The Home Service Expert Podcast
00:15:27 · Tommy Mello, Zach Deering
[00:15:27] S3: It's true. You know, one of the things that we gotta do a better job of is is that HVAC does an amazing job, plumbing does a great job, is the age of equipment and understanding with service agreements when to go back there. I talked to... I'm not gonna go into the company name, but they're massive. They are massive in the Northeast. Yep. The biggest company in the Northeast. And it's not Aaron Gaynor even though he's amazing in Ohio. They said this month, they're churning over 70% of service calls they go into for a new HVAC unit. Yeah. And they're closing 62% of those. [00:16:06] S0: Yeah. [00:16:07] S3: And by the way, all these companies are between seventy eighty percent finance. [00:16:10] S0: Yep. [00:16:10] S3: They're selling it with the finance companies. [00:16:13] S0: Yep. [00:16:14] S3: And I just think about that and I'm like, man, we are just we're just get... We're we're so tiny. We're we're nowhere near those numbers. It's like we're not even in the hemisphere of those numbers. Yeah. I mean, to turn over that many qualified leads. Totally. So this... For for companies like that, this is an absolute game changer. That's why you kind of focused on HHI plumbing electrical most likely. Where do you see the other big industries coming in? Obviously, we pulled it off of garages, we're still in the early stages. We've deployed it in a couple of markets. But what other industries? It's probably a bigger ticket.
00:16:47 · Zach Deering, Tommy Mello
[00:16:47] S0: Yeah. Roofing is something we got a lot of inquiries on. I mean, really anything under the home service umbrella, it's probably, like, relevant for particularly if there's notably a purchase. Like, you... It's... Think about window siding, like bath remodel. It's a little bit of a different motion. But I think in all those... Because fundamentally, like, what is the technology? It's how do you build a shopping experience for the homeowner, and then how do you follow-up if you don't close to the kitchen table? Which if you think that, like, garage doors maybe has a low follow-up rate compared to what it could be, like, foundation repair, for example. We were talking with a foundation company, and evidently, like, it's pretty common to have a 20% close rate because a lot of times this is sort of an optional, like, relatively low urgency purchase. And so I really think that there's opportunities across the board. I would say our focus right now is HVAC plumbing, electrical, recently garage door. I anticipate we'll probably get into roofing this year just given where there's I think a ton of interest. [00:17:44] S3: You know, lot of people are talking about ChatGPT Claude Sure. The different LLMs. You know, from what I've heard from very smart people is we got about another year. A lot of people are still purchasing off of Google and doing research on the LLMs. What are your thought and take on that?
00:17:44 · Tommy Mello, Zach Deering
[00:17:44] S3: You know, lot of people are talking about ChatGPT Claude Sure. The different LLMs. You know, from what I've heard from very smart people is we got about another year. A lot of people are still purchasing off of Google and doing research on the LLMs. What are your thought and take on that? [00:18:02] S0: Yeah. I think the data would suggest that people are not finding contractors today on Claude or ChatGPT. Right? 3%. And going back to that survey we did Gemini. Or or Gemini. 3% founded on some sort of answer engine today. Right? So they're not finding it today, or at least that today was as of end of twenty twenty five. That obviously will start to change, and we are increasingly hearing sort of murmurings of people, right, taking a proposal and running it through ChatGPT to see sort of what they should be thinking about it. I still think it's a relative sort of minority that's happening, but the shift will eventually happen there. And I think that that's where it's even more important given what the model's reward, which is specificity. Right? Hey. If I go search for how much to the garage door in Milwaukee, like, what are the results that I'm getting back? So are you as a contractor putting out the right information that the models will reward and likely show you as a source that you can get that get that lead from them.
00:18:58 · Tommy Mello
[00:18:58] S3: You know, this has gotta be scary for a lot of contractors listening right now because quite frankly, we want a chance to sell face to face. Totally. We wanna give you enough information where we're not giving you the farm. Totally. But there is this theory that I predict that things are gonna start getting commoditized, not next year, not the year after, but as things become... And I think more about the OEMs building a workforce around them because I think the OEMs kinda control a lot. What are your thoughts about the future of the home service industry, home improvement industry?
00:19:31 · Zach Deering
[00:19:31] S0: Yeah. Totally. Pretty vast question. I think what is really clear, as you've talked about on this show before and with various guests, is, like, really home services on the forefront of really being able to use AI for really practical purposes. Right? Whether it's dispatching, whether it's call answering, and increasingly over time, sales. With that said, having a human in the loop will continue to be really important. And so I think the way that we think about it as an organization is we're not replacing the seller, right, you know, maybe you'll replace a CSR, certain organizations will, but rather how do you use AI to augment the seller? There are tasks today that sellers either don't like doing or they're not particularly good at doing that we use AI to make it easier for them to do. Classic example is follow-up. How do you personalize follow-up that understands the conversation that's happened, that isn't trying to close the homeowner, but instead just bringing them back to the table with a question? Or how do you help give real time coaching to the seller about their proposal? Hey, you only offered four options, if you would have offered five options, that would have helped. Or hey, we noticed you did three add ons. Hey, could you personalize this more? So we really see AI as the opportunity to help augment or assist the seller and really sort of elevate that role. I think to the broader question, in ten years, will y'all still be sending a role... Organizations still be sending sellers into homes? Probably not. I don't know whether that's ten years or fifteen years, but, I mean, clearly, the trend is going that way. 69% of homeowners try to shop online for home services today. Right? So there is definitely the interest. With that said, I think it is a gravel... Gradual evolution. I think the reality... I was talking with someone yesterday, and he talked about how he sold... Actually, someone you know well, Christiano, how he was selling yellow book ads even in the mid two thousands. Right? The yellow book was still something that you could make a decent business even fifteen, twenty years after the internet came out and I think that's very suggestive of the reality that, you know, Google and in person sales isn't going away tomorrow. At some point it will, right, but it's gonna take a long time.
00:21:44 · Tommy Mello, Zach Deering
[00:21:44] S3: Well, it's it's... I've always said it's hard to diagnose a car over the phone. My dad used to be in the transmission business for a very long time and they'd call call and say I'm looking for a price and he'd go, anybody that's giving you a price over the phone without really getting under the hood and diagnosing every single failure point. Sure. Might be a bait and switch. [00:22:02] S0: Sure.