What tech tool actually made your team more productive?
What’s something that genuinely saved time or made your team better? Did it help with quoting? Payments? Share your take below. In this episode of Masters of Home Service, ryaantuttle and Rob Soper get into: Why many owners are still stuck with manual processes How tech can act like extra admin (without hiring) Simple ways to start using tech without overhauling everything Never miss an episode of Masters of Home Service. Subscribe on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Starting a New Hardscape Division While Busy with Landscape Maintenance Team
How do you actually start a new division of your business while still managing day-to-day operations? Between quoting, scheduling, and running jobs, it’s hard to carve out time to build something new. Curious how others have handled this without things falling through the cracks. What worked for you? Context: our "bread and butter" as a landscaping company has been in residential maintenance (lawn cutting, care, property clean-ups, trimming, garden care, softscape / small hardscape installs, etc.). My business partner and I are near max capacity with taking on more residential maintenance clients and would like to get into higher earning, longer term, larger projects on the install / design side of landscaping.What do customers think about Jobber's AI receptionist?
We are considering jobbers AI Receptionist for our busy firewood sales & Service business. My husband is hesitant to use it because our main customer base is rural, conservative minded individuals that are more likely to be distrustful of AI. I also take a lot of time to connect with my customers & explain why we are different or better than other options. Part of what customers love about us is that we are a family business and we work hard to build connections and relationships. I feel like ai is everywhere now and people are used to it but I do have people tell me often how nice it is to talk to a person. On the other hand I do miss a lot of calls and don’t want to miss opportunities. Has anyone heard feedback from customers on whether they like it or not?How do you keep it fun AND professional?
I am curious how other owners handle the line between being friendly with their crew and staying professional as the boss. In this kind of work we spend a lot of time with technicians driving to jobs working side by side and solving problems together so naturally there is a lot of joking around and a relaxed environment. At the same time there are moments where you need to switch gears stay focused and have direct conversations about expectations. One situation that came up recently made me think about this more. We have someone on our team in more of a management role. He is a good guy and very capable but sometimes he jokes around in situations where we are trying to stay focused and move the job forward. We also had a situation where instead of having the technician communicate with the client he jumped into a group text and started messaging the client directly which broke the chain of communication we try to maintain. It got me thinking about what kind of guardrails other companies put in place both for themselves and for people in leadership roles. Do you hang out with your crew outside of work or do you keep a clear boundary between work and personal life. And if you have lead techs or managers do you have specific expectations for how they communicate with clients and interact with the rest of the crew. I am curious what has worked well for others.How I Finally Delegated Estimating (Without Hiring Another Person)
For years, estimating was the one thing I couldn’t take off my plate. We changed the org chart. We hired roles. Delegated everything we could. But estimating? That was always me. Even if I wasn’t doing anything else in the business... I was still stuck quoting jobs. It was the bottleneck I couldn’t fix—until now. I built a ChatGPT-powered estimator trained with my systems, my pricing, and my language. It asks the right questions, runs the math, and delivers estimates like I would—without me being involved. Now I’m no longer the bottleneck. Customers get quick answers. I get my evenings and weekends back. Want to build your own? Map out your estimating logic. Plug it into ChatGPT. Test and refine. If you're stuck working all day and doing estimates at night and on Saturdays anddddd, sometimes even Sunday mornings when everyone's sleeping—this might be your way out. Heres my direct Zoom link if you'd like to learn more: https://calendly.com/ryaan-besthandymancompany/bh-plan-phone-consultation
Can AI create accurate inventories from photos or walkthroughs for estimates?
Anyone here using AI to build inventories from photos or on‑site for moving quotes? We’re a moving company looking to automate as much of the quote process as possible. Right now, we’re still doing a lot of manual inventory collection and data entry, and it’s slowing us down and leaving room for mistakes. I’m specifically interested in: AI tools that can take phone photos or short videos (or an on‑site walkthrough) and automatically create an itemized inventory we can use for estimates. Anything that can recognize furniture/boxes from images and turn that into quantities, cube/weight, or at least a structured checklist. Workflows where the customer does a virtual survey themselves and we just review and price it. Bonus points if it can be integrated within jobber If you’re doing this today, which software are you using, how accurate is it, and what does your workflow look like from first contact to approved quote? Any “don’t waste your time on this tool” stories are welcome too.How Are Home Service Businesses Preparing for AI Search Visibility?
Search is changing fast. We’ve already seen Google test online estimates and AI-assisted pricing in local search. Now, AI tools are helping homeowners decide who to call, sometimes before they ever visit a website. Scorpion Marketing published a report with the following stats: 22% of homeowners are already using AI tools to research services or get recommendations 80% of business owners say they don’t know how to prepare for AI-driven search visibility We’d love to hear what you’re seeing👇 Have you noticed changes in how customers find you or ask questions? Are you doing anything intentionally today to prep for AI-driven search? If AI search on your radar but still confusing, what question do you have? This space will continue to evolve. Sharing what’s working (or not) across different trades helps everyone get ahead of it!
