While many home services companies seem content staying with what has worked in the past, maintaining the status quo isn’t going to cut it in today’s competitive market, especially if the goal is to increase business.

The path to continued success and growth involves utilizing innovative tech and taking advantage of data-driven insights. These insights, based on facts and metrics, can make a huge difference in adding customers and increasing revenue.

After all, making the most of data — assuming it’s the right data —can position you in front of customers seeking your services and aid in success. It can also bring you the right customers, and companies that are focusing on reaching out to these customers will find a substantial increase to their bottom line and a boost to their reputation.

The market for HVAC systems is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 7.4% through 2030, according to Grand View Research, and other segments in the home services industry are looking at similar growth potential, making it the perfect time for companies to work on growing their market.

Still, home services businesses often face significant frustrations and challenges in their path to developing a data-driven culture. For many, especially veterans in the industry, making a switch to a data-driven mindset can be a difficult adjustment since it’s often still considered a new way of thinking. Many may argue that they’ve found plenty of success using their intuition and relying on their know-how in the past. However, this is an outdated way of doing business and one that may eventually lead to their downfall as competitors become increasingly tech-savvy and adept with modern practices.
 Sure, it’s not uncommon for people to know little to nothing about how to best utilize data or how to implement data-driven insights into the company effectively, but this is a big concern.  

One Step At A Time

Thankfully, it doesn’t take much to start crafting a data-driven strategy for your home service business. The first step is to develop a list of goals and what you hope to achieve, and make sure you have your entire team onboard with the strategy. This needs to be a company-wide objective, so if you have some bad apples who aren’t willing to use data and support the effort, it’s time for a change.

Next, it’s time to start gathering and organizing the data. There are plenty of innovative tools out there that can help get everything making sense. For instance, a customer intelligence platform will integrate data from both internal business operations and external sources, and include customer information, property details, historical financial data, and feedback from various service providers. A comprehensive view like this enhances the understanding of potential interactions with buyers beyond what can be achieved through internal CRM analysis or by outsourcing research to an external firm.

Some businesses may choose to do this with a spreadsheet or even an app on their phone that sorts data; whatever one feels comfortable with is OK, as long as you don’t get lost in the numbers or cumbersome processes.

Analyzing the data correctly is the crucial next step. All this data won’t do anyone any good if it’s not being looked at the right way. It’s important to track and measure progress towards key objectives and make sure you are using the data correctly and understand exactly how your business is performing. With the raw data in hand, you can see how things are progressing and understand what’s working and what’s not. Review all data to identify strengths, weaknesses, trends, and enhance customer experience based on feedback.

Put the Data to Work

Once you have the data, it’s time to make it work for you. One of the top ways is through targeted marketing, where you can leverage data to target specific demographics and discover ideal customers. You have a clearer understanding of who your average customer is, and data on where they are located, home details, and other things will let you target these customers with ads, mailings, and relevant social media posts. Engaging with customers through social media channels and email newsletters can also keep them informed about new services, promotions, and valuable tips, reinforcing their loyalty.

A more focused approach eliminates advertising to those who are unlikely to become new customers and raises the success rate of a well-run campaign.

And it’s not all about finding and attracting new clients. Consider customer satisfaction with current customers as well. Home service businesses can also use their data to look at feedback, which can be collected by following up with clients after service completion. This allows businesses to gather qualitative data that complements the quantitative metrics, providing deeper insights into customer satisfaction and areas for improvement. The right data puts you in a better position to understand the needs of those you have worked with and improves satisfaction results for follow-ups and further home service visits.

Once you find the data is working in your favor, don’t rest on any laurels. Look for ways to improve your data tech stack and update or expand the data sets you are looking at. There will always be more things you could be doing to improve.

Let’s face it, for anyone who works in the HVAC, plumbing, or electrical service industry, the competition is getting more cutthroat every day, so you need something to stay ahead and keep your competitors at bay. For those gathering and implementing data correctly, it’s going to create a huge advantage.