ServiceMaster by Cornerstone

About ServiceMaster by Cornerstone

ServiceMaster is headquartered in Memphis, Tennessee, with an additional office in Nashville. As a national provider of disaster restoration services, they cater to a wide range of clients, including insurance companies and other large firms. Their teams are strategically stationed across the country, from New York City to Houston and Florida, allowing them to respond swiftly to customers nationwide.

ServiceMaster handles everything from small residential repairs and water damage restoration to more specialized services, like crime scene cleanup, smoke and odor removal, and hoarding cleanup. Their expertise extends to storm-related damage, general maintenance cleaning, and large-scale construction and industrial projects. Whether it's disaster restoration or major commercial construction, ServiceMaster is equipped to manage projects of any size with the highest level of professionalism and care.

Going Digital

Before GoFormz, ServiceMaster struggled with field documentation. “As a business that goes out and performs emergency services and damage mitigation work, we perform a lot of work without a bill or agreed upon price,” said Chris Ivie, Vice President of Operations for ServiceMaster by Cornerstone. Originally, this process relied on ServiceMaster field personnel to accurately capture work information and relay it back to the office for billing compilation. “We wanted to look for a way to compile and record our services electronically instead of relying on handwritten notebooks and pictures after the fact.”

Recognizing the need for a digital solution, the ServiceMaster team began searching for a digital forms platform. “We used Smartsheets and another form app called Formstack in the beginning,” explained Ivie. “But the main thing that attracted us to GoFormz was that we could control the format of the form. In many cases, the paperwork we need to complete is standardized depending on the type of job or insurance company.” This required ServiceMaster to complete documentation in a specific, mandated format. Another ServiceMaster location was already using GoFormz to digitize their existing paper forms and insurance documents, and it quickly became clear to Ivie’s team that this was the ideal solution for their needs. “We needed to be able to maintain the exact background format, but still wanted to capture and record our data and services electronically within our format, and GoFormz allowed for just that.”

Easy Setup, Simple Onboarding

GoFormz’s user-friendly interface and simple setup made integrating digital forms into ServiceMaster’s existing processes easy. “It saved us a lot of time in the beginning when we were building out our forms because we weren’t required to recreate our forms,” explained Ivie. “Once we got started and got the idea of how it all worked, I was able to catch on pretty quickly and get everything we needed in the app. It didn’t take long to make our forms.”

This simple learning curve extended seamlessly to ServiceMaster’s field personnel as well. “There wasn’t any pushback when we introduced GoFormz,” explained Ivie. During this period, they introduced new forms and gathered feedback from the team on their experience. “We started out with one form, then moved to a second, and then incorporated a completely different format and introduced iPads,” explained Ivie. “When we got that third form out to the team they all told us how much better it was and easier to fill out information, so they were really open to GoFormz after that. We really started to push this to them as an opportunity for them to learn and expand their roles and grow.”

Digital Form Collection

ServiceMaster now uses a variety of digital forms daily. “We have a scope sheet that is used by our technicians in the field when they’re capturing all of the services they perform. There are line items for demos, cleaning, and equipment. Everything they do has a line item, allowing them to go out, record their services, and then record their time spent on that job,” explained Ivie. The scope sheet also includes sections for the timesheet and consumables. “Then there is the time and material component where they record all the consumables they use on the project so that we can bill accurately. They then answer a set of questions to make sure they have all of the documentation they need – it’s also a reminder for all the steps they need to take before they leave the job.”

ServiceMaster also utilizes a ‘daily pack’, which acts as a digital crew activity sheet. “A daily pack includes a sign-in sheet and a ticksheet for consumables and equipment,” explained Ivie. “We also have a field risk assessment sheet where they can outline the risk the crew may face that day, for safety purposes, and then a bunch of specific, insurance-related authorization forms.”

Offline Functionality

Due to the nature of their work, ServiceMaster field crews don’t always have access to the internet. “We do a lot of work in industrial facilities where the nature of those facilities doesn’t have or allow for service inside. So you can’t send information from inside the facility. We also go into hurricanes and disaster areas where there’s no service or reception,” explained Ivie. “So now they’ll complete all of those forms throughout the day and then when they get back from the job, the completed forms will sync up once they get back into service.” As a result, ServiceMaster needed a solution that would support offline functionality. “For our commercial jobs, there is this manual signing process where they have to record their materials and equipment throughout the day, so this was kind of the prerequisite for us to even incorporate GoFormz into that side of the business,” explained Ivie. “If we weren’t able to be offline, we probably wouldn’t have even attempted to implement this.”

More Than Just a Form

ServiceMaster’s original data collection expectations were simple. “When we first looked at the platform, we thought this was going to be a way for us to record the services we performed,” explained Ivie. “But we saw that we could do more with the platform, like add formulas.” The GoFormz platform empowers users to equip their digital forms with conditional logic, required fields, dynamic properties, and instant calculations. Understanding the flexibility and power of the platform, inspired the ServiceMaster team to do more with their digital forms. “Our forms changed from only taking the initial data entry to automatically calculating pricing and the number of hours the crew should perform,” explained Ivie. “GoFormz turned into more than just a tool used to capture our services to bill but a tool to help set expectations. We use the results of the form and our reporting for metrics to track performance and give our employees opportunities, and to know what’s expected of them based on the services they are performing.”

ServiceMaster also leverages various automation features, which have helped to streamline the form-filling experience. “We’ve really enjoyed being able to input a dataset to give us the figures we need when pricing, labor, or scope of work changes,” explained Ivie. “We have a file built where we update the numbers as needed and then update that DataSource in GoFormz. So we’ve been able to use that DataSource to populate fields which has been probably the most important to us.” This not only ensures data accuracy but also saves valuable time by automating data entry and reducing manual, human error.

Job Management Software Automation

The real strength of ServiceMaster’s digital form collection becomes all the more evident after a form is completed. Once a scope sheet is filled out and completed on site, ServiceMaster utilizes Automated Workflows to streamline data collection and dramatically improve efficiency. “Once that form is submitted it automatically pushes to our job management platform. Then it’s found in the notes and the coordinators on the back-end have access to it. The data goes in both as a PDF and directly into our job management software,” explained Ivie. Utilizing an Automated Workflow, GoFormz instantly routes this information to an email address utilized by its job management software, with the corresponding job number in the subject line. This software then references the job number to upload the delivered form and information accordingly – resulting in significant time savings. “It saves a lot of time and is also very scalable. Our biggest problem was most of the time data wouldn’t get uploaded or people would have to enter everything in manually. Oftentimes, we would never have a record of something or that information would end up being lost,” explained Ivie. “So now, not only does it go into the notes of the job but the PDF is there so that we can go back and look at the records we have saved.”

Google Workspace Integration

ServiceMaster also leverages the Google Workspace integration. “Being able to have workflows push collected information to a Google Sheet or routed to specific emails has been huge for us,” explained Ivie. “We have one form that pushes to a specific Google Drive folder for a job and that’s all based on the job number entered on the form. That’s been a huge help for us because it takes a ton of the manual entry and potential employee error out and eliminates all of that.”

In addition to upserting job information into Google Sheets, ServiceMaster has also found the Google Workspace integration particularly effective when applied to their scope sheet data. “Our scope sheet requires three entries per line item and there’s additional scope when a project manager goes out and looks at the job where they will list the services and quantities that they anticipate on the initial form,” explained Ivie. “The lead on the job and lead technician will then go out and put where they were and record the services and the quantities they performed once the job is complete.” The project manager then does a final verification of entered services and quantities. “We then push each of those quantities to create a calculation totaling the number of hours and price.” All of this data is then automatically updated into a Google Sheet. “This allows us to track our lead tech, the services they recorded versus the final and then we can also track our project managers and how accurate they are on their initial scope versus their final scope,” explained Ivie. “Then we get an idea of where they can improve on in terms of their initial estimates because we would like the initial estimate to be as accurate as possible.” This process enhances accountability and drives continuous improvement via more precise initial assessments.

Cycle Times Improved

GoFormz has accelerated ServiceMaster’s once lengthy billing cycles. “We weren’t capturing and billing for all of the labor we were completing and we would have a very slow lead time in our billing because so much back and forth was required to bill for each job,” explained Ivie. “And a lot of this was dependent on the one person who did the job to bill it. Now, we have the data to centralize our billing so that anybody can bill a job based on the information provided.” This has helped ServiceMaster become more efficient and scalable. “We want our cycle times to be at ten days and that’s us receiving the job to performing the work,” explained Ivie. “In April, 20% of our jobs were billed in less than ten days. By May, we were up to 38%, June was 54%, and then July is at 62% today. Our goal is to have 70% of our jobs billed in less than ten days, and we’re already almost to that goal.” The standard billing cycle for insurance companies is 70%. “Our average number of days it took to bill in April was 20.08, in May it was about 16, and then in June the average was 9.9. Currently, we are sitting at 8.6 days in July.” That's a 57% reduction in ServiceMaster’s average billing cycle time.

With shorter billing cycles, ServiceMaster has seen lower labor percentages. “We can say that our labor percentage is 12% lower this year than it was last year,” explained Ivie. “There’s a combination of factors that contribute to this, but a lot of it is because our forms set expectations. Instead of just being at a job, they know how long it should take to perform that job. Also, capturing more line items means they’re capturing more labor on the job.”

Time and Cost Savings

ServiceMaster has also achieved significant time savings in multiple areas. “Our documentation is much better. We use the forms from insurance companies, and they all have their own forms, which means they each have their own format of their authorization form, certificate of satisfaction, and authorization for payment,” explained Ivie. “We ended up building those in GoFormz and it’s been much easier for us to email a form to a customer. So it saves us from a time perspective and from being able to get the forms and documentation we need. GoFormz truly saves countless hours.”

This organized and streamlined data has enabled ServiceMaster to accomplish more work with fewer people. “GoFormz has probably eliminated the need for three back-office employees who would be solely responsible for monitoring and organizing data. We’ve done 1,200 jobs this year so far and every one of them would have multiple forms which meant that information had to be gathered, uploaded, and stored properly somewhere in the office,” explained Ivie. “Overall, GoFormz has been extremely valuable both from a client’s perspective and scalability perspective because we’ve been able to take on a lot more work with fewer people on the back end.”