When John Berardino bought OHA Heating and Air, he saw potential to grow the company. John knew that growing the team and adding technology would be key to its success, which led to a 10x growth rate in just three years. Now, John shares how fleet tracking has been a critical part of his business’ growth.
MWS: FIRST, CAN YOU TELL US a BIT ABOUT YOUR COMPANY?
BERARDINO: OHA Heating and Air has served the residential community in the DC capital region for over two decades. We were fortunate to buy it from a retiring business owner who, like so many in our service industry, was hardworking and focused on customer satisfaction. We saw great potential to expand OHA’s solid brand in our community and beyond and knew in order to do that we needed to expand the use of technology to help us more effectively manage our operations.
We attribute our tremendous growth these past three years to getting the right tech tools in place combined with growing our team and continued laser focus on taking care of our customers. Our staff has grown from five to more than 25, and we are excited to continue to expand down the Southern Corridor.
MWS: CAN YOU SHARE A BIT ABOUT HOW TECHNOLOGY AND, MORE SPECIFICALLY, GPS FLEET TRACKING HAS HELPED SUPPORT YOUR GROWTH?
BERARDINO: It is quite simply all about visibility. Knowing where our techs are at any given time is key to being able to provide timely and exceptional customer service. First, we implemented a customer service system (ServiceTitan) and quickly thereafter ramped up with ClearPathGPS fleet tracking system.
As with any field service business, running a smooth operation is not always easy, and time is not often on our side. Instead of chasing down techs with phone calls, our team simply refers to our live fleet map. This allows us to anticipate, for example, when a job is taking longer and enables us to re-route another tech quickly. In essence, our dispatch team can take care of customer complaints before they occur—something we would not be able to do without GPS fleet tracking.
MWS: ARE THERE ANY SPECIFIC BENEFITS OF GPS FLEET TRACKING RELATIVE TO THE HVAC INDUSTRY?
BERARDINO: Demand calls. For those in the HVAC industry or really any field service business, we all know the challenge of handling these emergency, sometimes frantic calls. “My AC just busted, the heat is rising in my house—please send a tech ASAP!” Being able to route techs to a customer’s home quickly is key and simply would take us a lot longer to do if we didn’t have GPS tracking. This capability and distinction of “being responsive” is a huge business success driver, as evidenced in our continuous stream of positive reviews we receive online.
MWS: YOU MENTIONED USING CLEARPATHGPS. CAN YOU SHARE WHY YOU CHOSE THAT GPS FLEET SERVICE PROVIDER AND HOW THAT EXPERIENCE HAS BEEN?
BERARDINO: First, ClearPathGPS’ seamless integration with our customer service system, ServiceTitan, was key. After that, as with any service business, it came down to ClearPathGPS’ reputation in the industry. Was it reliable? Did it have solid customer reviews? ClearPathGPS more than checked those boxes and has proven to be a great partner for us ever since, from the quick and easy setup to its highly responsive customer service. If I send an email asking a question, literally, it will just be minutes before I get a response back from the ClearPathGPS team.
MWS: YOU’VE MENTIONED THAT YOU’RE LEVERAGING YOUR GPS TRACKING DATA WITH SERVICETITAN? WHY IS THAT IMPORTANT?
BERARDINO: It comes back to having those eyes on your tech in the field. It’s one thing to have great tools in place to manage your customers, but when you layer in live insights of where your service techs are at any time, that data is invaluable to our dispatch team and key to the success of our day-to-day operations.
MWS: ANY OTHER CONSIDERATIONS ON WHY COMPANIES WITH TRUCK AND VAN FLEETS CONSIDER A GPS FLEET MANAGEMENT SYSTEM?
BERARDINO: Another key component is how GPS fleet tracking helps protect your business and brand. In a couple of instances, we discovered vehicles are not where they should be, making it clear that we had a few service techs taking on side jobs. Not only is this unacceptable, it puts your business at risk. What if something happens at that “side job,” and now your business is accountable? One of many scenarios GPS fleet tracking can help you protect your business and bottom line.
MWS: ANY ADDITIONAL THOUGHTS?
BERARDINO: I have been told by my customer success team at ClearPathGPS that there are a lot more invaluable ways to leverage the system to help further support our growth and protect our brand. I look forward to learning more and sharing.
FOR MORE INFORMATION
John Berardino is the owner of OHA Heating and Air. Find out more, visit www.fixmyair.com and www.clearpathgps.com.
