The fastest tech on your team might be the most expensive one on your payroll.
It's the first cold night of fall, and a customer's furnace keeps shutting off before the house warms up. Your tech pulls the flame sensor, cleans it, and the burners light. They're on to the next call in 45 minutes. On the surface, that's a great call: short job, problem seemingly fixed, and plenty of space for more tickets in the day.
A week later, the furnace is shutting off again.
The flame sensor was never the problem. The inducer motor was failing, and nobody tested it. So the tech goes back out. The motor isn't on the truck, so there's a third trip. By now it's October, the heating-related calls are stacking up, and one of your trucks is spending its day on a job you already got paid for.
By the end, that quick call has cost you more in drive time and labor than it ever brought in, and a customer who trusted you to fix it trusts you a little less.
Another 30 minutes testing the system on the first visit would have found it on trip one.
That's the risk of paying for speed or revenue alone. That plan rewards the tech who looks productive on Tuesday, and the business pays for the return trips on Friday.
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Callbacks are where that cost hides. Two callbacks a month from one tech can run hundreds of dollars in labor nobody bills for, and none of it shows up on that tech's numbers. It shows up on yours.
You don't have to choose between fast and good. Most owners want both: get the job done fast, and get it done right. Your best techs already do both. The plan has to pay for both.
Here's what that looks like:
Define quality in numbers you already track. Callbacks, redos, touch-ups, and return trips. A job that runs long because the customer added work is fine. A job that runs long because someone showed up late or missed the diagnosis counts against it.
Don't pay on the extra trips. A job that takes a third or fourth visit to fix doesn't count towards a bonus. The tech who gets it right the first time should be rewarded.
Pay for the fix that sticks. When a job stays fixed, the tech who did it earns a little more. Stack enough of those in a month and it adds up to a real bonus. Those 30 minutes spent testing the system turn into money in the tech's pocket, and your best techs finally get paid for the care they were already taking.
Once quality is in the plan, you can reward speed without worrying about it. A tech who finishes faster, with the job complete, documented, and callback-free, earns more. A tech who rushes and leaves a mess for someone else to clean up doesn't.
That's how we build plans in ShareWillow. The quality rules sit inside the plan, and every tech sees their numbers on their phone, so they’re never surprised on payday.
We'll show you what a plan could look like for your business, with quality rules included, and show you what your techs would see on their phones. See how you could boost your margins here.
Best,
Ryan
P.S. Reply here if it's easier — every reply comes directly to me and I’d love to help.