Derek Cole has been on his share of ridealongs in his role as general manager of One Hour Heating & Air Conditioning in Laurinburg, North Carolina.
Are they always productive?
Not necessarily.
They took a lot of time out of his day, and he didn’t often feel like he was getting the full picture of how a technician was doing his or her job.
“I used to do it about one a month with different techs,” Derek says. “I kept hearing about how important it was to do ridealongs, so I did them. And then I was like… I’m not always getting what’s happening. You could tell they were on their best behavior.
Enter Rilla.
Rilla is the leading virtual ridealong software for the home services industry. Powered by AI, it analyzes conversations that technicians and salespeople have with customers and provides insights for improvement.
“As the call's going on, as I'm listening, I can leave comments for the tech, you know right here, I would say this and probably not that,” Derek says.
A Play by Play of What Happens On Calls
Adoption of Rilla in his shop is about 20%, a figure Derek aims to grow in the coming months by tying usage of the app to technicians’ bonuses. He hopes that once the team sees their Rilla usage being measured—in a way that’s tied to their paychecks—adoption rates will soar.
His big goal is getting all of his techs to record 100% of their calls.
“But anything over 80%, you get the bonus,” he says.
Derek says his employees who are big proponents of Rilla like having a detailed account of what happens on service calls, and they like hearing his feedback on how they can improve.
“My comfort advisor loves it because he can go back and listen to what happened, and it’s a play by play,” Derek says. “It’s a lot easier to talk about what happened with the game film right there.”
“With other guys, I can’t tell them what they’re doing, right or wrong, because I don’t have a recording.”
He also likes that if a customer has a complaint about a tech or a salesperson, there’s a recording of
what actually happened.
“Just like all of our phone calls are recorded, all of our service calls should be recorded as well,” Derek says.
“It’s Just Real”
In his few months using Rilla, Derek says he’s noticed anecdotal changes among his employees and the way they interact with their customers.
“There’s been some incremental changes in delivery, just with patience and following the guidelines more,” Derek says. “The guys that are using it, I haven’t been making the same comments over and over. They’re getting better.”
And it’s all thanks to Rilla.
He advises other leaders in the home services industry to consider whether Rilla is a good fit for their shop.
“Not everybody’s going to want to do it. Not everybody’s going to be happy about it,” he says, adding it’s important to focus on the benefits of Rilla to technicians, like improving their abilities to do their jobs and earn more money.
He also urges other home services pros to be honest about how much time they are spending on ridealongs, if they are even doing them.
“With Rilla, you can be much more efficient, much better, and get a real recording of real calls,” Derek says. “If you stand there, then everyone is on their best behavior. But this way, we’re making sure we’re doing the right thing by the customer every single time. Yes, you trust your team, but you get to verify that what you teach is what is actually happening out there.”
Get Started with Rilla Today
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