€
Social media might not be the first place you look for another crew member, but 60% of Gen Z is considering the trades—and they’re already online. Has social media ever brought you a job candidate? Would you try TikTok or Reels to find your next hire? In this Masters of Home Service episode, Rich Camacho (BlueRecruit​), Haley Rogers, and Jacob Palmer get into how TikTok is becoming a recruiting tool for the trades, what kind of content attracts potential Gen Z hires, and how training, feedback, and growth opportunities give younger employees a reason to stay. Never miss an episode of Masters of Home Service. Subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.
đź’ˇFEATURE REQUEST: Price Increases in Products & Services List
Do you increase prices for ongoing customers? Do you know how long it takes me to increase my prices for 700 ongoing clients in my cleaning business? Whether you increase your prices on an annual basis or just as needed in these unpredictable times, it would be easier to make these changes en masse in the Products and Services tab! How would it work? When editing a product or service line item in the Products & Services List, there should be an option to carry that modification over to any existing Jobs that have that line item on it. Currently, this would only update for new jobs created, but I'd love to see a little pop-up that says, "Would you like to change the price for existing Jobs with this line item? Yes/No" Use Case Example: Because I am in the cleaning industry, it will be my primary use case. Let's say you have a minimum price that every client's rate will be at or above. When you create a new job for a recurring customer, you add a line item titled "Minimum Rate + current year," like for 2020: "Minimum Rate 2020," which is $150. You also add another line item based on how your pricing model is set up - in this case, I will use a simple one: "Small House" for $10 "Medium House" for $30 "Large House" for $50 When it's time for your prices to increase, consider the following options: you could decide to raise prices only for people with large houses and keep your minimum rate the same, or you may want to increase the cost for clients who have been with you for more than 5 years. Instead of making this change one client at a time and trying to sort through who the change applies to, I could go to the Products and Services List and find the specific line item I want to modify. Then, I could edit the price in there! Ta Da! You've raised your prices! Why should Jobber care? This would be huge for any business industry that has recurring clients. ServiceTitan, Housecall Pro, and other competitors already have this feature. I have found other threads that mention something like this or frustrations with how to go about raising prices. This would allow businesses that only see customers once or twice a year to set up their customers as recurring with one Job, saving them a lot of time and effort as well. You'd have at least one very loyal customer in me! I've spoken to two support agents who thought this was a simple but fantastic idea! My next price increase is in June, and I'd love you guys if you saved me weeks worth of work in a single click 🤞🙏 QUESTIONS, COMMENTS, FEEDBACK, AND MORE USE CASES WELCOME!!
What’s your process for estimating job duration accurately—especially for new clients?
Hi everyone! I’d love to hear how other service providers are improving accuracy when estimating job duration for first-time or new clients. In our business, one of the biggest challenges is avoiding time overruns or inconsistent job lengths—especially when the client’s description doesn’t quite match the actual condition of the home or site. We’re trying to streamline our scheduling so our team isn’t rushed, and the rest of the day stays on track. How do you all handle this? Do you rely on on-site walkthroughs? Do you use Jobber checklists or custom fields to help scope the job? Do you add buffer time for new clients? Any tips or red flags you look for before setting a time estimate? Thanks in advance! Always appreciate learning from this community.How are you handling maintenance and downtime on your pressure washing equipment?
I am curious how other exterior cleaning contractors are keeping their setups running smoothly throughout the season. When you get a pump failure, unloader issue, or engine breakdown right in the middle of a busy week, do you handle all the repairs yourself in-house, or do you take your gear to a local shop to get back on the job faster? ​Also, how many hours are you running your hot water skids or main units before doing a full oil and filter change? Curious to hear what maintenance routines are working best for you guys to prevent unexpected downtime in the field.How do you handle customer call-backs without losing your shirt?
We’ve all been there. You wrap up a job, step back, everything looks solid, and then two days later the client calls about a spot that got missed or a detail they aren't totally happy with. ​In my own business, I try to handle touch-ups fast to keep the client relationship solid, but balancing quick response times with protecting your day's schedule and your profit margins gets tricky real fast during peak season. ​I’m curious how you guys handle fitting non-urgent call-backs back onto the schedule. Do you drop everything and fit them into the very next available slot, batch them all together for a specific day of the week, or handle them a different way? Also, where do you draw the line between a quick complimentary fix and something that needs a whole new quote? ​I'd love to hear how you guys run this in your day-to-day routine to keep clients happy without constantly derailing your entire day.Strategies / Suggestions for hiring manual labourer for a niche Biz.
Fitness Equipment Service Technician - Rock & A Hard Place 26 yrs at this and I cannot find my A-Player. Sorry, this is quite the essay from the heart of frustration, so if you make it to the end and have some valuable suggestions I can implement, beers are on me at this conference. 🍻🍻🍻 It’s been beyond frustrating with people lying on resumes until you see they can’t do what they say. OR They can’t follow the simplest of instructions and policies like... If ever unsure about what you're doing or need help of any sort, contact me, I’m ALWAYS available. Then they decide to go Cowboy and try to figure it out themselves, which I certainly encourage as that's how I learn best. Trial and error where just getting your hands in there, coupled with some well-lubricated gray matter, and things start coming together and making sense. But not to the point of adding additional unnecessary "HRS" not MIN, to an invoice I can’t charge for, but they expect to be paid. In my instructions, I let them know, even when right beside them during training, if they get stumped on an issue and they ask for advice, I tell them to run through some process of elimination and try to figure it out themselves without me constantly telling them. I'll let them go for 10 to 15 minutes, and if the lightbulb isn't flickering, then I'll methodically walk them through what I would do. This way I'm not just jumping in and doing it for them, but they're actually learning hands-on. It's when they decide to go cowboy rogue and spend way too much time trying to figure it out instead of calling me, then they expect to be paid for these hours I can't bill back to the customer. How do I tell my customer that we're overcharging them because my guy doesn't know what he's doing and wants to learn on their equipment Then he'll make a note of whatever the issue is and what their diagnosis is, which can include needing to order parts. I'm thinking that they didn't have an issue with the diagnosis and it was a cut-and-dry scenario and, hands-down, this is what the customer needs. Then we'll order wrong parts... not only costing money—which will be either out of my pocket or the customer's pocket upfront if the quote is over $1,000—we have to wait usually about a week for parts to come in, set up another appointment, and head back out to the location to rectify the situation. - Part gets installed, doesn't fix the issue, and we're back to square one. Tech expects to be paid for travel & time for his mistake. So I put in the contract that I backpay my techs by two weeks with the clause that this will cover any potential damage to customer property due to their negligence. Residential customers get invoiced and are expected to pay more or less immediately, and commercial customers are net 30 for the most part in a perfect world. So it kind of evens out to cover their pay if something were to happen. So what do I tell my customers now? "Sorry, my guy effed up. Now I have to go out there and diagnose it properly, and if you're lucky—which happens more times than not—it's just a matter of some adjustments that need to be made, and no part was needed after all." But the other side of that coin is a part is actually needed, so we have to run through the process again and face another week's delay. Then I feel in good conscience that I need to discount my customer and hope this hiccup isn't enough to lose them and they're gracious enough to understand. OR Lack of communication in general. I can't stress enough and tell them it’ll make us or break us if honesty and just pure, actual communication isn’t kept up. I make it very clear that if they're not happy with how things are going, my door is open and I am more than happy to discuss what's going on so that we can make an adjustment that works for both of us. 'Cause if I don't know, I don't know. And that goes two ways. I let them know I'll do the same for them. So it boils down to the fact that if they can't do it right, I might as well do it myself? PSA - common sense is not so common. LOL I refuse to drop my standards as we do charge a premium, and I would consider us to be a "boutique" service company as we have—or I should say I have—an incredible track record and can probably still count on one hand how many callbacks I've ever had. Even though we are the highest-charging company locally, if not regionally, I make sure that I add enough value to the customer so that they know they got their money's worth and then some. So how do I justify that when I have subpar techs going out and serving these customers with guarantees that I've made that don't get fulfilled? I tried doing the employee thing once and that was an absolute nightmare, so I only look for contractors now. I'm willing to pay good money for somebody who can prove themselves to me. If they have the drive and are willing to learn and be moldable, then they can increase their pay in a short amount of time. !!!!! So you can only imagine, after 26 years of working on the tools and without seeing any hope of getting off the truck in the near future, my drive, my mental, and my physical well-being are being stressed to the max! I even had a scare of a panic attack, so I was told. That kind of shit just is not in my vocabulary or in my DNA, but I was getting signs that were pointing towards a heart attack that did put me in a hospital for a day, but I checked out just fine. SO... FWD to today, things have gone from bad to worse. Financially, I can't even hire anybody in order to pay them as I can't even bring in enough to cover our own payroll, yet the hours that I work, no sane human should have to be exposed to. No word of a lie, I'm on the tools all day, usually starting at about 9–10 AM. I get home around 7–10 PM, just in time to kiss my favorite wife, give my teenage son a hug as he goes to bed, and then I'm on the computer catching up on the office work from the day and days past until usually around 5 AM seems to be the new norm. Up at about 8 AM—rinse and repeat my Groundhog Days. My loans & CCs are all maxed out constantly, and I just have no idea what happened to this dream drive I had to be the best in the industry and to truly make a change and grow this company to the vision I once had. UGH. I probably shouldn't even be coming to this event, but IDK, maybe there's something here that's going to allow for some transformation and growth to finally happen. AND GO000!!! I am all ears and moldable to learning and implementing any kind of positive criticism. MUCH appreciated! 👊How are you managing soft wash chemical blending in the field?
​I am looking to hear how other exterior cleaning business owners are handling their soft wash chemical mixing on job sites. Are you running direct metering manifold systems to mix on demand, or are you still relying on batch mixing in holding tanks before heading out? ​If you switched from batch mixing to a proportioner system, has the time saved and control over chemical usage justified the equipment cost? Also, if you built your own manifold setup rather than buying pre-built, what valves and check valves held up best against high-strength bleach? ​Curious to hear what setups are holding up best for you guys in the field.How do you handle customer expectations when wild weather or scope creep throws off the schedule?
Hey Jobber Community! ​No matter how tight your schedule is, the unexpected always seems to happen—whether it’s a sudden mid-week storm, an equipment hiccup, or a job taking twice as long because of hidden issues. ​Keeping clients updated while keeping the rest of the week’s schedule on track can be a delicate balance. ​How do you handle schedule shifts with customers? ​Do you text automated updates as soon as a delay happens? ​Buffer built-in "flex hours" or dedicated catch-up days into your weekly schedule? ​Keep a strict communication rule before a certain time of day? ​Would love to hear how you keep client satisfaction high when the schedule gets wild!
