For many home service businesses, spring means packed schedules, ringing phones... and little room for mistakes.
Miss a service call now? That customer's gone forever.
Deliver work that doesn’t hit the mark? Your online reputation takes a hit for months.
So how do the most successful home service companies keep growing while maintaining quality?
A couple of weeks back at the ACCA conference (Air Conditioning Contractors of America), I tracked down Tommy Mello – the founder of a $220M home service company with a $1B+ valuation – to get some answers.
And what he shared was pure gold...

The little things that create massive growth
Tommy is LEGIT. He runs a company with 850 employees and $60M in EBITDA. When he speaks, service business owners listen and learn.
Here are the nuggets he shared that separate the best from the rest:
1. Strangers ring doorbells, friends knock
Tommy asks all his technicians to knock on doors instead of ringing doorbells. Why? Because friends knock, strangers ring. It's a small detail that immediately changes the relationship.
2. Play with the dog (ignore the cat)
When entering a customer's home, Tommy tells his team to always play with the dog. It shows you're friendly and trustworthy. (Cats? Well, they prefer to be ignored anyway.)
3. It's an "agreement," not a "contract"
Language matters. Tommy never says "contract" – he says "when we finalize our agreement." Small shift, big psychological difference.
4. Photos with reviews are worth 10x
Google weighs reviews with photos much higher than text-only reviews. Tommy's team specifically asks for "a review with a photo" – just three extra words that dramatically boost the impact of reviews.
5. Don't rush the job – build the relationship
Unlike what you might expect, Tommy wants his techs spending MORE time in homes, not less. The goal is building relationships so customers trust them for maintenance contracts and future work.
Performance pay: The game-changer
At the conference, I interviewed dozens of successful contractors about what's working for them. One theme kept coming up again and again...
Performance pay is changing their businesses.
One veteran contractor told me: "Performance pay is the best decision we ever made. It used to take 2-3 days to do an installation. Now it takes half a day. We can do three times as many jobs."
Tommy echoed this when I asked him directly: "Performance pay is the only way to pay them."
Why performance pay works
Without incentives, technicians just follow the schedule. "I gotta go to this house, then that one... whatever, I'm making my $26/hour regardless."
But with performance pay, everything changes:
Arrive on time? Extra money.
Complete the job efficiently? Extra money.
Attach a maintenance plan? Extra money.
Get a 5-star review with a photo? Extra money.
Suddenly, your $26/hour technician is making $34/hour effective rate – a massive jump – while driving the behaviors that grow your business.
They're texting review links to happy customers, suggesting maintenance plans, and looking for ways to provide better service... not because you're hovering over them, but because their incentives are aligned with your business goals.
The simple secret to keeping your best people
If there's one thing I learned at this conference, it's that performance pay isn't just about motivating employees – it's about retaining them.
The best home service companies aren't losing technicians during busy season because their people see a clear path to bigger earnings:
'Do X, make Y.'
They know exactly what they'll earn after each job, down to the penny.
And that clarity of winning keeps them loyal, even when competitors try to poach them.
Speak with an expert
At ShareWillow, we're helping home service companies design and manage these performance pay plans.
If you want to see how simple it can be to implement a plan that transforms your business, let's chat.