How to start automating repetitive tasks in your HVAC, Plumbing or Electrical Service Business
Automation as a Business Owner sounds amazing, right? I mean you can remove the tasks that chew up hours during the week and have them done for you, automatically. But, where do you begin? What tasks can be automated? I don’t know anything about computers, don’t I need a degree to set this up?
Those are the questions I get asked when I start talking about automation. Then, I usually see eyes glaze over and Business Owners trudge onwards through their work week. What they don’t know…is that there is a better way to operate your home service company.
What is Zapier?
Zapier connects popular software tools and makes them “talk” or “share” data points, so your other tools can complete tasks. All of this is done without a computer programming degree as a combination of Zapier, API keys and webhooks do all of the heavy lifting for you. You must simply know what software program you utilize and see if Zapier has an integration. At the time of this writing there are well over 2,000 integrations, so most likely there is a software integration that will work for you and your business.
What kinds of things can Zapier do?
Zapier can connect everything from your Gmail inbox to more complicated niche tools and software, such as Housecall Pro or Service Titan. The data stored within these programs allows you to connect data from other points and streamline your workflows.
Want to automatically reply to Google 5 star reviews? Zapier can do that.
When a job is sold, you want to create an automatic alert to a team member to start the job sold process? Zapier can do that too!
Want to automatically send customer’s important information? You can do this by connecting an email or text messaging program.
Want to take your data out of your CRM and add it to Google Sheets, so you can automatically send out thank you gift cards? Yep, you can do that too!
How much is this going to cost me?
Likely the best part about using Zapier is that you can actually test drive the tool completely free! If you want to set up more complex “zaps” after you’re familiar with the tool, then you’d likely want to go to the $19.99 plan. If you really get into Zapier and all of the possibilities, you’ll want to upgrade, so you can continue to create amazing automations and save yourself hours of time during the week.
Every week Zapier will send you a report of how many tasks you automated, so you can feel good about making progress and adding a zap here and a zap there.
If you would like to watch me set up a basic zap, click on the video above and I will walk you through how to make one!
