Project Management Best Practices

[ChelseaAce]

I saw a thread a few months ago reaching out for some Project Management best practices.  I'm only about four months into migrating to Service Titan, but I wanted to share some things I've found that may make your experience better.

At our company, I serve as the Project Coordinator for larger projects.  These mostly include jobs that require permits or multiple day visit jobs over a specific cost threshold.   Following are some things that work best for my workflow:

Take time writing your estimate and proposal templates

Well-written estimates sell big jobs.  By providing a good template for the technicians to use in the field, we are ensuring that the customers receive the same vital information each time.  For example, including statements like "All work will be performed to code and local industry standards with the City of San Francisco" makes your estimates more professional.  Additionally, I have provided different estimate templates for different types of jobs. Allowing the technician to "fill in the blanks" on basic templates helps them expedite the process.

Protip:  To change the information on the very bottom of the estimates when they are sent out, navigate to Settings > Business Units > Edit > Acknowledgement Paragraph.  You can modify which information you would like to include.  This was helpful for us because we were able to add our business license here so that it is attached to every estimate we send.  One drawback is that if you have separate business units for each technician, you have to update this for every business unit individually.

Use Alerts!

After using Service Titan for a few months I finally realized the beauty of alerts.  To get to Alerts, navigate to Settings > Alerts > Add.

This feature allows specific events to create a notification to a desired user. The alerts I have set up for myself are:

• Estimate Sold
• Payment Applied

Estimate Sold is redundant if I check the Follow Up screen frequently, however, an alert in my email is helpful if I'm out of the office. 

Payment Applied is quite helpful from a project management standpoint if the application for a permit requires a down payment from a customer.  Note:  This alert will include all payments made for all jobs.  This may be more information than you would like to see, but it is helpful if you use it.

Protip:  If you are receiving your alerts via Email, it is helpful to create a rule associated with this type of message and filter these alerts into specific folders to keep your inbox clean.

The Project Screen is your friend, and you can modify lots of things there!

Once you get used to the Project screen you will find that it is dynamic and can help organize the process of facilitating larger projects.  My current workflow using this screen is:

• Estimate approved, immediately initiate booking.  In some cases, we won't have a start date solidified, but I find that scheduling out the work for the most-likely date is useful because it gets it on the dispatch board.  I have made it a habit to do this, and to follow up with a start date change if it needs to be
• Once booking is initiated, I navigate to the Project that is created for the duration of this work
• Edit Details immediately.  This is where the specifics of the project are updated.  For my own sanity, I tend to cut and paste the scope of work of the estimate into the project description.  This ensures that the project is informative, and can be accessed later if there are questions or concerns
• Financials are important to me.  Once the project has been created I navigate to this section and view the associated invoice.  I can email the invoice to the customer, and what I have found that works best for me is to personalize the email itself before sending.  This is where I introduce myself as a project coordinator, include my contact information, and explain that we do require a down payment before applying for permits.  I have found that using this process and personalizing the message are great ways to build rapport with customers
• As above with down payment, when a project is complete the invoice is sent once again with a personalized message thanking the customer very much for their business and extending an open door for any future projects.  Although these fields could be customized with templates, including specific information or gratitude at the end of the project is a nice way to finalize things

Protip:  If you want to create tasks for yourself on the project screen, or additional fields, navigate to:  Settings > Custom Fields.  Service Titan allows the user to create fields that will populate on specific screens.  For projects, I use "Project Record".  Some examples of fields I use are:

• 811 Notified
• Permit number
• Inspection Date
• Technicians associated with this project
• Valuation

These are things that I need to remind myself to do, and in some cases, just pieces of relevant information that I would otherwise need to look up.  These fields will be visible in the Project Details portion of the Project page.  For now, there is no functionality that will allow a user to move these fields to a prominent place on the Project page, but rest assured, that idea is going to be posted soon!

I hope some of these best practices help!  As Service Titan is always evolving, I'm sure these processes will eventually change, but so far I'm enjoying the efficiency this software has brought to the Project Management and Coordination in our company.

All my best,

Chelsea Robinson ♠️

[LBabayan]

Hi @ChelseaAce 

Thank you so much for sharing your notes! This is immensely helpful and useful 🙂

[ChelseaAce]

You are quite welcome!  As I figure more stuff out, I shall certainly continue to share!!