Fix the Plumbing Before Adding AI
Greetings Community 👋🏿 A concept I’ve thought about a lot: automating a broken workflow doesn’t save time, it just makes the mess move faster. A lot of teams jump straight to automation and the newest AI tools while the systems underneath are already disconnected: scattered user records, inconsistent permissions, duplicate data, and no clear source of truth. Identity is one of the best places to start. A well-managed IdP gives you a central place to manage users, access, and the SaaS applications your business depends on. It makes implementing SSO, provisioning, and deprovisioning across applications cleaner while establishing clear ownership of identity and access. Now you have a cleaner foundation to connect systems and build automations that actually make sense. Otherwise, you’re just automating the mess.How to Know Everything About Everything
Anyone else feel like this needs to be you? You need to know how to market, how to manage people, how to properly incentivize them, be well versed in finance as well as all the technical aspects of whatever trade you are in. We had a situation where we were installing a lighted niche, and the specific tile made it impossible to get the tiles perfectly flat while installing it on the wall, and my guys put the light too far back so it cast a very minor shadow in the niche. In hindsight we could have installed the tiles in the niche ahead of time so we could apply proper pressure to them so there's no lips (and also put the light more forward) ... we won't make that mistake again! As I sit in the office making meta ads, reviewing my financials, it get's super frustrating to have these technical curveballs while sorting through everything else it takes to run a business. This is why we need to build our own checks and balances: Who we call or who we hire (have a good process for vetting people that know what they are doing) What we double check and when Who's the second set of eyes (use your in field managers, make sure everyone is using Jobber for pictures and notes Which leads to what you document Now the niche issue won't ever happen again but we've definitely caught things BEFORE they are a mistake utilizing this system. How to you juggle all the responsibilities?
Best way to handle inbound calls to company line?
Curious yalls thoughts. Looking to not just grow, looking to scale and improve / continue to implement systems. Currently have myself, 1 outside sales rep, and field labor crew (fence install company) current process: customer calls into company # (my cell phone). I try to answer as if it were an office line to answer asap. From that, I confirm I can Text them, I then send a request form via jobber that has basic info / few questions to answer. If / when they fill it out, I add to the schedule for a confirmed day / time to quote on site. etc…… I feel this part is a lot of back and forth, and until I have an in house admin office worker that can answer these calls the first ring - I won’t be able to truly grow / stay efficient. (If I’m tied up, I don’t like calling them back 2 hours later, etc) but also - I love having them fill out the form bc the way I have questions on it, it turns it from a warm lead, to a warmer lead. Any way to streamline this, get more efficient, improve this current process? ANY thoughts or advice - real thankful.Can Dictating Job Notes into AI After Every Appointment Help Send Faster Estimates?
Low-tech, free with claude, and curious how many people do it? The habit: before you pull out of the driveway, dictate what you just did into claude, gemini or whatever AI chat you prefer. Not a formal write-up. Talk like you're telling a teammate, and think about it saving you time down the road. Two things fall out of that for free. First, the estimate can go out that night instead of Thursday, because you're not reconstructing the job from memory three days later. Works especially well if you have a structured price book. Same-day estimates close better so should help. Second you do it consistently and build a file on every house you've ever been inside. The weeping shutoff, the old panel, the water heater with the 2011 sticker. That's next spring's work, sitting in a voice memo or your AI chat bot instead of evaporating out of your head by Friday. Anyone already doing this and seeing value? Curious what you say into it, and whether the habit survived contact with a genuinely busy week. Maybe others are just uploading pictures and finding more value that way?How Often do You Enforce the Fine Print?
In our contracts, it clearly states that if the scope changes and we are not able to do the visit, or if we are sent away for reasons outside of our control we will charge them $300 (for reference our min charge is a half day which is $500). I had a customer who's assistant asked us to install an undermount sink. It was in the contract, they signed it. We had done a visit with them months before and our technician mentioned a top mount sink would be easy but they specifically asked for an undermount. So we order the sink, show up and the owner not the assistant that coordinated the contract) says they want a top mount. Our technician says ok we'll have to come back. We tell them the charge for the new sink plus the cancellation and they think it's unreasonable. I definitely know, no one actually reads the contract. Should the technician have said, if you send me away, it's $300 charge extra. But they also are changing the plan. I'm a softee so I'm not going to charge them the cancellation but what do you think about a situation like that? Maybe the cancellation charge is too much? It's basically enough for me to give the technician something for planning their whole day around the job plus make a very small amount of profit. Thoughts?Be honest... how many hours did you spend on paperwork this weekend?
​Quoting, scheduling, chasing unpaid invoices—it adds up fast when you'd rather be out in the field (or spending time with your family). ​Question: What’s the ONE administrative task in your business that takes up way too much of your time?
