Callbacks Are The Silent Killer For Home Service Companies

For service businesses heading into the busy season, there's a hidden profit killer lurking in your operations...

Callbacks.

You know the drill: Your tech completes a job (or thinks they do), moves on to the next one... and then comes the dreaded customer call.

"My AC is still not cooling."
"The toilet is making that noise again."
"You guys just left, but it's still not working!"

And just like that, your perfectly planned schedule falls apart.

Let me tell you why callbacks are such a massive pain point for service businesses. The numbers are staggering:

If you're doing that one time per week, per technician, that adds up. If you think about the revenue from a new job — a couple hundred bucks, or if it's an install, thousands of dollars — you're leaving a ton of money on the table.

Beyond the financial hit, callbacks create a ripple effect of problems:

For your customers: They have to take more time off work, rearrange their schedule, and wait around for a second visit. Imagine putting on your calendar 'work from home' for your AC repair, then having to do it AGAIN. It's such a pain.

For future customers: When your techs are tied up on callbacks, you're booking out further and further. "Why are you booked out a week and a half? Because we have to go back to jobs for a second time. That's a worse future customer experience."

For your reputation: Each callback is a customer who now has a reason to doubt your competence. That's a negative review waiting to happen.

There are a few main culprits:

The best companies are targeting callback rates below 5%, with elite performers hitting 3-4%. But here's what's interesting: we're seeing huge variations between techs at the same company.

I was looking at one company the other day where most techs were at 3-4% callback rates, but one was at 19%!

So what's the solution? How are the top home service companies we work with at ShareWillow are dramatically reducing their callback rates?

It comes down to three things:

What you track is what you optimize.

The best companies are bringing callbacks front and center. They're tracking callback percentages by technician and making this data visible to everyone.

When techs can see their callback rate compared to their peers, something magical happens – improvement follows automatically.

People get competitive and don't want to be the worst.

Simply creating a leaderboard can drive major improvements. It's not about creating a blame culture, but tapping into people's natural competitive spirit:

It's not zero-sum, so you can be competitive, but it's not like if one person wins, the other loses. You can have this friendly competitive rivalry internally that helps drive improvement.

"Show me the incentives, and I'll show you the outcome." - Charlie Munger

The hourly tech who gets paid the same regardless of quality has little incentive to avoid callbacks: "If I have to go back, whatever... I'm still getting my $22 an hour."

But when you tie compensation to callback rates, everything changes. The tech suddenly cares deeply about getting it right the first time.

If I am compensated and I have a leaderboard and I know that if I'm going back more times than my peers, I look like I'm doing a worse job... just the fact that we're dangling the carrot anywhere is going to optimize the behavior.

(Let’s discuss how you can set up incentives for your techs.)

The beauty of fixing your callback problem is that everyone benefits:

And that's exactly why we built ShareWillow – to help you design incentive plans that align everyone's interests and transform your business.

Ready to tackle your callback problem head-on? Here's where to start:

At ShareWillow, we're helping home service companies do exactly this – designing and managing performance pay plans that drive the behaviors that matter most.

Want to see how simple it can be to implement a plan that transforms your business?

👉 Book a call with our team here

"It's such a win-win by fixing the callbacks."